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      Martine Colette, Who Rescued Exotic Animals, Is Dead at 79

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      Her wildlife sanctuary just outside Los Angeles was among the first of its kind and was supported by Hollywood luminaries.Martine Colette, the founder of Wildlife Waystation, a sanctuary for exotic animals that ran for 43 years just outside the Los Angeles city limits, died on Jan. 23 at a hospital at Lake Havasu, Ariz. She was 79. The cause was lung cancer, said Jerry Brown, her publicist and friend.Waystation, which Ms. Colette created in 1976 in the Angeles National Forest, was among the first sanctuaries of its kind for exotic animals that had been abused, abandoned, orphaned or injured. It would rehabilitate them and, if possible, return them to the wild.After financial difficulties and staff turmoil in recent years, Ms. Colette retired in 2019, and Waystation was closed. During the sanctuary’s existence, its website said, it rescued more than 77,000 creatures, including Siberian and Bengal tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars and camels, as well as native wildlife, including foxes and various reptiles and birds.Many of the animals were castoffs from the pet trade, traveling roadside attractions or research labs; others had been brought in from the wild. Some came from nearby Hollywood, where they had been used on the sets of movies and television shows and taken home as pets, only to become a nuisance or a danger to the homeowner.Ms. Colette helped California develop many of its rules and regulations involving exotic animals, including restrictions on bringing them in from the wild and keeping them in homes. She was designated an animal expert for the city of Los Angeles, and Waystation became a model for similar refuges throughout the world.Ms. Colette had moved to Hollywood with her husband, the first of three; all the marriages ended in divorce. (Information on survivors was not immediately available.) She built up a costume-design business there and even had bit parts in a couple of movies and in an episode of the television series “Garrison’s Gorillas.” In 1965, she rescued her first animal, a mountain lion she had seen in a five-by-five-foot cage at an animal show.Within a decade, The Los Angeles Times reported, she had accumulated a house full of beasts and a yard full of wildcats. At that point, she sold her costume-design business, moved to Little Tujunga Canyon and opened Wildlife Waystation, which, at 160 acres, was larger than most municipal zoos.The sanctuary earned an international reputation, and needy animals were sent there from around the world. Ms. Colette brought schoolchildren to Waystation and conducted outreach programs. In one of her more storied adventures, she organized and led a caravan in 1995 to help rescue 27 big cats from a ramshackle game farm in Idaho.Many luminaries in the entertainment industry were said to have supported the sanctuary, including Bruce Willis, Will Smith, Drew Barrymore, Alex Trebek, Leonard Nimoy and Betty White. On occasion, Hugh Hefner, a major backer, gave over the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles for Waystation’s annual fund-raising “safari brunch.”Ms. Colette with Hugh Hefner at a Playboy Mansion fund-raiser for the Wildlife Waystation in 2005. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images But the sanctuary had longstanding problems, including overcrowding and unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Authorities barred it from taking in any more animals in 2000 and closed it to the public; it reopened nine months later, after it had made $2 million in upgrades and reduced the animal population.Despite support from Hollywood, Waystation, which had an annual budget approaching $3 million, struggled financially, and management of the facility became increasingly difficult. Numerous staff members resigned or were fired in later years, and the sanctuary faced the constant threat of natural disasters; a major fire wreaked havoc in 2017, followed two years later by massive flooding.Ms. Colette resigned as president and chief operating officer in May 2019 and moved to Arizona few months later, the board of directors voted to close the facility for good.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife stepped in to oversee the care and relocation of more than 470 animals, including lions, tigers, wolves, owls, alligators and chimpanzees.Eighteen chimps and two hybrid wolf-dogs are awaiting placement, a spokesman for the department said by email on Wednesday. Eleven of those chimps are likely to be sent to new homes later this year, he said, while money is being raised to find homes for the remaining seven.Martine Diane Colette was born on April 30, 1942, in Shanghai. Waystation’s website said that her father was a Belgian diplomat and that she was raised in Nairobi, Kenya, where she attended boarding school. She spent much of her childhood traveling with her father throughout Africa.“It was during these formative years of witnessing the horrors of trapping camps, hunting and exploitation of animals that she recognized her life’s true calling,” the website said.Ms. Colette had a special affection for chimpanzees, having rescued many of them from research labs, and she formed close bonds with them; the Waystation website said she called them her “hairy children.”Among her last words, the website said, were these: “Soon I’ll be walking with tigers.” More

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      From Chad, a Filmmaker and a Star Committed to Telling Stories of Home

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      In “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” the director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun works again with Achouackh Abakar Souleymane, this time on a wrenching drama about abortion.As Chad’s most lauded auteur, the director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun remains committed to portraying his sub-Saharan African homeland onscreen. Early in his career he focused on the fallout from the nation’s multiple civil wars, which forced him to migrate to France in the 1980s. But in the aftermath of the conflict that concluded in 2010, he has shifted his attention to other social ills.With his newest drama, “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” which debuted at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and reached American theaters on Friday, he takes on the topic of abortion through the plight of a Muslim woman, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), who is helping her teenage daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio), terminate her pregnancy after a sexual assault. The film has received rave reviews, with The Times’s Manohla Dargis making it a Critic’s Pick.While abortion is in theory legal in Chad under strict circumstances, the stigma (often associated with religious beliefs) and restrictions around it push some to resort to clandestine clinics or, worse, to carry to term and then kill the newborn.In a joint interview, Haroun, speaking from Paris, and Abakar Souleymane, in N’Djamena, Chad, shared more on the relevance of their second film collaboration. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.Why did you decide to make this film at this moment in Chad?MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN I read an article about a newborn child discovered in the garbage, and all these situations of unwanted pregnancies. But I was first really traumatized by the same subject when I was a child. I was 7 or 8, and we found a baby in the garbage. Several decades later when I read this article, I said, “That’s not normal. I have to do something.” I started investigating, asking nurses, and I discovered that it was a huge problem women are facing every day, because the fact is that in Chad, in our local languages, the word “rape” doesn’t exist. We know that rape exists, a lot of women are victims of it, but there is no word to express it. It’s always as if it’s the women’s fault, like they are guilty because they are pregnant. Sometimes they deny the pregnancy or sometimes, when they discover it’s too late to even think of an abortion, they keep it secret until they have the kid and then they kill it because they don’t have any solutions. I had to tell that story from a Chadian point of view in a human way that resonates with the same problems in the United States, in Argentina, in El Salvador, and in other countries in Africa.ACHOUACKH ABAKAR SOULEYMANE It’s horrible because if you’re not married and you are pregnant, you cannot talk about it. Sometimes these young women are just on their own. If you’re raped, you don’t talk about it, you just deal with it. As a woman, as a single mom, I was happy to be that person that can show it to the whole country and tell women that if this happened in your life, it’s happening to a lot of other women, and you can do something about it.Achouackh Abakar Souleymane in a scene from the film.MUBIDid you or the film face any pushback from government officials or religious groups?HAROUN When we were in Cannes, people said a lot of things against the film on social media, but they hadn’t seen it. But then when we showed the film in Chad, no one said anything because it’s just the reality. We even have some support from the government. I remember the Ministry of Culture was very happy and we had also a state minister at the screening. He called my assistant the day after and said he wanted to organize his own screening for the whole government because he thought that the film should be shown to all those people who don’t know a lot about this subject. I refused because you never know with politics; sometimes you are manipulated. But it was really well received and even for Achouackh, who being in Chad you might think she could be a victim of hate, she has only received congratulations.ABAKAR SOULEYMANE People would come up to me and say, “You are so brave for being able to do that.” That was shocking.Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: More

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      Watch Time Stand Still in ‘The Worst Person in the World’

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      The director Joachim Trier narrates a fanciful sequence from his film, starring Renate Reinsve.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Ever wish you could put a pause on your current life decisions to explore a different option? The Norwegian film “The Worst Person in the World” takes this question literally in one scene.The 30-year-old Julie (Renate Reinsve) is in a relationship with an older man, Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie). But she recently met Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) at a party and was smitten by him. To consider how things might be with Eivind, Julie — and the film — stop time so she can go across town and see him. As she wanders through Oslo, everyone else but the would-be lovers are frozen.Discussing the sequence, the film’s director, Joachim Trier, said that he didn’t want it to feel supernatural.“It’s not about, oh my goodness, she’s discovered a time machine,” he said. “Rather, it’s sort of a musical romantic sequence that plays around with the idea of how it feels to be in love as if time stands still.”Rather than rely heavily on digital effects to make the moment work, Trier and his crew brought in extras to stand still around Oslo. This involved temporarily stopping traffic and sometimes having only brief moments to allow everyone to run into position and capture the shot.Trier said people in Oslo still come up to him to complain about the time he blocked traffic at busy intersections for his shoot.“But it’s become a popular movie in Norway,” he said, “so I hope people forgive me.”Read the “Worst Person in the World” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Renate Reinsve on 'The Worst Person in the World' and New Fame

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      At a dinner during the Cannes Film Festival in July, Renate Reinsve found herself so nervous in the company of famous actors that she spent the evening chatting with their bodyguards instead. When a photographer who had been taking pictures of Timothée Chalamet appeared near the group, she said, her new friends waved him over.“They were like, ‘She’s an actress, too,’” Ms. Reinsve, 34, recalled in an interview in January.She had flown to Cannes from Oslo, where she lives, for the premiere of “The Worst Person in the World,” in which she stars as Julie, a millennial woman in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, grappling with the pressure she feels to pursue a career, find a partner and form a family. It was Ms. Reinsve’s first lead role in a film.After some prodding, the photographer turned his lens to her. “He lifted his camera, and then he didn’t press the button,” she said. “I wasn’t worth it.”Ms. Reinsve won the Cannes award for best actress a few days later. And in the months that followed, the film, directed by Joachim Trier, made the festival rounds, where it garnered praise for Ms. Reinsve’s performance. Louis Vuitton asked her to become a brand ambassador. Just this week she was nominated for a BAFTA in the best actress category.At the end of January, Ms. Reinsve arrived in New York City to promote the film ahead of its American release on Feb. 4. Wearing a simple white dress and her hair in a ponytail for breakfast at Sadelle’s in Manhattan, she surveyed the tower of smoked salmon, cucumbers, tomatoes, dill and capers on the table and wondered if she would be able to eat despite her nerves. She had been up since 3 a.m., unable to sleep after she found out that she would appear on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that evening.“There’s been so much going on,” she said.Ms. Reinsve has had a whirlwind six months ahead of the American release of “The Worst Person in the World.”David B. Torch for The New York TimesDuring the last six months, “The Worst Person in the World” has collected notable admirers, including former President Barack Obama, who included it on his list of favorite movies of 2021.In a video interview during the Sundance Film Festival, Dakota Johnson said the movie “wrecked” her. “I was crying in a way that was weird,” she said. “I was trying to make it less than what it was meant to be. I was trying to not cry as hard as my body wanted to cry.”The screenwriter and director Richard Curtis called the film “a complete masterpiece” in a conversation hosted by Neon, the film’s distributor, and Judd Apatow took to Twitter to say it was “stunning.”“Renate is playing so many complex and conflicting emotions all at once and somehow we understand exactly what she is feeling in every scene,” Mr. Apatow wrote in an email. “She is able to express how hard it is to decide what you want out of relationships and out of life in a way that is alternately dramatic, romantic, heartbreaking and funny.”For Ms. Reinsve, the whirlwind of recognition has been surreal. “I feel the same, but I feel people see me differently,” she said. “It’s a bit confusing.” She is aware of the slippery slope that intense and prolonged attention can lead to.What makes the film good, she reiterated over two interviews, isn’t just her. It’s the script, the director and the rest of the cast (including Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum, who play Julie’s boyfriends). “It’s dangerous to believe that you have more knowledge, or more insight into things than other people, or you’re better than other people,” Ms. Reinsve said.She is trying to live her life as simply as she did before all the buzz. For the most part, she does not read articles about herself.The film, directed by Joachim Trier, centers on Julie, a millennial woman in the midst of a quarter-life crisis.Kasper Tuxen/Neon, via Associated PressBut her father collects all the clips he can find, translates them and stores them in a file. “I’ve never seen him cry much, but this past half-year he’s crying,” she said. “He’s so proud.”In October, Ms. Reinsve’s newfound fame and her ambivalence toward it were palpable at a party that followed the screening of “The Worst Person in the World” at the Viennale, Vienna’s international film festival. Guests tentatively approached Ms. Reinsve — at the hotel bar, in the bathroom — to compliment her performance, as well as the gold Dior suit she was wearing.Ms. Reinsve was friendly and chatty, but as the night went on, she was drawn to the mix of salsa, pop and reggaeton playing in the ballroom. Eventually, with the help of a friend, she swapped her black heels for hotel slippers and hit the dance floor, from which she emerged an hour or so later, her blazer in one hand, skin glazed in a light sheen of sweat and hair tousled.Existential QuestionsMs. Reinsve grew up in Solbergelva, a village in Norway that she described as more of “a road between two places.” She called her upbringing “complicated.”“I didn’t have a good time growing up,” she said. Acting at a local theater became her solace.At 16, Ms. Reinsve stopped going to school and left her home. She wanted to run away to Costa Rica or another warm country but could only afford a ticket to Edinburgh. There, she had enough money for one week in a hostel.She tried to find work, but no one would hire her. Eventually, the owner of the hostel took pity. “He asked, ‘Have you ever poured a beer before?’” Ms. Reinsve said. “‘No.’ ‘But you worked in a bar?’ ‘No.’ ‘OK, but you’re over 18?’ ‘No.’ He rolled his eyes and said, ‘Fine, you’re hired.’”Ms. Reinsve said she always felt very different from other people in her family, and that from an early age, she started asking a variation of the kinds of questions that she still wrestles with today. “Like, ‘How do people relate to each other and why?’” she said. “It kind of started happening because of my complicated relationship to some people in my life.”As she grew older, and her relationships grew more complex, the questions evolved. “I would ask, ‘Why did I end up with this person?’” she said.“Her vulnerability in front of the camera, her ability to go deep and show complexity is what’s really interesting about her,” Mr. Trier said of Ms. Reinsve, pictured here with Anders Danielsen Lie.via Sundance InstituteMs. Reinsve met Mr. Trier more than a decade ago, when she was still studying acting at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and had two lines in one of his movies, “Oslo, August 31st.”Because Mr. Trier wanted a certain kind of light for the scene she was in, Ms. Reinsve was on set in the wee hours for more than a week. “She varied the takes and came up with 20 ideas and felt very free in front of the camera,” Mr. Trier said in a phone interview. “Most young actors at that age would have gotten lost in the toolbox.”Over the next years, Ms. Reinsve and Mr. Trier ended up having deep conversations about love, choice and other existential matters.“She has the star quality where you can put her in a part and she will be attractive and make the image pop,” Mr. Trier said. “But she has another dimension. She’s an incredible actor. Her drama abilities, her vulnerability in front of the camera, her ability to go deep and show complexity is what’s really interesting about her.”David B. Torch for The New York TimesLetting Go and Giving InRight before the role of Julie came along in 2019, Ms. Reinsve had been on the brink of quitting acting altogether and pursuing a different career: carpentry.What she didn’t know was that Mr. Trier for many years had been developing a film with her in mind. He recalled going to lunch with Isabelle Huppert, a friend, in 2017 in Oslo. Ms. Huppert was in town to see Robert Wilson’s play “Edda”; she told Mr. Trier how much she’d enjoyed the performance of an actress wearing a purple dress onstage. “That’s Renate Reinsve,” he said. “I’m writing her a film.”Though by 2019, Ms. Reinsve had found some success in Norway’s theater scene, acting in both experimental and classical productions, she felt exhausted by the demands of the work and frustrated by the two-dimensional roles offered to her in film and television.After buying a house in Oslo, Ms. Reinsve discovered the joys of handy work and renovation, and was ready to enroll in a carpentry program. Then came the call from Mr. Trier.With the Cannes win and everything that has followed, carpentry has fallen to the wayside. “My house is falling apart now,” Ms. Reinsve said in a call from Norway.Looking back, she said the decision to quit acting was somewhat freeing. “A part of growing up is just letting go of the expectations of what life should be like,” Ms. Reinsve said. “That’s something that you lose — what things could have been — and that can feel like a big heartbreak. But it’s also a relief if you go through that and just relax. When I thought that I gave up acting, it was a big relief.”Herbert Nordrum and Ms. Reinsve in “The Worst Person in the World.” He plays Eivind, one of Julie’s love interests.NeonAcceptance and letting go, and all the pain and pleasure that comes with it, is at the heart of “The Worst Person in the World.” Ms. Reinsve’s Julie wrestles with universal questions: What kind of career does she want? Does she want to be a mother? How does she know when a relationship is over? What constitutes infidelity? As Julie moves through different stages of her life, she has to accept that in terms of consequences, even indecision can be a decision.The film embraces the idea that identity is dynamic and can vacillate wildly over time. “We are always forced to try to define ourselves as one thing,” Mr. Trier said. “And none of us recognize ourselves as one thing. We are all ambivalent and chaotic.”In portraying Julie’s decision paralysis, Ms. Reinsve wanted to dig into the messiness and show the good that can be found in a position of uncertainty. In one scene, when Julie is fighting with her boyfriend, some of her anger is driven by his need to analyze their relationship. “Everything we feel, we have to put into words,” Julie says. “Sometimes, I just want to feel things.”Ms. Reinsve said she improvised those lines on set. “She’s unsure and she’s insecure about stuff, and that’s a good place to start,” Ms. Reinsve said. “Nowadays, you’re supposed to have a strong opinion about everything and know who you are. But then you miss out on so much of the process of becoming the you that would be a more happy being.” More

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      ‘Book of Love’ Review: Lust (Eventually) in Translation

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      Unbeknown to the author of an uninspired romance novel, the book takes a sharp turn into erotic territory in its Spanish-language release.“Who wrote the book of love?,” the Monotones once mused. It couldn’t possibly be Henry Copper (Sam Claflin), a stodgy author whose debut romance novel is so devoid of passion that it sells only two copies in his native Britain. But when an audacious translator named María Rodríguez (Verónica Echegui) reimagines Henry’s chaste love story as soapy erotica, he becomes a surprise sensation in Mexico.In “The Book of Love” (on Amazon), María is not only a remixer for Henry’s duller passages, she is also his assigned escort on his book tour of Mexico. Henry, who doesn’t speak Spanish, is excited — if perplexed — by the legions of fans who turn out, titillated by the telenovela-worthy sex scenes María added to his work without consulting him. But once several comic exchanges bring her poetic license to light, his thrill turns to rage. Choking on sanctimony, Henry agrees to continue on the tour, but only to preserve his reputation.When, and in which picturesque city, Henry and María will acknowledge their mutual affection is the burning question of this romantic comedy trifle, which offers a few laughs and many more exasperated groans. As our leading man, Claflin alternates between a pout and a wan smile, and shows all the charm of beans on toast. As for María, there is something tired and clichéd about a Mexican woman’s being deputed to help a British fuddy-duddy embrace narrative spice. It’s a shame that the movie, written and directed by Analeine Cal y Mayor, can’t see that María has better things to do.Book of LoveNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on Amazon. More

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      ‘Lingui, the Sacred Bonds’ Review: Love, Ferocious and Limitless

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      In this electric liberation story from Chad, a mother struggles to protect her daughter’s future and finds both herself and a world of possibility.Freedom doesn’t come easily in “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” an electric liberation story about a mother and daughter. It is fought for — and seized — by women who, in saving themselves, save one another. For the daughter, autonomy means securing an abortion in a country that forbids it. For the mother, an observant Muslim, self-sovereignty is a revolutionary act, one that necessitates a shift in thinking and in being. It means saying no, dancing, sneaking smokes and fighting when need be. It means finding new ways to be a woman in this man’s world.The story unfolds in present-day N’Djamena, Chad, where Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane) spends much of her time on just getting by. With her 15-year-old daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio), Amina lives in a humble home with a rickety gate, thick walls and a sweet, playful dog and charming kitten. For money, Amina makes small, ingeniously designed coal stoves using steel wires that she painstakingly salvages from old car and truck tires she buys. When she’s made enough, she covers her head and body, gingerly balances the stoves on her head and roams the city selling them for the equivalent of a few dollars.The family’s domestic tranquillity has already been disrupted when the story opens, though you’re as in the dark about what’s gone wrong as Amina is. The writer-director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, however, is a fast worker — the movie runs just shy of 90 minutes — and he rapidly sketches in the story and the grim stakes for both mother and daughter. Maria has been expelled from school because she’s pregnant. (“It’s bad for our image,” a school official coolly explains.) Maria won’t name the father. And she does not want a child, partly because she doesn’t want to end up like Amina, who has suffered for being a single mother.Much as in the American independent movie “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” the struggle to obtain a safe abortion here is difficult, life-changing and profound. Narratively, the effort to secure one rapidly takes the shape of an odyssey, a voyage filled with misadventures, harrowing threats and gendered hurdles. For Amina, these obstacles include government prohibitions on abortion, empty pockets, wagging fingers and shaking heads. There’s the hectoring imam (Saleh Sambo) who questions her faith; and there’s the pesky neighbor (Youssouf Djaoro) who’s happy to flirt with her but won’t lend her money.Haroun has a gift for distilling volumes of meaning in his direct, lucid, balanced visuals, which he uses to complement and illuminate the minimalist, naturalistic dialogue. And while you worry about his characters and their fates, it’s instructive that he opens “Lingui” with a close-up of Amina, her face pouring sweat, intensely focused on something outside the frame. The light is soft and lovely, and the sounds of her progressively deeper breaths blend with the melodic music and murmurings heard in the background. A few more cuts and close-ups reveal that she is using a blade to slice open a large tire. It’s difficult, punishing work.But Amina keeps at it, keeps wrestling with the tire, and then she stands and puts her entire body into this laborious endeavor, using every muscle to extract the wires. You know this woman within minutes of the movie opening, before you even hear her name. And while you see the modesty of her circumstances, what hits you, what gets under your skin and into your head, are the dust and the sweat, her grit and her unwavering focus. Amina gets the tough, exhausting job done. And then she puts on a flowing robe and sails into the city, presenting an image — a costume — of classic, demure femininity.Haroun complicates that image beautifully in “Lingui.” The movie is about a great many different things, including the colors and textures of this world, its tenderness and cruelty. But while the story is organized around Amina’s heroic efforts to secure a safe abortion for Maria, each step in this difficult venture expands the movie’s narrative and political horizons. This is a story about a handful of specific women. It’s also about the bonds that connect them, even when frayed, and that help form a larger sisterhood that includes Amina’s long-estranged sister (Briya Gomdigue) and an obliging midwife (Hadjé Fatimé Ngoua).That sisterhood is complex and at times fragile, but it is always rooted in the lived experiences and bodies of these women. Again and again, Haroun shows you Amina and Maria alone and together, at times exchanging hugs or tenderly bowing their heads toward each other. Every so often, you see each running along a street alone, her clothes fluttering and body straining with effort. He shows feet and braids, a flash of a bared leg, the teasing glimpse of a belly. He shows you women in motion and in revolt, fleeing and escaping and at times running sly, joyous circles around the men in their lives. And, if you watch the final credits, you will hear the sounds of women’s laughter, too — a divine and triumphant coda.Lingui, The Sacred BondsNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Alone With You’ Review: An Anniversary for One

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      A woman hoping for a romantic night with her girlfriend instead finds herself trapped in her Brooklyn apartment, facing down demons.In the long history of horror, lesbian relationships have been something of a fixation for directors. That fascination has produced works of camp, wildly homophobic characters and, occasionally, refreshing representation. “Alone With You,” the first feature from the writing-directing duo Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks, is the latest horror film to join this lineage. Unfortunately, its lesbian representation is so shoddy that its scares also suffer.The film centers on Charlie (Bennett), a makeup artist in New York who lives with her girlfriend, Simone (Emma Myles), who is a photographer. Charlie is excited for Simone to return home on the night of their anniversary, but as Simone becomes increasingly unreachable and Charlie finds herself locked in their Brooklyn apartment, a more sinister narrative begins to creep in. It appears that Simone is not who she says she is, but neither, it seems, is Charlie.First, the lesbian problem: The female leads never kiss (or, for that matter, touch), but there are multiple shots of Simone, who is mainly depicted as neglectful and untrustworthy, kissing a man.The horror problem is slightly less dire. “Alone With You” is often canny in its creepiness, layering ominous oddities atop each other before the jump scares emerge. But because Charlie and Simone’s relationship is already doubtful, the whole third act — including the “why” behind all this terror — falls apart. Is Charlie a tortured lover or just another textbook lesbian psycho? Either way, the film’s climactic reveal is regressive, treading the same ground as “High Tension” or “What Keeps You Alive.”Alone With YouNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 23 minutes. In theaters now, on demand Feb. 8. More