carlthdreyer.dk

Sorry, your English language blogger goes national again… but he has to tell you that from today a website on the most esteemed Danish film director ever, Carl Th. Dreyer (1889-1968), is available. Go to the site address and check it out, and you will find an enormous amount of material to study further, collected and edited by clever people at the Danish Film Museum, one of the sections of DFI, the Danish Film Institute: articles, portraits, scripts, working method, workplaces – and clips and shorts and films about the director who made 14 features and 8 shorts. The English version of the site is not yet totally completed – as it is written: “we hope to see you again in a few days for the entire experience”.

Nevertheless, visit the site as it is now. I am sure that you will agree with me – educated a librarian in the last century – that this is an amazing piece of film historical work for film buffs all over. Words, documentation, articles, clips and full films. Use it!

Waiting for Godard

Our Paris correspondent has previously (search Godard) dedicated a posting to the one and only JLG, Jean-Luc Godard, whose ”Film Socialisme” was screened in Cannes. I found this clip from an overall festival article by Jason Solomons, The Observer, May 23:

The real gem wasn’t in competition but in the more experimental (and this year, dull) Un Certain Regard selection and it came from the grand master of the filmic game, Jean-Luc Godard, or JLG as he’s now known, like some kind of perfume (a whiff of bitterness, with top notes of genius).

Helped with production by fashionista Agnes B and using words (“textos”) credited to J Derrida, W Benjamin, S Beckett and W Shakespeare, among others, 79-year-old JLG’s avowed final work Film Socialisme was the freshest, coolest thing I saw, bursting with a new wave of anger and vitality, retooling once again the visual language of cinema.

Shot in astounding, crisp HD, it’s a fragmented collage of ideas and thoughts, beautifully pure graphics, scratched Dolby sounds and twisted images. He even plays with the convention of subtitles, merely placing English words along the bottom of the frame: “smile dismiss universe” or “destructive constructive”. At one point, a girl at a petrol station refuses “to talk to anyone who uses the verb to be”. Then a llama appears behind her. You want story? Forget it, but there’s plenty of meaning here as Godard swipes at European history, Palestine, Jews, bankers and the futility of language and the strictures of time. As the final credits simply say: NO COMMENT – and the old man didn’t show up for his Cannes press conference.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/may/23/cannes-godard-frears-loach

Lithuania: Classical Documentaries to be Digitized

Good news from one the most interesting countries for documentary cinema, Lithuania, whose post-independence documentaries have been and are awarded everywhere. Names like Sharunas Bartas, Audrius Stonys, Arunas Matelis, Rimantas Gruodis, Janina Lapinskaite and Giedre Beinoriute (photo from her 2005 film, Vulkanovka) do all owe their cinemaric skills to a grand tradition that now also soon may be shared by their fellow countrymen and film buffs elsewhere. Read the following:  

At the beginning of May, the Lithuanian Central State Archive started implementing a 30-month project called Lithuanian Documentaries on the Internet. The Archive has received support of approx. EUR 2.8 million from the EU. Digitization and online accessibility will help to preserve some 1000 titles that are part of Lithuanian documentary heritage.

The Lithuanian documentary heritage is not equally accessible to all Lithuanian people nor to the wider EU and world communities because few people can physically visit the Archive and use its documents. The project is oriented toward the creation, expansion and promotion of Lithuanian digital Internet content to users. During the project the Archive expects to digitize and transfer to the Internet 1000 titles of Lithuanian documentaries, created in the period 1919-1960. After the implementation of this project Lithuanian documentaries and information about them will be easily accessible. Every user would have the possibility to search digitized films and their metadata, to watch these films or to order digital film copies. Digitised Lithuanian national film heritage will be protected and preserved for current and future generations and knowledge of it will be available via the Internet for all possible users worldwide.

http://www.lfc.lt/en/

http://www.dokweb.net/cs/

http://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/news.php?area=News&pag=121

Z. Mirkovic: The Long Road Through Balkan History

… and it is a road movie that talented Zeljko Mirkovic has made. Informative and done in an unpretentious way, this tv documentary takes the viewer from Austria in the North to the border between Macedonia and Greece in the South. On the road are two writers, Miljenko Jergović from Croatia (in the driver’s seat) and Marko Vidojkovic from Serbia. They drive in a Yugo, the most popular car during the existence of Yugoslavia. Big men in a small car that breaks down a couple of times during the trip through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. A comedy frame to a subject-wise serious documentary.

They go to Bleiburg, where partisans in 1945 massacred thousands of fleeing ustashes – the Croatian, anti-Yugoslav fascist separatist movement. They go to Zagreb, talk to president Mesic about different issues including the eventual (impossible?) return of Serb citizens of Croatia to their homeland. They visit the birthplace of Tito as well as his mausoleum. They talk to different historians. Go to Vukovar, to witness the scars from the civil war. And to Belgrade to talk to, among others, writer and politician Vuk Draskovic to end up in Macedonia, where the population is said to be either Antic Macedonian or Slavic Macedonian.

It feels a bit too long, although it is all very lightly conveyed and informative, with short archive glimpses, and at a general level so also beginners of Balkan history will get something out of it. Must be good for education as well.

Serbia, 2010. 58 mins. (85 mins. film-version exists as well)

http://www.seetv-exchanges.com/code/navigate.php?Id=435

Janus Metz: Armadillo/5

The news agency AFP reports tonight from CANNES: A controversial Danish movie set in Afghanistan and a first feature from a Vietnamese director on Thursday scooped awards in Cannes’ Critics Week section…

“Armadillo”, about the growing cynicism and adrenaline addiction of young soldiers in the battlefield, won the top prize for Janus Metz. Shot on the Afghan front, it is the first documentary ever chosen to compete for the Critics’ Week prize. Described as a journey into soldiers’ minds, the movie made wars on the home front this week after showing Danish troops claiming to have “liquidated” Taleban fighters wounded in combat. The army has called for an inquiry after parliamentarians who saw it this week dubbed it “Denmark’s Vietnam.”

Janus Metz: Armadillo/4

Sund fornuft sejrede: ARMADILLO FÅR PREMIERE DEN 27. MAJ – 6 UGER FØR PLANLAGT. Klip fra pressemeddelelse: Siden den overvældende modtagelse ved verdenspremieren på filmfestivalen i Cannes har Armadillo været omtalt massivt i både danske og internationale medier. Filmen har fået omfattende ros og har sat gang i en ny debat om krigen i Afghanistan, men endnu er det kun danske pressefolk og udvalgte politikere der rent faktisk har set filmen. “Efter den massive mediedækning skylder vi danskerne, at de også selv får mulighed for at tage stilling til filmen – og ikke blot få andres holdning præsenteret gennem medierne. Derfor har vi valgt at sende filmen i biografen så hurtigt som muligt”, udtaler instruktør Janus Metz.

Filmkommentaren.dk (see below), and many others, found it stupid that the film Armadilo was set to premiere by July 8 at a moment where the Danish and foreign media praised the film and debated the Danish involvement in the war in Afghanistan. That has now been changed, of course, so the Danes can see the film. Premiere in a week, May 27.

Boris Bertram: Tankograd/2

Russian stories… why are they so attractive, why do they travel so well? Is it because we still know so little about this huge country and its Soviet past? Is it because their stories, like Tankograd, are so much more interesting in their dramatic, often tragic dimension that we are drawn to them – to get away from  our own tiny wellfare problems and meaningless media focus on politicians and their (lack of) behaviour? Probably. Or is it because Russians simply are so good for the camera with all their passion and extrovert gesticulation? Or their charm as Boris Bertram depicts so well in this film through the male dancer, who looks like a young Rudolf Nuruyev. And through his female counterpart, sweet and pretty as she stands there in the kitchen with her grandmother. Yes, I know that kitchen. I have seen it so often.

It is not my job to review the film – that is done by Allan Berg, see below – but I want to express my nostalgic pleasure of being taken back to places and situations that I have enjoyed so much in Russia and in the former Soviet republics, that I have visited after 1989/1990.

The small kitchen, the generously arranged dinner tables and the hospitality you meet so often, the vodka bottles, the apple juice that you need to accompany the vodka with to prevent a hangover, the totally worn down and dirty staircases, the small appartment rooms where families find their ways of sitting, eating and sleeping, the constant smoking of cigarettes, the grey appartment blocks… the brewing of coffee at the toilet (not in the film) because this was the only place left for the coffee machine… I have seen it in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Kiev, Minsk and St. Petersburg, and perfectly it is observed and conveyed in the film Tankograd. In many places – luckily – the living conditions have improved, in others not. But the art of survival is still performed within the warm atmosphere that I saw and recognised in Tankograd. 

Thierry Paladino: La Machina

I did not watch the final film yet but followed the film project, when it was developed at the Ex Oriente workshop in Czech Republic and when it was presented at the most important market place for new documentary projects, the idfa Forum in Amsterdam. Now it has won the Audience Prize at Planet Doc Review in Warsaw. Of course it has! The production company is Centrala Film, Poland in coproduction with Balibari Films, France. Thierry Paladino is French/Italian, educated at the Wajda film school in Warsaw. And one of the most talented filmmakers, I have met in the last few years. I have previously written about his short film, At the Datcha, on this site. Here is what his new film (91 mins.) is about, and from what I saw in a very rough cut stage, I would say ” with a flavour of both Renoir and Kiarostami”, and with a classical theme: the old man and the boy… without Michel Simon and Pierre Noiret, but introducing Sergio Dotti. Voilà, and watch out for it, it will go all over!:

Somewhere in the South of France a boy and an older man live: Sergio – a Master puppeteer and Adrien – his disciple. They will begin their journey for the first time this summer. They will meet cheerful and fascinating residents of colourful towns. “La machina” is a story of this travel, a story about the meetings, a story about a relation between the master and the disciple. Sergio Dotti is one of the last Master puppeteers in France. He lives in the South. Here, Nice is called Nissa. Once, after the show Sergio met a nine-year-old boy called Adrien. The boy had been so interested in the performance that he came back the following day to be in this magic world again. This summer, they will begin their journey together for the first time to discover the hospitable and picturesque area of Nice. Travelling from town to town, they will show the world of imagination to children and adults. Adrien, full of admiration and enthusiasm, may prove to be Sergio’s last disciple, the one who will take over his skills, the last one who may become a master one day.

http://www.dokweb.net/cs/

Photo: La Machina, fra optagelserne

Boris Bertram: Tankograd

Boris Bertram skildrer et ungt, russisk dansekompagni i Chelyabinsk og kombinerer det med en skildring af stemningen i den fordømt by til en stor elegi. Efter Danmarkspremieren kører filmen i Vester Vov Vov, København fra torsdag, 20. maj. Senere er der visninger i Odense, Café Biografen 28. maj 21:30 og i Århus, Øst for Paradis 29. maj 21:00. Begge disse visninger er efterfulgt af en koncert, Bichi meets Savery (Ghost Society, Blue Foundation), se filmens hjemmeside:

http://www.tankogradmovie.com/

Vi møder en i grundtrækkene klassisk bysymfoni. I rammen af en dag fra morgen til sengetid følges solodanseren Masha og hendes venner og kolleger i korte scener fra træningen frem til premieren på forestillingen, de arbejder med på deres berømte Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater. Men filmen skildrer også deres hjemmeliv i de små lejligheder i boligblokkene. Her er deres liv. Øvesalen, køkkenet og soveværelset, supermarkedet og så en gang imellem scenen i teatret, hvor det hele udlades. Forståelserne, længslerne, frigørelserne. Ellers er der fåmæltheden, neddæmpetheden.

Chelyabinsk er en deprimerende by, en tavs by med en frygtelig fortrængt viden. Den var tidligere central for udviklingen af Ruslands atombombeprogram. Indbyggerne oplevede en række ulykker med udslip af radioaktivitet. I 1957 kulminerede det med en voldsom eksplosion med tilsvarende forurening. Dertil kommer vistnok en mere end lemfældig omgang med atomaffaldet. Så jorden er giftig, floden er giftig, søerne er giftige, grundvandet er giftigt. Følgesygdommene er talrige og massive. Depressionen præger de unge dansere, præger alle andre i byen, bliver til langsomhed og stilfærdighed. Og således er Bertrams film, neddæmpet og inderst inde fortvivlet.

Det er morgen hos Masha og hendes kæreste. Kaffe, cigaret og nyheder på mobiltelefonen. Der er faktisk valg i dag, skal du hen og stemme? Nej, det tror jeg ikke. Nej, det skal jeg ikke. Jeg heller ikke. Filmen opstiller tre strategier for tackling af den fortvivlede situation i byen. Møder miljøkæmpere, men med de to unge ved morgenmaden lægges jo den politiske mulighed til side. Læger og det øvrige sundhedsvæsen besøges, lindres kan der måske, men ikke helbredes. Resignation, vi skal jo dø af et eller andet, men skal vi tænke på det hele tiden, er det uudholdeligt at leve, det er holdningen blandt indbyggerne. Derfor dansen, optagetheden på denne kunstneriske måde af sin egen krop og dens mulighed for udvidelse, for nye skønhedsudtryk. Så ikke udadvendtheden i politisk aktion og lægelig behandling og forebyggelse, men indadvendtheden, indbøjningen i sig selv, i sit helt eget bliver strategien, som vælges, strategien, filmen især skildrer. Og sandt at sige, de danser meget, meget smukt. 

Boris Bertram: Tankograd, Danmark 2009, 58 min. Manuskript: Boris Bertram, fotografi: Emil Noel, Magnus Nordenhof Jønck og Boris Bertram, klip: Charlotte Munch Bengtsen og Henrik Vincent Thiesen, musik:Tobias Wilner Bertram, Sara Savery og Vladimir Shainskiy + Ghost Society, lyd (sound design):Tobias Wilner Bertram, PeterAlbrechtsen og Thomas Jæger, produktion: Sara Stockmann og Anne Wivel, produceret af Barok Film www.barokfilm.dk

Janus Metz: Armadillo 3

Did you read the report from our Paris correspondent, Sara Thelle – see below. The core of the article is the hommage to wonderful Agnès Varda but Thelle also mentions the success of the Danish documentary, Armadillo, that not only filmkommentaren.dk but international press as well characterises as a strong and important work.

The film has for a couple of days hit the headlines in Danish newspapers and Danish politicians have queued to get on national tv to express their opinions about the ”Danish Vietnam” in Afghanistan as one politician expressed it.

Thelle reports that Parisian filmgoers can watch the film in Paris on June 5… the Danish audience has to wait until July 8! I am neither a marketing nor a film distribution expert but use some common sense, please, get the film on screen (and/or television) NOW when everybody talks about it. Right now – in Denmark – the situation is that a debate rolls about a film that very few people have had the chance to watch. So stupid!