A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Tuesday night I was back in Saint Petersburg after two days at the IDFA festival in Amsterdam. In the cinema. On screen. No, wrong – I was back in Petrograd 1918 through the outstanding film historical event organized so brilliantly…
No doubt, Sergey Loznitsa is the master of making creative archive documentaries – a part of his impressive oeuvre that also includes fiction films and documentaries like “Austerlitz” – in the archive films he stands out with films like…
I started working on a film about Stalin’s show trials, which were held in the USSR in 1930s, a couple of years ago. My initial idea was to edit the footage from different trials in order to show how the…
”De vil lave en film om mig? Men jeg er da ikke interessant. Det er mine film som er interessante.” Carl Th. Dreyers svar dengang for længe siden var til en anden instruktør, en forgænger, men Torben Skjødt Jensen tager i…
You have to be careful with “vonhörensagen” but in this case it had its influence on the talk with Vitaly Mansky, that took place friday afternoon at the Polish Institute in Leipzig, a couple of hours after his film had…
I would have loved to see more from the Retrospective 68 – An Open Score but I was anderswo engagiert, i.e. introducing the Lithuanian retrospective and moderating the discussions afterwards BUT I saw the last section, number 7 which was…
I have known him for years – since back to the days of the Bornholm festival in the 90’es. He came to Leipzig for one screening of the film and for a talk. We hugged and I told him that…
10.30 in the morning, Kupferstrasse in Leipzig. There is a line outside the Kupferhalle, where Werner Herzog is to hold his masterclass or as the DOK Leipzig organisers called it, “a conversation” with Kristina Jaspers, who knows about the director…
Det er altid særligt at læse virkelig lange romaner. Uanset om den strækkes ud over mange uger eller foregår i en hektisk rus, går læsningen fra at være en oplevelse til at blive en tilstand… (Martin Bastkjær i Informations bogtillæg,…
Here we are – watch our films, meet our filmmakers. It seems like this is the policy of the Lithuanian Film Centre this year, where the population-wise small country celebrates its centenary. According to an article in Cineuropa – link…
… in Sibiu, Romania celebrates its 25th edition. For that reason Cineuropa brings an interview with the founding director Dumitru Budrala. He looks back and makes a status on the state of the documentary art. Here is a quote –…
MARGARETHA VON TROTTA: SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (2) Forrige blognotat sluttede: “… Margarethe von Trotta folder sine hænder netop som jeg ser Max von Sydow gøre, med håndfladerne mod hinanden: ”Først meget alvorligt, men så mærker man, at han nok…
There is a grand focus on Lithuania at DOKLeipzig this year. Festival director Leena Pasanen has since her time at the Finnish television YLE been an admirer of the small Baltic country’s impressive documentary tradition. She stands behind a uniqe…
MARGARETHE VON TROTTA: SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (1) Filmens begyndelse er fælles for de to, ligesom hele filmen vil være det, en instruktør på sporet af sin beundrede forgænger i arbejdet med filmkunsten, von Trotta skriver et filmessay om Bergman. MEMENTO MORI Og…
… IDFF standing for International Documentary Film Festival. A press release came out today from the festival that starts October 25 and runs until October 30. With its 22nd edition. I have taken some bits and pieces to highlight what…
So here it is, the announcement of the Official Selection for DOKLeipzig. The filmmakers were of course informed in beforehand but were not allowed to express their enthusiasm before publication, which they can do now. First step for me who…
… fra Statens Kunstfond – ”Hædersydelser fra Statens Kunstfond er livsvarige og kan tildeles kunstnere, der har en sådan kunstnerisk produktion bag sig, at de har placeret sig afgørende som kunstner.” Og det kan man da vist godt sige at…
I går modtog instruktørerne Mira Jargil og Christian Sønderby Jepsen årets Roos Pris for deres bidrag til dansk dokumentarfilm med denne begrundelse: ”For instruktørerne Mira Jargil og Christian Sønderby Jepsen ligger stoffet til deres fortællinger lige for. Det er i…
IDFA presents a main focus program, ME, about the personal and autobiographical documentary film. Me is a selection of different cinematic expressions by filmmakers whose study of themselves is both a journey into their own private history as well as…
More documentary film history… chapeau for DOKLeipzig and IDFA that both festivals (more than before?) look back and not “only” take the temperature of what’s new in the documentary world. Here some words on the selection done by Czech documentary…
I hurry to give you this news from Prague, where the excellent online cinema of DocAlliance keeps on offering film lovers high quality retrospectives into film history – to a very low price: We present an extensive retrospective of…
To meet the audience with a positive attitude is of course the best festival invitation you can make. I thought about it this morning, when receiving a newsletter from Leipzig: They have a good press office in DOK Leipzig that…
TINA RØMER: BERGMAN OG MUSIKKEN Radioprogram i tre dele som genudsendtes 1. september på DR P2. Kan fortsat høres som podcast på Her kommer derfor og stadigvæk med anbefaling af dette fornemme radioværk flere af mine notater fra min…
The national premiere of “Bridges of Time” by Audrius Stonys and Kristine Briede took place Wednesday night in several cinemas in Latvia. I was in the art house cinema K-Suns in Riga, where the film was screened with English subtitles,…
TINA RØMER: BERGMAN OG MUSIKKEN Radioprogram i tre dele som genudsendtes 1. september på DR P2. Kan fortsat høres som podcast på Her følger fortsat og stadigvæk med min bedste anbefaling af dette fornemme radioværk mine notater fra udsendelserne…
Good news indeed from Riga, where I am at the Baltic Sea Docs for the rest of the week. Arriving I read on FNE News – link below – that the Latvians have done what the Lithuanians did with Arunas…
The Danish co-producer of the film, Final Cut for Real, gives this description of the film: “”That Summer” is a feature documentary centered on the film project artist Peter Beard initiated in 1972 with Lee Radziwill about her relatives, the…
TINA RØMER: BERGMAN OG MUSIKKEN Radioprogram i tre dele GENUDSENDES I DAG 15 – 18 på DR P2 Her følger med min bedste anbefaling af dette fornemme radioværk mine notater fra udsendelserne tidligere denne sommer: 1 Første afsnit En kærlighed…
Time for tears in eyes again. Which I had at the premiere in Karlovy Vary and will definitely have, when “Bridges of Time” by Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys will open the mini-festival of the Baltic Sea Docs in…
DOCAlliance, the favourite vod of filmkommentaren, the place for creative documentaries published this press release today: Films by Jan Němec and Karel Vachek about the revolutionary Prague Spring 1968 are online at DAFilms.com On the occasion of the 50th…
MENS DE SKRIVES 1 ”… Ligesom Beckett, eller Strindberg, er Lars Norén absolut realistisk. Hvad hans personer og digte siger, er det, der sker i dem nu og her, mens de skrives, mens nogen læser dem eller ser på dem…
Jeg sidder ved skrivebordet, der står midt i værelset. En rødbrun soldatertæge kravler tøvende op over bordkanten. Der står helt afgørende nogen bag min ryg, selv om døren hverken er blevet åbnet eller lukket. Der står altså nogen bag min…
… Frid (Åke Fridell) fortæller Petra (Harriet Andersson) om sommernattens tre smil. De hjælper Henrik og Anne med at flygte. (Bertil Wredlund i sin filmografi til Bergmans bog Bilder, 1990) FILMVÆRKER Cinemateket i København har udsendt en smuk invitation:…
It’s a classic, this documentary event in Riga, Latvia. I am proud to say that I have been part of it since the beginning. An event that has nurtured my love to the Baltic documentary cinema. Here is a brief…
Jane Magnussons Bergman – Et år, et liv er et dramatisk kunstnerportræt om omkostningerne ved at satse hele livet på kunsten… (Kim Skotte) DOKUMENTARFILMINSTRUKTØR Så kom de danske anmeldelser af filmen, jeg sådan glæder mig til, Jane Magnussens dokumentarfilm…
Jane Magnussons Bergman – Et år, et liv skildrer hele mennesket Bergman – alle hans sider… PRIVATLIV Det drejer sig om hele mennesket Bergman forstår jeg på pressemeddelelsen, jeg håber det også drejer sig om hans film, teateropsætninger, tv-produktioner og…
Ingmar has a great feeling for the unique situation of the actor… (Erland Josephson) SKUESPILLER Torben Skjødt Jensen havde 4. juli et opslag på sin facebookside om Erland Josephson. Jeg blev interesseret ved hans første begejstring for Ingmar Bergmans…
Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted… MURMELSTEIN The Guardian published a very interesting article Tuesday, May 14th 2013, Agnès Poirier had seen the new film by legendary Claude Lanzmann about Benjamin Murmelstein, who…
I Marie Nyreröds tv-serie Ingmar Bergman på Fårö, 2003 som denne tid genudsendes på SVT Play og som bestemt skal ses igen, er der i sidste afsnit et sted, hvor Bergman fortæller om sin daglige gåtur. Det er det første…
Det må så blive manden selv, som alene i huset ved havet ved skrivebordet i arbejdsværelsen tager et sidste opgør med sig selv. Det er i Trolösa, 2000, som Liv Ullmann instruerer på Bergmans manuskript. Bordet står midt på gulvet.…
87 year old Jean-Luc Godard has made a festival spot for the 22nd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. It was released here in Karlovy Vary yesterday. I have copy pasted fragments from the press release published with quotes from festival…
I write this the day after the premiere of the film by Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys at the festival in Karlovy Vary. Warm applause after the screening of a film with many layers, an auteur film but first of…
Wow, it’s tomorrow at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that Bridges of Time has its premiere. The film, a co-production between the three Baltic countries, is introduced like this by the festival: “Kristīne Briede and Audrius Stonys’s meditative documentary…
Today starts the festival in Karlovy Vary, Kviff, and tomorrow is the first (of three) screening of Vitaly Mansky’s “Putin’s Witnesses”, that has its premiere at the festival. To celebrate this and the director, DocAlliance, www.dafilms.com launches a curated programme…
One of the producers of ”Leaning into the Wind” Stefan Tolz, who in the absence of the director Thomas Riedelsheimer, on behalf of the film, took part in Magnificent7 in Belgrade, did one of the workshops which are part of…
There we are, my wife and I, back in Belgrade to take part in the 14th European Feature Documentary Film Festival, Magnificent7 – seven films, one per night, starting tomorrow on the 8th with the Polish masterpiece, “The Prince and…
My countryman Lars von Trier’s last film “The House that Jack Built” was not in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In an interview he was asked, if he was sorry about that. No, he said, I don’t believe in…
Anna Dziapshipa, a true friend, great photographer and organiser through SAKDOC in Tbilisi, in preparation for a film, took me for a tour down to Old Tbilisi as I wanted to see the monument of Parajanov – see previous post.…
Ukrainian Darya Bassel, part of the DocuDays team and producer of My Father is my Mother’s Brother, is at HotDocs in Toronto and writes on FB: “I think there’s one really important thing. We have to ban voice over and…
It’s the third of the kind and it takes place not only in Copenhagen but also in Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense in Denmark from May 3rd till 16th. And it’s brilliant in thought and program. From the website, here is…