The beloved caramel brand is giving candy lovers a chance to win personalized storybooks – transforming memories into a heartfelt masterpiece This special contest brings the power of multi-generational family bonds with an opportunity for people to have their cherished family memories turned into a personalized Because the sweetest stories deserve to be shared and honored all year long Just like a Werther's Original passed from one loved one to another these stories are the threads that connect generations — and Werther's has always been a key part of creating those sweet Werther's Original Golden Stories celebrates family memories preserving them with the same warmth as their timeless caramels The book becomes a treasured piece of lasting legacy — one that can be passed down through generations much like the candy itself — and inspires meaningful moments of togetherness along the way we believe the most lasting legacies often begin with a simple story shared from one loved one to another," said Kelly Cook "With the Werther's Original Golden Stories contest we are inviting families to submit special stories so that we can create a storybook crafted with the same warmth and care as Werther's Caramels — ultimately becoming a treasured piece of their family's lasting legacy." Beginning Monday, May 5 until Monday, May 26, consumers can visit WerthersGoldenStories.com and choose from four prompts designed to capture the heart of their favorite story Entrants must submit a 250-400 word story — which will be translated and shortened into storybook format — accompanied by photos to be considered to win Submissions will be graded against specific judging criteria that emphasizes: originality and alignment with Werther's Original brand themes of generational connection The top 20 first place winners will receive a custom print storybook keepsake with the 25 second place winners receiving an e-book version of their personalized storybook While inspired by the spirit of Mother's Day this contest is for anyone who has played a meaningful role in a family story – from grandparents and siblings to lifelong friends Winners will be selected the week of June 13 and the Werther's Original Golden Stories contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington Each participant is limited to one (1) entry during the Entry Period regardless of the number of email addresses they may have Candy-maker Gustav Nebel first introduced his delicious iconic caramel recipe in 1909 in the small European village of Werther Using only the best ingredients — real butter a pinch of salt and a lot of time — he created a treasure worthy of being wrapped in gold and named the candy Werther's Original in honor of his little village creamy caramel became a family tradition handed down through generations Media Contact:Anna McAndrew[email protected]  is kicking off National Caramel Month with a surprise sweepstakes: Werther's.. one of America's most beloved caramel brands is introducing limited-edition Caramel Apple Hard Candies to its seasonal.. Retail Food & Beverages New Products & Services Do not sell or share my personal information: Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article There he falls in love with Charlotte (Lotte) feeling depressed and hopeless no matter where he lives Torn by unrequited passion and his perception of the emptiness of life This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment Flinders University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU View all partners This month marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s celebrated and controversial novel Die Leiden des Jungen Werther. Commonly known in English as The Sorrows of Young Werther Goethe wrote the semi-autobiographical novel as a young, idealistic man, spurred by his infatuation with the engaged Charlotte Buff Goethe would look back uneasily on the frenzied product of his youth and “the pathological condition from which it sprang” haunted him from the imaginary grave like a vengeful ghost The Sorrows of Young Werther is a maudlin tale of unrequited love presented as a collection of letters written by Werther to his friend Wilhelm The letters reveal Werther’s sensitive and artistic soul Werther meets and falls in love with Charlotte (or Lotte) a beautiful young woman who has been left in charge of her younger siblings after their parents‘ death Charlotte is already engaged to a respectable and amiable older man Caught in her orbit in the idyllic village of Wahlheim Werther writes letters that are part romantic rhapsodies on the restorative beauty of nature and the simplicity of rural life and part jaded tirades on the artificiality of polite society and courtly politics Werther’s weltschmertz – his world-weariness – takes hold only to be rebuked for his wilfully self-destructive delusions Werther’s letters come to an end; it is left to the cold officious voice of the “Editor” to put together the pieces of his last hours The flash of gunpowder and the sound of gunshot at midnight fails to arouse alarm Werther is found the next morning on the bloodied floor of his study The following night he is buried in his favourite spot Goethe’s novel is very much a product of its times. It is a key example of the German proto-Romantic movement known as Sturm und Drang – or “storm and stress” – which valourised individualism inspiration and passion over the rational tenets of classicism and the Enlightenment It is also a turning point in the history of the cult of “sensibility” an 18th-century term used to describe a refined capacity to feel The Sorrows of Young Werther certainly tugged at the heartstrings of its readers it seemingly offered unfettered access to Werther’s spontaneous effusions of the heart an act still frequently condemned in the late 18th century as sinful sensibility transformed from a laudable virtue to a pathological hypersensitivity to the world or in Charlotte’s words a “too warm sympathy with everything” Goethe’s man of feeling attracted as much scorn as he did sympathy The Sorrows of Young Werther became a worldwide bestseller It was translated into French in 1775 and English in 1779 – where it gained especial notoriety It soon travelled across the Atlantic to America William Godwin’s poorly judged memoir of his late wife and Mary Shelley’s mother led to her being described as a “female Werther” for her suicide attempts When the French emperor met Goethe in Erfut in 1808 he confessed he had read the novel seven times Images of Werther and Charlotte were reproduced on fashion accessories, including fans, gloves, jewellery and expensive porcelain and china mementos Women could wear the perfume “Eau de Werther” (although one is puzzled by what that fragrance might have been) Cheap sentimental prints depicting various scenes from the novel also circulated widely across Europe Most popular were illustrations of a young and beautiful Charlotte mourning at Werther’s grave – a pathetic scene that never occurs in the novel Such images remind us of how the novel took on a life of its own beyond the bounds of its fictional narrative went to great lengths to satirically undercut such pathos by exposing the grubby commercialism of this mawkish sentimentalism The playful slippage between fiction and reality fuelled the novel’s vibrant popular reception The same capacity would give rise to concerns over its potentially harmful influence Goethe feared the novel’s possible effect on impressionable readers from the outset he added a final italicised line to the novel’s second 1775 edition: “Be a man and do not follow me.” The novel was substantially reworked by Goethe in 1787 as further implicit acknowledgement of its potentially deleterious impact on forlorn lovers As Charles Moore lamented in his attack on fictional portrayals of suicide in Full Inquiry in the Subject of Suicide (1790) Werther was often read “not as a fictitious “more engages the attention and increases the mischief” Some authorities responded decisively: both the novel and Werther’s style of dress were banned in Leipzig – where the novel was first published – as early as 1775. The novel was also banned in Denmark and Italy in an effort to stop the spread of suicidal contagion. This perceived mania caused novelist Madame De Staël to quip that Werther had “caused more suicides than the most beautiful woman in the world” The novel’s infamous reputation had been secured the novel’s reputation for prompting copycat suicides had solidified into a sociological paradigm In 1974 – 200 years after the novel’s publication – US sociologist David P. Phillips coined the term “Werther effect” to describe the negative influence of media portrayal of suicides having observed increased numbers of suicides in response to reporting in the New York Times In subsequent decades, the Werther effect has prompted bodies such as the World Health Organization and Mindframe to craft carefully considered guidelines on how to report and discuss suicide in the press to minimise harmful effects (guidelines by which this piece abides) For all the ink spilled debating the merits of Werther’s death his story is equally a meditation on the joyous and painful yearnings that young love brings If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 twenty-year-old German immigrant named Bertell settled on the sandy banks of the New Jersey-side of the Hudson River in Secaucus and carefully laid out a copy of his fellow countrymen Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (published more than three decades before) to page 70 “They are loaded—the clock strikes twelve—I go,” placed a pistol to his head Bertell’s discoverers described him as “genteelly dressed,” perhaps in the fashionable boots and yellow britches and waistcoat of his favorite book’s titular character At least that’s how many victims of the “Werther Effect,” copycat suicides in the fashion of Goethe’s protagonist were reported to have outfitted themselves there were a rash of suicides like Bertell’s: men who were scarcely out of adolescence inspired by the self-destruction of Goethe’s Romantic hero The Sorrows of Young Werther propelled Goethe—only 25 when it was published 250 years ago—into literary superstardom from Napoleon Bonaparte carrying a copy on his Egyptian campaign to a perfume marketed under the name Goethe’s roman a clef details the sorry ending of its poetic-minded protagonist rejected by both the nobility for whom he is too middling and the unconsummated love of a woman betrothed to another man “The human race is but a monotonous affair,” writes Goethe “Most of them labor the greater part of their time for mere subsistence.” The novel is the primogeniture of Romanticism because The Sorrows of Young Werther exemplifies many of the attributes that we associate with Romanticism—the melancholy irrationalism—as well as the faith that life itself can be for in the suicides that resulted there was the dark intimation that literature with the German city of Leipzig regulating Werther’s sartorial uniform for good measure Goethe’s masterpiece was still hardly the first example of literature being accused of a pernicious influence Socrates had castigated writing by claiming that it corroded humanity’s propensity for memory (though the sage was himself executed for corrupting the youth of Athens) His student Plato infamously banned poets from his idealized Republic where they will not allow the “honeyed muse to enter either in epic or lyric verse.” By the first-century and erotic Roman poet Ovid would be exiled by the moralizing Emperor Augustus to the Black Sea punishment for “a poem and a mistake,” though the conjunction there complicates the charge Yet the language used to denounce Goethe’s novel didn’t concern treason or heresy Fear about The Sorrows of Young Werther wasn’t necessarily that it would give you the wrong ideas about religion or state (though perhaps that was implicit) that its influence was as epidemiological as it was intellectual even while death metal to Dungeons and Dragons have long replaced fussy Goethe as the locus du jour The long afterlife of the Werther Effect still animates how we think about literature [and] internet porn,” as Stanley Cohen enumerates in Folk Devils and Moral Panics Cohen writes that there is a “long history of moral panics about the alleged harmful effects of exposure to popular media and cultural forms,” even while he emphasizes that the “continued fuzziness of the evidence of such links is overcompensated by confident appeals.” Such confident appeals include Senator Robert Hendrickson’s amazingly named Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency heard testimony in 1953 which hypothesized a lurid cover on Crime Suspense Stories (in this case featuring a woman’s dismembered head) would encourage homicidal impulses; in the ‘80s feminist attorney Catherine MacKinnon allied with the conservative Concerned Women for America to argue that pornography encourages rape; Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Source opined in 1985 against Prince and Twisted Sister for their sexually degrading lyrics no empirical studies have been able to conclusively draw a connection between what media represents and what it might make its readers do so-called “Penny Dreadful,” novels printed on cheap wood-pulp paper were often used as evidence in murder trials The Secret of Castle Coucy and Cockney Bob’s Big Bluff—cheap mass-manufactured pablum often trading in true crime—were blamed for Emily Coombes’ murder at the hands of her two prepubescent sons in London Penny Dreadfuls were similarly blamed for suicides such as with a 12-year-old in Brighton in 1892 and a Warwickshire farm hand in 1894 The verdict released by the inquest jury assigned to that first case blamed the boy’s death on “trashy novels,” a rougher estimation than that afforded to Goethe Even while traditional literature was eclipsed by film and comics books still could apparently exert a magnetic and occult power in convincing their readers to do the unspeakable “Art’s cruel,” says a character in English novelist John Fowles 1963 thriller The Collector “You can get away with murder with words.” Many readers of The Collector a harrowing story about a young art student kidnapped and sexually tortured by a stalker have tried to get away with murder in reality as well Copies of The Collector were found on the person of serial killers Robert Berdella Jr in 1985 (guilty of six murders around Kansas City) Christopher Wilder in 1984 (with no less than eight murders throughout Australia) and Leonard Lake and Charles Ng who described Fowles’ novel as their “philosophy,” having named their operation after the imprisoned woman in the book (between them they raped and murdered twenty-five women and men in California) Brett Easton Ellis’ notorious 1991 splatter-punk cult classic American Psycho with its tale of financier Patrick Bateman killing people as easily as he finagles mergers and acquisitions is rightly interpreted as a parody of ‘80s free-market excess Sickening in its vivid descriptions of vivisection Ellis’ novel was also found on the shelves of Australian mass murder Wade Frankum and Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo “My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone,” says Bateman I want my pain to be inflicted on others,” and it would seem that in American Psycho some readers heard a voice that resonated Authors have occasionally advocated for the removal of their work not unsurprisingly horrified to discover that a novel of theirs happened to be on the bedstand of a sadistic killer Six school shootings took partial inspiration from Stephen King’s 1977 novel Rage so that the author demanded his publisher take it out of print—they complied Anthony Burgess appraised his A Clockwork Orange an astute and disturbing examination of authoritarianism and thuggery lobbied to have the film removed from British theaters after a reports of copycat robberies Not that reason or sanity necessarily has much to do with a diseased consciousness’ justifications of atrocity Salinger’s poignant account of lost innocence in The Catcher in the Rye that somehow inspired Mark David Chapman to assassinate John Lennon outside of the Dakota on a cool New York afternoon in 1980 That was only twelve years after Lennon’s own lyrics on “The White Album” were “interpreted” by Charles Manson as instructions for murder sir,” pleads the murderer and rapist Alex in A Clockwork Orange his eyelids strapped back as psychotherapists force him to watch horrific videos “You’ve proved to me that all this ultraviolence and killing is wrong sir.” What inspired Alex to rape and kill in A Clockwork Orange—Beethoven Did Burgess’ novel influence adolescent Richard Palmer to murder a hobo in Bletchley Such questions are not least of all legal ones The censorious instinct claims that literature can be a malignant influence while the humane and liberal spirit rejects that view hewing to the reasonable position that “just books” aren’t responsible for any crime that’s the position that I’m inclined to agree with but then I remember how many deaths the Bible has been responsible for It’s more than abundantly fair when examining the books read by a killer not to necessarily make a causal connection; presumably all those serial killers with copies of The Collector or American Psycho would still have been serial killers even had they not had library cards Phillips in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice writes that a “causal link between media exposure and violent criminal behavior has yet to be validated” while McKay Robert Stevens of Brigham Young University concludes that studies have “failed to find a significant impact of reading violent literature on aggressive cognitions.” Yet if you were in Burgess’ or Fowels’ or King’s position knowing that lives had been shortened purportedly because of sentences you wrote that humans had been obliterated by cruel methods due to stories you had spun how consoled would you be by The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice and claim that literature is capable of changing lives—which I believe to be true Why would that only ever be the case when it comes to changing lives for the better Cultural politics is normally engaged in an arena of Manichean posturing and bad faith When it comes to the conundrum of if ugly words can be translated into uglier actions the conservative is normally more than happy to break out the censor’s black marker while the liberal historically defends even offensive media as “just video games,” “just music,” “just books.” I adhere firmly to the belief in free speech but because it is a human’s inviolate right But to say that books shouldn’t be banned because they’re “just books” seems to me to delegitimize the very idea of literature We wish for books to be the axe for the frozen sea inside us the device that takes the tops of our heads off To see books as incapable of danger is to understand them as being incapable of any power at all and that is a conclusion to which I cannot abide despairing at the thought of those who killed themselves wrote that such unfortunates “thought that they must transform poetry into reality.” for the suicide of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem who provided the model for Werther is instructive On the bedside table of the dead man was a copy of Gotthold Lessing’s tragedy Emilia Gallotti with its evocation of lives “tormented by unfulfilled passions.” Like so many of Werther’s acolytes Jerusalem took leave of this life by falling into a book Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving Directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço BY Rachel HoPublished Jan 10 Based on the 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Young Werther follows the time-honoured tradition of modern-day cinematic adaptations of old texts. The film revolves around Werther (Douglas Booth) a young man from Montreal travelling into Toronto on  family business to retrieve an heirloom from his aunt for his mother Young Werther's tale of unrequited love unravels itself to reveal a charming, tragic love story set against the Toronto skyline. Joining the relatively small contingent of films that actually use the city for the city, first-time director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço brings to life a trust-fund baby's version of Toronto to build Werther's one-sided fairytale, free of any bubblegum pop fever dream stylization (but idealized nonetheless). It's an obvious comparison, but it's one I can't shake (and I consider this to be the highest of compliments): Young Werther is like a 2020s Toronto version of 10 Things I Hate About You. And while the film may not find a 10 Things-like mass audience — especially outside our borders, for reasons beyond its control — it remains a movie that warrants our attention and hearts. Be the first to get our biggest stories delivered to your inbox. Career critics continuing the conversation in a post-print world Contributors: Jim Slotek (former Toronto Sun), Liam Lacey (former Globe & Mail) As the narcissism-driven pursuit of a dream-girl that is Young Werther plays out the set-in-Toronto sort-of-romcom begins to show its anachronistic hand And by another time, I don’t mean 1774, when young Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote his career-making novel The Sorrows of Young Werther about a deeply sensitive young man whose unrequited love for a married woman drives him to suicide The movie is so loosely adapted from the book I’m speaking of the 1980s, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The two movies don’t match narratively nor as anarchically entitled young man who ignites a series of disruptive (and sometimes bithely hurtful) events Werther (Douglas Booth) reels in the newly-crowned woman-of-his-dreams (Alison Pill)r the question had to rise to the surface: Who was this guy who felt his whims superseded other people’s It is possible that Young Werther would have found ticket purchase in the ‘80s Whether it appeals to you today may depend on whether you’ve subsequently decided Ferris was kind of an asshole The film doubles down on the Goethe connection with an opening crawl that compares the 18th century reaction to the author’s novel with Beatlemania the better to whet your appetite for the story that follows Said story is love-at-first-sight, as experienced by Werther (Douglas Booth), a man with an iron whim. Werther’s delusional impulses and bad ideas are certified as such by his pessimistically pragmatic best friend Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed) But the notion that Werther has fallen under a magic spell from afar by a random woman he doesn’t even know (Charlotte, played by Alison Pill) suggests that this love is a creation of his own mind Maybe it’s a subconscious distraction from the seemingly tedious path he’s on by dint of birth (family connections have him working as a paralegal with assurances of advancement). Werther doesn’t mind torching that position in the course of his ultimate prize. Said prize, by the way, has an amiable fiancé named Albert (Patrick J. Adams) Chalk it up as just another square peg to stubbornly squeeze into the round hole that is our hero’s fantasy Charlotte, it turns out, is Werther’s complete opposite, a selfless caregiver, obliged by family circumstance to act as a mother figure to her five siblings. One of them, Sissy (Iris Apatow) has her own delusions of nabbing Werther for herself But there’s something in Werther’s “time for some me-time” sales pitch that appeals to Charlotte There is a meanness of spirit to all of this an uncomfortable awkwardness that seemingly can’t end well Not that it ends particularly definitively It just segues into another chapter in the life of a protagonist I’m not sure even his mother could love To receive an email when new reviews/interviews are added to Original-Cin please provide your email address in the form below Your address will never be shared with any other party Festivals & Awards Adapting Goethe’s Sturm und Drang classic “The Sorrows of Young Werther” into a buoyant bright Canadian rom-com feels like a horrendously awful idea on paper for the first few minutes of José Lourenço’s film This is an aggressively quirky movie that feels buried in twee in its opening scenes much like the characters in this film eventually fall for “Young Werther,” this movie won me over but the real lynchpin to this film’s success is Alison Pill a generally underrated performer who gives one of the most genuinely likable turns of her career whom Booth’s Werther meets one day on a trip to the city and the two spend a magical night together at a party enriched by the fact that Booth and Pill have that thing that seems so increasingly rare in modern romantic movies: chemistry Just the way Werther looks at Charlotte becomes heartwarming even after we learn that she’s engaged to a nice man named Albert (Patrick J “Young Werther” isn’t a story of a man swooping in and saving a damsel-in-distress from a doomed partnership What do you do when you’re in love with someone who’s already happily in love with someone else but the vibrancy of the project serves as a platform for Booth and Pill to shine winning over viewers with their commitment to a unique project in that it’s a buoyant often jubilant take on a relatively nihilistic tale with no good options Those familiar with the source may wonder how they get out of the last act and maintain a tone that can be described as “snappy”—I won’t spoil it but I did find the closing scenes of “Young Werther” likable enough It’s gone from a tale about the bleak reality of love and life to one about the formative chapters of youth in which we are defined by those we meet and those we fall for Much like I’ve long admired Pill’s natural screen presence I think Theresa Palmer is a wildly underrated actress who always finds an organic way into every character she plays She does so again in Australian Marcelle Lunam’s “Addition,” but she is left adrift by the rest of the film Every choice Palmer makes in this romantic drama works Likely a source with a rich internal monologue to fill in the gaps of this shallow script “Addition” is the story of a woman named Grace who has something called arithmomania even though I didn’t know it had a name I’ve always had a minor version of this wherein I count in my head the toothbrush strokes almost every night or most sets of stairs I take but it’s more of a quirk than Grace’s often debilitating OCD Her mental illness forces her to count everything When she loses this sense of order in her world “Addition” will reveal the trauma that brought on this condition giving it one negative in my eyes in that I can’t stand “mental illness explainer” movies that like to put complex issues in neat boxes and another cinematic pet peeve emerges when Grace meets a man setting in a motion yet another tale about how those with trauma-induced mental illness just need to find love but it’s partially because we don’t really care about the budding relationship between Grace and Seamus (Joe Dempsie) “Addition” suffers greatly from a supporting character problem in that literally everyone around Grace is shallowly developed little more than devices on Grace’s journey but that doesn’t make it any more tolerable It’s not just that Palmer is easily the best thing about “Addition”; it’s that there’s not even a close second there’s the well-intentioned but slightly amateur “My Fathers’ Daughter,” a coming-of-age tale with a big heart but an obvious arc even if I kept hoping it would break out of the boxes it’s obviously in to do something that felt fresh and new but even she pushes against a character who often feels like she’s saying and doing things because she’s in a movie There’s a version of this that either leans harder into realism (a la the Dardennes for example) or explores riskier narrative ground Egil Pedersen’s film is the tale of Elvira (Sarah Olaussen Eira) who grew up in the coastal village of Unjárga in the FAR north of Norway In denial of her Sámi background and pushing back against her mother’s lesbian relationship Elvira dreams of a biological father she’s never known even imagining him as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau The “Game of Thrones” star has a few fun cameos early in the film something that should be more playful than they are in this tonally inconsistent work which she learns the hard way when her real dad forcing Elvira to really consider what matters in life and maybe be a little nicer to her mother and to herself but they often butt up against clearly manufactured arcs like the way Elvira deals with school conflict or resents her mother’s partner It’s a film that feels stuck between coming-of-age tropes and something more character-driven too often falling into the comfort and simplicity of the former to recommend Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association Jules Massenet and his monumental opera Werther composed in 1887 and first performed in 1892 is a four-act opera based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) This opera is one of Massenet’s most enduring works and a prime example of French Romantic opera Let’s analyze it in terms of musical structure and melodic expressiveness are well recognized and logically are most sought after if a new recording is possible Such a recording has a significant logistics cost in terms of the number of musicians reflects the natural setting and melancholy mood we can already admire the significant capacity of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra Under the precise baton of conductor Robert Spano they are never imprecise or even slightly out of tune a not-so-common issue in these scores asking the maximum from every musician extremely difficult opera that demands musicianship at the very highest levels,” says HGO General Director Khori Dastoor Leitmotifs are just another characteristic of the French romantic period: they are used subtly in Werther to represent characters and emotions One of the central musical themes is the melancholy “Werther’s motif” associated with the protagonist’s tragic fate The listener can fully appreciate the leading voices chosen for the principal characters such as the tenor Matthew Pollenzani as Werther Pollenzani has charmed many theaters here in Europe so it is no surprise that he results as the matador of this installment Of no lesser importance is the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as Charlotte Charlotte’s themes are often marked by warmth and tenderness contrasting Werther’s more intense emotional expression a detail that is very important in choosing the right sort of voice which allow her to handle challenging coloratura passages and intense dramatic scenes with equal grace The vocal quartet is completed with high-quality artists: soprano Jasmine Habersham as Charlotte’s sister and baritone Sean Michael Plumb as Albert Robert Spano seems entirely at ease with this orchestra combining precision with full command of rhythmical intricacies The difficulty of this particular drama is that the listener must be aware of the tragic ending reserved for the main hero right from the beginning Spano obtains the right degree of somber and tragedy-filled atmosphere The natural flow of this highly romantic and complex music is obtained effortlessly and the musicians respond enthusiastically this recording is well on track to be another Grammy nomination for the maestro Maestro Spano has a long list of premiere recordings of living composers and is well known for his versatility in contemporary music It is always noteworthy that conductors with great experience and a bright arrow of scores on their palmarès obtain the best results when recording tricky scores with enormous difficulties which would speak against the theory of specialization with its superior sonic image and technical solution to the obvious problems represents a guarantee of highest enjoyment for the listener Giorgio Koukl is a Czech-born pianist/harpsichordist and composer who resides in Lugano Among his many recordings are the complete solo piano works and complete piano concertos of Bohuslav Martinů on the Naxos label He has also recorded the piano music of Tansman A new film is putting a sly spin on the patron saint of emo kids Even before it made the enduring mold for a certain sort of sad boy—never forget that Dan “Gossip Girl” Humphrey was a mega-Werther fan—Goethe’s romantic tragedy rocked the literary world on its publication in 1774 An epistolary novel built of letters from Werther a listless member of the eighteenth century German middle class the book describes one young man’s consuming crush on the lamentably engaged Charlotte Werther’s letters render the pain of unrequited love with a Sturm and Drang that expressed—or maybe anticipated—the angsty teenager The book resonated so deeply with young readers that it inspired a fleet of copy cats, who’d occasionally come down with a fatal case of Werther fever Though Goethe’s novel ends in tragedy—it’s called Sorrows, after all—this newest adaptation seeks light. In writer/director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço’s cheeky hands Our hero’s inciting quest is framed as a pretext for a quarter-life rumspringa And the ultimately doomed love triangle the action spins on is imperiled because Charlotte’s fiancee Albert (played by Patrick J Adams) fails to achieve the ideal work life balance Thanks to production designer Ciara Vernon Werther’s world is rendered in sumptuous lending the world an out-of-time anachronism (We’re in an old-timey Europe that permits the occasional iPhone.) Alison Pill but a gimlet-eyed ruffian with smoldering eyes Lourenço, who aspired to be a novelist before coming to filmmaking and has since written children’s books and journalism first encountered Werther in a third year “coming of age lit” class There he was struck by the narrator’s abjection but also saw something kinda goofy in the guy “The letters are just these cathartic outpourings…so full of melancholy,” he told me “They’re so whiny…it’s a very woe-is-me kind of approach He’s aware that his film joins a “cornucopia of Werthers out there in the world.” (Did you know that the book inspired an opera? Or that Thomas Mann once took a pass at a sequel?) However his may be the only version to emphasize the comedy in the source material That’s as much a function of the director’s style as anything Goethe put on the page Lourenço cited Howard Hawks and Mike Nichols as touchstones I love characters who are constantly one-upping each other I love… characters who can make each other laugh,” he said “I love films where you can hear the writing I love experiencing worlds that clearly have some artifice to them…Who cares about real life?” That ethos explains why characters in this sorrow tend to speak in banter rather like they’re always experiencing “their best wittiest day on their fourth cup of coffee.” Lourenço found the novel’s “pure brutal tragedy” less interesting to explore in a heightened register And striking a tone that put youthful heartbreak into perspective felt truer to life—at least in this century This same logic helps account for the film’s deviations from Goethe’s plot Though not every attempt to lighten and heighten made the cut—a skeet shooting scene that Lourenço initially hoped to film on top of a skyscraper in downtown Toronto was thwarted by a safety-minded location scout—readers inclined to faithful adaptations should proceed with caution spoilers ahead) the absence of some Sturm und Drang has apparently offended some viewers Lourenço hastens to note that he understands if fervent Werther heads struggle with his Gerwigian But he’s also not too pressed about slaking the diehards There was freedom in knowing his was not the final word on Werther “If you want the beat for beat pure adaptation,” he said "There used to be 10 or 12 venues that you could go to any given night and you'd just be seeing bands that you loved," says director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço BY Rachel HoPublished Jan 8 "There's this idea that only films set in New York, Chicago or Paris will play," says Young Werther director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço do we need yet another talky romance that is set in cities we've seen so many times before?" Finally, our fair city can add another notch to the Toronto-as-Toronto belt in Young Werther (starring homegrown talent Alison Pill and Patrick J an adaptation of the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther published in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang Goethe we witness a young man's extreme reaction to unrequited star-crossed love unravels these letters and the heavy emotions of Werther (played by Douglas Booth) inside Toronto's local haunts and onto its streets "It was really exciting to be able to [film Young Werther] in Toronto and call it Toronto and not shy away — no painting out any of our street signage or making sure you don't see the CN Tower in the background," Lourenço tells Exclaim "Werther's voice is so intense and passionate and it just feels like he's made a bit of a fairy tale out of it all I wanted a bit of that quality to come through in the representation of the city." and spent his early years in Halifax before moving to Edmonton and then Vancouver Island for high school followed by Montreal for university — more than most Canadians Lourenço has truly lived and experienced this country from coast to coast He moved to Toronto after university in the hopes of starting a band and getting a writing job. Lourenço found success on both fronts, working for the Toronto Star, CBC and MuchMusic, and forming a band, Spitfires & Mayflowers. Exclaim! reviewed their 2006 debut album, Triumph, commending the band for keeping "the music fresh and the listener guessing right through to the end." "There used to be 10 or 12 venues that you could go to any given night, and you'd just be seeing bands that you loved, or you were in a band, and you were playing with bands that you loved," Lourenço recalls fondly. "The early 2000s to the early 2010s, that was really my social scene and it felt very comforting." This phase in Lourenço's life, and by extension this era of the city, is the Toronto in which the filmmaker wanted his Werther to experience the joys and pains of love. The carefree 20-something years that almost feel like a fever dream in retrospect — a time when young people are the most open and vulnerable with their hearts. "When I think back on my favourite experiences in the city, it's all through that haze of nostalgia," Lourenço explains. "Your brain filters out every negative experience. For every awful intersection I've waited at for two hours, or every horrible winter storm that I've survived, all those kind of melt away and I'm left with these highlights of what the city is and my favourite moments with friends or family." Lourenço acknowledges, though, that Toronto "isn't a monolith," and this rose-tinted experience isn't reflective of everyone's reality in the city. But for Werther, a softer, sweeter Toronto is exactly what his forlorn heart requires, and what Lourenço offers his characters. "In Werther, I wanted [Toronto] to feel alive and timeless," the filmmaker offers. "Have a thing that exists in a weird, liminal space that's not-Toronto-but-Toronto. Something that feels special." Lourenço's love for Toronto is infectious, and through Young Werther, he celebrates the city with his optimism over the potential of how this city can make us feel, hope and wonder. 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Following a hometown premiere earlier this fall at its world-renowned film festival “Young Werther” is liable to restart “Werther fever” for a new generation as it makes its way into theaters and homes on VOD this week and recently Lourenço shared how he ended up adapting the novel being bold with color choices and how he landed such charismatic leads and a supporting cast that was also none too shabby I just moved to a new place and was lugging my boxes of books and DVDs and CDs and was putting them on the shelves and I pulled down [“Young Werther” and thought] why has there not been a major English language adaptation of this book I’d read it in college and liked it fine and then when I read it again “This is hitting in a different way.” After having had a few romantic entanglements this felt like it’s accessing something visceral for me “Franny and Zooey” ends up making its way in That honestly would have been only a few books over “Franny and Zooey,” “Catcher in the Rye,” the short stories “A Good Day for Bananafish,” all the Salinger stuff is definitely up there and [“Franny and Zooey”] came because in the original novel there’s this moment where Werther and Charlotte really connect over an epic poem that he’s reciting “What would be the modern version of that?” It’s definitely this Salinger book that has as many of the same themes as the film Was it fun finding analogues between the past and the present We talked early on about having it be this world that felt out of time a little bit in the same way that Werther just this slightly askew world that feels like a place that we can inhabit and in terms of reality a world that you can float through a little bit and let the romance and the whimsy carry you through We talked a lot about the color journey in the film with the production designer and the costumer and our cinematographer how very much [Werther’s] driving color is red at the beginning of the film [to reflect] his passion and his love and Charlotte was very much in cool blues and neutrals and throughout the film as they become more meshed in each other’s lives They start taking pieces of each other’s wardrobe like actually wearing each other’s clothes throughout and they end up in opposite poles of this color world And all the characters have their things that pull through with wardrobe and the spaces We wanted this maximalist vibrant world that’s full of life and possibility just something that reflected the intensity of Werther’s feeling and how he sees the world Did you ever watch “30 Rock” back in the day There’s one episode where Alec Baldwin is speaking to Kenneth the page and he’s like “I’d love to see the world how you see it in “Young Werther” is very much Werther’s POV It presents Toronto in quite a loving way What was it like to look at the city that way but I’ve lived here for just over 20 years and it’s where I spent my twenties and thirties and really grew up ultimately It was exciting to be able to go to all these spaces like the AGO or the Bar Ape or the Fort York with the fireworks just spaces in the city that are never really shown on film Toronto is always playing Chicago or New York or Detroit or some nameless city on screen to go down to just South of Queen Street on Victoria and shoot the exterior of a beautiful iconic Toronto restaurant like 20 Victoria you can present the world as it is and as you can experience it in a way that feels beautiful Alison has said that she first met you during this amazing summer you had together 20 years earlier with this group of artists in the city Was she in mind from the start and/or the feeling of a summer like that I feel like every summer throughout my twenties in this city was aspiring to be something as like wonderful as what Charlotte and Werther experience And Alison coming aboard was amazing because we had known each other when we were younger and stayed in touch We have a mutual friend in New York who’s one of my best friends and one of her best friends sometimes we’d reconnect and see each other I [thought] I wonder if we could get someone like Alison because it’s my first feature and you’re hoping that you’re going to get wonderful actors I couldn’t be happier with the way our cast came together She’s such an incredible talent and not just as an actor She has such a verbal dexterity and can really find nuance in a character and the way that she can react and interplay in scenes What sold you on Douglas Booth What made me really take notice of him back in the day was “The Riot Club.” He’s been in many wonderful things And it was the conversations that we had during the casting process where I was speaking with a bunch of actors and Doug really stood out to me because he really understood the character I really feel like he is like a Cary Grant-type He can just effortlessly access that place of a nuanced sophisticated performance with real panache to it and depth and then he can also traverse right over into comedy and lightness with such grace and class I feel like Doug can do anything and he’s truly a star off-camera as well and really so generous to everybody — cast He always made everyone feel respected and very much has Werther qualities He walks into a room and it just lifts up a little bit this really does have “His Girl Friday” level dialogue in it What was it like establishing the rhythm with the actors and getting that repartee just right What was great is they both love to rehearse which is amazing and it’d be amazing to have weeks and weeks and weeks but Alison and Doug and Doug and Jaouhar [Ben Ayed who plays Werther’s friend Paul] and everyone just found that rhythm so quickly It’s not like there were no moments where we changed things on the fly the script was the script and it was really about nailing the rhythm but still having it feel natural rather than remembered I’m so lucky that Alison and Doug have that ability There’s definitely that heightened “His Girl Friday” Howard Hawks rapid back-and-forth heightened aspect to it It’s something that I know I cannot do because any time I would read across anyone I’m in awe of what actors of their caliber can do Is there anything that happened during the shoot that you may not have expected but made it into the film and you now really like about it she’s another person who’s so smart Charlotte’s friend and there are just little moments that she would improvise in character There was one thing that didn’t make it into the final edit but I loved it so much when Charlotte first tells Werther that she’s engaged and she gets in the cab with Melanie and they’re pulling away but Amrit improvised this thing where she was screaming “We need to go get hot dogs,” and then we had this scene where she’s being helped into her house and she’s eating the hot dog and talking about how she loves Charlotte It was one of those darlings that you kill along the way What’s it been like to start getting this out into the world I had a film greenlit at Fox about a month before Disney took over and killed Fox’s entire slate but I’m still processing it all because it really does feel just amazing and surreal and I can’t wait for it to happen again “Young Werther” opens on December 13th in theaters and will be available on digital and on demand You must be logged in to post a comment This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. by November 1, 2024Source: YouTube Douglas Booth stars as Werther - a wealthy young man who instantly falls for a woman named Charlotte "He falls more in love with her as they spend time together and has been the main caretaker of her siblings since the deaths of their parents is that Charlotte is engaged to successful lawyer Albert." It's a tale of unrequited love It's always nice to see something a bit different these days and the terrific cast in here is the cherry on top Here's the trailer (+ poster) for José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço's film Young Werther, on YouTube: Find more posts in: To Watch, Trailer Add our RSS to your Feedly +click here+ Latest posts now available on Bluesky: Get the latest posts sent on Telegram Want emails instead?Subscribe to our dailynewsletter updates: Enter Sweepstakes to Win One of 200 Free Pairs of "Werther's Original Pocket Denim" Starting October 16 CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- This fall, Werther's Original is kicking off National Caramel Month with a surprise sweepstakes: Werther's Original Pocket Denim The limited-edition offering of men's and women's denim jeans are designed with 30 reimagined tiny pockets running down each pant leg Each pocket is perfectly sized to hold a single Werther's Original golden-wrapped caramel candy ensuring you have your favorite caramel wherever you go this fall Beginning at 9 a.m. EST on Wednesday, October 16 at www.Werthers-Original-Pocket.com 200 lucky fans will win a pair of limited-edition Werther's Original Pocket Denim and a bag of Werther's golden-wrapped caramels to fill all its pockets this fall but celebrates this tiny pocket — and these jeans turn a common denim fit into a functional fall statement piece The jeans are available in a wide range of both men's and women's sizes and features an on-trend fit styled to flatter a variety of body types while offering comfort and ease of movement these jeans seamlessly blend with any fall wardrobe Participants can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win by visiting the Werther's Original Sweepstakes Page and completing the entry questionnaire by 11:59 p.m Media Contact:McKenzie Jester, Spool Marketing & Communicationsmckenzie.jester@spoolmarketing.com(858) 254-1376 Some of life's most treasured moments are the ones passed down through generations Household, Consumer & Cosmetics Fashion Playing eponymous role in 25th anniversary staging of 'Werther,' Kim promises to keep growing as stage performer Kim Min-seok's latest musical role takes a lot out of him While playing the titular character in "Werther" doesn’t physically exhaust him the lead singer of Korean indie duo MeloMance admits he feels emotionally drained after each performance -- especially given the intense sobbing and crying onstage It's just his second role as a musical theater performer perhaps buoyed by his recent win for best new actor at the Korea Musical Awards for his role as Orpheus in "Hadestown," he took the plunge “The role of Werther felt incredibly overwhelming but I have a mindset of saying yes when I'm on the fence about something,” Kim told reporters during a group interview last week Kim said that he aims to portray the character's singular love for Lotte -- an unrequited passion that brings him a sorrow so deep he exiles himself to cope with the situation “I approached his emotions analytically -- trying to grasp how he processed each situation It made me realize just how immense despair can be when someone loses what they truly long for,” he said It felt like there was no other way to express it but as a first love -- a love so rare something one experiences only a few times in life The kind of love that turns a person into a fool,” the 33-year-old explained they sometimes act in ways they normally wouldn't It’s not that they were unaware their actions were wrong but I figured if I show unwavering love for Lotte people might be convinced by the latter part of the story,” Kim added Based on Johann Goethe's 19th-century novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther," the musical has established itself as a mainstay of the South Korean musical scene since its debut in 2000 Several actors have built their careers through it Kim alternates with Um and K-pop singer-turned-musical actor Yang Yo-seop for this run of the musical -- which could be a daunting prospect for someone in just their second musical outing But Kim expressed his determination to grow as as a musical stage performer “I will strive to become a convincing Werther putting in my best effort every moment to refine and improve my performance The purpose of art should be to enrich people's lives My goal is for the audience to fully enjoy the performance and leave with an experience that stays true to the essence of the story," he said MeloMance will release a new album and embark on a nationwide tour to celebrate their 10th anniversary Kim also hopes to further explore his passion for musical theater he dreams of one day performing as Mozart in “Mozart!,” Gwynplaine in “The Man Who Laughs,” and Charlie in “Kinky Boots.” “Werther” runs until March 16 at D-Cube Arts Center in Seoul before heading to Dream Theater in Busan for performances on March 29 and 30 Inside the Kinjaz journey: From viral dance crew to Korea’s choreography scene 'Produce 101' star hits new career high tackling school violence Youn Yuh-jung owns it: 'I’ve been in this job too long' Interview: Director Jang Seong-ho's leap of faith Park Eun-bin talks becoming psychopath doctor in 'Hyper Knife' K-beauty fuels Shiseido’s global strategy: APAC chief Drug scene 'embarrassing' for 'Squid Game' actor Choi Seung-hyun Interview: Top adviser to Lee Jae-myung says Seoul should reclaim full OPCON Interview: A legend contemplates usefulness Interview: Yoo Hae-jin and weight of familiar faces Latest trends in Korean culture and society By 2024-11-06T13:30:00+00:00 Romantic comedy and Toronto premiere Young Werther has landed a slew of international deals for the UK’s Mister Smith Entertainment.  It has sold to Signature Entertainment (UK-Ireland) Transmission Films (Australia/New Zealand) Front Row Filmed Entertainment (Middle East) Nos Lusomundo (Portugal) and Anuvu (airlines) the film will release in the US on December 13 via Grindstone Entertainment The feature directorial debut of Canadian filmmaker José Avelino Gilles Corbett stars Douglas Booth It is a contemporary adaptation of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 novel falls for a woman already committed in a relationship Matt Code  produced for Wildling Pictures Matthew Chausse and Andy Wang serve as executive producers on the film which was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates in association with Ashland Hill Media Finance Bookmark this page and keep track of the latest film release dates in the UK & Ireland EXCLUSIVE: Film shoots in Dublin and Dundalk this summer ‘Ish’ and ‘Learning To Breathe Under Water’ will also feature Bookmark this page to keep track of all the latest festival dates Oscar winner proposing federal tax incentives Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations Site powered by Webvision Cloud The sorrows of Young Werther became a literary sensation across the whole of Europe in 1774 and overnight turned its 25-year-old author Goethe into the star of the young Stürm und Dräng movement Goethe had originally planned to write the story of Werther’s unrequited love for Lotte as a stage play but ultimately decided on the form of the epistolary novel the director Elsa-Sophie Jach has seized on the idea Goethe abandoned and transfers Goethe’s love-sick alter ego to the stage A theatrical folly supplements Goethe’s shimmering astonishingly modern rush of emotion with texts by one of his contemporaries: Karoline von Günderrode which brought her the soubriquet «the Romantic Sappho» meets the emotional ardour of Goethe’s tragic anti-hero Stockholm University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK José Lourenço’s film adaptation of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther opens with a line on screen stating it is “based on the smash hit 1774 novel of tragic romance” it revolves around Werther (Douglas Booth) who falls tragically in love with Charlotte (Alison Pill) who is already engaged to Albert (Patrick J Goethe’s “smash hit” was written in a new literary landscape, where both readers and writers increasingly belonged to the growing middle class. It was one of the most influential works of the Sturm und Drang movement which cultivated individual emotion and expression rejecting antiquated class structures in favour of an “aristocracy of feeling” The movement’s interest in the individual’s inner life was revolutionary at the time it has become an integral part of western ideology and culture and is arguably part of the reason that romantic comedy is such a popular genre Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here successful reworkings generally show a director’s appreciation for the original strips away much of the complexity of Goethe’s masterpiece the literary genius of The Sorrows of Young Werther is metamorphosed into tropes so contemporary that they already seem dated The jovial movie Werther is a trust-fund baby who loves gelato and bespoke tailoring here he is an aspiring science-fiction writer And although they share an enthusiasm for J.D the film’s Werther and Charlotte generally find more joy in sample sales and smoking joints than poetry The film also has a bizarre penis fixation and his uncle repeatedly urges him to avoid condoms In the moment of their greatest confrontation Charlotte’s fiancé Albert and Werther agree that linden trees (a passing reference to the ones the literary Werther is buried between) smell like semen this is all two romantic rivals have to talk about I can’t help feeling that the film would have been more credible without trying to be American Pie Goethe’s novel also depicts different social dilemmas Werther leaves a promising bureaucratic career because he cannot overcome a sense of disgust at having to navigate social hierarchies with flattery and falseness it often seems that it is this social order that he cannot survive rather than his infatuation with Charlotte in the novel Charlotte can’t give in to her feelings because of the expectations of female modesty of the time as well as her duty to provide for her younger siblings by marrying the well-to-do Albert Charlotte is despondent about how much of her own life she has had to sacrifice to care for her family and her loneliness as Albert neglects her in favour of his work shows the potential for a more nuanced characterisation of the heroine I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More is typical of much contemporary screenwriting in its over-explanation of actions and desires Lourenço often appears inspired by Whit Stillman’s deftly crafted romantic comedies. Love and Friendship (2016) Stillman’s brilliantly funny adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan could be a model for any attempt to rework centuries-old prose I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More lacks the light touch and meticulous writing that made that adaptation glimmer exposing original genius alongside the new version’s appeal the film turns both social analysis and tragedy into pat The literary Werther’s reluctance to partake in a society still ruled by arbitrary privilege is excised from the movie After being chastised by a friend for being unhappy instead of recognising the advantages he already possesses Werther instead helps Albert and Charlotte improve their marital relationship This therapy speak seems oddly in touch with contemporary pop psychology touting the benefits of gratitude in the film Werther’s despair is transmuted into an artistic breakthrough and an exultant trip to Berlin with Paul as Charlotte and Albert settle into wedded bliss Touching on the novel’s social critique would have made for a more complex and satisfying adaptation It also has its own interest in times of increasing income disparity and the eradication of the middle class Keeping more such characteristic marks could have made this reworking stand out among blander cinematic fare I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More’s problem is that it cannot decide whether to be burlesque or emotional whether it’s adapting a novel or its Sparknotes summary differences between model and adaptation might not be a work’s most important quality But if the director wants to deviate so consistently Based on a 1774 novel titled “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Young Werther aims to be a modern retelling of the classic novel A Canadian indie filmed in the heart of Toronto the film is a romantic comedy (very loose definition of a romance and a comedy if we’re being honest) centred around Werther (Booth) an affluent mid-20 something year old who encounters Charlotte (Pill) a woman who he immediately falls in love with Featuring many of the tropes commonly seen in romantic comedies its second act drags the film and changes the tone from a simple romantic comedy to something that feels entirely different Running into Charlotte mere hours into his journey in Toronto Werther is almost instantly invited to her birthday party but it’s only then that he discovers her prior engagement determined to win her over and prove that he’s better than Albert Werther starts hanging out with their family The first half of the film essentially plays out like a “will they likely have little knowledge of the classic novel) wondering if Charlotte was going to leave her fiancé and start dating Werther it does not progress like a stereotypical romance film it explores the complexities of relationships even if it ends up being rather surface level in the end the second half of the film isn’t nearly as strong as the first Breaking things off with Werther and suddenly getting married to Albert audiences will initially find themselves wanting to root for him but his behaviour later in the film becomes almost grating to watch Despite the fact that this is indeed an adaptation the change in tone from the first half to the second half unfortunately brings the film down While it is an interesting look into the other side of rom-coms the movement into stalker behavior brings out Werther’s narcissism to the fullest extent over-the-top behaviour that all began with love at first sight but actually watching it unfold made the film drag Only at the end does Werther have a self-realization about how awful he’s been the entire time as Albert just needs to stop being so ingrained in his work And not only does the plot become grating going into the third act they aren’t that interesting and have very little for audiences to cling onto Werther is a privileged 20-something year old travelling the world he was never interesting as the forefront of the film Charlotte is a little more interesting to watch perhaps because she’s essentially the foil to Werther’s entire personality and not much more The rest of the cast almost suffers the same fate Though none of this lack of characterizations is necessarily a deal breaker the film never presented itself as anything more than what it was so deeply introspective characters were never going to happen Werther’s failure as an interesting main character Both Pill and Booth are excellent and have excellent chemistry Adams portrays Albert with the perfect amount of “he’s just fine” energy he seems to care about Werther and his future wife but there’s seemingly nothing special about him other than his obsession with his job as a lawyer Amrit Kaur appears relatively little throughout the runtime as Melanie but her background in comedic work is clear here and she is as funny as ever but is also the weakest of the group as her performance felt over-the-top and never stood out it is certainly charismatic and has its charm and appeal as it offers up an interesting take on the romantic comedy its third act stops the film from ever soaring making is titular character’s stalker-ish behaviour grating to watch prevent it from soaring above the realm of average While the performances are good and the chemistry is there the film is just not one that many will be thinking about long after the credits roll If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook. #comp-lvqlknop_r_comp-lwwdvtpl__item1 {aspect-ratio: 1;}The Plant BaseThe Plant Base is the go to B2B news platform for the plant-based food and beverage industry RefreshmentRefreshment is your ultimate resource for staying informed and up-to-date on the water cooler The Cell BaseThe Cell Base provides insights for professionals to stay informed exchange ideas and explore new cell-based opportunities SubscribeAccess more as a FoodBev subscriberSign up to FoodBev and unlock more 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Werther’s Original introduces seasonal hard candy NPD Confectionery brand Werther’s Original is introducing a limited-edition Caramel Apple Hard Candies product to its seasonal Harvest Line in the US The new Caramel Apple Hard Candy combines Werther’s classic smooth and creamy caramel with a tart it is designed to provide a festive treat that captures ‘the taste of fall and caramel indulgence’ Fan-favourites returning as part of the limited-edition Harvest Line include Maple Crème Soft Caramels Cinnamon Crème Soft Caramels and Caramel Apple Filed Hard Candies director of marketing at Werther’s Original commented: “We're delighted to bring back five cherished caramel candies from our fall Harvest Line and to launch our new Caramel Apple Hard Candies right in time for the cosy fall and winter months These seasons are ideal for gathering and indulgent sweets so we've created treats perfect for the whole family.” The new product and full Harvest Line are now available at retailers nationwide Get in touchWould you like to be interviewed by FoodBev Media or share a recent innovation with us?  Click here to contact us You will also start receiving the Star's free morning newsletter “Young Werther” writer-director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço (right) confers with star Allison Pill Allison Pill and Douglas Booth star in “Young Werther,” a rom-com version of Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço's film José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço’s film Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 “The Sorrows of Young Werther” is one of the great tragic novels in literary history For Canadian writer-director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço there was a humorous element waiting to be explored in the story of a young man but the character is this very overwrought whiny guy who’s also quite charismatic and gregarious,” Lourenço says So he did the only reasonable thing: he turned it into a romantic comedy, set in modern-day Toronto. His “Young Werther,” which premiered at TIFF in September Hewing to the early Romanticism of Goethe’s novel, the Toronto in “Young Werther” is an idealized one, bringing a touch of aristocratic European veneer to the city, with classy settings (like Roy Thomson Hall and Union Station) “How do I say this in a way that doesn’t sound completely crazy?” Lourenço says “I earnestly believe that Toronto is a beautiful While he admits it doesn’t have the history of the great cities of the Continent the director sees Toronto rising in stature as a great metropolis: “Why not give it the treatment of a Paris or a New York — set a love story here and explore the city.”  Getting into filmmaking wasn’t something he’d originally had his eye on. “I had no exposure to anyone who was working in film,” Lourenço says. “I grew up sort of all over the country, but a big chunk of time out in Edmonton. I thought movies were just like, made by companies. I had no conception of anyone writing or directing film.” It was while working at the CBC and feeling unsure about his future that he decided to make a change. “I was like, ‘Why don’t I try getting into a writing room, for television,’” he says. So he took to writing sample scripts, which eventually landed him a manager, who advised him to try his hand at features. The first movie he wrote, in 2008, actually looked like it was going to be made by American studio Fox Searchlight. Lourenço kept plugging away, though, watching several projects get close to production, and writing and directing short films, before finally turning “Young Werther” into a homegrown reality. Centred on a character navigating his 20s in the big city, the story felt distinctly relatable. “In many ways, a lot of the adventures that Werther and Charlotte go on, that’s very much informed by the best days and nights of my 20s,” Lourenço says. “Like the number of times that me and a group of friends were shooting off fireworks under the Gardiner when we probably shouldn’t have been.” Not that he necessarily sees himself entirely in Werther, with the character’s go-for-broke spirit. Lourenço says he’s closer in kind to Werther’s younger best friend, Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed). “I remember on those little adventures, everyone would be drinking and having fun, and I’d be there with my nervous stomach being like, ‘Can we just stop and get some Gravol?’” Lourenço says with a laugh. Lourenço perhaps identifies most with Charlotte, who is older than Werther, settled, getting married, having kids and seeing this exciting young man as a means to reclaim some of the youth she missed. “I have such melancholy whenever I think about the things that I occupied my 20s with,” he muses. “It was running around the city with my friends. Being impulsive.” Like many, he misses that freedom. Over the years, Lourenço has considered following many of his industry friends to Los Angeles, but he hasn’t made the move. As a writer, he says, he can work from anywhere. “Life is about being with your friends who make you laugh. Life is about being with your family,” he says. And for him, that’s all in Toronto, which is why it made so much sense to transplant Goethe’s great novel here. Corey Atad is a Toronto-based film critic and journalist. 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An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account. 2024Young Werther - Official Trailer Check out the Young Werther trailer for this upcoming romantic comedy movie starring Douglas Booth a carefree and charming young writer named Werther stumbles across the love of his life only to discover that the young woman is engaged Despite the urgings of his hypochondriac best friend Werther turns his world upside down in a desperate misguided and hilarious quest to win her heart written and directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço Unrequited love has been romanticized over the centuries for encouraging people to overcome any obstacle to win the heart of the one they desire. Filmmaker José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço’s new romantic comedy, Young Werther is driven by people’s relentless motivation to prove their worthiness to the one hey love such as the object of their affection being committed to someone else The movie is based one of Europe’s most celebrated pieces of literature – the 1774 epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe which was written and directed by Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço updates the book’s themes with a contemporary Young Werther follows the titular character (Douglas Booth) as he makes a brief pit stop in Toronto before departing on a European adventure with his best friend a chance encounter with Charlotte (Alison Pill) puts those plans on hold until he can win her over Werther falls more in love with Charlotte as they spend time together loves to read and has been the main caretaker of her siblings since the deaths of their parents is that she’s engaged to a successful lawyer Hurdles continue to pile up against Werther not the least of which is that Albert is so likeable to everyone But while he suffers in comically escalating situations in his pursuit of romance the object of his affection might be having misgivings about her upcoming nuptials finds herself drawn to the fun that Werther has brought into her life she must decide if she will be swayed by her new friend Young Werther had its World Premiere in the Special Presentations section of this fall’s Toronto International Film Festival Lionsgate will distribute the romantic comedy in theaters To help promote the movie’s official release Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço generously took the time recently to talk about penning and helming the feature during an exclusive interview over Zoom The project marks his feature film directorial debut Q: You wrote the script for the new romantic comedy What was the inspiration in penning the screenplay for the film José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: I feel like this is maybe the story of every film I wrote the first draft of the script 12 years ago Over the years it had different directors and actors attached I finally built up enough of a repertoire that I thought maybe I can direct this feature film that we’ve been trying to put together for so long They started putting together the financing and we found our cast I’ve written I don’t know how many scripts over the years But this is the one that always felt closest to my heart It’s very much something that I couldn’t stop thinking about But it connected with me in a way that made me think there’s a spirit and a vibe from some of my experiences from my ’20s into my early ’30s that I can steal from and plant into this story So it was a really personal film in the end even though it’s very much someone else’s story How much inspiration did you take overall from the book while you were scribing the script José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: With the film it was less about having it be like a beat for beat recreation of the book’s story The characters and narrative spine of the story were what survived most into this adaptation Making this reimagination into a contemporary story involved taking the novel in which Werther was reminiscing to an off-screen friend We had these stories come to life in a way that felt immediate and sequential but it also felt like it came quite quickly once I got into the rhythm of the writing How did penning the screenplay influence the way you approached helming the film What was your overall approach to directing the comedy José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: It’s funny – some of the best experiences I’ve had directing were on the lowest budget things you could think of like music videos that we made for like no money I also had great experiences when I made car commercials where we had pretty healthy budget So we could do interesting things with the camera and have a crew that could really execute a high-end commercial production But the scale of this movie wasn’t shocking to me because I was anticipating that this was going to be the biggest production I’ve ever worked on It wasn’t until like months after we wrapped and had our cut locked that I really started to realize like what a physical undertaking it is to make a movie every day for months is working on the film It was so much fun prepping with the cinematographer We watched movies together every night for months Scouting with Mark Elaine and his team to find our locations was also amazing Then being on set is one of my favorite things in the world It was such a joy to work with actors who were of the caliber that we had Q: Also speaking of scouting the locations in Toronto how did you decide where you would shoot the movie José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: Toronto is a city that’s been on film before playing itself But there’s so much production up here that Toronto is always playing New York So it was super fun to be able to go around the city and pick these spots that I think are so beautiful and that are never really on screen We also didn’t have to worry if we were in Fort York shooting off fireworks at night and catching a glimpse of the Gardner Expressway in the background It was also great to shoot downtown in one of the most beautiful restaurants in the city you can look all the way up Victoria at the lights It was great to embrace the neighborhood and show them off for what they are really like but it’s not known for massive landmarks the way that London But it has incredible architecture and it has neighborhoods that are so gorgeous I think it can go toe to toe with any city in the world I feel so lucky that we got to feature it in the film Q: Young Werther stars a variety of actors What was the casting process like for the comedy José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: The casting process took a long time to find the right people So you need actors who understand both and can play across the disciplines and bring nuance and subtlety to the characters but still be able to give a line reading at high speed so all the actors needed to have a dexterity with words They also need to have the ability to recite these half page monologues and make them sound as if they’re natural speech even though it’s a very written film It’s heightened in that way intentionally But it was still important that the characters feel like human beings in this world that’s slightly askew The movie is also from the point-of-view of someone who has such an enthusiasm for life and makes every day feel like a bit of an adventure and a fairy tale Q: Once the actors signed on to star in the movie how did you work with them to build their characters and the overall story José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: I have nothing but excellent things to say about every single cast member Allison Pill is a genius and an incredible actor Douglas Booth is such a joy and an emotionally intelligent and sweet person He’s incredible leading man on camera and off He treated everyone with such kindness and respect He really made everyone feel important every day in a way He’s just this being of pure charisma Anytime I see Jaouhar’s name show up on my phone I can’t wait to pick it up and speak with him for an hour because he’s just the loveliest guy Amrit Kaur is just so intelligent and can improvise from a place of character in a way that I’ve never seen anyone else do So many people know him from Suits and the Mike Ross character He’s in so many things that are about to come out quickest people I’ve ever met in my life he’s just there and has the perfect comment So getting to work with all of them was the best Q: Young Werther is being released in theaters How did you secure the distribution for the film José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: What a thrill as well as places in South America and all over the world It’s mind-blowing to me that there are theatrical releases all over the place It’s exciting because at this point in cinematic history many films don’t get to have a theatrical release; many go straight to streaming and VOD I would have been thrilled no matter how the film was consumed as just having people be able to see it at all is rewarding Like at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) my mom and dad got to see the movie for the first time in a theater and my mom was holding my hand during the screening What really makes it great is that I’m going to be able to go see it in my local cineplex and friends in other cities can go to their theaters Young Werther had its World Premiere at this year’s TIFF What does it mean to you that the comedy played at your hometown festival José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: I’ve been going to TIFF as an audience member for 20 years and so many of my favorite film experiences have been at TIFF So when I found out that we were going to premiere at TIFF in the Special Presentation section which is where I saw Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers last year Also being able to share Young Werther with family and friends there was amazing my wife and I went over to my brother and his husband’s condo and then we got in the car and went down to the TIFF Lightbox to watch the premiere My mom kept saying that days like a wedding day and the birth of a child are major things What’s a greater joy as a parent than seeing your children get to realize a dream together I’m still processing it months later Check out more of Karen Benardello’s articles. 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