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Norwegian director Benjamin Ree makes compelling (if occasionally airless) documentaries about men who discovered unusual ways of expressing themselves, and by doing so managed to defy the assumptions of a modern world that’s quicker than ever to judge people on a single detail. First came “Magnus,” the portrait of an eccentric chess prodigy who learned to channel his charisma through the genius of his play. That was followed by “The Painter and the Thief,” which tells the story of a lifelong criminal who came to see himself in a new light after stealing a piece of art from Oslo’s Galleri Nobel.

Now arrives “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” a clever and heartfelt tribute to someone Ree knew as a child — before Mats Steen’s all too brief existence was defined by the muscular dystrophy syndrome that seemingly deprived him of the chance to meet friends, fall in love,...

I don’t know how skilled Daniel is at reading between the lines. But the devil is not in the details of the story he’s hearing (and reading) in Louis de Pointe du Lac’s luxurious penthouse in season 2 of Interview with the Vampire. It’s always in what’s left unsaid. It’s in the lines that are crossed, triggering Armand to invade Daniel’s mind and memories. It’s also in all the carefully crafted plotholes meant to rile up Louis. But why? What’s the point of this whole thing? Even though I believe we’ll find the answers in due time, way before Daniel does, we’ll still need to sit quietly and listen, like we’re supposed to.

Spoiler Alert

How’s Claudia handling being the star of Sam’s play?

Dread was the first thing to show up on Claudia’s face when...

Just a day into the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Netflix has swooped on Ibelin, a new feature doc from Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree (The Painter and the Thief), in the first acquisition of the festival.

World premiering in Park City on Thursday afternoon, the title playing in World Cinema Documentary Competition tells the story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated existence, later discovering that Mats had long been leading a vibrant digital life that left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.

The film takes us on a journey through the breadth of Steen’s adventurous online life, introducing us to Ibelin, his charismatic World of Warcraft persona. Through reconstructed animated moments from his gameplay, narrated entries from his blog and interviews with people who knew him as Ibelin,...

It’s beginning to look a lot like… well, November.

But while it’s certainly pretty Novembery at the time of writing this, there’s already a sleighful of excellent UK Christmas TV to look forward to – from festive funnies like Not Going Out and the last ever episode of Ghosts to Christmassy crime dramas like Beyond Paradise and brand-new Agatha Christie adaptation Murder Is Easy.

And of course, every Whovian’s Christmas wish has been answered with the return of the Doctor Who Christmas special!

There’s a festive feline theme to family viewing, with Julia Donaldson’s annual animated gift to parents being Tabby McTat, and Channel 4 giving us an all-star adaptation of Mog’s Christmas. And, as dependable as cranberry sauce and family arguments, there are all your favourite Christmas special episodes, from Taskmaster to Qi and beyond.

So stock up on the Quality Street, test...

Christmas is truly the gift that keeps on giving for the television business and for viewers.

Dating back to the 1940s, there have been nearly 2,500 TV episodes and specials with Christmas themes according to a list on Wikipedia. Sitcoms have provided the most content with 813 episodes dating back to 1952.

For the variety show treatment, Perry Como got things rolling with the first of his The Perry Como Chesterfield Supper Club — Christmas Special in 1948. Old Blue Eyes himself joined the party in 1950 with The Frank Sinatra Show: Christmas Show in 1950. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’s Gracie’s Christmas dropped that same year.

Sitcoms and dramas followed soon thereafter. CBS crime drama Suspense (“Dancing Dan’s Christmas”) aired in 1950. NBC’s Dragnet (“The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas”) and CBS’ Racket Squad (“The Christmas Caper”) followed in 1952. Amos ‘n Andy (“The Christmas Story”) and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet...

The following interview with director Benjamin Ree about his documentary The Painter and the Thief was published during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It’s being rerun now to coincide with the virtual cinema and VOD release of the film from Neon. Spectacularly cinematic and employing a risk-taking structure that keeps the viewer as off-balance as the film’s emotionally fragile protagonists, The Painter and the Thief is the second feature-length doc from Norwegian director Benjamin Ree. The film follows the stranger-than-fiction story of […]...

The following interview with director Benjamin Ree about his documentary The Painter and the Thief was published during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It’s being rerun now to coincide with the virtual cinema and VOD release of the film from Neon. Spectacularly cinematic and employing a risk-taking structure that keeps the viewer as off-balance as the film’s emotionally fragile protagonists, The Painter and the Thief is the second feature-length doc from Norwegian director Benjamin Ree. The film follows the stranger-than-fiction story of […]...

Barbora Kysilkova doesn’t trust Karl-Bertil Nordland, a junkie and thief who steals two of her most significant paintings from an Oslo art gallery in 2015. Nordland doesn’t trust Kysilkova, who must have ulterior motives when she approaches him in a courtroom and asks if he’ll pose for her. And viewers probably shouldn’t trust Benjamin Ree, whose film about Kysilkova and Nordland, “The Painter and the Thief,” is filled with feints and withheld information and suspiciously intimate access to its subjects.

But maybe trust is overrated, because “The Painter and the Thief” is a fascinating, perplexing, occasionally annoying but always involving chronicle of a truly crazy relationship.

Filmed with restraint but also ready to get weird when the situation calls for it, Ree’s second feature (after 2016’s “Magnus”) is a meditation on seeing and being seen and on the relationship between artist and subject (or muse), but...

In Variety’s fourth Mipcom roundup, E4 buys U.K. linear rights to “Star Trek: Discovery,” All3Media sells drama package to Pickbox Now, African broadcasters buy 800 hours of content from BBC Studios, France’s Serieclub acquires offbeat Norwegian comedy, Zdf and Red Balloon team for young adult book adaptation, and Viacom and Youku partner on kids’ animation.

E4 Buys U.K. Linear Rights to ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

The U.K.’s E4 has acquired the linear television rights to “Star Trek: Discovery” from CBS Studios International. “Star Trek: Discovery,” which has aired on Netflix in the U.K. since its launch in 2017, will air on the youth-skewing channel E4 in 2020. E4 has also picked up new CBS comedy “Man With a Plan” starring Matt LeBlanc from CBS. Barry Chamberlain, president of sales at CBS Studios International, said: “Channel 4 is already a licensee for several of our top-rated franchises,...

Lilith is one step closer toward bringing Jonathan back. With Ollie corrupted and Jace revealed as the owl demon, things aren't looking too good for the group. However, it seems they're coming up with a plan of attack on Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 7.

The pieces are finally coming together, but the clock is ticking down to Lilith's judgment day. They didn't have any connection to their true enemy until now!

Related: Enjoy Unlimited access to thousands of Movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video. Watch Anywhere. Cancel Anytime!

Based on the preview photos below, Magnus, Alec, Izzy, Clary and Simon are meeting at the Institute to discuss something very serious. And from where we left off during Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 6, the last cliffhanger they learned was that Jace had secretly been the owl demon all this time.

Will they save him in time? Will Lilith succeed in bringing Jonathan back and killing Jace?...

Benjamin Ree: 'A lot of documentaries are too long and I wanted to have a documentary where you feel satisfied, but you still want a bit more' Photo: © Scanpix - Morten Rakke Benjamin Ree’s sophomore feature documentary Magnus tells the story of Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, popularly referred to as the “Mozart of Chess”. The film charts Carlsen’s life from childhood, through home video footage, to his 2013 World Chess Championship match against the incumbent champion Viswanathan Anand.

Ree describes the film as a coming-of-age story and just as the film charts a journey for its title character, behind the “Mozart of Chess” lies a second hidden tale. “It has been an extraordinary journey for me and I have learned so much from making this film” explains Ree. “Especially to tell a story in the present tense and to be able to create so much tension that...

A documentary about Norway’s boy genius Magnus Carlsen is one for the fans

Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess prodigy with Brando-ish good looks and an intuitive skill that allowed him to bamboozle Garry Kasparov and play 10 games while blindfolded and win every one. His supporters have branded him the “Mozart of chess”, which also implies that he might be more than a little unhinged, although Carlsen himself balks at the suggestion (“I’m not one of these borderline nutcases,” he insists at one point). Documentaries about decent, quiet boy geniuses might have a nice novelty value. But it risks leaving Magnus looking niche interest at best.

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★★★☆☆ "The Mozart of chess" isn't the most hip of nicknames but it goes some way to expressing the inexplicable, impossible genius of Magnus Carlsen. The 25-year-old Norwegian Grandmaster is the focus of Benjamin Ree's Magnus, an intimate documentary that charts his rise to fame and an all-important 2013 World Championship event in Chennai. It does so with a humility that mirrors the self-effacing nature and bashful smile of its timid, attention-averse subject. "It's hard to be cool when I play chess," says Magnus in home video footage as an adolescent, struggling through his formative years at school.

This documentary about world champion Magnus Carlsen has nothing interesting to say about the state of chess today

Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, 25, is the current chess world champion, but if there were a tournament for the best chess movie of all time, this one would get knocked out well before the quarter finals. Why a documentary about Carlsen is hitting our screens at all rather than one about, say, his rival Viswanathan Anand, may have something to do with Magnus’ stolid Scandinavian good looks, chiselled if somewhat bovine features that have made him a bit of a celebrity beyond the chess world. But even though director Benjamin Ree has accessed the family archive of footage showing young Magnus as a socially awkward prodigy through the years and interviewed him directly many times, the film barely dents his inviolate wall of polite reticence. Worse still, there’s scant input from chess...

In 2004, at 13 years old, chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen squared off against Garry Kasparov, first ranked in the world at the time, at a tournament in Iceland. And the barely teenaged child wowed onlookers by pulling Kasparov into a draw in their first match, before being defeated in their second game. But it was clear Carlsen was a talent with tremendous promise. This is an important moment in the early career of Carlsen, and yet, in the documentary “Magnus,” it’s just another brief stop the disappointing, cinematic Wikipedia entry overview of the player’s career.

Continue reading Threadbare Documentary ‘Magnus’ Is An Unsatisfying Sketch Of The Chess Mastermind [Review] at The Playlist.

Other winners include Agnus Dei, Toni Erdmann, The Day Will Come, Amundsen & Nobile and I’ll Try Again.

The audience award at The 44th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund has gone to Paolo Genovese’s Perfect Strangers.

The Ray of Sunshine award went to Benjamin Ree’s chess champion documentary Magnus, which the jury said “is a film where the human being is at the centre, proving how love and community can bring out the very best in us.”

“This is the story of an extraordinary human being and talent, and through tight and respectful dramaturgy, as well as a good helping of humour, we get deeply under the skin of its protagonist.”

The ecumenical Andreas Award went to Anne Fontaine’s French drama Agnus Dei.

The Norwegian Film Critics Award went to Maren Ade’s Cannes hit Toni Erdmann.

The Fipresci Award went to The Day Will Come from Denmark’s Jesper W Nielsen.

In the Co-production...

Other winners include Agnus Dei, Toni Erdmann, The Day Will Come, Amundsen & Nobile and I’ll Try Again.

The audience award at The 44th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund has gone to Paolo Genovese’s Perfect Strangers.

The Ray of Sunshine award went to Benjamin Ree’s chess champion documentary Magnus, which the jury said “is a film where the human being is at the centre, proving how love and community can bring out the very best in us.”

“This is the story of an extraordinary human being and talent, and through tight and respectful dramaturgy, as well as a good helping of humour, we get deeply under the skin of its protagonist.”

The ecumenical Andreas Award went to Anne Fontaine’s French drama Agnus Dei.

The Norwegian Film Critics Award went to Maren Ade’s Cannes hit Toni Erdmann.

The Fipresci Award went to The Day Will Come from Denmark’s Jesper W Nielsen.

In the Co-production...

Projects include The Distant Barking of Dogs, from The Act of Killing production company Final Cut For Real.

The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, to be held in Malmo, Sweden from Sept 18-20, has selected 24 documentary projects to be pitched to industry professionals.

They include Johan Von Sydow’s Swedish documentary about American musician Tiny Tim; Lea Glob’s Danish documentary about a female painter’s coming of age in Paris; Emil Trier’s feature debut about Norwegian con man Waleed Ahmed; and The Act of Killing production company Final Cut For Real’s new Ukraine-set project The Distant Barking of Dogs [pictured], directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont.

The full list of projects being pitched16, dir Kenneth Elvebaak, Fuglene (Norway)Adil and the Spy, dirs Randi Mossige-Norheim & Johan Palmgren, Mantaray Film (Sweden)Apolonia, Apolonia, dir Lea Glob, Danish Documentary (Denmark)Confessions of a Military Dictatorship, dir Karen Stokkendal Poulsen, Bullitt Film (Denmark...

TrustNordisk has struck multiple Cannes deals for the Norwegian documentary about chess world champion Magnus Carlsen.

Arrow Films has picked up UK and Ireland rights for Benjamin Ree’s Norwegian documentary Magnus.

The deal was struck in Cannes with Scandinavian sales agent TrustNordisk, who also closed a deal with Pretty Pictures for France.

Rights were previously sold to the Us (FilmRise) amongst a host of other territories.

The film depicts Magnus Carlsen, who at the age of 13 decided that he would become the world chess champion. Now at age 25, Carlsen is the no.1 ranked player in the world, having achieved the highest grandmaster rating in history.

In November, he will defend his world title against Sergey Karjakin in New York City, with a prize of more than $1m on offer.

The film premeired at Tribeca in April, where Screen’s review called it “a sure-fire festival sensation”.

Magnus was produced by Sigurd Mikal Karoliussen for Moskus Film in...

Exclusive: Shia Labeouf and Sverrir Gudnason star as John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.

Pretty Pictures has acquired French rights to the newly announced Borg/McEnroe film to be directed by Janus Metz and starring Shia Labeouf as John McEnroe, Sverrir Gudnason as Bjorn Borg and Stellan Skarsgard as Borg’s coach.

Sf Studios handles sales and Pretty Pictures president James Velaise negotiated the deal with Sf head of international sales Anita Simovic.

Pretty Pictures has also boarded Benjamin Ree’s documentary Magnus from TrustNordisk in a deal that Velaise negotiated with sales manager Nicolai Korsgaard. That Tribeca hit documentary is about chess champion Magnus Carlsen.

Velaise told Screen that Borg/McEnroe “is one of the best scripts we’ve read in a long time, combined with very good ideas on the casting front and an excellent director.

“Both actors are the spitting image of Borg and McEnroe. Having grown up with all these tennis players, I’m instinctively...

Exclusive: TrustNordisk’s documentary about chess champion Magnus Carlsen had its world premiere in Tribeca.

FilmRise has acquired Us rights to Benjamin Ree’s feature documentary Magnus, about chess champion Magnus Carlsen, in a deal with TrustNordisk.

The film had its world premiere in Tribeca, which is where FilmRise discovered it.

TrustNordisk head of sales Susan Wendt negotiated the deal with Max Einhorn, FilmRise’s VP Acquisitions, and Danny Fisher, FilmRise’s CEO.

Wendt said, “We are very exited to work with FilmRise on Magnus. They have done a really great job with Janis: Little Girl Blue and with the enthusiasm they have shown for Magnus we are convinced that they will do a great job here as well.”

“Magnus is an unforgettable portrait of a remarkable prodigy that truly shows real life can be more fascinating than fiction,” said Fisher. “We are beyond thrilled to announce our acquisition of Benjamin Ree’s film, and cannot...

Child prodigies are the curiosities of the celebrity world – and while those amazing little actors and singers might impress us, it’s even more remarkable when children excel in those cerebral endeavors typically left to adults.

The world of chess has seen its share of brilliant children: Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and now Magnus Carlsen, the 25-year-old subject of Benjamin Ree’s documentary Magnus, a tense but uneven glimpse into the world of champion chess via the so-called “Mozart of Chess.”

Magnus does what many documentaries cannot do: it follows its subject from a very young age, using archival footage and interviews to fill in the gaps of Magnus’s childhood in Norway, through his multiple championships and becoming a chess Grand Master at the age of 13, and finally to his competition with the reigning World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. The film creates a unique look at a child genius,...