Christian Schwochow’s ‘Paula’ Rules Germany’s Art-House Chart for Fourth Week

“Paula,” Christian Schwochow’s film about the avant-garde painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, has topped the art-house charts in Germany for a fourth week. The film, distributed in Germany by Pandora Film and being represented in international markets by The Match Factory, has grossed Euros 1.71 million ($1.84 million) from 218,000 admissions.

The pic, which world premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, is on the shortlist for the German Film Award Lola, and will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival in the Lola@Berlinale section. It will receive a wide release in France on March 1.

The film, starring Carla Juri, “explores the fascinating life of a highly talented artist and radically modern woman, who was one of the best representatives of early Expressionism,” according to a statement. “Her ambition was to leave the world with ‘three good paintings and a child.’ When she died in 1907, she had considerably more paintings to her name and became the first female painter in history with a museum devoted exclusively to her work.”

Variety’s reviewer wrote: “Whirling and busy with incident, ‘Paula’ certainly captures the intensity of her life, with its artistic escapes to Paris, flirtations with hedonism and belated sexual awakening.”

Juri broke through with David Wnendt’s “Wetlands,” which played at the Sundance Film Festival, and has been seen recently in “Morris from America” at Sundance, and “Brimstone” at the Venice Film Festival.

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