Wim Wenders: Himlen over Berlin

Igen i dag og i morgen samt i dagene den 1.-3. juli viser Cinemateket i København ‘Himlen over Berlin’ (1987) eller ‘Wings of Desire’, som Wim Wenders mesterstykke hedder i denne engelsktekstede og nyligt restaurerede version. Morten Tang skriver videre i Cinematekets meddelelse: ”Det er et af 1980’ernes absolutte hovedværker. En storbysymfoni på metafysisk himmelflugt fortalt i et formsprog, som transcenderer både (filmhistorisk) tid og rum.

Hvordan ser verden ud for engle? To trenchcoat-klædte skytsengle iagttager Berlin og dens befolkning i smukke sort/hvide billeder. Englene kan se og høre menneskenes tanker og drømme, men de kan ikke tale med dem eller opfatte virkeligheden i dens komplekse farverigdom.

‘Himlen over Berlin’ er en lyrisk meditation over livet, kærligheden, tiden og forgængeligheden – og den synes at forudsige Berlin-murens fald to år senere. I modsætning til andre tyske instruktører i sin generation er Wim Wenders ikke politisk orienteret, men snarere poetisk og eksistentielt søgende. Filmen har en tilsvarende sanseligt billedæstetik skabt af fotografen Henri Alekan, der blev berømmet for sit kameraarbejde på Jean Cocteaus ‘Skønheden og udyret’…”

Program og billetter: link

P. Lozinski: You Have No Idea How Much I Love You

A couple of weeks ago I wrote articles for the Krakow Festival newspaper. One of them had the headline “Lozinski” and was about father and son, Marcel and Pawel. I saw that there was a new film by Pawel in the program, I had not seen it when I wrote the enthusiastic words about the two – later I read that he received an award in the National Competition for “You Have No Idea How Much I Love You”, I have watched the film with the beautiful title, it is amazing, let me give you an idea why I love it:

Three faces, talking faces, faces that express emotions, faces to be read, nothing else but these faces in close ups, a mother and her daughter, and a psychotherapist, who is there to make the two reconcile after a long separation. For

75 minutes you are in that room of intimacy and suffering and pain, studying how the intelligent, sometimes tough sometimes soft, therapist makes the two open up for the traumas that come from their childhoods’ lack of care and love. Look at the still photo of the daughter, she is full of defiance towards her mother, she gets aggressive and sad when she talks about the divorce of her mother and father, it is embarrassing for the two involved and for the viewer… but liberating when the therapist interrupts, very often by saying “could we use another word” or by interpreting one of the many sentences coming from daughter and/or mother.

As a viewer you know these stories, in a way it is very banal – a child feeling guilt because of the parents divorcing, just one of the themes coming up, the reason it is so good stems from the filmmaking, the three are so good, they are so well directed, the editing goes smooth from one to the other, you listen while you watch either the one talking or the one listening. Like he proved in “Chemo”, Pawel Lozinski has this unique skill of going to the core taking away all the unnecessary and bringing to us a cinematic conversation piece of universal reach.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2416/ (Lozinski, Father and son)

Poland, 2016, 75 mins.

Moscow International Film Festival

There was a lot of hard work behind the introduction of documentaries to the Moscow International Film Festival, done by Sergey Miroshnichenko, no presentation needed – did you see his “7Up Russian version”, excellent – and producer and critic Grigory Libergal – whose presence at the yearly Baltic Sea Forum brings competence to the table – and the result is now for some years manifested in a competition programme of 8 films and a programme of the programmers favourites called “Free Thought”, including this bloggers favourites as well, “Brothers” (PHOTO) by Wojciech Staron, “Brothers” by Aslaug Holm and Zhao Liang’s “Behemoth”, the two latter praised on this site by colleague Allan Berg. For years I have had contact with filmmaker, promoter, film politician and pr person for the festival Georgy Molodtsov, a true multi-talent, who has given me the possibility to see some of the competition films, which are all new to me – as they are World premieres. Apart from quality the festival invites the Moscow audience to watch films on the big screen, clearly part of the profile. Films with a big F.

www.moscowfilmfestival.ru

Doc Alliance Selection 2016

… sounds very formal, much better if you call it, like the organizers also do, “2016: Fresh Documentary Talents at the Upcoming Ninth Das Awards”, “Das” standing for “The Doc Aliance Selection Award”, that is to be distributed August 7 at the Locarno International Film Festival, the winner gets €5000. The selection process is very simple:

every festival that constitutes the Alliance selects a film and the focus is to “support new filmmakers and projects” as formulated by the projects manager Nina Numankadic, who also stresses that the selected 7 films will be screened at all 7 films. You can read about all the films on the website – link below – I just want to mention that DOK Leipzig has chosen “Train to Adulthood” as the film they want to promote, a good choice, Hungarian Klára Trencsényi is definitely a talent to follow. Last year’s winner was Iraqi Abbas Fahdel’s “Homeland” (Iraq Year Zero).

www.dafilms.com

Ung i Randers/Youth in Randers 1978-1979

Later this week I will visit an exhibition in Øksnehallen in Copenhagen. An exhibition that has been set up by the two photographers Finn Larsen and Lars Johansson, wholived and worked in Randers, the sixth biggest city in Denmark, around 60.000 inhabitants.

This is also the home of Allan Berg, co-editor of filmkommentaren.dk and at that time festival organizer and filmmaker in works with the two mentioned Larsen and Johansson.

Here is their introduction to the exhibition, that I will review in Danish and English:

Back in 1978-79 the background was years of museum work. Although we were young, we had worked in many different ways. New and old, local and foreign. Learned and thought. Photography became the tool and the form, more and more. The tradition of documentary. The working title was Among young people in Randers. First contact was Landstrygerne. A moped club that eventually became a motorcycle club. It was in color – slides, were what they were called. 8B from Tirsdalens school was let into the museum. It became It’s about us. They did most of it themselves. Areas of the city were searched, mostly in the evening. Black/white and flash. When the asphalt sways. The title came along the way. Films were important at the museum. We can do that too. Images of youth 16 mm color, shot with heavy equipment. The meeting lasted two years. There has not really been anything similar more made in Denmark before or since. Reunion. This is a re-exhibit. A glance at a time and at a Randers that was contemporary for young people not so long ago. When you had to make plans to meet, you went out into the hallway where the phone was, picked up the receiver and dialed a number that you had memorized or written down in a little book. Otherwise you went around the corner to the grill bar, where your friends hung out. Or you met in the evening at the club under the church or at school.

It was seen for a while.

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus på SVT

It’s not often you get the chance to salute a broadcaster for putting a focus on “stars” of the documentary history. Therefore a big hurra for Swedish public broadcaster SVT for programming 5 films of the American couple, direct cinema pioneers whose works “Don’t Look Back”, “War Room”, “Unlocking the Cage”, “King of Pastry” and “StartUp.Com” are programmed – and many of us Danes can watch Swedish television.

http://www.svt.se/dox/5-x-pennebaker-hegedus

Michael Madsen: The Reviews

Michael Madsen debuterer som anmelder af ”nogle af de ikke-eksisterende film, verden simpelthen ikke kan undvære. Målet er ikke at lave filmene i praksis, men derimod at sætte fantasi, sanseapparat og refleksivitet i spil.” Dette meddeler Cinemateket i Købemhavn, og så er der en biografannonce, sådan:

THE REVIEWS

Instruktør: Michael Madsen

‘The Visit’-instruktøren Michael Madsen live-debuterer med en performance, der fremkalder filmene direkte i ens hjerne!

Den danske kunstner og filmskaber Michael Madsen har med film som ‘The Visit’ og ‘Into Eternity’ sat nye standarder for, hvad moderne dokumentarfilm kan. Med ‘The Reviews’ sætter han barren endnu et level op, og fremkalder filmoplevelsen direkte i ens hjerne! En suggestiv, performativ live-anmeldelse af imaginære – og naturligvis dybt originale! – filmhistoriske hovedværker, der ganske enkelt ikke eksisterer før man selv inviteres til at forestille sig dem, imens man sidder bænket foran lærredets tabula rasa i biografens mulighedsrum.

Medvirkende: Michael Madsen

Danmark, 2016, 90 min. Tilladt for alle. Forestillinger: tirsdag 21.06.16, Kl. 19:15.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Film.aspx?filmID=v1024525

RESUMÉ

Dear All! Hope to see you (and friends) for my live-performance where I – turned film-critic -review imaginary films changing the history of film!

The performance of THE REVIEWS will take place next week, on Tuesday the 21st of June at 19:15 at Cinemateket, Copenhagen! B.Y.O imagination + enjoy sound-artist Øivind Weigaarde live button-pressing sound-design for the performance! Please share to your friends! Michael Madsen

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2299/ (Michael Madsen, Collected Posts on his Works)

Cameraperson wins in Sheffield

Sheffield Doc Fest is over with a huge Industry section and a festival, with former ITV person Claire Aguilar as responsible. Kirsten Johnson’s personal “Cameraperson” got the first prize, here is a clip from Realscreen:

Ido Haar’s “Presenting Princess Shaw”, Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson” and Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel’s “Seed: The Untold Story went home with top prizes from Sheffield Doc/Fest.

The six-day UK festival, which wraps today (June 15), handed out awards at a Tuesday evening (June 14) ceremony in Crucible Theatre, hosted by KG Tha Comedian.

Johnson’s “Cameraperson”, which had its world premiere at Sundance in January, took home the Grand Jury Award, with a special mention going to Shimon Dotan’s “The Settlers”.

“Cameraperson” finds the cinematographer turning the lens on herself and her work over the years for such directors as Laura Poitras and Michael Moore.

A jury statement read, “A film unlike any other, intuitively constructed to reflect ideas and choices and emotions, rather than a standard narrative thread, it invites the viewer to contemplate and feel these experiences along with her.”

Werner Herzog: Lo And Behold

Som en del af CPH.DOX teknologiprogram på DemokratiScenen under FOLKEMØDET er der i dag 16. juni 18:30 Danmarkspremiere på Werner Herzogs film om internettet Lo And Behold: Reveries Of The Connected World.

CPH: DOX skriver i sin indbydelse: ”Vi er så afhængige af internettet, at vores afhængighed nærmest er blevet usynlig for os. Det er udgangspunktet i Werner Herzogs nye foruroligende, tankevækkende og dybt underholdende dokumentarfilm om internettet og den kunstigt intelligente fremtid. Er du på Folkemødet, så kom til Danmarkspremiere på torsdag klokken 18:30 på Demokrati Scenen. Vi følger filmen op med en debat om kunstig intelligens! ”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1tZ8JsZvg (Trailer)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1940/

Svend Johansen: Cykelmyggens far

– med undertitlen “et portræt af tusindkunstneren Flemming Quist Møller” er en herlig film, hvor jeg sad og klukkede af glæde over at se og gense. Det er nemlig en film, som er en del af min egen historie som ansat ved Statens Filmcentral fra 1975 og 20 år frem, parallelt med at instruktør og producent Svend Johansen, min jævnaldrende, startede sit filmselskab Filmforsyningen og stod bag en række af vores mest efterspurgte film i SFC. Jeg bliver helt nostalgisk, når jeg tænker tilbage på en tid i slutningen af 70’erne, hvor vi arrangerede filmdage rundt i landet og hvor Svend og hans Tegnedrenge stort set altid var med.

Var Svends debut i den sammenhæng noget med en film om en kattekilling, som blev vist i Haderslev? Det er helt naturligt at det er Svend, som har stykket et omfattende, vidunderligt arkivmateriale med Quist Møller sammen. Det er underholdende, det beskriver en mand med et unikt kreativt talent, tusindkunstneren er det helt rigtige ord, kunstner ja, og hans arbejdskolleger og hans søn taler så præcist og varmt om ham. Det er anekdotisk på den informerende måde, altid uden at intellektualisere, tv-klip, filmklip – åh “Bennys Badekar”, Hugo-filmene, “Snuden”, “Kedsomhedens gåde”, “Det usynlige pattebarn”… For ikke at tale om historien om “Prins Piwi”. Og musikken med Koppel og Peter Bastian. Og tegningerne, og interessen for at iagttage fuglene, klyden! Karismatiske Quist Møller! Og for mig et filmisk gensyn med afdøde Per Tønnes Nielsen, og hans makker Anders Sørensen og naturligvis mesteren Jannik Hastrup.

Tak for dette fine stykke multikunst-historie, Svend Johansen, igangsætter, producent, instruktør. Tak på danske børns, små og voksne, vegne.

Danmark, 2016, 57 mins. Kan ses på DR K.