Paul Guilhaume: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent PBS International has unveiled the trailer for “Casa Susanna,” Sébastien Lifshitz’s follow up to “Little Girl,” which is having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori section. Produced by Agat Films, ARTE France and American Experience Films, in association with BBC Storyville, the documentary film will have its North American premiere at Toronto on Sept. 9. “Susanna” delivers a look at the underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men who found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place for them to express their true selves and live for a few days as they had always dreamed—dressed as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression.

In “The Five Devils,” her beguiling and exquisitely crafted latest, French director Léa Mysius furthers the ideas of adolescent self-discovery and extraordinary perception that drove her riveting début film, “Ava,” even as she introduces new elements of supernatural intrigue and intergenerational trauma to her cinema.  Whereas “Ava” set a coming-of-age story across one ephemeral summer, as experienced by a teenager soon expected to go blind, “The Five Devils” (now in theaters, streaming on Mubi May 12) finds Mysius and co-writer Paul Guilhaume, also the film’s director of photography, casting their gaze back through time to tell a story about the painful family secrets guarded by a young mother (Adèle Exarchopoulos, “Blue is the Warmest Color”) and the magical ability that empowers her child (Sally Dramé) to uncover them.  Continue reading ‘The Five Devils’: Léa Mysius On The Material Magic Of 35mm Film & More [Interview] at The Playlist.