Belgrade Revisited
I am in rainy Belgrade. Wonderful to be back in the city where the magnificent documentary film festival Magnificent7 takes place every year. At the end of January. But this is actually not the main reason for my presence… for…
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Cinema
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MK2 + la Cinematheque
Our Paris correspondent, Sara Thelle, has already written about Film Socialisme by Jean Luc Godard, and her article was one of the reasons that I, with great expectations and huge pleasure, went to see the film in MK2 Beaubourg, where it…
Peter Kerekes: Cooking History
The Danish audience, at least the one in Copenhagen, centralised Danish cultural policy, but that is another story, will have the possibility to watch one of the most awarded and spoken about documentaries from the recent years, “Cooking History” by…
Documental del mes
… means ”Documentary of the Month” and is a strong film-cultural initiative for the distribution of creative documentaries for the audiences in around 40 cities of Catalunya, Comunitat Valenciana, Illes Balears and other Spanish cities. Since May 2009, The Documentary…
Last Train Home i Cinemateket
The Danish Cinemateket, that is part of the Danish Film Institute, and works from the Film House in the centre of Copenhagen, shows many documentaries (at one or two screenings) in their fine monthly programme. Recently, Cinemateket, the festival cph:dox…
Documentaries in France
The French CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image Animée) has published a study on the market for documentaries in France. According to the French Media Desk and their weekly newsletter no. 194 (newsletter@mediafrance.eu) the study concerns the creative…
News from Paris : August
If you are spending time in Paris in August, here are a few ideas, which might not be in your travel guide. The Forum des images (recently renovated and situated down in Les Halles, great cinema and great program) organises…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/10
The Danish documentary “Armadillo”, directed by Janus Metz and filmed by Lars Skree, about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan has been running in Danish cinemas for 6 weeks. More than 100.000 tickets have been sold, and the film is still running.…
News from Paris: Godard – Film Socialisme
While Cannes is still waiting for Godard, we had the great pleasure in Paris to spend the evening of June 18th in his company after a special screening of Film Socialisme in le Cinéma des Cinéastes near Place Clichy. The…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/9
Ideal 3, Waltz with Bashir: “Man kommer ind i universet uden at få en mening stoppet ned i halsen i denne dokumentar. Man får bare lov til at være med og selv bedømme. Og så er der det, at det er en…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/8
Ideal 2, The Three Rooms of Melancholia: “Nok en af de mest fantastiske dokumentarfilm, jeg har set. Visuelt er den simpelthen så smuk. Den er næsten to timer lang, og man skal virkelig koncentrere sig. Den er megatung og beskæftiger…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/7
Ideal 1, Stalker: “Mange har spurgt, hvad vi havde i tankerne, da vi lavede Armadillo. Og en ting, jeg har tænkt meget på, er det med at være isoleret et sted og ikke rigtig vide, hvem der kigger på hvem.…
Nils Vest: Et rådhus/2
Det begynder allerede ved indgangen. Det med Nyrops detaljer. Hver indgang har sine særlige figurer. Her er det vejvæsenets gamle indgang ud mod H. C. Andersens Boulevard. To brolæggerjomfruer i granit flankerer porten. Rådhuset skulle have den danske stenhuggertradition fra…
Nils Vest: Et rådhus
Den koncentreret vedholdende og omhyggeligt researchende Niels Vest er klar med en ny arkitekturfilm. 17. juni er der i Grand Teatret, København premiere på hans seneste værk i rækken af bygningshistorier vævet sammen med arkitektbiografier, filmen om tilblivelsen af Københavns Rådhus…
Jan Tenhaven: Autumn Gold
Good subject: Old (some of them veeery old) people who are still fit for life and take part in an athletic World Champions competition in Lahti, Finland. But what about the treatment of the subject, can this sustain a feature…
News from Paris: Tarkovsky for children
In France kids have Wednesdays off from school. For those who have the possibility, it is a day to discover the multiple activities Paris has to offer children. Le centre Pompidou, Beaubourg to Parisians, holds every Wednesday of the school…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/6
The Danish documentary “Armadillo” which premiered in cinemas last friday is a huge audience success. 22.282 tickets have been sold in three days, which is absolutely unusual for a documentary in Danish theatres. Earlier this month “Armadillo” by Janus Metz…
All Norwegian Screens Digitised in 2011
Filmkommentaren.dk has recently written about the digital plans for documentaries in Lithuania and Denmark. Now a piece of text taken from the newsletter of Filmkontakt (see above) demonstrates that some countries also have throughts for the screening of films, at…
Boris Bertram: Tankograd/2
Russian stories… why are they so attractive, why do they travel so well? Is it because we still know so little about this huge country and its Soviet past? Is it because their stories, like Tankograd, are so much more…
Boris Bertram: Tankograd
Boris Bertram skildrer et ungt, russisk dansekompagni i Chelyabinsk og kombinerer det med en skildring af stemningen i den fordømt by til en stor elegi. Efter Danmarkspremieren kører filmen i Vester Vov Vov, København fra torsdag, 20. maj. Senere er der visninger i Odense, Café Biografen…
Berlusconi Again Again…
The headline is taken from a small report by Camillo de Marco, who from Cannes Film Festival writes for the CinEuropa website. About one more documentary that puts its focus on Berlusconi… Italian documentarians do not have so go far…
Janus Metz: Armadillo – in Cannes
It is always to be noted that the Cannes Film Festival picks a documentary for a competition screening. This time a Danish one, Armadillo by Janus Metz, has been taken for the Semaine de la Critique. The first screening in…
Soccer Cinema
Soccer Cinema is a real dream come true. A travelling cinema, bringing some of the world’s best soccer documentaries to 50 small towns, villages and townships, spread across all 9 South African provinces. The journey begins on 6 April 2010…
Katrin Ottarsdóttir: Sporene gror ud af ord 3
”…Katrin Ottarsdóttirs empatiske og sympatiske film… Der står en nøgen sandhed om eksistensen tilbage, som ordene bærer vidnesbyrd om. Usmykkede, ligefremme og med klare linjer.” (Henrik Wivel i Weekendavisen Bøger 26. februar-4. marts 2010.) Filmen vises i morgen, 3. marts…
Katrin Ottarsdóttir: Sporene gror ud af ord 2
Så er den trefløjede tavle færdig. Tre film med først Hans Pauli Olsen dernæst Tóroddur Poulsen, som begge blev færdige i 2008 og nu den tredje med Jóanes Nielsen, Sporene gror ud af ord, som har været vist i København…
Lars Becker-Larsen: Den bevægede jord 3
Lars Becker-Larsens dokumentarfilm om den moderne naturvidenskabs tilblivelse modtog søndag den 14. februar hovedprisen som bedste dokumentarfilm i Torino på kulturarvsfestivalen AVICOM. Festivalen i Torino arrangeres af ICOM (International Council of Museums), UNESCO’s museumsorganisation. Filmen har tidligere vundet Best Documentary ved Vedere la Scienza Festival…
Katrin Ottarsdóttir: Sporene gror ud af ord
Filmen har Jóanes Nielsen som medvirkende og efter sigende hans nye bog Broer af sultne ord som emne og naturligvis Katrin Ottarsdóttirs afrunding af en stor trilogi om kunstnerisk arbejde som indhold. Titlerne antyder film om ufuldkommenhed, langsomhed og tilsynekomst.…
Czech Them Out!
An addition to what I wrote below – in Danish – about the Czech films in Cinemateket in Copenhagen. The films also tour to other places in Denmark: De tre fine dokumentarfilm “Citizen Havel”, “Czech Dream” og “René” (foto) bliver…
Max Kestner: Drømme i København 1
Kære læsere. Filmkommentarens to skrivere var i biografen sammen. De så Max Kestners nye film, der får biografpremiere straks i det nye år. De var ret uenige om filmens kvalitet. Se nedenfor.
Max Kestner: Drømme i København 2
Henrik Ipsen hedder fotografen og det er ham, der skal have ros for sin indsats i en film, som ellers set ud fra sin ambitiøse præmis er mislykket. Ipsen har blik for København og har komponeret billeder, som er frapperende…
Max Kestner: Drømme i København 3
Filmen fastholder – og lever næsten – af et kulturtræk, som om lidt er forsvundet. I nogle årtier har gardiner og persienner været borte fra vinduerne om aftenen. Vinduesåbningerne har været oplyste scener for hjemmelivets dramatik og udstillinger af boligernes…
Henrik Bohn Ipsen
Det tredje billede er fra Henrik Bohn Ipsens Drømme i København (Max Kestner 2010), som får premiere næste måned. Jeg kender ikke andre billeder end dette. Men det lover et eller andet, som er mere bestemt, end man skulle tro.…
Max Kestner: Drømme i København
Et par ting fra formaterialet til Kestners film drejer mine forventninger i en ganske særlig retning. Først billedet. Jeg funderer, skal det være DFI’s beskæring eller CPH:DOXs? Jeg vælger DFI. Det er vigtigt det her. Det drejer sig om Henrik…
Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende 4
I min filmklub i FOF-Randers i aften skal vi snakke om Westerlunds film. Jeg vil forsøge mig med at sige, at den som hendes tidligere film er sat af i kunstneriske undersøgelser, frem for ønsket om at fortælle en historie.…
Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende 3
Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende, Danmark, 2008. 93 min. Grand biografen, København. EKSTRAFORESTILLING I GRAND SØNDAG DEN 30. AUGUST KL. 10.00 (OM FORMIDDAGEN). INSTRUKTØREN KARIN WESTERLUND ER TIL STEDE. Billetter bestilles på 33151611 eller www.grandteatret.dk Foto: Gennemgående medvirkende Gunilla Röör og…
Cinemateket i September
2nd message to the lucky Copenhageners about a film offer – presented in Danish: Så kom der endelig en lejlighed til at glæde læserne med et foto af Juliette Binoche, den fremragende franske skuespiller, hvis evner kan nydes i 11…
Mandagsdokumentar
1st message to the lucky Copenhageners about a film offer – presented in Danish: Så er det sæson for MandagsDokumentar. Utrættelige Ebbe Preisler inviterer som sædvanlig og han insisterer vanen tro på at det er en god idé at filmskaberne…
Karin Westerlund: God, Smell and Her
My colleague, Allan Berg, has posted two texts in Danish about the new film by Karin Westerlund, Swedish visual artist and filmmaker, based in Denmark and Cairo, Egypt. I saw the film yesterday, it is as Allan Berg writes, quite…
Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende 2
Den syriske digter Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Asbar), (still fra filmen) er en af seværdighederne, som Gunilla Röör opsøger i filmens rejseforløb. Et monument som de store og små bygningsværker, hun også besøger. Jeg tror hans tekster er vigtige dele i…
Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende
Blandt de mange, mange originale filmmanuskripter i filminstituttets samling er det mærkværdigste, tror jeg, Karin Westerlunds første manuskript til “Gud, lugt og hende”. Det er meget, meget smukt. Det er både en tekst og en arkitekturskitse og en række dialoglister…
Vilnius Diary 3
I showed a clip from ”Citizen Havel” yesterday here at the Summer Film Academy in Lithuania, as an example of how important it is to have access and to have time to follow a character, who is known widely by…
Gideon Koppel: Sleep Furiously
I do consider the film of Gideon Koppel as one of the most important in the last couple of years. It has been written about on filmkommentaren.dk several times (use the “search” button). I saw it on dvd in Lisbon…
Erlend E. Mo: Sandhedsjæger
OBS til danske læsere: Se denne smukke og gribende krimidokumentar om opklaringen af to justitsmord begået mod en handicappet mand, som sad i fængsel i over 18 år for to kvindemord, han ikke havde begået. Det er en krimi med…
Peter Kerekes: Cooking History
For a documentary veteran viewer it is pure pleasure, when you watch a film that gives you surprises you in structure, narration and content. I knew that Slovak/Hungarian Peter Kerekes after his wonderful ”66 Seasons” was working on a big…
International Film Guide 2009
472 pages. Full of illustrations – still from films, photos from award ceremonies at festivals all over the world, the 45th edition of the International Film Guide is available. With ”Directors of the Year”, a ”World Survey”, info/reports/highlights country by…
Best of Britain
The Danish Film House in Copenhagen and its excellent Cinemateket puts a focus on British documentary through 8 programmes in the month of May. There is a selection of the classics from the 30’es (Night Mail, Listen to Britain, O…
Read All About It!
A piece of promotion for a serious and competent publishing house with an excellent newsletter with links to events (conferences like the one below about Pasolini and Fassbinder, and festivals) and first of all info on new books on the…
Fassbinder and Pasolini
A conference called ”Pasolini and Fassbinder: the European legacy between Utopia and nihilism” is to be held at Cardiff University, April 25-26. The interesting programme is to be found via the link below. Here is an excerpt from the introductory…
Thierry Michel: Katanga Business
A new Congo-film by Thierry Michel (photo) opened in French cinemas today. And gets a fine review in “le monde”. I visited the film’s web site, which is extraordinarily well constructed with trailer, extracts from the film, extracts from the…
Antonioni on China
In 1972 Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni went to China to make a documentary for RAI with a duration of 3 ½ hours. The film, that was shown in cinemas in Italy and on television, and in a shorter version in…