Amazon stopped by Deadline’s Contenders London conference today with not one, but three pics in potential contention: Pawel Pawlikowski’s _Cold War, _Luca Guadagnino’s _Suspiria_, and Felix

Van Groeningen’s _Beautiful Boy._ And if there’s a thruline running throughout the trio, it’s how human pain becomes poetic, though all through different prisms. Both _Cold War _and 

_Suspiria _share post-War backlashes that in some way work their way into the psyche of their tormented protagonists while _Beautiful Boy _is about addiction and how it takes its toll on a

family. Pawlikowski won best director at the Cannes film festival for _COLD WAR _and the pic is Poland’s submission in the foreign film category at the Oscars. The film, shot in black and

then a happy end just before they died.” WATCH ON DEADLINE Despite being mismatched, something holds them. The director showed the following clip illustrating their soulful passion and

torment on the screen, what was key he points is how “they respond to different kinds of music”. [embedded content] “In the end what they have together in common is history….they find

themselves in a place where nobody else understands them as well as each other. As the world changes, they move countries, time passes and at the end of the story they note they are destined

for each other.” Pawlikowski presented the movie in black and white “largely because I couldn’t imagine color in Poland during the 1950s, it was grey and murky.” _Cold War _opens in the

U.S. on Dec. 21. Remaking Dario Argento’s 1977 _SUSPIRIA__ — _which centers around literally one hell of a ballet academy — had been a dream of Guadagnino since he was 14. An American

(Dakota Johnson) arrives at a prestige German dance school just outside the Berlin wall. She’s innocent, yet amazingly talented. Weird things happen around the school, mainly former

students, once great who go missing. As the audience, we see the school is run by a coven of witches, and their dance routines, some kind of spell with a political undertone. Yet Johnson’s

Susie keeps her wits about her, and no matter the trial, literally looks to have the upper hand. “Dario’s film was set in a year in which Europe was going through a second wave of youth

revolt, much darker than ’68 and more violent and rage. One of the great movements that came out of this was feminism that was storming Europe.” “With screenwriter David Kajganich we went in

a little bit of a different direction where it deals with the power of femininity, a reconciled element of a commune of women, who are bound to solidarity, fighting with one another for

power,” says the best picture Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Giving props to Amazon, Guadagnino said: “I don’t think outside at another studio this would be 152 minutes long.” Appearing on stage

for _BEAUTIFUL BOY _were stars Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet in addition to Van Groeningen and co-screenwriter Luke Davies. The pic is based on two books, one by the son, Nic Sheff

entitled _Tweak _about his addiction, and the second by his father David Sheff, _Beautiful Boy, _detailing his point of view. It was Davies who received the emotional applause on Saturday.

He had previously written the novel and film _Candy _back in 2006 about his own struggle with heroin addiction during his 20s. “I said to my agent ‘I don’t want to write another movie about

drugs’.” However, the development meeting was with Brad Pitt’s esteemed Plan B, and Davies’ agent insisted. Serendipity then kicked in. “Four days before that meeting, Philip Seymour Hoffman

died. The night before that meeting, my father wrote me a note randomly saying ‘Did you hear about Philip Seymour Hoffman? That’s really sad. Luke, sometimes I feel this family is so

blessed’; he was talking about his awareness about the tenuous of recovery and addition and my own experience. The email made me cry, and I thought maybe this is a message that I should try

and go for this job.” Said Davies, “_Candy_ never dealt with my relationship with my father because it was too emotionally problematic. I thought this was a message of the heavens and I went

to the job and I was lucky enough to get it and I’m sitting here now.” _Beautiful Boy _opens this weekend.