Matthew Miele's Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's.

Anticipated doc Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's opens this weekend at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Featuring celebs, fashion designers and icons, the film spotlights the famed Fifth Avenue department store and its magnetic place in fashion history. Also this week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Film Comment will host a pair of Benoît Jacquot films, Villa Amalia starring Isabelle Huppert and his 2010 drama, Deep In the Woods. And the upcoming Columbia University Film Festival unveiled its trailer for its May event.

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's (Opens Friday!)
Writer/Director: Matthew Miele
Subjects: William Fitchner, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashely Olsen, Candice Bergen, Nicole Richie, Joan Rivers

The documentary spotlighting the famed Manhattan department store includes interviews from a number of fashion designers, style icons and celebrities.

“I held firm on a number of other things that made them a little embarrassed,” Miele told the New York Times, which added about the filmmaker that, “He said examples included information about the large amounts of money that some staff members make, and commentary from Joan Rivers, a loyal customer but not exactly the face some executives wanted to put forward.”

Villa Amalia (Film Comment Double Feature)
Writer/Director: Benoît Jacquot
Additional Writers: Julien Boivent, Pascal Quignard (novel)
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Xavier Beauvois

The film centers on the story of Ann, a musician whose life is turned upside down by a kiss. When she sees Thomas kissing another woman, Ann makes a clean break, leaving him and everything else far behind her. Suddenly unsure of everything that seemed so certain, Ann knows only that she must change her life and become someone else to find herself. With her music and the friendship of Georges, who pops out of her distant past, she sets off on a journey that will take her to an island where the Villa Amalia stands.

Noted The Telegraph: “Isabelle Huppert stars in an attractive arthouse remake of Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Deep in the Woods
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Writers: Julien Boivent, Marcela Iacub, Benoit Jacquot
Cast: Isild Le Besco, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Jérome Kircher, Bernard Rouquette

It's 1865, and a wanderer, Timothee, arrives in a village in the south of France pretending to be deaf and mute. He is struck by a young woman, Josephine, and seeks out the hospitality of her father, Dr. Hughes. There's an awkward dinner and the next day, he comes back to find her alone and makes her fall in a state of hypnotic lethargy before taking advantage of her. Overwhelmed by his powerful hypnotic gift, she follows him even though she seems to be disgusted and afraid of him. He takes her deep into the woods and continues to abuse her until he is arrested and tried.

Indiewire noted at its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival: “To the extent that it sustains an element of psychological mystery, Deep in the Woods has merit, but the fits of inspiration are hampered by the absence of story momentum…”

The Secret of Kells (Family Film)
Director Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey
Writers: Tomm Moore (original story), Fabrice Ziolkowski (screenplay)
Cast: Evan McGuire, Christen Mooney, Brendan Gleeson

The story centers on Brendan who welcomes master illuminator Brother Aidan who arrives with an unfinished work. Problems ensue when he decides to assist Brendan, which involves going beyond the Abbey walls, which is forbidden by his uncle, Brother Cellach. Cellach is fearful of the invading Vikings who are wreaking havoc across the land, but Brother Aidan needs particular berries for unique ink color, so Brendan defies his uncle and heads off into the forest, and he encounters a host of otherworldly phenomena.

Noted Film Comment about The Secret of Kells: “Rare is the film that appeals to 4-year-olds and medieval-art historians; and brave are the visionaries who pitched the thing to studio suits in the first place; but, lo and behold, here we have it.”

Columbia University Film Festival
Various Filmmakers
(May 3 – 9 in New York; June 4 – 6 in L.A.)

The festival is the annual premiere of thesis short films, feature screenplays and teleplays created by graduate MFA students from Columbia University School of the Arts Film Program.

CUFF 2013 trailer from CUFF 2013 on Vimeo.