Ivars Tontegode: Knutifiction

Luckily I live in a country where subtitling of films is the rule – no dubbing as in German or France, where as an example European cultural channel Arte is the big sinner in the language killing discipline. In Denmark we hear the language spoken in the original film and when we don’t understand that language, we get help from the subtitles.

BUT sometimes it is hard to watch and read, as it was for me with Latvian Ivars Tontegode’s impressive biographical documentary about and with writer, poet and translator Knuts Skujenieks, who talks almost through the whole film of 100 minutes at the same time as I had to follow the interesting visual bombardment from Tontegode. I am saying this upfront to admit that my viewing of this new Latvian work suffered from me having to read and watch at the same time. On a MacBook Pro computer.

It will be better when I get to watch the film on a big screen… nevertheless I don’t hesitate to state that I have seen a remarkable film about a remarkable man, whose story is the one about 7 years

in a Gulag camp during Soviet time, where he wrote more than 1000 poems, several read in the film, before he came back to Latvia, a country that got its independence around 1990, a country that, as he says, ”have democracy but our society is not democratic”. Knuts Skujenieks, this jovial white-bearded more than 80 year old man, constantly with a smile on his face, tells his own story from cradle till now, with quotes from his literature and with his continuous reflection on Life in all its aspects.

I always advocate for ”form comes first”, ”make your aesthetic choice” before you start shooting – Tontegode who pitched the film as project at Baltic Sea Docs did so and I dare say that he sticks to a visual playfulness – is it too much? – that sometimes brings me back to the psychedelic 60’es and 70’es, often with erotic sequences that go well with the protagonist’s many ”adventures” as they are called.

And archive footage is being used extensively, newsreels (chronicles) from the time of Soviet Latvia, but also clips from films by local documentary heroes as Herz Frank and Juris Podnieks. The film is good when it gives the Soviet time with well chosen archive and the writer’s comments (there were also many good moments in the camp), it is better when the director ”goes bananas” and breaks his own rythm and Gott Sei Dank there are also more quiet moments, where the old man (as on the photo) walks by the sea. That’s the place where we think, isn’t it? I am already looking forward to a re-view.

The film will have its National premiere in Riga May 4 followed by screenings in cinemas – and it will be available at the Media Library of Visions du Réel, Nyon.

Latvia, 100 mins., 2017

Shorena Tevzadze: Didube, The Last Stop

I have met Shorena Tevzadze and producer Nikoloz Gogochuri several times at workshops in Georgia, where this fine film was developed. Their dedication to the theme and their love towards the characters of the film was always there; watching the final result I feel like saying hello to an old friend Niko, in his shop, with his partner, waiting for clients but no one comes to buy at the veterinarian pharmacy, only friends like the singer Nodar with his guitar, performing his ballads which serve as a commentary to the place and to the dreams of the two on having a garden in the countryside instead of where they are now at a bus station, where shops still exist; at a stop that used to be more important when the train had its last stop here, now it only stops for two minutes.

The filmmakers present the film like this: “A musical fairy tale about a noisy station, where Niko, a veterinarian man is trying to save his peaceful kingdom from its demise.”

But time stands still and Niko uses it to reflect on life and to write poems, one about one of the many floods in the country. He phones television (or radio?) but they don’t have a format for reading of poems.

Luckily a festival has a format for this simple unpretentious portrait of a place and a shop owner: Premiere at Visions du Réel, Nyon, at the Regard Neuf section, the festival takes place April 21 to 29.

Georgia/Switzerland, 2017, 64 mins.

Pawel Lozinski: Being a Tutor

The IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) has published a very informative, well made interview with Polish director Pawel Lozinski, who was at the EastDoc Platform in Prague, where he had a double role: to show his film ”You Don’t Know How Much I love You” and to be a tutor.

In the interview – made by Marta Obršálová – Lozinski goes in detail about his film in terms of the aesthetical and technical choices that he made; you should definitely read it, whereas I have chosen to pick a quote from the director on being a tutor. A very honest dilemma is described by the director as well as some advice that many tutors should follow…:

Speaking about students, how do you like to share your experience with others? How do you react when someone asks your advice?

Tutoring for Ex Oriente Film was sometimes difficult for me. I try to be a tutor but still being a film director at the same time. Obviously, if someone is showing me his materials I am automatically making my own film of it.  But I tried to stop myself – it is their film.  I try to follow their way of thinking the director´s or cameraman´s feeling. I ask them the questions: What do you want to say?  What you want to show? How do you intend to do it? What is the story going to be about? What is your message? Why are you showing it to me and then to the audience? I think the crucial thing in teaching is not giving an answer but just asking the questions and making students or directors think about the right answer from their side. I try to find different paths, ways of thinking for each project. Maybe you can change protagonists? What do you think about putting the camera on the other side? So this kind of talk, not giving a straight yes/no, good/bad answer, just discussing it. When I make my own films, I still need somebody to discuss them with – it could by my cameraman or editor or both. Because when you make a film, you are alone, facing a lot of questions with no answers and having to find the answers on your own. So you have to ask people what they think about it. That is why this kind of training is so important for filmmakers.

https://www.dokweb.net/en/ – and go to articles.

Robert Kirchhoff: To Choose Your Genre

This is a clip from an interview with Slovak Robert Kirchhoff, whose ”A Hole in the Head” was reviewed on this site:

Cineuropa: In your previous documentary, Normalization, you investigated a sensitive issue, and you are now pursuing another difficult theme, the Roma Holocaust, in A Hole in the Head. Why do you choose such difficult subjects? 
Robert Kirchhoff: Every subject that I have chosen to make a film about or to think about is an opportunity to approach that topic differently. It’s a challenge. And this is the way I feel about it. Neither of those subjects came to me by chance; it was always some particular story that brought them to my attention. With Normalization, I attempted to shoot a genre film, an investigative crime film, but there is a difference between the two films. Normalization depends on facts, literally — you have to follow the continuity in terms of the story, the past and the present, and you are working with people you do not necessarily like. In the case of A Hole in the Head, I got to pick the characters myself and I came up with the form of the film. I was facing a dilemma in terms of genre between a classic historic documentary or a documentary essay; I picked the latter. I intentionally resisted pathos — that’s why you can encounter humour in a film revolving around the Holocaust and the Roma genocide — and I resisted any kind of pathos that might have resulted from tying different meanings to a particular character. Those characters lived with their memories and the holes in their heads and I approached them not through the past but the present. That may be one of the reasons why I did not use any of the archive footage, period photos or illustrations.

http://cineuropa.org/it.aspx?t=interview&l=en&did=326167 

Yaser Kassab: On the Edge of Life

It feels unfinished, sketchy this personal film by Syrian Yaser Kassab. It is one long reflection and interpretation of, as the director has formulated it in the catalogue of Cinéma du Réel, “loss and grief”. Far from mainstream. In dark images, often metaphoric, from empty spaces, “detached from reality” as he says, with the fragments of skype conversations with his father, who does not want to leave the country, and at a later point states that we live “like bears in winter sleep”.

The synopsis: “Yaser and his partner Rima leave Syria to Lebanon, but after receiving the news that his younger brother passed away in Aleppo, they end up in a remote and an empty place in Turkey. In this place where the silence and the monotonous daily life being broken by the loud noise of the family calls whom still living in Aleppo. To spend a year and a half, which was almost like a slumber and a coma, waking up every day on the recurring nightmares echo.”

It is one of those rare films that does not move but places itself in a waiting mood full of sadness, memories and longing for a better life. A very much welcomed essayistic lyrical addition to the many war-filled documentaries from the country.

Got the Joris Ivens/ Cnap Award at Cinéma du Réel

Syria, 2017, 45 mins.

CINEMATEKET: Lo and Behold

WERNER HERZOG: LO AND BEHOLD – REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD

Bag alle Werner Herzogs spørgsmål ligger i grunden en skepsis, bag empatiens høflighed ligger i grunden en tøven, i fortællestemmens basgang af antropologisk essayistik et misantropisk syn på virkelighedens tilstand, bag den både den dybt alvorlige og den meget morsomme attitude lurer en ængstelse, en sorg, en fortvivlelse, og denne sidste kommer bestemte steder i hans arbejder til udtryk i vrede. Selv om han involverer sig i møderne som han kalder optagelserne af sine samtaler med vidner og andre medvirkende, holder han dem på afstand. Blidt og elegant distant.

Denne stiliserede scene er undtagelsen. Her deler Herzog familiens sorg, vrede og rædsel ved det modbydelige, den har været offer for, og distanceringen i set up og iscenesættelse som en teaterscene bliver i filmens sammenhæng af ganske anderledes udarbejdede scener til en udhævelse, sådan viser det antropologiske undersøgelsesresultat, som filmen udgør, som dette tableau er en vital del af, at mennesket er ondt, også mod mennesket, også mod det menneske, som trods det onde i sig er godt. Hele dette store tema Jesus af Nazaret talte om, efterviser Herzog i sin antropologiske femlæggelse, i værk efter værk, også i dette seneste, her i denne opstilling af en familie, hvor en datter mangler.

Werner Herzog møder på rejser fra scene til scene mennesker, alle monomane eksperter på hver deres felt, seriøse videnskabsmænd og excentriske amatører med alvorlig optagethed og venlig koncentration, som sikrer, at hver samtale lykkes ved hans tilstedeværelse, og jeg følger hans fascination, lytter til hans kloge fortællestemme, den stemme, som for mig er halvdelen af hans film, denne og en række af hans tidligere, som hans opmærksomme tilstedeværelse i alle situationer, hans diskrete indlevelse og i det færdige værk, hans distante skepsis, nogle gange hans rædsel.

Et foto fra ulykken af en ilde tilredt død kvinde, den fjerde, den fraværende søster i familien, har været delt på internettet i syg nysgerrighed, som Herzog udtrykker det, og han fortsætter: ”Vi viser ikke dette foto. Vi viser et værelse i hjemmet, musikværelset, hvor hun holdt af at opholde sig.” Og dette afsnit tre af de ti afsnit, som Lo and Behold – Reveries of the Connected World består af, som er et stort filmessay over internettets virkelighed, har overskriften The Dark Side og konkluderer: ”Internettet er det ondes væsen”, som moderen i familien siger, og Herzogs kapitel tre er i sin alvorlige tableauform en lille film i sig selv, som tidligt i værkets fremadskriden i møde efter møde, ofte med begejstrede vidner, skyder en en tidlig tøven ind.

USA 2016, 98 min. Filmkommentarens vurdering: 6/6 penne. Begynder med en visning i dag 17:00 som månedens dokumentar i Cinemateket i København.

www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program 

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1940/  (Collected posts on Werner Herzog and his works)

SYNOPSIS

Oscar®-nominated documentarian Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams) chronicles the virtual world from its origins to its outermost reaches, exploring the digital landscape with the same curiosity and imagination he previously trained on earthly destinations. Herzog leads viewers on a journey through a series of provocative conversations that reveal the ways in which the online world has transformed how virtually everything in the real world works – from business to education, space travel to healthcare, and the very heart of how we conduct our personal relationships.

http://www.loandbehold-film.com/ 

Lviv Film Center

It’s a handmade cinema, Roman Bondarchuk said, after our pleasant tour to Lviv Film Center, where we visited the rooftop sunday morning. Saturday night a party had been held and Mr. Mykhailo, responsible for the running of the place, was in the beginning not that keen to show us around. It’s a mess, he said. Never mind, we responded. So we were there and got the fine story about the place:

The cinema used to be called Condor and later Falcon, and was built in Soviet times by the factories around the area – for the workers to have a cultural meeting place. Today it is Lviv Film Center, an arthouse cinema with a hall on the ground floor, and a rooftop cinema. As you can see from the picture (taken by Dar’ya Averchenko) there is a small table for the projector, a screen, chairs of different quality. In summer time with summer weather there is often three screenings at night, a ticket costs 2€, reduction if you take all three. Beer is sold, bottles with vodka etc. can be brought to the place.

”Toni Erdmann” was to be played sunday in this handmade outdoor cinema that very often has full houses. Audience? Between 18 and 30 sympathetic Mr. Mykhailo said.

Photo: Ellen and me.

Pavel Kostomarov: Together

Do you remember the film by Kostomarov called Together, Roman Bondarchuk asked me on the Virmanska Street, when we sunday were walking around in sunny Lviv in Western Ukraine. The couple in the film, Ludmila and Vladimir Loboda, were sitting outside the café. We joined them for a grappa and Turkish coffee and I was proud to tell them that I had written a review about the film, praising them and their Love Story – and their art. They told us that they were very happy with the film but since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, they had no contact with Kostomarov – and Vladimir had no longer a gallery in Moscow selling his work. The film is excellent as you can read in this repeat of the review from 2009:

A house in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe a house in the centre of the universe. A couple lives there. They are artists, they do paintings and wooden sculptures. The sculptures have their own home in the house, a room for themselves where they stand in a circle, in harmony, in a room that is visited by the artists with lamps in their hands, pointing at them, making them come alive. It is a phantasy world with a couple – the man, who is talking in philosophical terms moving his arm around, a bit of a pretentious performance, but charming and with humour, if he is not throwing rude language at the woman, calling her dumb at one moment, and praising her as Mother Earth in the next. She looks strong, moves around as a powerful independent character, but she has her views on the relationship between man and woman: ”If she dominates it’s over”. Well, from the 48 minutes that I was invited to share with her and her husband, I did not get the impression of a suppressed woman.

And that is not at all what brilliant cameraman and director Kostomarov is after. He goes for beauty. The light playing in the face of the woman. Their hands cutting the sculpture figures. Their hugging and caressing, their letting the outside world be rude and cruel – they are murdering us, the man says peeping out of the window after a sequence with cranes and cars destroying something that we dont get to know what is. Not important, what is important is what we see inside, what Kostomarov (cameraman and co-director of ”Mother” and previously cameraman for Loznitsa) catches of Life and Love between two people who have been together for a lifetime. The name of the couple is Vladimir and Ludmila Loboda, and to summarize: This is such a wonderful intimate close-up of a Russian artist couple, an observation, yes, but what makes it extraordinary is the interpretative layer that the director adds, or should I say paints with his camera. There are superb sequences playing with light and shadow, where you see objects in the house or art pieces in compositions that stays in your mind. Taking the risk to have King Crimson music as an accompagnement!

Russia, 2009, 48 mins.

Nils Vest: Hudegrunden – Vesterbro

Ebbe Preisler viser Nils Vests film fra 1974 i sin beundringsværdige ”Mandagsdokumentaren” i morgen mandag 3. April kl. 19.30 på Café Sorte Firkant på Blaagards Plads. Vests beskrivelse af filmen, der varer 26 minutter, kan findes på hans hjemmeside:

“I en nedslidt del af Vesterbro etableredes i 1970 en anderledes institution for kvarterets børn: Byggelegepladsen ‘Hudegrunden’, opkaldt efter en nedlagt oplagsplads for huder fra slagtede dyr i Kødbyen. Institutionen vakte stor opsigt, da man søgte efter ‘en pædagog med en marxististisk livsindstilling’. Filmen fortæller først og fremmest om oprettelsen og det daglige arbejde i begyndelsen af 70’erne.”

For undertegnede er det sjovt at se en anmeldelse fra 1974, som jeg skrev sammen med min kammerat Kjelle Væring, for Børn & Unge. Og der er flere anmeldelser, som citeres:

”En fortrinlig film. Den har et smukt og rytmisk forløb. Vi kan kun varmt anbefale filmen… et godt eksempel på de heldigvis stadig flere engagerede holdningsfilm. Den provokerer, informerer, har en kvikhed over sig og den har holdning. Og så har den humor… ” / Tue Steen Müller og Kjell Væring, Børn & Unge

”Medrykkende … opløftende kortfilm, spændende og underholdende. Uhyre velegnet som oplæg til en pædagogisk, samfundsrettet debat.” / Bibliotek 70

”En varm film… solidarisk med dens mennesker.” / Arne Skovhus, Højskolebladet

”En god og inspirerende film.” / Per Schultz, Land og Folk

”Vi kan anbefale ‘Hudegrunden’ som en oplagt debatfilm.” / Susanne Lindgren, Film-UV

”Et vigtigt materiale, glimrende egnet som indledning til diskussioner. Statens Filmcentral har grund til at være tilfreds med dette produkt. / Peter Wivel, Studenterbladet

”Næsten en del af Hudegrundsprojektet… På sin egen lavmælte Vesterbro-facon i virkeligheden en ‘heroisk’ revolutionsfilm, der på sin vis godt kan minde om de film, der produceres af diverse befrielsesfronter. Den er kort sagt solidarisk med sit emne.” / Jørgen Siegumfeldt, Information

Foto: Nils Vest

http://www.vestfilm.dk/hudegrunden/filmen.html

http://www.mandagsdokumentar.dk/ 

Dokumania /THE FEAR OF 13 /2

DAVID SINGTON: THE FEAR OF 13

Peter Bradshaws og Geoffrey Macnabs anmeldelser fik mig til at at love mig selv at se filmen. Og jeg nåede det netop lige før den var bebudet sidste dag på DR TV. Det er en bemærkelsesværdig film, dygtigt lavet helt færdig i hver detalje, næsten helt glat, men anstrengelserne har også gjort, at visse løsninger er blevet overgjort gentaget, så sådanne steder træder ud af den rytmiske, den musikalske selvfølge og jeg mærker detaljen som genbrug, mister den nervøse forbindelse.

VINKLING

Bradshaw og Macnab har for mig begge ret, som de hver for sig ser filmen, kan jeg også se den. Bradshaw: “…For me, he (hovedpersonen red.) feels like a ham actor auditioning for the role of himself in a movie version, he delivers what sounds like an overwritten, over-rehearsed monologue in a breathy-mellifluous voice” og Macnab: ” What is fascinating about Sington’s invigorating documentary is that the inmate Nick Yarris recounts his story in his own words. He is formidably articulate, an autodidact who knows how to emphasise all the urgency, suspense, drama and macabre humour in the events.”

For mig var det derfor sådan, at filmens første del stod stærkest, i begyndelsen var hver enkeltdel ny. Men i gentagelserne trættedes jeg. Mere end spænding var det herefter nysgerrighed efter handlingslagets løsning, som holdt mig fast, det i synopsis lovede twist til sidst.

FORTÆLLEKUNST

Hele filmens arkitekur er så selvbevidst, at hvert greb kan opleves at gøre opmærksom på sig selv, det kammer over og kommer midt i det hele til at handle om at lave film. På den anden side handler Singtons film om Nick Yarris’ opbyggelige historie om at sætte sig selv i stand til at fortælle sin vanvittige historie (og det er for mig den vigtige tråd i dens story line), den handler om et enestående selvstudium i den episke kunst, og studiets resultat er åbenbart fra filmens første sekund: Nick Yarris er en fremragende fortæller, og hans fortællekunst er det ubrudte gennemgående lag med ham i samme billede i halvanden time. Og han binder mig fast, selv om jeg prøver at slå mig i tøjret, når han af og til, nej ofte, bliver vanskelig at holde ud.

I fængslet får han på et tidspunkt adgang til bøger, og han læser og læser og læser sig gennem et stort bibliotek, fra kiosklitteratur til Homer. Gennem handlingerne fæstnes fortællestrukturerne i ham som en stadig voksende episk natursans. I fængslet får han også en besøgsven, hendes notesbog og kuglepen er de vigtige redskaber for de tos fælles research i hans historie. Hun kan opsøge aktstykkerne i hans sag, skaffe ham fotokopierne, helt som Prousts tjener skaffede ham detaljerne ude fra den fysiske virkelighed ind til ham i hans lyddæmpede arbejdsværelse, hvor notatsedlerne klistredes ind i manuskriptet.

KLASSISKE GENRER

Et tidligt sted i filmen fortælles der om en fange som åbent og accepteret af både ledelse og betjente og medfanger har et kærlighedsforhold. Som et led i en kollektiv afstraffelse for en opsætsighed skal de nu skilles, flyttes til hvert sit fængsel langt fra hinanden. Om aftenen før flytningen synger han i den mørke bygning, hvor der ikke må tales, en lang uendelig smuk blues, en kærlighedstabets elegi. Sangen, denne fortællende sang, denne ballade i den store tavse lyttende stilhed i mørket mellem fængslets gange, døre og gitre, med denne anden replik supplerer Sington sin mørke film og Yarris sin dystre monolog med en kærlighedslys lyrisk epik, som danner endnu mere præcise sammenfatninger, flytter filmen fra den megen og bestemt flotte og og dygtige mimik, både Nick Yarris’ ekvilibristsike, for eksempel hans efterligninger af fængslets lyde, som lyddesignet frækt af og til understøtter (dette er jo en forestilling), og altså derved flytter filmen fra dens virkelighedsgengivelse og får den til i denne sangscene at røre ved poesiens anderledes skabende forståelse af dramaet, af tragedien.

TITEL

”Værkets titel er dets stormodel”, sagde Peter Seeberg. Det var i et foredrag jeg aldrig glemmer, hvor han omhyggeligt klargjorde tilblivelsen af titlen ”Dinusaurusens sene eftermiddag”, så jeg forstod hvordan alle stemninger og overvejelser i den klogt komplicerede bog lå som kim i titlen.

The Fear of 13 viser hen til ordet triskaidekaphobia, som er navnet på den sygelige frygt for tallet 13. Det ord er omdrejningspunktet det centrale sted, hvor Yarris fortæller om arbejdet med at øge og udvide sit ordforråd. Han gjorde det, hver gang han i sin læsning stødte på et nyt ord indprentede det ved at sætte det ind i 10, oftest mange flere forskellige sætninger. Han eksemplificerer sin træningsmetode med ordet triskaidekaphobia.

Det burde falde ind under og være en overtrædelse af droit morales’ respektret bestemmelser, at DR 2 ved oversættelsen har ændret filmens titel til ”Manden der ville henrettes”. Det er at ændre, hvad filmen handler om, nemlig et menneske, som møjsommeligt arbejder sig til en situation, hvor det forstår sin placering i virkeligheden, sin placering som sagkyndig sproghåndværker, som kunstner, som fortæller, sin placering som indsat, som dødsdømt, delvist forårsaget ved fed egne forkerte valg, nemlig primitive tricks lært i den kriminelle verden i stedet for komplicerede litterære, filosofiske og kunstneriske indsigter i en smuk række oplyst af egentlige epifanier i en retrospektiv selvbiografi i monologens form. Ansøgningen om at få fuldbyrdet dødsdommen er blot et af Yarris’ mange tricks, ok måske det dristigste, men den begivenhed fylder en brøkdel af indholdet.

The Fear of 13 er ikke en kriminalthriller, ikke kun en fængselsfilm, det er en dannelsesroman som Elefantmanden, som Den vilde dreng som Gåden om Kaspar Hauser, det er romanen om Nick Yarris lange tilblivelse som historiefortæller i den egentlige klassiske stil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ja1wrRAAm4 (Trailer)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/12/the-fear-of-13-review-nick-yarris-death-row-inmate

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-fear-of-13-film-review-suspense-drama-and-macabre-humour-from-death-row-inmate-nick-yarris-a6732641.html

www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jul/13/netnotes.derekbrown

(om triskaidekaphobia)