Now Streaming: Two Critically Acclaimed Queer Films
& a Biopic on Belgian Fashion Designer
Dries van Noten
This week, OVID.tv is introducing two critically acclaimed queer feature films: TOMCAT about a gay couple living in Vienna and an inexplicable outburst of violence that suddenly shakes up their previously happy relationship and calls everything into question. This film won the esteemed Teddy Award—the official queer award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The second film is OLIVIA, a recently restored, long unseen, French classic about girls at a boarding school exploring love and attraction. It’s directed by a woman – Jacqueline Audry – and stars Edwige Feuillere and Simone Simon. The LA Review of Books says “the audacity of its queerness feels not only incredible for its moment but, as if by magic, for ours too.“
Finally, for the lovers of biopics OVID.tv has DRIES, which gives you an inside a look into the creative process of Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten.
Check out these films as well as their “Staff Picks“section where their teammate Saleh recommends TROUBLE EVERY DAY, world-renowned filmmaker Claire Denis’ controversial film about carnal lust and cannibalism.
P.S. If you have a film you love on OVID, tell them which film it is and what makes it special… you might just featured next week!
Tomcat
Directed by Handl Klaus; First Run Features, Narrative
Andreas and Stefan lead a happy and passionate life: together with their beloved tomcat Moses, they live in a beautiful old house in Vienna’s vineyards. They work as a musician and as a scheduler in the same orchestra and they love their large circle of friends. An unexpected and inexplicable outburst of violence suddenly shakes up the relationship and calls everything into question – the blind spot that resides in all of us.
Olivia
Directed by Jacqueline Audry; Icarus Films and Distrib US, Narrative
OLIVIA is a remarkable work by one of France’s first ground-breaking female filmmakers, which easily merits rediscovery today after being neglected for almost 70 years. Plunging the viewer—and the main character—into a true lion’s den, Jacqueline Audry (1908-1977) depicts a 19th century boarding school for young girls, one divided into two camps where all the shots, even the most underhanded, seem allowed.
That’s because the two mistresses of the house, Miss Julie (Edwige Feuillere) and Miss Cara (Simone Simon), are engaged in a true turf war, and a war of the heart; competing for the affections of their students, they rouse passion, hatred and unexpected reversals of loyalties.
| Dries Directed by Reiner Holzemer; KimStim, Documentary For the first time, fashion designer Dries Van Noten allows a filmmaker to accompany him in his creative process and rich home life. For an entire year, Reiner Holzemer documented the precise steps that Dries takes to conceive of four collections, the rich fabrics, embroidery, and prints exclusive to his designs. As well as the emblematic fashion shows that bring his collections to the world and have become cult“must sees’ at the Parisian Fashion week. This film offers an insight into the life, mind and creative heart of a Master Fashion Designer who, for more than 25 years, has remained independent in a landscape of fashion consolidation and globalization. |
Trouble Everyday by Claire Denis
“TROUBLE EVERY DAY feels like a quasi-vampire love story, but it is more than that. It’s the kind of film that elicits disgust and shock, but at the core there’s something oddly transfixing about the displays of pure carnality. Moments of joy and desire are flipped and lead us into a violent, but beautifully presented descent, something only Denis can offer.” — Saleh
