Sunday, June 6, 2021

Day 6. Ivory Tower (2010)

Ivory Tower

Celine's Role:  Co-screen writer

'The work of Céline Sciamma gave this film a backbone which
allowed the improvised multiplicity of forms to thrive.'




Year

     2010

Celine's Role

     Co-screen writer (first credit) and Chilly Gonzales (Canadian musician Jason Beck, who also stars in the film & co-wrote the music)

Director

     Adam Traynor

Form

     A feature film, 75mins; in English; from Canada.

Synopsis

     Two brothers with an unhealthy rivalry over a woman and the game compete in the Canadian Chess Championship.

Trailer



Festival Screenings

  • Locarno Film Festival 2010
  • Official Selection, the New Cinema Festival (Festival of New Cinema), Montreal 
  • Official Selection, Festival Gijon, Spain
  • Official Selection, Mar del Plata Film Festival, Buenes Aires
  • Official Selection, First Run Film Festival, Brussels      

The film was screened at concert venues and clubs, rather than cinemas.

Honors / Awards

  • Special Mention, Filmmakers of the Present, Locarno Film Festival 2010

 

Excerpts from reviews

     “A jewel of originality, pop and lightness. After 75 minutes of a happy mix of videoclip and TV show, classic novel and telenovels accompanied by savory punchlines, Ivory Tower at the Locarno film festival ended in a standing ovation close to turning into a nightclub."

Les Inrockuptibles, Paris

 

     In Ivory Tower , “there is a freshness that has been so much absent from film festivals in recent years, the desire to shake things u but in a completely unpretentious way, driven only by the pleasure of doing”.

Liberation, Paris

From the film's website

“The work of Céline Sciamma gave this film a backbone which allowed the improvised multiplicity of forms to thrive.

The will of Chilly Gonzales to bring this cast of musicians-personas and this crew together, on a grueling two-and-a-half week shoot and a shoestring budget, proves what Hershell's blind passion mixed with Thadeus' ambitioncan produce: a towering achievement.”

http://chillygonzales.com/ivory-tower-movie

[Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20110207211314/http://chillygonzales.com/ivory-tower-movie]

 

About the film

Ivory Tower was mostly filmed over 13 days in Toronto, with some scenes also filmed in Paris (one day of filming using a handheld camera outdoors, as they didn't have a filming permit), and in Germany.

The screenplay was co-written by Celine Sciamma, Chilly Gonzales and Adam Traynor, and was directed by Adam Traynor and produced by Nicolas Kazarnia.

This Canadian film stars Canadian musicians Chilly Gonzales, Tiga Sontag, Feist, and Peaches and is based around an album of the same name, which was performed by the musicians/actors. The director, Adam Traynor, is a musician from the German-based band Puppermastaz.

Céline Sciamma was the only filmmaker in the writing team, the film was made by a hip hop puppeteer/music-video artist and three musicians.

(Bizarrely, Céline's contribution isn't mentioned in the commentary on the DVD by Chilly Gonzales & Adam Traynor, despite being the first credited screenwriter.)


Ivory Tower/Chilly Gonzales, Adam Traynor & Pauline Gaillard an encounter with the piblic (panel at Locarno Film Festival, 2010)

 "Céline especially brought a knowledge of structure...with Céline we...wanted the insurance that the structure would hold together"

https://youtu.be/QR15nBpaM_U 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Day 18. Playlist (2020)

Playlist Céline’s role      Writer (probably script consultant) Year       2021 (French release 2 June 2021) Form...