Torben Skjødt Jensen: It’s a Blue World

Når jeg skal nærme mig en forståelse af den her smukke film hjælper, det mig at notere for mig selv, at den ikke er en biografi over maleren Hans Henrik Lerfeldt, at den ikke er et portræt af Lerfeldt, men  at den er et biografisk essay med udgangspunkt i Lerfeldts værk og liv. Så får jeg lidt styr på de voldsomme og mærkværdige ting, jeg udsættes for.

Jeg får grundlæggende en beretning om Lerfeldts to liv, som aktiv maler og med kunstnervenner som Christian Kampmann og Wilhelm Freddie og så det sene liv som ensom misbruger i lejligheden, hvorfra han ikke kan flytte sig. Det sidste udgør det meste af filmens tid, filmens centrale nu, og det vil vist nærmest sige hans sidste år ved arbejdsbordet foran pladesamlingen. Og jeg får i erindringen to tidligere liv, et som vanartet barn og et som rejsende. Endelig får jeg en skildring af to indre liv, et i malerierne og et i Chet Bakers musik, det første som store udstillingsbilleder, det sidste som præcise, men lige så gribende skitser. Det er det biografiske stof.

Så er der essayet: Torben Skjødt Jensens besøg hos Lerfeldt, hans venskab med og kollegiale forhold til maleren i kunstens erkendelse. Det begynder med arbejdet med en storslået genskabelse af en række af Lerfeldts malerier som filmtableauer. Det er Skjødt Jensens optagethed og udforskning af det erotiske, det er ikke Lerfeldts, for han er færdig med det, afklaret, han har afleveret. Torben Skjødt Jensens ærinde er egentlig ikke fomidling af Lerfeldts værk, han både vil og gennemfører i stedet aldeles målrettet som i mange tidligere film sit eget essays undersøgelse.

I denne filmiske tekst har han med observerende kamera indbygget en rolig skildring af sit årelange samvær og venskab med og kollegiale forhold til Lerfeldt i det fælles arbejde. De mange lange optagelser med med maleren i sin stol er vigtige, de er klippet til langvarige blokke af tilstedeværelse og samtale, for jeg skal lære at lytte til ham, værdsætte ham, og det er lærerigt, og det er Skjøt Jensens dokumentariske metode. Jeg tror det er inde i dette kammerspil med dets replikker, gestikker og skanderinger, jeg har chancen for at finde filmværkets kerne af ny indsigt i og ny forståelse for det udsatte livs kunstneriske formulering, i Lerfeldts billeder først, i Skjødt Jensens filmiske gendigtninger næst efter, endelig ved det biografiske lag af arkivstof, erindringer og reportage. Dette komplicerede værk er som altid for mig at se, i sådanne forehavender som lykkes, tekst ved tekst, værk ved værk. Kongeniale. Jeg tror jeg med denne nye version af It’s a Blue World nærmer mig en forståelse af Torben Skjødt Jensens samlede filmværk, af hans mange film. De er ofte fine biografier, fascinerende reportager, elegante montager, men der er mere end det…

Danmark 1990, 69 min. / 2015, 110 min. (Den nye version blev sendt på DR K for nogen tid siden. Skjødt Jensen gør i en smuk prolog rede for projektets lange historie. Den nye version indeholder revisioner på grundlag af  arkivmateriale købt af Lerfeldts arvinger herunder først og fremmest båndene fra samtalerne med Christian Kampmann. Det var der jeg så den. Jeg ved ikke, om den er i en distribution nu. Versionen fra 1990 kan streames på filmstriben.dk)

SYNOPSIS

The film »It’s a Blue World« is the result of more than two years of work. It is not a portrait of the Danish painter Hans Henrik Lerfeldt, but a film about his artistic universe. Hans Henrik Lerfeldt who died in July 1989 when the production of IT’S A BLUE WORLD was almost completed, reached international fame by the late seventies. At this point of his life he had refined his style to an almost photographic accuracy combined with a choice of motifs that were often of a pornographic nature. This made his art – as well as his person – rather controversial. Director Torben Skjødt Jensen worked intimately with Hans Henrik Lerfeldt to make the film and in accordance with Lerfeldt’s wishes. The controversial nature of his work has not been toned down or made respectable. Their collaboration resulted in hours of recorded conversations and glimpses of Lerfeldt’s daily life, some of which have been integrated into the film. Others have been the basis for fictional sequences. Together with adaptations of Lerfeldt’s paintings they form a picture of Hans Henrik Lerfeldt’s blue world. (dfi.dk)

Danmark 1990, 69 min. / 2015, 110 min. 

CREDITS

Se den komplette liste på dfi.dk/faktaomfilm

FILMOGRAFI

Til nu har vi her på siden kun skrevet om disse Torben Skjødt Jensen film: City Slang Redux (2011), Manifest 2083 (2013), Krøyers yderste nat (2014), All my Dreams Come True (2014), Heidi (2014) Eksil (2014). Men der er jo mange flere, se for eksempel DFI’s liste på faktasiden om instruktøren. 

LITTERATUR / LINKS

Maria Marcus: Drømmen og destruktionen (Der Traum und die Destruktion) i katalog til udstillingen Hans Henrik Lerfeldt-erotisk symbolisme i Danmark (- erotischer Symbolismus in Dänemark, Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tønder 1985.

http://dk.timefor.tv/i/101541429839000-dokland-its-a-blue-world-henrik-lerfeldt (DR K program)

http://www.filmstriben.dk/fjernleje/film/details.aspx?filmid=9000000431 (Streaming af 1990 versionenpå filmstriben.dk)

Laurits Munch-Petersen: Skyggen af en helt

Historien om digteren og maleren Gustaf Munch-Petersen (GM-P) er velkendt, i hvert fald blandt læsende mennesker i min generation. 26 år gammel forlod han sit hjem og sin gravide kone i Gudhjem for at drage til Spanien, som frivillig i kampen mod Franco. Han kom aldrig tilbage.

Barnebarnet Laurits har nu lavet en film, hvor han rejser til Spanien for at finde ud, hvor morfaren kæmpede og faldt. Og til Bornholm for at finde ud af, hvem han var. Hverken han – Laurits – eller Ursula – GM-P’s datter som han aldrig så – har haft kontakt med enken Lisbeth, som stadig bor i Gudhjem i huset, som hendes mand forlod en morgen i slutningen af 1930’erne.

Laurits Munch-Petersen opsøger Lisbeth, som tøvende lukker ham ind og tilsvarende tøvende til sidst giver barnebarnet svar på nogle af hans spørgsmål om GM-P.

Parallelt dermed, og som ramme om hele historien, ses Laurits Munch-Petersen i samtale med en englænder på en bar i Spanien. Englænderen lever af at hjælpe familier med at finde ud af, hvor deres kære kæmpede og faldt.

Det lyder på papir som en spændende historie… men øv øv, trods store forventninger og sympati for filmens ærinde: Det er en kikser, som hopper ind og ud af alle tangenter, med scener som ikke får lov at stå så de får en følelsesmæssig effekt, det hele er smurt ind i musik fra ende til anden, klip fra surrealistiske film virker påklistrede, hvor de kunne have bragt mystik og poesi ind i fortællingen, og kunne der ikke have været en bedre måde at få Ole Sohn og andre til at placere GM-P som den fremragende kunstner han nåede at blive?

Oveni den allerede komplicerede fortællestruktur lægges at Laurits Munch-Petersen forlader sin gravide kone – som morfaren gjorde det – for at møde sin mormor – senere er han hjemme og til stede ved fødslen. OMG!

De bedste (iscenesatte) scener falder mod slutningen af filmen, optaget i Gudhjem nede ved klipperne, hvor mormor Lisbeth bader hver morgen, og i fuld fart i bil op ad hovedgadens bakke til købmanden… og i værelset hvor Laurits får mormor til at tage en lille æske frem med få af Gustafs ting, bl.a. hans fyldepen. Men mange af disse sceners intensitet bliver ødelagt af det ufølsomme klip.

En familiehistorie som aldrig får lov at folde sig ud, som mangler ro og flow og et fortællemæssigt fokus. Ærgerligt.

Danmark, 2015, 90 mins.

Filmen får premiere den 3. Juni i biografer landet over via DoxBio.

DocsBarcelona 2015 The Winners

It was a proud festival director Joan Gonzalez, who welcomed the audience to the final evening of the DocsBarcelona 2015 with the screening of Ivan Gergolet’s fine film about the 93 year old Maria Fux, ”Dancing With Maria”, followed by the award ceremony. He could mention that the audience attendance had grown with 17% from last year – ”more than 6000 viewers have enjoyed more than 40 documentaries…” – that the industry section had more than 600 guests introducing a speed meeting pitch format, where 40 projects had an average of 15 meetings scheduled. 15 minutes per meeting. Plus information meetings like ”what am I looking for” and Latin Pitch and rough cut screenings. I am sure I have forgotten something.

Anyway ”Tea Time” by Chilean Maite Alberdi got the TV3 Award for the best documentary while Joshua Oppenheimer’s ”The Look of Silence” took a speciel mention AND the Audience Award AND the Amnesty International Award! Again Signe Byrge Sørensen from Danish company Final Cut for Real played a main role at the Catalan festival, as she did two years ago with ”The Act of Killing”. By the way – the Spanish title of the film is beautiful, ”La Mirada del Silencio”.

The new talent Award went to local ”Game Over” by Alba Sotorra and the Docs & Teens Award to ”Mirant Amunt” (Glance Up) by Oriol Martinez and Enric Ribes.

The whole list, please consult:  

http://stat3.infoserv.dk/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=www.filmkommentaren.dk

DocsBarcelona Books Wine Alentejo Messi

A very special day at the festival! First step was a visit to the fabulous Libreria Altaïr where ”el vermut de los sábados” this weekend was dedicated to a conversation with the DocsBarcelona directors of ”The Final Stretch” (Oscar Perez), ”Bikes vs. Cars” (Fredrik Gertten), ”Beaverland” (Nicolas Molina & Antonio Luco) and ”Alentejo, Alentejo” (Sergio Tréfaut), followed by an informal drink at a place full of books with a nice small café connected. Altaïr is also an online travel magazine published six times per year.

Next stop was another one of festival director Joan Gonzalez (photo) crazy ideas: Why not combine ”Docs & Wine”, the title of a rendez-vous in a restaurant, where clips from five films were shown to be matched with the tasting of five different wines – what wine would be the best for that wine etc. Joyful event, indeed. The warm and sweet film ”Tea Time” goes with a Moscatell from Catalunya del Nord, right?

And then the most moving moment so far in a festival that has several full houses – this time for the film of Sergio Tréfaut ”Alentejo, Alentejo” that I wrote about in August 2014, a quote: …wonderful emotional journey into the history of ”cante”, its roots, its connection to the farming and cooking culture (you see how a bread soup is made, and how bread is baked and red wine is enjoyed) you are invited to enjoy the ”cante” singing by primarily male choirs constituted by Men with furrowed faces and well-fed stomachs, who make the most beautiful performances…

When the end credits of the film were running a local Catalan choir in white shirts went down to sing in front of the screen and director Tréfaut, who knew nothing. Several people in the audience stood up and joined the singing of revolutionary songs including the word ”companeros”. Yes, an initiative like this belongs to the celebration of documentary Cinema and in this case Sergio Tréfaut and his marvellous work!

Final step of an eventful day in a Barcelona city that was full of Basque football fans with red and white shirts and berets. It was said that 60.000 came to support the Athletic Bilbao playing against FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou. I watched the match at the home of Jordi Ambros, commissioning editor of TV3 Catalanya and a football connaisseur – and up we got three times to hug and celebrate the 3-1 to Barca with a goal from Messi to 1-0 that will go into football history. The match between the two clubs from Catalunya and the Basque country was equally a political manifestion. With the king Felipe at the stadium – the match was the final of Copa del Rey (The King’s Cup) – the supporters booed when the Spanish anthem was played with all the players lined up stone-faced and – as always on Camp Nou – you could hear the shouting of ”independencia” at the 17th minute of the match. The Spanish government in Madrid has already formulated a formal complaint letter to the Catalan government for the disrespect demonstrated. ”We will get our independance”, said Jordi Ambros to me on the way down to get a taxi after a memorable evening with him and his wife in the Gracia district.

www.docsbarcelona.com

 

 

DOKer Moscow Int. Documentary Film Festival/ 3

It was a happy producer, Signe Byrge Sørensen, who checked messages on her i-phone here in Barcelona to find out that Chilean/German Estephan Wagner’s beautiful documentary ”Last Dreams”, produced by Final Cut for Real, had got the Audience Award at the new DOKer festival in Moscow, a festival that attracted a big audience. This will hopefully mean that the film will travel to many other festivals and be picked up by tv stations. Here is the content description of ”Last Dreams”:

Last Dreams confronts us with the probably most engrained taboo in our society: dying. An intimate and delicate exploration of the last months of the lives, loves and regrets of three women, from the moment they arrive at a hospice until they draw their last breath.

The film intimately follows 3 women during their last month of life, from the moment they arrive at their hospice until they are gone. Through them we explore what it really means to get to the end of life in our culture; we are with them when they deal with the most important remaining issues in their life; we are present when they find words to say ‘Sorry’ or ‘I love you’.

http://www.midff.com/#!last-dreams/c2yd  

DocsBarcelona Danish Dynamite…

All right, a Dane writes about Danes, forgive me please – the photo is taken inside La Pedrera, one of Gaudi’s masterpieces in Barcelona where Signe Byrge Sørensen friday night held her masterclass giving around 40 people a personal insight to how she came to film from a strong political engagement and studies of life conditions in the developing countries. She showed clips from films shot in Africa, from the huge impressive work she co-directed with Danish master editor Janus Billeskov Jansen about disappearing languages of the world and from the two masterpieces “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence”, that later the same evening was shown at the festival with a Q&A session that ended after midnight. Only natural that one of the filmmakers present called Signe Byrge Sørensen a super-woman!

… and the two gentlemen on the photo, producer Mikkel Stolt to the left and director Jens Loftager were at the speed pitch meetings with what is going to be the third film in a trilogy that started with “Words” followed by “War” – and now “Faith”. The film project was chosen to be presented at the prestigious East European Forum in Prague next year in March.

To the right Martina Rogers, the young woman who stood behind all the industry activities at DocsBarcelona, indeed one more superwoman!

http://www.fenrisfilm.dk/news.html

www.docsbarcelona.com

 

DocsBarcelona Presents a Hero

He came into the cinema after the screening, the audience stood up and gave him a standing ovation after they had seen German Marcus Vetter’s portrait of him, ”The Forecaster”, alias Martin Armstrong or Marty as they call him in the film and as the audience called him at the 35 minutes long Question and Answer session in the Aribau Club cinema thursday night at DocsBarcelona.

”I am happy you are alive” was the first remark from a spectator among the around 100 people attending the screening, the first of two for a film that demonstrates a very fine cinematography and skills to tell the story about a man, who sat in jail for 12 years because of his fight against the bankers, to put it in a simple way. Another comment from a spectator: ”You are a hero, and I mean it!”. Marty did not act as a hero in the cinema, his appearance was that of a modest man, a fighter and now a man wanted by everyone to talk and advice. A couple of spectators brought up private economical questions – and got answers from Marty, who – according to his website – sees himself as one who offers public service to all of us, who have difficulties in understanding economy. After the screening people queued with their smartphones to have photos taken with ”el visionari”. 

Let me quote what the film is about through the precise text of the distributor Autlook Films: The story of finance whiz Martin Armstrong reads like a movie script: a man designs a model that can predict the future. He calculates developments in the world economy with eerie accuracy and even the outbreak of wars. Until the FBI is on his doorstep and he is sent to prison. A free man again, he shares his views on the financial crisis and offers his solutions to governments.

www.docsbarcelona.com

Rough Cuts at DocsBarcelona 2015/ 2

It’s wonderful when the ever perfect DocsBarcelona team makes a small mistake like the one on the photo announcing that the panelists of the Rough Cut Screenings that took place tuesday and wednesday were… yes, read for yourself. No, your moderator can assure you that a civilised and polite and constructive and critical tone was there all the time!

Rough Cuts at DocsBarcelona 2015

For some years I have had the pleasure to host an exclusivity at DocsBarcelona: Rough Cut screenings. And it is rough cuts that are being screened in their full duration to a panel of hand-picked documentary professionals in a relaxed sitting room setting, see photo, at the CCCB, one of the venues of the festival, for the professional events and with evening screenings.

3 rough cuts were presented – Colombian Clare Weiskopf and Nicolás van Hemelryck came with ”To the Amazon”, a project that was pitched at DocsBarcelona 2014 – Polish Wiktoria Szymanska launched ”Artur”, another title is ”Happiness on the Pavement” – American Christina Antonakos-Wallace put ”With Wings and Roots” on the screen. The sessions went on for around two hours, it was forbidden to talk money, these sessions are not for pitching but for getting creative input and constructive comments from the panel, and the filmmakers got that from
Jose Rodriguez from Tribeca Film Institute (USA). Louise Rosen from Louise Rosen Ltd. (USA), Charlotte Gry Madsen from SVT (Sweden), Gitte Hansen from First Hand Films (Switzerland), Joan Salvat from TV3 (Spain), Àlex Navarro from Europa Creativa Desk-MEDIA Catalunya  (Spain), Àngela Martínez Head of Audiovisual Department from CCCB (Spain) and Oscar Perez, director (Spain). A pleasure it was to moderate these sessions, and the filmmakers expressed that they liked it a lot.

www.docsbarcelona.com

DOKer Moscow Int. Documentary Film Festival/ 2

The winners of the MIDFFl Doker 2015 have been announced. The jury members (I was part of the one for feature duration documentaries) was working from their homes, the discussion, led by chairman Victor Kossakovsky, who demonstrated that he not only is a great filmmaker but also has diplomatic skills (!), went on via emails. Congratulations to the organisers for doing a new documentary film festival with a global vision – and a lot of people in the audience – see the photo. If you click on the titles below, you will get the descriptions of the film and get to the website of the festival: 

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

The Gleaners by Ye Zuyi (China, 94 min) – Best Feature

Documentary


Fish’R’Us by Maciej Glowinski (Poland, 58 min) – Best Director


The Silence of the Flies by Eliezer Arias (Venezuela, 90 min) – Best Cinematography


I Still Being by Javier Corcuera (Peru, 120 min) – Best Editing


Waves by Ahmed Nur (Egypt, 70 min) – Best Sound


Glance Up by Enric Ribes & Oriol Martinez (Spain, 60 min) – Special Mention

JURY:

Victor Kossakovsky (Russia, Head of Jury)

Tue Steen Muller (Denmark)

Mateusz Skalski (Poland)

Vassilis Economou (Greece)

SHORT DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Scars of Cambodia by Alexandre Liebert (France – Cambodia, 30 min) – Best Short Documentary 

A hole in the sky by Álex Lora & Antonio Tibaldi (France – Somalia, 10 min) – Special Mention

Black Sheep by Christian Cerami (United Kingdom, 16 min) – Special Mention

JURY:

Peter Kerekes (Slovakia, Head of Jury)

Pedro Fernandes Duarte (Portugal)

Aleksei Vakhrushev (Russia)

Anna Nieman (US)