Bear favors: a new "Emmanuelle" and the return of Paddington

There are two big festival premieres in the Russian box office at once. Andrea Arnold's "The Bird" starring Barry Keoghan flew from Cannes to the audience, and from the Venice Film Festival - "Maria", where Angelina Jolie played the dying opera diva Maria Callas. Among the domestic premieres - comedy "One Day in Istanbul" from "Quartet I" and experimental thriller "Film No. 8" with Christina Asmus. But perhaps the main novelty of the week is the third part about Paddington Bear, which miraculously made it to the Russian box office. "Izvestia" - about what to watch in the movies in the coming weekend.

"The Adventures of Paddington 3" 6+

Directed by: Dougal Wilson

Starring Ben Whishaw, Imelda Staunton, Oliver Maltman, Hayley Atwell, Julie Walters, Antonio Bandera, Olivia Colman.

Ten years ago, the movie about Paddington Bear was only a small and not the most prominent part of the family content in Russian cinemas. Modestly and intelligently squeezed between Hollywood releases, it did not immediately find a place in the heart of the mass audience. But today, the release of the third Paddington movie in Russia is perceived as a Christmas miracle. We don't want to guess how exactly Volga managed to make this release, it's important that it happened. At the premiere in the capital's Oktyabr movie theater, it felt like it was 2019, and people, as it usually happens, whole families came to watch the new part of the beloved franchise.

The premiere of such a movie is a moment of respite to close your eyes and calm down, to dissolve into the lulling magic of a very high quality, star-studded family movie. To believe that we are in the company of Antonio Banderas (we miss his original voice with a strong Spanish accent) sailing towards Eldorado through the jungle on a respectable boat, and Paddington's voice is quietly and confidently encouraging us, urging us to believe that everything will be fine. I would like it to last not a hundred minutes, but a thousand, and the most sad and traumatic will be the moment when the last music on the credits fades and we have to go back to the place where there is no Paddington, no Eldorado, no Amazon basin.

"The Bird" 18+

Directed by Andrea Arnold

Starring Nikia Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan, Jason Budda

Another greeting from the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival, which reached Russia, and Andrea Arnold's first feature film in eight years. At the center is the complicated story of 12-year-old Bailey's growing up in the British countryside. Recognizable signature Arnold handwriting, this is almost all of her films - from "Aquarium" to "American Honey". True, in "The Bird," the director goes into the territory of magical realism. A girl tired of the harsh reality around her makes friends with a strange man named Bird. Barry Keoghan is responsible for the balaganza in the movie. The new favorite of viewers, critics and directors played in "Bird" young daddy Bailey, who most of the film walks around topless and dances.

"Maria" 18+.

Directed by: Pablo Larraín

Starring Angelina Jolie, Alba Rohrwacher, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Haluk Bilginer.

Pablo Larraín completes his trilogy of biopics about women icons of the last century with a drama about the last week of the life of the great opera diva Maria Callas. No intrigue. A posh apartment in Paris, a couple of dogs and a worried cook and butler who now replace the family. Close and friends Callas now sees only in medicated hallucinations, which are becoming more and more.

The singer on the screen embodied Angelina Jolie, who last appeared on the big screen back in 2021 in the movie "The Eternals". In "Maria" Jolie not only sings (in flashbacks), but for her role developed an accent reminiscent of the speech of actors from the films of the golden age of Hollywood. Critics are calling Larraín's new movie rather mothballed, looking more like an opera than a movie. But praise the performer of the main role and already prophesize Jolie nomination for "Oscar".

"As soon as you talk about sexuality, people start screaming."

Director Audrey Diwan - about the scandal surrounding her movie "Emmanuelle", the music of the Galperins and hope for the Russian audience

"Emmanuelle" 18+

Directed by: Audrey Couch

Starring Noemi Merlan, Will Sharp, Jamie Campbell Bauer, Chacha Juan, Naomi Watts.

In 2021, French director Audrey Couch won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival with her adaptation of Anni Ernaux's novel of the same name, which won her the Nobel Prize for Literature a year later. This time Couch decided to rethink the main erotic movie hit of the 1970s - "Emmanuelle". The place of actress Sylvia Kristel took Noémie Merlan (originally was supposed to be Léa Seydoux), but the new version has already crushed both critics and viewers. "Emmanuelle" 2.0 feminist manifesto, which after the "Event" expected from the Divan, did not become, and the director herself is reproached for superficiality, insensitivity and, as paradoxical as it may sound, in vulgarity.

You can read Izvestia's exclusive interview with Audrey Couch here.

"One Day in Istanbul" 18+

Directed by: Avet Oganesyan

Starring: Leonid Barats, Kamil Larin, Rostislav Khait, Alexander Demidov, Taras Kuzmin.

Another classic film of "Quartet I" and, accordingly, the adaptation of his play "One Day from the Death of Vadik Belyaev". By the way, the new picture has nothing to do with the popular franchise "What Men Talk About". In the story, four friends fly to Istanbul to spend the weekend on the yacht of their buddy, who, as it turns out upon arrival, died. His assistant offers to organize a wake on the already booked luxury yacht, dissecting the Bosphorus. True, the death of a friend is not the worst thing that happened to the heroes that day.

"Film No. 8" 18+

Directed by: Ilya Khotinenko

Starring: Christina Asmus, Daniil Vorobyov, Valentin Mendelson, Oleg Garkusha, Semyon Litvinov

Mystical thriller by Ilya Khotinenko, more like an author's experiment, the events of which unfold again in the past. After the southern warm "Asphalt Sun" and the 1980s, the director moves to the 1990s. The main character Masha owns a video salon in an abandoned provincial movie theater, single-handedly raises her son Sasha and fights off racketeers. Those have something to do with the death of her husband. Masha's son disappears under mysterious circumstances, but with his disappearance are associated not with bandits, and mysticism around the movie theater "Ray".

"Soul Carrier" 18+

Directed by Bruce Goodison

Starring George Bukari, Nick Frost, Synnøve Carlsen, Luke Norris

British comedian Nick Frost appears in a rather atypical role of a maniacal cab driver. In the story, a young couple gets into a cab after not the most pleasant sit-downs with friends. And the lovers themselves are going through a difficult stage in their relationship, which quickly reaches the main listener of their verbal altercations - the cab driver. It makes an ordinary trip home a dangerous ordeal.