Music Box Acquires Michael Kohlhaas
HomeMusic Box Acquires Michael Kohlhaas
Posted May 20, 2013 04:11 PM by Webmaster
Independent U.S. distributors Music Box Films have acquired the U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to French director Arnaud des Pallières' latest film Michael Kohlhaas (2013), starring Mads Mikkelsen and adapted from the 1811 Heinrich von Kleist classic romantic novel.
Official synopsis (courtesy of Films du Losange): Michael Kohlhaas is set in a period where an impoverished aristocracy precariously still clings to feudal privileges passed down since the Middle Ages, while in the towns a new world is taking shape. The townspeople are educated, often wealthy, but politically almost powerless. Kohlhaas, a horse merchant, suffers an injustice at the hands of a young baron and demands his rights, but society lets him down. He reacts by suddenly, brutally declaring war on society. He chooses the path of violence, with a razor-sharp sense of justice as his only moral guideline.
Michael Kohlhaas is Des Pallières' first film to have U.S. distribution. Mikkelsen, who won Best Actor Award at Cannes for The Hunt and starred in Denmark's official Oscar entry A Royal Affair, is joined by Bruno Ganz (Downfall), Dennis Lavant (Holy Motors), and Sergi López (Pan's Labyrinth). Von Kliest's book was previously adapted for film in 1969 by Volker Schlöndorff, and inspired E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime.
Official synopsis (courtesy of Films du Losange): Michael Kohlhaas is set in a period where an impoverished aristocracy precariously still clings to feudal privileges passed down since the Middle Ages, while in the towns a new world is taking shape. The townspeople are educated, often wealthy, but politically almost powerless. Kohlhaas, a horse merchant, suffers an injustice at the hands of a young baron and demands his rights, but society lets him down. He reacts by suddenly, brutally declaring war on society. He chooses the path of violence, with a razor-sharp sense of justice as his only moral guideline.
Michael Kohlhaas is Des Pallières' first film to have U.S. distribution. Mikkelsen, who won Best Actor Award at Cannes for The Hunt and starred in Denmark's official Oscar entry A Royal Affair, is joined by Bruno Ganz (Downfall), Dennis Lavant (Holy Motors), and Sergi López (Pan's Labyrinth). Von Kliest's book was previously adapted for film in 1969 by Volker Schlöndorff, and inspired E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime.