Etrange Festival 2019 : discover the full madness with the 2019 line-up

One of the most anticipated french movie festival has built a solid reputatin over the years, leading him to celebrate this year its 25th birthday ! One of the most ancient and still vigourous french film festival will take place from the 4th to 15th of september and delivers a massive program crossing all borders of the cinematic genres. Let's discover it right now :

Opening

• Opening short : Reruns - Rosto
• Nekrotronic - Kiah Roache-Turner (French premiere)

Closing ceremony

• Short film : Extazus – Bertrand Mandico (World premiere - presented by the director)
• True History of the Kelly Gang – Justin Kurzel (European premiere)

Competition

This year's competition for the Nouveau Genre price goes from festival regular - such as Bruce McDonald, Takashi Miike or Riley Stearns - to some expected or confirmed directors (Zang Yimou, Lorcan Finnegan). It is to be noted that after the very good Territories, Olivier Abbou will present his second film, Fury. Who will succeed to last year's The spy gone north ?

• Koko-Di Koko-Da - Johannes Nyholm (French premiere - presented by the director)
• Knives & Skin - Jennifer Reeder (presented by the director)
• Shadow - Zang Yimou (French premiere)
• The Boat - Winston Azzopardi (French premiere)
• First Love - Takashi Miike
• The Mute - Bartosz Konopka (French premiere)
• Vivarium - Lorcan Finnegan
• The Wretched - Pierce Brothers
• Dreamland - Bruce McDonald (French premiere)
• 1BR - David Marmor (French premiere - presented by the director)
• Idol - Su-Jin Lee (French premiere)
• The Odd Family : Zombie on sale - Lee Min-Jae (French premiere)
• Nekrotronic - Kiah Roache-Turner (French premiere)
• Fury - Olivier Abbou (French premiere, prestented by the film crew and cast)
• Bliss - Joe Begos (French premiere)
• The White Snake - Amp Wong & Ji Zhao
• The Antenna - Orçun Behram (French premiere)
• Swallow - Carlo Mirabella-Davis
• Cut Off - Christian Alvart (French premiere)
• A winter's tale - Jan Bonny (French premiere)
• The art of Self-Defense - Riley Stearns (French premiere)
• Monos - Alejandro Landes
• Lilian - Andreas Horvath (presented by the director)
• Gwen - William McGregor (French premiere)
• Come to Daddy - Ant Timpson

New Talents

With this category, the festival is willing to discover tomorrow's talent, screening their first or at least second movie. Pay attention, one of these name might be tomorrow's next big thing.

• Aragne : sign o vermillion + Makafushigi + Fisherman - Sakamoto Saku
• Tumbbad - Rahi Anil Barve & Anand Gandhi (French premiere)
• Greener grass - J. DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (French premiere)
• Blood Machines - Seth Ickermann (World premiere, presented by the director)
• Paradise Hills - Alice Waddington (French premiere)

MondoVision

This year, Fabrice Du Welz will present his latest effort, closing the Ardennes trilogy he started with Calavary then Alleluia. Also to be noted, after the fantastic The Witch, Robert Eggers's awaited The Lighthouse will be screened along side Werner Herzog's Family Romance LLC, or Christian Volckman's The Room (no, not that one with Mark and Johnny :p).

• The Occult sources - Laurent Courau (World premiere, presented by the director)
• Little Joe - Jessica Hausner (presented by the director)
• Adoration - Fabrice Du Welz (French premiere, presented by the director)
• Neither God nor Master - Éric Cherrière (World premiere, presented by the director)
• The Lighthouse - Robert Eggers
• The Fable - Kan Eguchi (French premiere)
• Diner - Mika Ninagawa (French Premiere)
• The Room - Christian Volckman (French premiere, presented by the film cast & crew)
• Family Romance LLC - Werner Herzog

Documentaries

• Hail Satan ? - Penny Lane (French premiere)
• Surprise movie (World premiere)
• Blood & Flesh : the reel life & ghastly death of Al Adamson - David Gregory (French premiere, presented by the director)
• Kongo - Hadrien La Vapeur & Corto Vaclav (presented by the directors)
• Mother, I am suffocating, this is my last film about you - Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (French premiere)
• The El Duce Tapes - Rodney Ascher, David Lawrence, Ryan Sexton (International premiere)
• VJ Diaries - Merrill Aldighieri (World premiere, presented by the director)

Carte blanche : 25 years / 25 movies

For its 25th birthday, the festival invited 25 personnalities who had been previously invited to the festival to choose each one movie to be presented to the festival, and representing the variety of the Festival accross the year. The result is a very specific tho ecclectic program, chosen by a very suprising panel.

• We + The Seasons + Our Century (new cut) - Artavazd Peleshian (World premiere, presented by FJ Ossang)
• Demon Seed - Donald Cammell (Presented by Chloé Delaume)
• Prospero's Books - Peter Greenaway (Presented by Yann Minh)
• Daisies - Vera Chytilová (Presented by Philippe Découflé)
• It Happened Here - Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo (Presented by Michael Moorcock)
• The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane - Nicolas Gessner (Presented by Pacôme Thiellement)
• The Outfit - John Flynn (Presented by Xavier Lambours)
• Adam's Apples - Anders Thomas Jensen (Presented by Vincent Ravalec)
• Strange Days- Kathryn Bigelow (Presented by Émilie Jouvet)
• Police Story (new 4K master) - Jackie Chan & Chi-Hwa Chen (Presented by Mathieu Kassovitz)
• Meshes of the afternoon + At Land + Divine Horsemen : The Living Gods of Haïti - Maya Deren (Presented by Jessica Hausner)
• Barfly - Barbet Schroeder (Presented by HPG)
• Branded to Kill - Seijun Suzuki (Presented by Romain Slocombe)
• Amnesia - Pierre-Henry Salfati + Concrete night - Pirjo Honkasalo (Presented by Jean Michel Roux)
• Brancaleone at the crusades - Mario Monicelli (Presented by Arthur H)
• The Collector - William Wyler (Presented by François Boucq)
• The Exterminating Angel - Luis Buñuel (Presented by Antony Hickling)
• King Kong - Merian C.Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack (Presented by Winshluss)
• Heavy Metal - Gerald Potterton & John Bruno (Presented by Seth Ickerman)
• Sideral Cruises (restored copy) - André Zwoboda (Presented by Sylvie Denis)
• Chromo South - Etienne O’Leary + Seen by my dog - Charles Way (accompany on saxophone) (Presented by Jean-Pierre Bouyxou)
• Voskhozhdeniye - Larisa Shepitko (Presented by Philippe Grandrieux)
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (director’s cut) - Peter Weir (Presented by Mati Diop)
• Walkabout - Nicolas Roeg (Presented by Warren Ellis)
• The Atomic Cafe - Jayne Loader, Kevin & Pierce Rafferty (Presented by Clotilde Courau)

Carte blanche to Jean-Pierre Dionnet

If you are not french, you might not be very familiar with Jean-Pierre Dionnet's name. Althought, you might have seen some result of his work here or there. Indeed, Dionnet founded Les Humanoïdes Associés, a famous edition company who edited or reedited lots of comic books and novels, and also is one of the co-founder of the comic revue Metal Hurlant, which gathered some of the most iconic names of the 9th art : Jodorowsky, Enki Bilal, Marc Caro, Gotlib, Margerin, etc. Aside from this, Dionnet also hosted several tv shows, such as Kids of Rock with Philippe Manoeuvre, or Cinema de Quartier and Quartier Interdit, allowing him to exhume and show on tv a whole panel of exploitation and horrific cinema that couldnt be seen elsewhere. Finally, as a produceur, he contributed to reveal in France some of the greatest asian directors (Miyazaki, Miike, Kitano, Tsui Hark) and produced Fruit Chan's movies. L'Etrange festival decided to give this authentic man, one of the last of his kind, a free hand to discover some of the treasures he's been keeping.

• Doppelgänger - Robert Parrish (new copy)
• Barbarosa - Fred Schepisi (new copy)
• Running Scared - Wayne Kramer
• Dead & Buried - Gary Sherman
• The naked prey - Cornel Wilde

Focus program : Scala Cinema

La Scala was a mythical and emblematic movie theatre of London, programming some of the most daring, insane, or unclassifiable movie for 15 years. Tho it's now closed for a while, Jane Giles, former head of programmation of the theatre, comes to screen some of the most emblematic movies they've shown.

• Ghosts... of the Civil Dead - John Hillcoat
• Taxi Zum Klo - Frank Ripploh
• Santa Sangre - Alejandro Jodorowsky

Happy Birthday Alejandro !

• The Rainbow thief (Director’s cut) - Alejandro Jodorowsky (World premiere, presented by the director)

Retour de Flamme (Backfire)

• The Monster's Gallery - Jaque Catelain (Presented by and accompany on piano by Serge Bromberg)

L'Etrange Gems

• Satan's Sadists - Al Admason (Presented by David Gregory)
• Laurin - Robert Sigl (presented by the director)
• Fall of a body - Michel Polac (Presented by Gaspar Noé)

Special Screenings

• The Doll's Breath - The Quay brothers (World premiere, presented by the directors)
• Institute Benjamenta, or This dream people call human life - The Quay brothers (presented by the directors)
• Irreversible : full inversion – Gaspar Noé (French premiere, presented by the director)

Source : Press Release