Olivier Py
Conspiracies and regattas form the backdrop to the fortunes of a young singer. Harassed by a heartless spy, she sacrifices everything to save the man she loves and the woman he prefers over her. Ponchielli based his flamboyant opera on Victor Hugo’s play Angelo, tyrant of Padua. An expert on Hugo, director Olivier Py offers us a dream-like version of this dark Romantic tragedy, presided over by sex and death. Paolo Carignani conducts an exceptional cast in the six demanding main roles.
‘In reality, this Lohengrin is an entirely new phenomenon for the modern consciousness!’ Richard Wagner himself understood the innovative character of his sixth piece of music theatre, completed in 1848, the year of revolutions. Although it is reckoned among his ‘romantic operas’, his new vision of musical drama is already clearly heralded in this work. In his hands, the mediaeval saga of the Knight of the Swan becomes a meditation on the true love that asks no questions. Alain Altinoglu, our Music Director, who has already conducted this work in Bayreuth, guarantees the quality of the music, while the director Olivier Py, known at La Monnaie for his brilliant productions of Les Huguenots and Hamlet, can be relied on not to downplay Wagner’s revolutionary political side. Wagner’s own opinion was that ‘one can only understand Lohengrin if one can liberate oneself from any modern-looking, generalising form of representation so as to see the phenomena of real life’. A challenge to us all?
The famous story of Hamlet and Ophelia is played out between the opposite poles of real and feigned madness, love and avenge. After the murder of his father, Hamlet opposes the marriage of his mother and his uncle, at the expense of his beloved and himself. After their unanimously acclaimed Les Huguenots in 2011, Marc Minkowski and Olivier Py are continuing their highly personal exploration of the 19th-century French Grand Opéra repertoire.
Hôtel La Louisiane is, at its core, a film about freedom and dignity. Freedom for those who wish to live in a place where they are able to feel inspired. Dignity for the hotel owner to stand by his promise to his father and keep their mission alive: to provide an affordable sanctuary for artists and students in search of fulfilling employment, which they certainly won’t find at other hotels. Freedom, too, to be in an environment of tolerance and rid of prejudice. This film is not just a story about a mythical setting in Paris; it portrays the microcosm of a lifestyle in which collective values reign supreme. A film where what’s real and true is placed above national borders or cultural barriers.
Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.
Dug up after twenty five years, 8 millimeter movies give rise to a meditation on the fate of a family and a generation. The Mediterranean Sea is a faction, the story of a couple, a family, which becomes confused with the story of Algeria and France in the 1960s. The glance of Olivier Py is at the same time lucid and nostalgic.
Among DVDs of "Hoffmann" currently available, this is the only one that even begins to stand comparison with the superlative Powell and Pressburger film (whose ideas it occasionally borrows). Olivier Py's baroque imagination, which sometimes leads him into self-indulgence and incoherence, is well suited to bringing out this opera's darkness and he does an excellent job
This is not a chorus film. Well maybe just a little… Avignon Festival - Summer. First, there’s Maud and Alex, who have just broken up but need to pretend to be two love birds on stage. Then there’s the playwright of their play, Richard, who could start to fall in love with Léna, but is still grieving his lost wife. Léna is also grieving her ex but can’t remember why she dumped him. So she sings her blues, on stage, with Louise, who might have a little crush on her sound engineer. Then there’s the famous dancer Kate who sleeps with her assistant Marko, who’s always prefered men. Oh, did we tell you that Kate the dancer and Maud the actress are friends and would love to invite everyone to a party?
Vincent and Olivier have an intense, rocky relationship: Vincent evades tenderness, just as he does desire, forcing the couple to hunt for a third partner to participate in their sexual games. Olivier has a background in the theater. He believes in, but is preoccupied by their relationship; he wants to free Vincent from the ghosts haunting him. But Vincent is locked into the past. His father, a pilot, was killed in a plane accident. Vincent’s job is a strange, uncommon one that plunges him deep into contemplation from which no one can make him budge: he deciphers plane disaster recordings. Vincent’s unconscious repression is so powerful that he hasn’t even recognized the link between his father’s death and his work. It will take the stormy encounter with Olivier for Vincent to obtain his ‘black box.’ Indeed, the two young men come to life through their connection with each other, a connection which shatters the framework of typical love stories.
Six people whose lives are intertwined struggle to find happiness amid broken relationships and painful life changes.
When Chloe, a young Parisian, decides to take a long-overdue vacation, she has to find someone to look after Gris-Gris, her beloved cat. Everyone, including her gay male roommate, refuses to help her, but she finally makes an arrangement with the elderly Madame Renée, who often watches over other peoples' cats and dogs. However, when Chloe comes back, Madame Renée tells her that unfortunately the cat has been lost, and the unlucky owner goes on a search for her dear animal friend. While looking for the cat, she meets many colorful characters who populate the neighborhood.
Juliette loves Bruno, but he does not notice. Perhaps because he is mad about Corinne, and Corinne is not aware of it. She does not seem to love anybody, but she has an affair with Luc. Luc is gay, and he wonders how to tell Bruno he loves him.
Tommy Fawkes wants to be a successful comedian. After his Las Vegas debut is a failure, he returns to Blackpool where his father—also a comedian—started, and where he spent the summers of his childhood.
Hippolyte, the chef at the small Paris restaurant of the title, is losing his sense of smell - and without that, you can’t cook. Not in France. The restaurant has to close. Guests and customers of the ailing master chef gather for one last fabulous meal. Between courses, personal conflicts are explored and flashbacks flesh out incidents from the lives of the restaurant owners.
