Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017: # 93. Volker Schlondorff’s Return to Montauk

Return to Montauk

Director: Volker Schlondorff
Writer: Volker Schlondorff, Colm Toibin

It’s impossible to discuss the German New Wave of the 1970s without mentioning Volker Schlondorff, perhaps best remembered for his idiosyncratic rendering of The Tin Drum, which took home the Palme d’Or in 1979. Having also adapted Proust, Arthur Miller, and Margaret Atwood, he’s remained a prolific auteur, even if his films have been on a much smaller canvas over the past decade. His latest is an adaptation of a novel by Max Frisch, which has a Same Time, Next Year vibe when an author (originally rumored to be Ralph Fiennes but eventually played by Stellan Skarsgard) falls in love with a younger German woman on a book tour in New York which leads to a memorable weekend in Montauk, Long Island. Seventeen years later, he returns to New York and reunites with his old flame, played by Christian Petzold’s frequent collaborator, Nina Hoss.

Cast: Nina Hoss, Stellan Skarsgard, Niels Arestrup, Bronagh Gallagher

Production Co./Producer(s): Ziegler Film, Volksfilm, Gaumont, Film & Music Entertainment, Pyramide Productions.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available.

Release Date: Schlondorff hasn’t returned to the Cannes main competition since winning the Palme, but he’s also competed in Venice (1996’s The Ogre) and a couple times in Berlin (last in 2000 with The Legend of Rita). Also of note, he recently won a Cesar for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2014’s Diplomacy. Since Return to Montauk features Hoss and Skarsgard, Berlin 2017 was a bet, but this could also be a Cannes sidebar item or make an appearance on the Fall circuit.

[related]Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017[/related]