Director and writer Marleen Valien has signed with Anonymous Content for her first commercial and music video representation in the U.S. and U.K. Based in Berlin, Valien has a body of work which spans short films, commercials and music videos.
Her commercial work includes campaigns for Pinterest and German publishing house Reclam; and her stop-motion spec commercials for Oatly won two golds at the Young Directors Award and were honored at the Spotlight Festival. She has also directed music video promos for Milky Chance and Midnight Tracks, the latter of which won her a silver YDA and a UKMVA nomination.
Her short films include the award-winning Hot Dog, Not the 80s, and A Small Cut, lavishly shot explorations of sexuality and coming of age, which premiered at festivals including Sundance, Tribeca and Clermont-Ferrand.
Before studying directing at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, Valien studied visual communication at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where her classes included art with professor and artist Ai Weiwei.
Her latest work, the mockumentary with feminist arts group Who Needs Feminism Today?, questions why so many billionaires “are flying into space in rockets shaped like male genitalia” and seeks to restore gender equality to the cosmos. The film was shortlisted for three Cannes Lions, including the Glass Lion for Change. It was also featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Valien is currently writing her first feature film.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More