Programme
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Bonnie

Simon Wallon, USA 2022, 83’
Polish premiere
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Who is the casting director? Someone who watches closely and looks for the role special element during auditions that will complement the resulting film. That’s Bonnie Timmermann. Simon Wallon’s documentary summarizes her impressive achievements.

Casting directors can be the bridge between nothing and everything for an actor,” Mark Ruffalo can be heard saying near the start of Bonnie,” a tribute to one of the leading lights of the profession in Bonnie Timmermann, long one of the first calls for directors such as Michael Mann and the Scott brothers, that becomes a trojan horse about the crucial role in any production of spotting talent and bringing it out of any given performer, making a strong case that it is an art in and of itself. Timmermann sits down to reflect on her career, as do the countless collaborators and actors who she has helped over the years, but the main attraction to most is likely the decades’ worth of audition tapes that she lets director Simon Wallon sift through for gems, material that the director and editor Michael T. Vollman know exactly what to do with.

Venice Film Fest 2022 Review: A Casting Director is Recognized for Her Star Quality in “Bonnie” (moveablefest.com)

Piotr Mirski

Simon Wallon

Siomon Wallon studied directing at Columbia College Chicago. He worked on a series of short films and the TV film Tati Express about the classic French comedian Jacques Tati. The documentary Bonnie is his feature-length debut; he is currently working on his first feature, Lost.

Selected filmography

2009 Sofia's Balloons (short)

2007 Hunter (short)

2009 Un envol / Flying Away (short)

2015 Tati ekspres / Tati Express (doc., TV, co-dir.)

2022 Bonnie (doc.)

Cast & Crew

director Simon Wallon
screenplay Simon Wallon
cinematography Steeven Petitteville, Pierrick Reiss
editing Michael T. Vollmann, Simon Wallon
music Yuksek
cast Bonnie Timmermann, Paul Auster, Steve Buscemi, Derek Cianfrance, Benicio Del Toro
producer Thomas Augsberger, Amanda Sthers, Simon Wallon
production Idea(L), Kiss & Kill, Eden Rock Media
sales Kinology
language English
coloration colour
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