Oscilloscope Laboratories announced yesterday that they have picked up the U.S. rights to Josephine Decker‘s Madeline’s Madeline, which stars Helena Howard as Madeline, a young woman whose theater piece begins to blur the lines of reality and performance, affecting all those around her.
Madeline’s Madeline premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters later this year. Take a look below at the full release.
(New York, NY) March 2, 2018 — Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to the latest film from Josephine Decker (BUTTER ON THE LATCH, THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY)—the astonishingly inventive MADELINE’S MADELINE. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with an international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was met with universal acclaim. O-Scope is planning a theatrical release for later in 2018.
Madeline got the part! She’s going to play the lead in a theater piece! Except the lead wears sweatpants like Madeline’s. And has a cat like Madeline’s. And is holding a steaming hot iron next to her mother’s face – like Madeline is.
Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives.
Writer/director Josephine Decker has long been an independent filmmaker to admire, utilizing a welcome expressionistic approach that imbues her subjects with a vibrant sense of urgency. Anchored by a virtuoso performance from newcomer Helena Howard, whose powerful screen presence commands attention, Decker’s film displays a rare sensitivity for capturing the messy struggles of discovering a sense of one’s self that defies easy narrative categorization.
Of the acquisition, filmmaker Josephine Decker says, “Oscilloscope is like the Alice Cooper of film distribution. They rock hard; they throw audiences out of their minds; they never overdose. Many of my favorite films in recent years are Oscilloscope films. They are daring and bold in the films they support, and they know how to reach audiences hungry for a mindfuck. I’m honored to be working with them.”
O-Scope’s Dan Berger says, “MADELINE’S MADELINE is a rich, complex, thought-provoking, and emotional journey through the mind of an adolescent. Helena’s stunning performance coupled with Josephine’s daring filmmaking—oftentimes doing away with all formality—make viewing the film significantly more than simply a cinematic experience. We get inside Madeline’s head and we experience her world fully—not just sensorially, but emotionally as well. This is truly a film that goes where no other film I have ever seen has gone before.”
The film was produced by Krista Parris and Elizabeth Rao, co-produced by Amenya Makuku, Allison Rose Carter, and Jon Read, and executive produced by Matthew Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Michael Decker, Peter Gilbert, Eddie Linker, and Joe Swanberg.
