Georges Franju

A great director, not very well known today, but for this film blogger his “Le Sang des betes” (1949, 22 mins.) from a slaughterhouse in the Parisian suburb, is a unique  masterpiece in the history of documentary films. The film can be bought through Aamazon or watched in different language version on YouTube. If you happen to be in Donostia late September, you will able to see more of Franju’s oeuvre. This is taken from the site of the festival in San Sebastian:

French filmmaker Georges Franju is to be the subject of one the retrospectives programmed for the 60th San Sebastian Festival to take place from 21-29 September 2012.

Georges Franju (12-4-1912 / 5-11-1987) was an enormously influential figure in French film culture. In 1936 he founded the Cinémathèque Française with Henri Langlois. His career as a director began in 1949 with documentaries, a field to which he contributed some of the greatest titles ever in the genre. His early works – Le Sang des bêtes, Hôtel des Invalides and En passant par la Lorraine – already demonstrated his particular talent for filming reality from unexpected angles, a trait leading in these testimonial films to a sensitivity akin to surrealism and expressionism.

Franju’s obsession with putting his finger on the inexpressible poetry of things through his lens stayed with him as he moved on to feature films with La Tête contre les murs (Head Against the Wall,1958), followed by Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face,1959), considered to be a masterpiece of fantasy film. His fascination with popular culture, with the feuilleton soap-operas and silent film serials, is clearly visible in movies like Pleins feux sur l’assassin (1960), Judex (1963) and Nuits rouges (1974), true exercises in style striving to recover the innocence of those old narrations of intrigue and mystery in an obvious vindication of film as visual, narrative pleasure. But Franju was also known for his skilful adaptations of classic literary works on which he unfailingly left his personal stamp: François Mauriac (Thérèse Desqueyroux / Therese, 1962), Émile Zola (La faute de l’Abbé Mouret / The Demise of Father Mouret, 1970), Joseph Conrad (La Ligne d’ombre, 1973) and Jean Cocteau (Thomas l’imposteur / Thomas the Imposter, 1964). Today unjustly forgotten, Franju’s work enjoyed great critical acclaim in its time and earned him the admiration of the young filmmakers of the nouvelle vague.

http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/

The Ambassador / Legal Actions from Liberia

It already created problems at the premiere at the idfa (Amsterdam) festival in November last year, and now Danish newspapers reveal a new controversy around the Danish documentary “The Ambassador” by Mads Brügger, who appears in his film as the diplomat, Mr. Cortzen. The website of EDN (European Documentary Network), in general a must-read site for documentary professionals, has made an excellent summary of the current case. Read it all, here is a quote:

… In his documentary The Ambassador, Mads Brügger dresses up as a neo-colonialist and sets off for the Central African Republic to impersonate the Liberian consul, a tittle he has bought himself into. Brügger sets up a match factory run by pygmies as a cover for his ambitions in diamond trafficking. But Brügger is really there to document how the power in the country is allotted and traded… The Liberian Government issued a press release on July 30, 2012 where the Government threatens to take legal actions against Mads Brügger. In the press release it is stated that:

“The Government of Liberia finds this action by Mr. Cortzen to not only be immoral but criminal and offensive to the government and people of Liberia. 

http://www.edn.dk/

Filmkommentaren First Five Years

Five years ago Allan Berg called me to pitch an idea he had: Should we make a film blog where we could express opinions and spread information on our common passion: Films. Allan (who lives in Randers in Denmark, whereas I live in Copenhagen, the two cities being 4 hours train distance from each other) organised what became filmkommentaren.dk with a local webbureau Infoserv that has the motto ”keep IT simple”. Which we have done, kept it simple: text + photo + links where our readers can find more info and clips and trailers. Ambition: an average of one text per day. All year round.

We decided that Allan should stay with Danish as his language for posted texts – I went for English, the language I use when teaching and tutoring around the world. For four years we got a generous 50-50 start and IT maintenance support from the local FOF (Denmark’s largest provider of adult liberal education) but no financial support from anyone. Well, once we applied to the DFI (Danish Film Institute) for a small help to cover the basic costs but got a no because ”there are so many film websites so that would make a precedent to support you”, words to that effect. So filmkommentaren.dk is totally con amore, and we have been happy to invite other Aficionados to post texts.

Here we are five years later, this text being blogpost/text number 2082. We have never really discussed editorial lines, we have written about what we wanted to write about: reviews, festival reports, notes, quotes from other media, comments, we have created smaller and bigger discussions. The focus has been the documentary film.

The first two texts were reviews of ”Forever” by Heddy Honigmann and ”Ghosts of Cité Soleil” by Asger Leth, that was back in August 2007, where we also wrote about Bergman and Antonioni, who died late July that year, and where we visited and covered the yearly documentary gathering of the DFI at the European Film College.

Statistics – We have had 96.521 visits in 2012 until this day, 39.351 so-called unique visitors. We are very happy for the interest. Thank you, readers!

Christian Braad Thomsen: Blues for Montmartre

Det er en rent ud bevægende film om et smultronställe, et sted at høre til. Det er en film om en personlig erindring om et sted i fortiden, som ikke er mere, men som så er her igen. Her i filmen. Redux. Og det mest bevægende er filmens bekendelse af en fejltagelse: musikeren på fotografiet, Ben Webster var dengang overvurderet af de andre, fordi han holdt fast i det fortidige, mens han, filmens fortæller, var interesseret i avant garden. Nu indser fortælleren / instruktøren, at Webster måske var den største, den vigtigste, selve indbegrebet af Copenheaven, det gamle Montmartre, det klassiske Montmartre. Og den dejlige film topper følgelig med afstnittet om ham, om Ben Webster, som spiller balladen og lige netop dette afgørende sted retter intensitetskurven op på denne blues. Tak for musikaliteten. Tak til klipperen. Tak til Grete Møldrup.  

Filmens fortæller er naturligvis Braad Thomsen selv, og han har, igen naturligvis, selv lagt stemme til. Christian Braad Thomsen skriver og læser nok en af de smukkeste fortællerstemmer i dansk film, en af de fire-fem, jeg kan tænke på i en sådan sammenligning. Jeg er så tryg, hver gang han åbner en af sine film med endnu en af sine fine fortællestemmer. Der sker undervejs somme tider det, at teksten svækkes, slår over i simpel humor, causerende afslapning eller anekdoter. Ja, det sker da også her, men det tilgiver jeg her, det gør jeg ikke andre steder. Det uforglemmelige afsnit med Webster retter også det op. Filmen får atter storhed.

For der er mange afsnit som det med den store musiker, der er dertil det ene fremragende interview efter det andet, monolitiske filminterviews som i Karen Blixen filmen, i Morten Korch filmen. De er en insisterende Braad Thomsen specialitet. Hvor er det godt, at han insisterer. Og fortsætter, fortsætter.

Christian Braad Thomsen: Blues for Montmartre, DK 2011, 83 min. Manuskript: Christian Braad Thomsen, fotografi: Steen Møller Rasmussen, klip: Grete Møldrup, produktion: Kollektiv Film, producer: Charlotte Vinter. Kan ses på Filmstriben.dk

DocsBarcelona 2013

Info to our film professional readers:

The 16th edition of DocsBarcelona will take place May 28 – June 2.

In other words, the event will be moved away from the freezingly cold weather in Barcelona in February 2012, where the 15th edition of DocsBarcelona took place, to a place in the calendar where films and film projects can be discussed in outdoor cafés – well there could even be outdoor screenings!? (And as I know from experience that many documentarians are football fans – Barca plays its last home game on Camp Nou, June 1st).

For the pitching part of DocsBarcelona the registration process will start on December 2012. The deadline to submit a project is April 4th 2013.

For the film festival part of DocsBarcelona it is important to mention that the festival does not hold an open call for entries. Each section has a programmer that makes his/her own selection. This film blogger is one of them, keep me informed!

Photo: Last year’s festival winner, ”At Night they Dance” by Canadian Isabelle Lavigne and 
Stéphane Thibault.

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/

DocLisboa 2012

The fine documentary festival in the capital of Portugal celebrates its 10th edition this year, October 18-28. There are changes in the direction, which is now a collective, and there are exciting novelties in the programme. Here is the press release from the festival sent out today:

Cinema of Urgency and Green Years are two new festival sections : Cinema of Urgency brings together films that document and witness events that challenge filmmakers to rethink cinema in terms of direct action and concrete exercise of citizenship. Green Years embraces a selection of films produced in the context of schools for video, film and audio-visual communication, as well as in post-graduate courses related to cinema and in particular to documentary film.

In its 10th edition, the doclisboa will present two retrospectives : United We Stand, Divided We Fall and Chantal Akerman.

United We Stand United We Fall, a retrospective programmed by Italian film curator Federico Rossin, will present collective films that emerged during the 1960s to 1980s and focuses on the moments in which the political and social struggle forced the reinvention of cinematic practice and the status of the author.

In partnership with the Portuguese Cinematheque – Film Museum, the doclisboa will host a full retrospective of Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, questioning documentary film and its relationship to other

cinematic and artistic practices.

The Festival includes as usual the sections International Competition, a selection of some of the best documentaries coming from all over the world, and National Competition presenting some of the best Portuguese documentaries completed during the last year.

In addition, the Festival counts with the sections Investigations (films that ask contemporary questions and explore cinema as a tool to investigate reality), New Visions (section curated by Augusto M. Seabra and projecting to challenge common categories and formats of documentary) and Heart Beat (section that proposes documentaries based on their relationship with music and the performing arts).

The complete schedule will be announced in September.

The new direction of the Festival, composed of Ana Jordão, Cinta Pelejà, Cíntia Gil and Susana de Sousa Dias (Photo), works as a collective understanding cinema as something to be shared and open to plurality, and is aware of the fact that organizing work collectively is at the same time a political statement.

http://www.doclisboa.org/2012/en/home/

Torben Skjødt Jensen: City Slang Redux

”… mørkladne firser-vibes og grynet sort-hvide film, der hiver publikum tilbage til et af de få rigtigt stolte øjeblikke i 1980’ernes danske musiklandskab,” skrev Grand Teater i København ved filmens premiere tilbage i marts i år. Den er derefter kommet på DVD og kan nu også ses på Filmstriben. Den stolte begivenhed fandt sted i 1984, det var udgivelsen af Lars H.U.G.’s plade på grundlag af Søren Ulrik Thomsens bog City Slang , som fulgtes af en turné og to teaterkoncerter. Disse koncerter optog Skjødt Jensen. Og så gemte han videobåndene i sit arkiv, som man må tro er temmelig stort og ret interessant. Skjødt Jensen er dokumentarist i alle betydninger af ordet.

Og han vælger så til titlen ordet redux = latin for at bringe tilbage, og som det i dag ofte bruges, om værker, for eksempel filmværker, som genskabes i restaureret og udvidet skikkelse. Her altså pladeudgivelsen City Slang og teaterkoncerterne, genskabt flot restaureret i en film og udvidet med nye, store interviews med Lars H.U.G. og Søren Ulrik Thomsen og med to af musikerne, som var med dengang, Finn Verwohlt og Kim Jansson, og det hele er med sikker hånd omgivet af filmisk vignetstof, af den drømmende slags, vi forbinder med Skjødt-Jensens film, så ikke kun pladen og forestillingerne, men selve den svundne tid og tidsånden midt i 80’er årtiet skildres og tilbageholdende klogt blandt meget andet diskuteres af Søren Ulrik Thomsen, som så tilfredsstillende i lighed med de tre andre medvirkende har rigtig god plads, ligesom musikstykkerne er lagt ind i deres fulde længde. Forbilledligt.

Dokumentaristen Torben Skjødt Jensen registrerer og gemmer, som en dokumentarist selvfølgelig skal, men han gør hver gang noget mere: han revitaliserer arkiverne. I hans flittige produktion falder en stor del af værkerne i tre store blogge: 1) byessays, alle med tekst af en brømt forfatter: Flâneur 1-3 (Firenze / Calvino, i nummer to Clermont-Ferrand / Baudelaire og i den tredje Paris / Benjamin) samt i Wayfarer Randers / Seeberg), 1993-1998, 2) biografiske skildringer som It’s A Blue World / Lerfeldt, 1990, Carl Th. Dreyer, 1995, Den grimme dreng / Ole Ege, 1996, Simons film / Simon Spies, 1999, Den talende muse / Asta Nielsen, 2003, Afgrunden / Asta Nielsen og 3) kulturhistoriske undersøgelser, især tv-dokumentarer, blandt andre Som et strejf  / dansk rockmusik gennem år, 1993 og sammen med Ghita Beckendorff Tugt og utugt 1-2, 2001.

City Slang Redux er således på plads i den tredje gruppe som en kulturhistorisk undersøgelse og en æstetisk refeksion over et ”øjeblik i 80’ernes musiklandskab”, som havde stor betydning i sin tid og som kaster betydning af sig frem til nu, bare forløbigt.

Torben Skjødt Jensen: City Slang Redux, DK 2011, 80 min. Manuskript og fotografi: Torben Skjødt Jensen, medvirkende: Lars H.U.G., Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Finn Verwohlt og Kim Jansson. Filmen kan ses på Filmstriben.dk Disse af de nævnte film kan også ses på Filmstriben: Tugt og utugt 1, Tugt og utugt 2, Den talende muse og Afgrunden. Og disse film blandt de nævnte kan bestilles på Bibliotek.dk (på VHS eller DVD): Som et strejf, It’s a blue world, Den grimme dreng, Simons film, Tugt og utugt 1+2, Afgrunden, Den talende muse, Carl Th. Dreyer, Flâneur 1-3.

FIFIG

… yes, what does that stand for? The answer is Festival International du Film Insulaire, taking place on the island of Groix that lies in France in Brittany. From August 22 to 26 the 12th edition of this festival takes place with, as the name indicates, a focus on films on and from islands, all film genres included as well as concerts, exhibitions and debates. Regret to say that I had never heard about the festival before I – due to Marie-Clémence and César Paës – ran into two of the organisers last December in Paris. The catalogue is out now – you can download it via the website – and it is not only very beautiful to look at, the cinematic content is impressive, including the premiere of the new film of above mentioned couple Paës behind Laterit Productions (“Mahaleo” and “Saudade du Futuro”), “L’Opéra du bout du monde”. Here is the introduction of the organisers to this pearl of a festival:

À chaque édition une nouvelle destination. Nous avons ainsi abordé par le passé des îles des quatre coins du monde, de Madagascar à l’Islande, de Cuba à la Nouvelle Calédonie en passant par les Marquises, le Sri Lanka, le Cap Vert et bien d’autres encore.

Cette année nous avons choisi de partir dans l’Arctique, à la rencontre des Inuit du Nunavut et du Groenland. Nous avons choisi ces destinations pour leur Histoire commune, celle des Inuit, de la sédentarisation, des effets du réchauffement climatique, du choc des générations et de la difficulté d’allier tradition et modernité. L’Arctique en a fasciné plus d’un, des chercheurs, des aventuriers, des réalisateurs, et aujourd’hui c’est notre festival qui s’y intéresse avec l’envie de partager, ici à Port Lay, leur culture et leur Histoire.

Si nous consacrons une large partie de notre programmation à nos invités de l’Arctique, nous n’oublions pas pour autant les îles du monde entier qui sont au cœur de notre thématique depuis les débuts de notre festival.

PS. The other day one of the organisers – like so many rightfully did – Chris Marker, whose “Sans Soleil” was screened at the festival in 2005.

http://www.filminsulaire.com

http://www.laterit.fr/index.php?lg=en&page=catalogue

Chris Marker (1921-2012)

Chris Marker died today, filmkommentaren has written far too little about him, but here is a quote from the obituary of today in Guardian, please read the whole article and below also two links to what we have written about him, in English and Danish:

“The essay film, a form pitched between documentary and personal reflection, exploring the subjectivity of the cinematic perspective, has now become an accepted genre. Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet,Jean-Luc Godard, Errol Morris and Michael Moore are among its main recent exponents, but Chris Marker, who has died aged 91, was credited with inventing the form.

Marker’s creative use of sound, images and text in his poetic, political and philosophical documentaries made him one of the most inventive of film-makers. They looked forward to what is called “the new documentary”, but also looked back to the literary essay in the tradition of Michel de Montaigne. Marker’s interests lay in transitional societies – “life in the process of becoming history,” as he put it. How do various cultures perceive and sustain themselves and each other in the increasingly intermingled modern world?”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jul/30/chris-marker

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/234/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/231/