Femme | |
---|---|
Directed by |
|
Screenplay by |
|
Based on | Femme by
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | James Rhodes |
Edited by | Selina Macarthur |
Music by | Adam Janota Bzowski |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Signature Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $281,525 [1] |
Femme is a 2023 British thriller film written and directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping in their feature debut. It is a feature-length adaptation of their BAFTA-nominated 2021 short film of the same name.
The film premiered in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on 19 February 2023. It was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2023 by Signature Entertainment.
Drag performer Jules has just finished one of his shows at an East London nightclub when he goes outside to smoke before realising he is out of cigarettes. He spots a heavily tattooed young man, Preston, watching him from afar. Preston then abruptly leaves. Later, Jules goes into a convenience shop to buy cigarettes in full drag. He again encounters Preston, now accompanied by several friends. They begin to hurl homophobic slurs at Jules, who retorts that he saw Preston checking him out. Enraged, Preston follows Jules out of the shop and brutally assaults him.
Three months later, Jules has stopped performing drag and become reclusive. One night, he goes to a gay sauna, where he is surprised to see Preston, who does not appear to recognise him out of drag. Jules follows him to the changing room, where Preston invites him back to his flat; Jules accepts. When the two arrive, they begin to have sex before Preston's friends arrive, interrupting them. Jules borrows Preston's fake designer hoodie—the one Preston was wearing during the assault—and pretends he is there to buy drugs and leaves, but not before he gives Preston his phone number. Jules decides to exact revenge on Preston for the assault by filming them having sex and posting it online.
Jules begins dating Preston, and they have sex several more times, with Preston enjoying dominating Jules. On one occasion, Preston spots Jules filming their encounter on his mobile phone. Angry, he takes Jules's phone and deletes the footage. However, he soon calms down, and the two have sex again, though less aggressive than before.
One night, Jules is on his way to Preston's flat when Preston's friends arrive and disrupt their plans. Jules is invited by Preston's friends to spend time with them and eventually go to a bar with them, which he does. Throughout the night, Jules stealthily flirts with and teases Preston, eventually leading the two to return to Jules's house, where Jules begins to dominate Preston. With Preston's consent, Jules films the two of them having sex.
The following day, Preston enjoys breakfast with Jules's two roommates, one of whom secretly invites him to Jules's birthday celebration, where Jules will perform in drag for the first time since the assault. As Preston goes to leave, he kisses Jules. Jules then prepares to post the footage online but ultimately decides against it. On the night of the party, Preston arrives with a present for Jules and gives it to Jules's roommate to look after. Not realising Preston is in the audience, Jules arrives on stage in drag, where he begins to tell a story about a "gay basher" he has seduced. Preston finally realises that Jules is the drag queen he assaulted months earlier, and he becomes visibly upset.
Preston ambushes Jules backstage, revealing that he knows who Jules is. He threatens Jules and demands to know who has seen the footage. Jules explains that he has not shown anyone and changed his mind after getting to know Preston. Ultimately, the two engage in a violent fight that ends with Preston almost strangling Jules to death. However, Preston collapses in tears and lets Jules go. Battered and bloodied from the fight, Jules leaves Preston sobbing and returns home to find Preston's gift-wrapped present on his bed. He opens it; it is an authentic designer hoodie to replace the fake one that Jules took from Preston earlier.
Harris Dickinson and Paapa Essiedu led the 2021 short. In May 2022, it was announced that George Mackay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett would lead the feature-length adaptation. [2] Directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping credit producer Sam Ritzenberg and Agile Films founder Myles Payne helping them get the idea off the ground when they originally boarded the short. [3]
Principal photography began in London in June 2022. [2]
Femme had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on 19 February 2023. [4] [5] In May 2023, Utopia acquired North American distribution rights to the film, [6] while Signature Entertainment acquired UK and Ireland distribution rights in August. [7] It was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2023. [8] In the United States, Femme was released in select cinemas on 22 March 2024. [9]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Sexually charged and riddled with tension, Femme redresses the noir genre and may leave audiences biting their nails to the nub." [10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favourable" reviews. [11]
Award | Year | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berlin International Film Festival | 2023 | GWFF Best First Feature Award | Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Myles Payne and Sam Ritzenberg | Nominated | [12] |
Teddy Award for Best Feature Film | Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping | Nominated | [13] | ||
British Independent Film Awards | 2023 | Best Costume Design | Buki Ebiesuwa | Won | [14] [15] |
Best Make-Up & Hair Design | Marie Deehan | Won | |||
Best Cinematography | James Rhodes | Nominated | |||
Best Music | Adam Janota Bzowski | Nominated | |||
Best Music Supervision | Ciara Elwis | Nominated | |||
Best British Independent Film | Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Myles Payne and Sam Ritzenberg | Nominated | |||
Best Director | Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping | Nominated | |||
Best Joint Lead Performance | Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay | Won | |||
Best Screenplay | Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping | Nominated | |||
The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director | Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping | Nominated | |||
Best Debut Screenwriter | Nominated | ||||
Jerusalem Film Festival | 2023 | Best International Debut | Nominated | ||
Valladolid International Film Festival | 2023 | Recoletas Award for Best Feature Film | Won | [16] | |
Zurich Film Festival | 2023 | Best International Feature Film | Nominated | ||
Thriller – A Cruel Picture is a 1973 Swedish rape-and-revenge exploitation film written and directed by Bo Arne Vibenius under the pseudonym Alex Fridolinski, and starring Christina Lindberg and Heinz Hopf. It tells the story of a mute young woman who is forced into heroin addiction and prostitution, and her subsequent revenge on the men responsible.
The Woodsman is a 2004 American drama film directed by Nicole Kassell in her feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Kassell and Steven Fechter, and based on the play of the same name by Fechter. Starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, the film follows a convicted child molester who must adjust to life after being released from prison. The title of the film refers to the woodsman from the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, who kills the wolf to save the titular child.
Femme Fatale is a 2002 erotic thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. It was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
David Mackenzie is a Scottish film director and co-founder of the Glasgow-based production company Sigma Films. He has made ten feature films including Young Adam (2003), Hallam Foe (2007), Perfect Sense (2011) and Starred Up (2013). In 2016, Mackenzie's film Hell or High Water premiered at Cannes and was theatrically released in the United States in August. The same year he executive produced Damnation, a TV pilot for Universal and USA Network. Mackenzie also directed Outlaw King (2018), a historical film for Netflix. Mackenzie and his films have been described as not fitting neatly into any particular genre or type.
Cookie's Fortune is a 1999 American black comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris O'Donnell. It follows a dysfunctional family in small-town Mississippi and their various responses to the suicide of their wealthy aunt, some of them turning criminal. Musicians Lyle Lovett and Ruby Wilson have minor supporting parts in the film.
Edward Maurice Charles Marsan is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).
Gossip is a 2000 American teen psychological thriller film directed by Davis Guggenheim, and starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus and Kate Hudson.
George Andrew J. MacKay is a British actor. He began his career as a child actor in Peter Pan (2003). He had starring roles in the British war drama Private Peaceful (2012), the romantic film How I Live Now (2013), For Those in Peril (2013), for which he won a BAFTA Scotland Award and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award, and Marrowbone (2017). He gained wider recognition for his leading role in the war film 1917 (2019).
Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield is an English actor. He has received nominations for three British Independent Film Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and three Young Artist Awards.
Daniel Mays is an English actor having had roles in EastEnders (2000), Pearl Harbor, All or Nothing, Vera Drake (2001), Rehab (2005), Shifty, Red Riding (2008), Made in Dagenham, Ashes to Ashes (2010), Outcasts (2011), Mrs Biggs, Byzantium (2012), Line of Duty, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Des and White Lines (2020).
Nathan Lloyd Stewart-Jarrett is a British actor. He starred as Curtis Donovan in the E4 series Misfits (2009–2012) and Ian in the Channel 4 series Utopia (2013–2014). He is also known for his theatre work, earning a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for his performance in Angels in America. His films include The Comedian (2012), War Book (2014), Mope (2019), Candyman (2021), and Femme (2023), the latter of which won him a British Independent Film Award.
I Saw the Devil is a 2010 South Korean action-thriller film directed by Kim Jee-woon and written by Park Hoon-jung. Starring Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik, the film follows NIS agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee), who embarks on a quest for revenge when his wife is brutally murdered by the psychopathic serial killer Jang Kyung-chul (Choi).
Curtis Donovan is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 science fiction comedy-drama Misfits, portrayed by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Curtis appears from the series inception and was the only original character to appear in all of the first four series. Curtis is sentenced to community service after being caught in possession of cocaine and later gains the power of time manipulation when involved in a freak storm. He has also been involved in relationships with Alisha Daniels and later with Nikki. Curtis later gains the power to swap biological sex, followed by the ability to resurrect people from the dead. While in female form, Curtis is portrayed by Kehinde Fadipe. Stewart-Jarrett left the show in the fourth episode of the fourth series when the character was killed off.
The Villainess is a 2017 South Korean action thriller film directed by Jung Byung-gil, starring Kim Ok-vin. The film had its world premiere at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in May 2017.
Marrowbone is a 2017 English-language Spanish psychological horror mystery drama film written and directed by Sergio G. Sánchez, and starring George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, and Matthew Stagg. The film tells the story of the titular Marrowbone siblings, who relocate from England to their mother's ancestral estate in Maine, where they are faced by a sinister presence at home. Marrowbone was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and released in Spain on 27 October 2017 by Universal Pictures.
Knife+Heart is a 2018 horror thriller film directed by Yann Gonzalez, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cristiano Mangione. It was produced by Charles Gillibert and stars Vanessa Paradis, Nicolas Maury, Kate Moran, Jonathan Genet and Romane Bohringer. An international co-production of France, Mexico and Switzerland, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The lead character is loosely based on Anne-Marie Tensi, a female producer specialized in gay pornography who was active in France in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Farmer is a 1977 American crime action film directed by David Berlatsky and starring Gary Conway, Angel Tompkins, Michael Dante, and George Memmoli. The film was released by Columbia Pictures on March 9, 1977. The revenge thriller is probably best remembered for its lack of a home media release, as the film never had a release on VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, DVD, or any other release outside of theaters for years until a limited edition Blu-ray was released by Scorpion Releasing in early 2022. The websites Letterboxd and The Grindhouse Database list this movie as belonging to the vetsploitation subgenre.
Violation is a 2020 Canadian horror drama film directed and written by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. It is the feature film debut of the two directors, who have collaborated on several short films displayed at film festivals worldwide. The plot follows Miriam, who seeks revenge on her brother-in-law after a traumatic incident. The film stars Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Anna Maguire, Jesse LaVercombe, Obi Abili, Jasmin Geljo, and Cynthia Ashperger.
Culprits is a British heist television series created by J Blakeson. The series premiered on Star via Disney+ on 8 November 2023 in several countries around the world as a Star Original.
Love Lies Bleeding is a 2024 romantic thriller film directed by Rose Glass from a screenplay she co-wrote with Weronika Tofilska. It is a co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris. Set in 1989, its plot follows the relationship between a reclusive gym manager, who is part of a crime family, and an ambitious bodybuilder who commits a string of murders once they get wrapped up in organized crime.