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E. Nina Rothe

Film. Fashion. Life.
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The Diaries, because sometimes life needs more. 

Laetitia Ky in a still from Erige Sehiri’s ‘Promised Sky’

Cannes Line-Up announcement 2025: Wondrous women filmmakers, returning favorites and a Spike Lee joint

E. Nina Rothe April 11, 2025

You have to love Spike Lee for crashing Thierry Frémaux’s insiders party at the line-up press conference… via social media of course!

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In Cinema, Festival Tags Laetitia Ky, Cannes Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, Promised Sky, Thierry Fremaux, Spike Lee, Iris Knobloch, UGC Montparnasse, Competition, Un Certain Regard, Highest 2 Lowest, Denzel Washington, High and Low, Jeffrey Wright, Akira Kurosawa, ASAP Rocky, Dardenne Brothers, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Joachim Trier, Julia Ducournau, Kelly Reichardt, Hafsia Herzi, Carla Simon, Chie Hayakawa, Mascha Schilinski, Tarek Saleh, Tarik Saleh, Eagles of the Republic, Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agnet, The Secret Agent, Wagner Moura, Jafar Panahi, A Simple Accident, Mario Martone, Fuori, Valeria Golino, Goliarda Sapienza, The Art of Joy, Blue Moon, Nouvella Vague, Jean-Luc Godard, Zooey Deutc, Zooey Deutch, Darius Khondji, Walter Salles, Ari Aster, Eddington, Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, La Petite Derniere, Fatima Daas, Tom Cruite, Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Erige Sehiri, Under the Fig Trees, Marie & Jolie, Tunisia, Scarlett Johansson, Harris Dickinson, Eleanor the Great, June Squbb, Golden Globes, Urchin, Frank Dillane, Amr Waked, Juliette Binoche
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Jack Irving in a still from Grear Patterson’s ‘Giants Being Lonely’ — photo courtesy of ROD30 productions

Jack Irving in a still from Grear Patterson’s ‘Giants Being Lonely’ — photo courtesy of ROD30 productions

The Venice Diaries: My favorites so far include an American baseball film and a modern Arab mermaid

E. Nina Rothe September 5, 2019

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.” — Émile Zola

I watch films to understand the world. And it seems sometimes the biggest lessons are just behind the scenes.

What I’ve learned at this year’s Venice Film Festival is that it seems that if you’re a woman journalist, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. I’ve run the gamut from enemy of the people for publishing an interview with a man accused but never convicted of bad things, to being made to feel (by my women editors) that I don’t know how to write just so they can justify only having male writers in their roster. I also felt that a current article was unjust to the amount of women filmmakers that are actually in Venice — if the journalists who wrote it actually bothered to look at all the films, and not only the few titles in Competition — so I pointed out in another piece about a Critics’ Week title that the filmmaker was indeed a woman. And a man, I swear I can’t make this stuff up, added a comment to the FB post saying I made it sound like women filmmakers were creatures from another planet. I used the phrase “woman filmmaker” one time in the entire piece, to claim her as one of my own who makes me proud… But anyway.

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In Cinema, Festival, The Diaries Tags Scales, Shahad Ameen, J'Accuse, An officer and a Spy, Venice 76, Venice Film Festival, Venezia 76, Roman Polanski, Giants Being Lonely, Olmo Schnabel, Grear Patterson, Saudi Arabia, USA, generation Z, Ashraf Barhoum, Basima Hajjar, Oman, Eye & Mermaid, Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Metoo, Emile Zola, Lily Gavin, Jack Irving, Ben Irving, Orizzonti, Critics week, Competition
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Alain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes

Alain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes

Cannes Film Festival announces Competition, Un Certain Regard titles and an honorary Palme d'or to Alain Delon

E. Nina Rothe April 18, 2019

As a young girl, I remember watching anything that had Alain Delon in it. I had a super crush on him and, lucky me, no film of his was deemed inappropriate by my parents. So along with Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’, I also caught Delon in films like ‘The Swimming Pool’, ‘Zorro’ and yes, even ‘The Concorde… Airport ‘79’. In fact, from the latter I required that a friend of the family who knew how to knit make me a royal blue crew neck wool sweater that looked just like his. I would find you a photo but I would have to watch that entire film all over again and well, I’ve moved on from my pre-pubescent crush. And my taste in film has highly improved.

But Alain Delon remains the fascinating man, the sultry sex symbol that could even steal women away from Mick Jagger. And this year’s he’s the Festival de Cannes honorary Palme d’Or recipient. Kudos to the festival for finally getting the reclusive actor to accept their coveted lifetime award.

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In Cinema, Festival, The Diaries Tags Cannes Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, Cannes, Competition, Un Certain Regard, Werner Herzog, Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia, Alain Delon, Elia Suleiman, Doha Film Institute, Abel Ferrara, Nicolas Winding Refn, Claude Lelouch, Maryan Touzani, Mounia Meddour, Bruno Dumont, Karim Ainouz, Papicha, Ira Sachs, Terrence Malick, Ken Loach, Xavier Dolan, Mati Diop, Atlantique, Arnaud Desplechin, Bong Joon-ho, Marco Bellocchio, Pedro Almadovar, Pain and Glory, Parasite, Young Ahmed, Dardenne Brothers
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La Biennale del Cinema poster

The Venice Diaries: Creativity decoded by Schnabel's 'At Eternity's Gate', Assayas' 'Non-Fiction' and 'Why Are We Creative?'

E. Nina Rothe September 4, 2018

The first ever Venice Film Festival was held in 1932, from the 6th to the 21st of August and it opened with 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' -- the Fredric March version. March went on to win favorite actor and since there were no official prizes, he was picked by the audience.

In that magical moment, during the first edition of the first ever world film festival our own profession -- film criticism and film writing -- was also born. There hadn't been a true need for it before, think about it.

When I come to Venice, I realize this is where it all comes from, and despite some problematic years in our history, we should remember the heritage of the Venice Film Festival. All journalists should take a moment and think about that when they first set foot on the Lido. Without Venice, we probably wouldn't be here. They started it. All.

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In Cinema, Festival, The Diaries Tags Venice 75, Venice, Venice Film Festival, Venice Days, La Biennale di Venezia, Why Are We Creative?, Hermann Vaske, Quentin Tarantino, Yoko Ono, Dalai Lama, David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Hawking, Giornate degli Autori, Arafat, Shimon Perez, Willem Dafoe, Doubles Vies, Non-Fiction, Olivier Assayas, Juliette Binoche, Guillaume Canet, Personal Shopper, Vincent Macaigne, Nora Hamzawi, creativity, favorites, At Eternity's Gate, Julian Schnabel, Vincent Van Gogh, Rupert Friend, Mads Mikkelson, Emmanuelle Seigner, Miral, Basquiat, Before Night Falls, Competition
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'Joy' by Sudabeh Mortezai, featuring Joy Anwulika Alphonsus 

'Joy' by Sudabeh Mortezai, featuring Joy Anwulika Alphonsus 

The Venice Diaries: Forget what you've heard, this year's festival is all about women's stories!

E. Nina Rothe August 27, 2018

So you may have read by now that the Venice Film Festival is being singled out for not having enough women filmmakers in their Competition line-up. One publication even went so far to criticize Italian culture as a whole, and they used two non-Italian reporters to write the story of course -- one the token male journalist. Because a single, lone, able woman journalist would not have been able to do the job?

Ever hear that saying "don't talk bad about my mama?" 

Anyway, while everyone is up in arms for yet another slight at womanhood, I say, get over it! I'm a woman, I'm Italian and I feel very well represented in Venice -- thank you very much. In fact, I have never seen so many beautiful women's stories, so much truth for our gender and so much care in telling those stories as I see in the various line-ups and sidebars this year at La Biennale del Cinema. But of course, you'd have to look beyond the media-selling headlines, watch deeper, dig in the sidebars too and know in your heart that great cinema was never about gender, rather about quality and vision. Just like it ain't about politics, even when the subject is political.

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In Cinema, Festival, The Diaries Tags women's stories, Venice Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Competition, Orizzonti, Giornate degli Autori, French cinema, Indian cinema, Nigeria, Alberto Barbera, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, Joy Anwulika Alphonsus, Benin City, Africa, modern-day slavery, Europe, Human trafficking, freedom, Pearl, Elsa Amiel, Julia Föry, bodybuilders, female bodybuilders, Lea Pearl, Amanda, Mikhael Hers, Vincent Lacoste, Isaure Multrier, Memory Lane, Paris, terrorism, Soni, Ivan Ayr, India, Delhi, policewomen, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan
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Adriano Tardiolo in a still from Alice Rohrwacher's 'Happy as Lazzaro'

Adriano Tardiolo in a still from Alice Rohrwacher's 'Happy as Lazzaro'

The Cannes Diaries 2018: The inimitable Adriano Tardiolo in Alice Rohrwacher's 'Happy as Lazzaro'

E. Nina Rothe May 15, 2018

In the midst of the screening of Alice Rohrwacher's latest 'Happy as Lazzaro' ('Lazzaro Felice') I was overcome by a nearly unbearable sense of pride at being Italian. It's something I've come across one or two times before and I believe it is due to this new wave of fellow compatriot filmmakers who have brought back the idea of magic to Italian cinema.

As I sobbed in my seat, I realized that all the inspiration that lacked in our movies from about the late Seventies to now, has surged powerfully into a movement that has infiltrating the old status quo and created a brand new tsunami of talent in the process. And that simply takes my breath away.

When I sat with Rohrwacher a day later, she admitted that while in the past there existed a competition between Italian filmmakers as to who would be named the best one, now there is a stronger sense of community among the younger talents and that has made for better cinema. 

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In Cinema, Festival, Interviews, The Diaries Tags Lazzaro Felice, Happy as Lazzaro, Alice Rohrwacher, Alba Rohrwacher, Adriano Tradiolo, Cannes, Festival de Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Diaries, Orvieto, Inviolata, Palme d'Or, Competition, Lazzaro, religion, faith
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Ahmed Abdelhafiz and Rady Gamal in a still from A. B. Shawky's 'Yomeddine'

Ahmed Abdelhafiz and Rady Gamal in a still from A. B. Shawky's 'Yomeddine'

The Cannes Diaries 2018: A. B. Shawky's 'Yomeddine' is the road movie to end all road movies

E. Nina Rothe May 12, 2018

Road movies have been done throughout the age of cinema every which way possible in film. And yet, the formula is so perfect that hardly I've found a dissonant note when it comes to taking a story on the road, on the big screen.

In A. B. Shawky's 'Yomeddine', which screened in Competition at this year's Festival de Cannes, the central idea remains that of a journey across the land but the Austro-Egyptian filmmaker -- yes Shawky's mom is Austrian, his father Egyptian and he grew up there -- substitutes the usual characters with two wonderful outcasts who charm their way into our hearts, slowly but surely, and manage to take up home there. Beshay is a small, disfigured man from a leper colony and the Pancho Villa to his Don Quixote is a little orphan boy named Obama. Both Rady Gamal, who plays Beshay and Ahmed Abdelhafiz who plays Obama are on their first acting roles in 'Yomeddine' and their freshness in experience is only paralleled by their awesome talent. Whenever the film could have played on our emotions too heavily, because of its intense subject matter, Gamal and Abdelhafiz find it within themselves to carry us through to the other side, and inspire, fill us with hope in the process.

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In Cinema, Festival, Interviews, The Diaries Tags Egyptian cinema, Egypt, Yomeddine, A. B. Shawky, Cannes Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Rady Gamal \, road movie, Competition, Camera d'Or, leper colony
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Cannes Film Festival poster 2018

The Cannes Film Festival 2018 line-up -- UPDATED!

E. Nina Rothe April 12, 2018

All of us may remember that last year's Palm d'Or winner 'The Square' was not in the original lineup announced at the press conference for the Festival de Cannes 2017. So a few more titles may come in the later days, like Sorrentino's 'Loro' -- a tricky release date for the first half of this six hour movie in Italy at the end of April is probably puzzling the festival organizers -- and the infamous Lars Von Trier. I mean, today with the kind of fascist governments that are in place all over the world, his words and behavior seem meek and subdued. And the visionary that is Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux I'm sure realizes that.

Personally, I'm proudest of the two Italian films in the Official Competition this year, Matteo Garrone's 'Dogman' and Alice Rohrwacher's 'Lazzaro Felice'. And of course, Nadine Labaki's 'Capernaum' and Jafar Panahi's 'Three Faces'. Not to mention the excitement at both Spike Lee and Jean-Luc Godard being in Cannes -- two grand Maestros of world cinema. 

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In Festival, Cinema, The Diaries Tags Cannes Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, Lineup, Competition, Un Certain Regard, Midnight Screenings, Special Screenings, Out of Competition
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