Jacques Tati: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films, which is at Venice with “Love Life” playing in competition, is reteaming with Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel on “The Falling Star,” a darkly comic mystery thriller. The directing duo is rolling off “Lost in Paris,” their international breakout film, which had a buzzy premiere at Telluride in 2016. The film was also a commercial success, grossing nearly $3 million outside of France, with strong performances in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand. “The Falling Star” tells the story of Boris, a former activist who’s been a fugitive for 35 years, and works as a bartender. Boris’ past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan, but they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife, Fiona, a detective on their trail.

Who are Sparks? What are they about? That’s exactly what Edgar Wright’s outstanding new documentary “The Sparks Brothers” tries to unpack and demystify. Because Sparks is not only a versatile art-pop band (chiefly brothers, Ron and Russel Mael), but they’re a highly eclectic, trailblazing rock group that’s fairly elusive and mysterious to a lot of people, even music connoisseurs.

Naman Ramachandran As is customary, the local fare on offer at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) is linguistically and thematically diverse, reflecting the nature of the island city-state.The opening film, Tan Bee Thiam’s “Tiong Bahru Social Club,” is presented in several languages, including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay and Tamil. Inspired by Jacques Tati and Charlie Chaplin, the stylized satire follows a 30-year old millennial who stumbles across the eponymous club, an organization that aims to transform Singapore’s Tiong Bahru into the happiest neighborhood in the world.While “Tiong Bahru Social Club” bowed at Busan in October, the rest of the local features are all world premieres.