Thomas Danielsson: Troell’s magic mirror

Igen en vigtig nyhed fra Filmstriben.dk: “Troells troldspejl”. Så opmærksomt koordineret med Troells “Eva Larssons evige øjeblik” har Danielsson fået sin film om og med Jan Troell færdig og ud, så den kan bruges på visse skoler og ses på enkelte biblioteker, som abbonnerer på denne netadgang. Tue Steen Müller så den under CPH:DOX ved et arrangement med Jan Troell. Han skrev 11. november her på siden blandt andet:

“…This first part opened with the film about Troell, “Troell’s magic mirror” by Swedish Thomas Danielsson. Sympathetic it is – even if it sometimes feels a bit messy as it wants to have too much information conveyed within the hour it lasts. But you love every little word Troell says, this modest lyrical observer of the world we live in.”

Jeg har det som Tue. Timen forekommer at være alt for kort til dette store og mærkeligt nærværende og gribende materiale, som truer med at sprænge rammen…

Jeg har det som Tue. Timen forekommer at være alt for kort til dette store og mærkeligt nærværende og gribende materiale, som truer med at sprænge rammen…som klipperen Ghita Beckendorff sammen med Danielsson netop så kompetent og resolut administrerer lyrisk i Troells ånd (og lyrik kan jo virke rodet for os, vænnede som vi er til historierne, de episke herfra og dertil). Som den på mange måder tilsvarende, med digteren kongeniale, klipning, som Beckendorff lavede af Lars Johanssons: “Højholt”. Gang på gang griber jeg mig undervejs igennem filmen i at ønske inderligt, at Instruktør og klipper holder lige dén scene lidt længere. Men naturligvis nej, det tillader skanderingen ikke. Til gengæld får jeg, da jeg igen kan trække vejret, denne helstøbte fornemmelse af rigt værk, får den foræret. Og jeg får staks lyst til at se den igen. Det er en smuk film.

Og den handler om det smukke, som jo er det sande, som fotografen lærer Maria -Larsson, og som Jan Troell undersøgte hos Georg Oddner i sin film fra 2002 “Nærvær”. Tue og jeg havde en samtale vi ikke glemmer, og som vi skrev om, så godt vi kunne: “… det er jo den måde jeg gerne vil lave film på, også spillefilm. Jeg håber på, at der sker noget.” Som Hitchcocks fortograf med benet i gips, som Dvortsevoy, der venter og venter, mens barnet på gulvet spiser. Og hver gang sker der noget, noget sandt.   

Denmark, 2008. 59 min. Production and distribution Final Cut Productions, Copenhagen finalcut@final-cut.dk  http://www.filmstriben.dk/ 

Jan Troell: Nærvær (Presence), 2002. Produktion og distribution: Athena Film, Stockholm http://www.athenafilm.se/english.asp   info@athenafilm.se  

Litt.: Tue Steen Müller og Allan Berg Nielsen: Nu æder lyset sig ind i sølvet, samtale med Jan Troell, FILM #30, 2003 http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/30/nuaederlysetsig.htm

Dainis Klava: Aigi (Time)

Trying to understand what is going on in the world takes a lot of time. These banal but wise words come from the old reindeer herder, who is the character of this visually strong reflection on time in an isolated area in the North where the Samis live. You never see him talk to the camera, the narrative construction is built like one long monologue of the reindeer herder accompanied by stunning scenes of the landscapes and from the life of the reindeers. Winter, spring, summer, autumn. Snow melting for the spring when the calves are born. Snowmobiles. Reparing the houses in summer time. Fishing. Training with the family in lasso’ing. Visit from researchers in culture and climate. And the continous return of the missile question, those being fired from the land areas of the reindeer and their herders. If they are dangerous or not, the Sami protagonist does not conclude, it seems like he has decided that this is how it is, we can live with that, and we may even re-use some of the remaining rests from the missiles when they land on our fields. There will always be reinder raising.

Good for your soul to watch a film like this. Reflective, beautiful to build a story like this far away from urban structures. Refraining from any romanticising of Sami life or making it an exotic tourist tour.

Latvia/Estonia, 2008, 52/26 mins. (I saw the 52 mins. Version)

www.vfs.lv

Werner Herzog Retro in Paris

Le Monde (11.12.08) includes an interview with Werner Herzog to announce the big retrospective of the German master and his around 50 films. The series run from December 10 to March 2 2009.

He says nothing specific new in this interview but can not refrain from a new provocative remark. Last time it was the documentary cinema vérité people who was hit by the Herzogían anger, this time it is his generation peers Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Schroeter, who are characterised as ”petits bourgeois” with no connection to Herzog himself.

Photo: From the documentary masterpiece ”Little Dieter Needs to Fly”.

… I am sorry but in the complicated (= bureaucratic) website of Centre Pompidou I cant find the day-by-day mention of the retrospective. Try other sources, please.

Katrine Østlund Jacobsen: Aftaler med Gud

Filmen er en af nyhederne på Filmstriben.dk og den blev vist i MandagsDokumentaren for nogen tid siden. Ebbe Preisler noterede efter visningen i sine meddelelser, at publikum stillede instruktøren en lang række spørgsmål om hendes “meget rene og ukunstlede film”, som netop er “langt fra at være et nyfigent portræt af en eksotisk person…”  Preisler havde forinden skrevet om den i MandagsDokumentarens katalog: 

“Hovedpersonen er en dansk komtesse, Antonia Holstein-Ledreborg, der blev religiøst vakt under en pilgrimsrejse i Jugoslavien og dernæst valgte en tilværelse som katolsk nonne i Paris. Filmen skildrer blandt andet bønnens betydning og afkaldets dilemma. Der er en stor ro og ulmende skønhed i filmen, men også en nærhed og intimitet, der det svært tilgængelige tilgængeligt. Man forstår den dragning mod det katolske univers, som næres af det materielle og det sanselige og ikke kun af akademiske sysler.”

Agreements with God: Synopsis in English: “The film is an essay about faith and prayer as told by the Danish novice Antonia Holstein-Ledreborg on her continuous path to her appointment with God…

… “The film is an essay about faith and prayer as told by the Danish novice Antonia Holstein-Ledreborg on her continuous path to her appointment with God. Brought up on a Danish manor as a Roman Catholic and later religiously roused during a pilgrimage in Yugoslavia, she applies for reception in a religious order which has its principal convent on a river boat in Paris.

It is in this city of temptation and vanity that she, surrounded by the urban bustle and in great inner calm, in a continuous prayer’s conversation with God right now is preparing herself to take the final vow, the vow of renunciation, and to come to terms with, also with the consequences, of her consumated entry into the life of a nun.

In flashbacks, the film offers us glimpses of her childhood paradise and lets us follow her preparations to the day when she dedicates her life to Jesus and walks into the future with the ring on her finger.” (Wake Film site)

Denmark, 2007. 28 min. Production and distribution: Wake Film. http://www.wake.dk/wf.lasso?n=746 Tilgængelig i Danmark på www.filmstriben.dk

Anders Østergaard: Burma-VJ

… that has the subtitle, ”reporting from a closed country” is content-wise a totally shocking experience. There you are in the middle of a military brutality that is filmed by courageous video journalists, who know that a documentation like this can only be done by them, and not by the foreign news teams that get into the country. And the reason why it touches you so much, is the stylistical approach that Østergaard has chosen. In an unsentimental, almost cool tone, he builds a story with a main vj character who is a kind of executive producer for all the cameramen, who turn up whenever there are demonstrations, most of the time with hidden cameras, and constantly reporting back by mobile phone on what happens. A drama is created through a classical dramaturgical structure but there is space left for the audience to think about what is shown.

We know many of these shootings before from the tv news, but here they are put into a context of a well told story that will catch the attention of an audience all over the world. A cry for help!

The film won first prizes at cph:dox and idfa 2008.

Danish journalist Lars Movin has interviewed the director and his editor, veteran master Janus Billeskov Jansen in the English language magazine ”Film”. A very interesting inside to the story of the film.  

http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/64/burma.htm
http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/64/burmabilleskov.htm

Andrej Tarkovskij: Offeret

“…Die Gegenfigur Adelaides ist die demütig-bescheidene, stets schüchtern und unsicher wirkende Maria, die im Haus Alexanders ihren Dienst als Zugehfrau versieht. Zwischen ihr und dem Hausherrn scheint zunächst keine Annäherung möglich – wie sollte sie auch? Dann aber kommt es zu jener nächtlichen Begegnung, nach der Alexander nicht mehr so weiterleben kann wie zuvor: Angesichts der bevorstehenden Katastrophe erfährt er die Liebe zu dieser einfachen Frau wie ein Geschenk Gottes, das sein ganzes Schicksal rechtfertigt. Das Wunder, dessen er inne wird, verwandelt ihn..” (Andrej Tarkovskij 1984)

“…Die Gegenfigur Adelaides ist die demütig-bescheidene, stets schüchtern und unsicher wirkende Maria, die im Haus Alexanders ihren Dienst als Zugehfrau versieht. Zwischen ihr und dem Hausherrn scheint zunächst keine Annäherung möglich – wie sollte sie auch? Dann aber kommt es zu jener nächtlichen Begegnung, nach der Alexander nicht mehr so weiterleben kann wie zuvor: Angesichts der bevorstehenden Katastrophe erfährt er die Liebe zu dieser einfachen Frau wie ein Geschenk Gottes, das sein ganzes Schicksal rechtfertigt. Das Wunder, dessen er inne wird, verwandelt ihn..” (Andrej Tarkovskij 1984)

Forleden aften så jeg Tarkovskijs “Offeret” og er ikke ved mig selv endnu.. Det er Bergmans og Watkins angst (“Skammen” og “Wargame”), det er Strindbergs (eller Ibsens måske?) kammerspil. Nej, rettere, det er figurerne i stuerne på en af Tjekhovs herregårde. (Jeg farer vild i mine associationer..) Det er Tarkovskijs naive kristentro og russiske strenghed og ordløse erotik.

Dvd-erne gør det muligt! Mestrenes samlede værker. Jeg har den senere tid set Jon Bang Carlsens film (de fleste dog på VHS) og er i gang med Jørgen Leths film og har Herzog, Godard og altså Tarkovskij på programmet. Ser så mange film som muligt, læser hvad jeg kan overkomme. I roligt tempo, for det er vældige gensyn og store møder, dvd-kulturen har åbnet mulighed for. “Offeret” havde jeg for eksempel ikke set før nu. Jeg kendte filmen gennem klipperen Michal Leszczylowskis dokumentarfilm “Regi Andrei Tarkovskij” med skildringen af instruktørens arbejde på optagelserne. Den film er i øvrigt på dvd-udgaven med som bonus. 

Andrej Tarkovskij Collection 1-6. Remasteret, med danske undertekster. Another World Entertainment, 2008. I boghandler og videobutikker, kan dog ikke ses på bibliotek.dk endnu, men flere af de andre kan lånes på biblioteket, ser det ud til. Jeg er ved at prøve det af.

Litt.: Peter Schepelern i Ekko #41, maj 2008 (anmeldelse af dvd-udgaven). Andrej Tarkowskij: Die vesiegelte Zeit, 1984, ny udgave 2000.  

Helena Trestikova: René

Am I just an object of study for you, René asks Helena, the director of the film, in one of their numerous conversations during the 20 years, she has followed the child/the youngster/theman René, who spends most of his life time behind bars sentenced for robberies. Nobody is never only an object, she responds, and indeed the film gives you the impression that she helps him strongly financially and supports him in the organising of his career as a writer, who gets his books published. He has a lot to thank Helena for, and he does so in the film.

However, the film loses its truthfulness as the director does not reflect on her own role towards René. He is quite open about himself, but we dont hear how she must have been trying to get him out of the disastrous life he leads – or about her general relationship to him. She has opinions about this, I am sure, I was maybe in love with you, René says at a certain moment… She must have felt this, but it is not in the narrative. Or how did she feel when he robbed her flat! In other words she stays at a distance as an anonymous voice behind the camera. A wrong choice I think. No doubts, no feelings about this constant filming a man in trouble, she insists on studying him, as he said. And she receives a lot of ”Dear Helena…” letters.

She does that with a lot of empathy, absolutely, it is – as the Germans would have said – ”eine Dokumentation” of a life of a human being, who had a bad childhood and never made it to be ”a useful member of society” as he phrases it himself, ”sinking lower and lower”. But we did not get the whole story.

Czech Republic, 2008, 83 mins.

EFA Documentary Award as Best European Documentary. First Prize at DOKLeipzig.

EFA – Sergey Dvortsevoy, Documentary

Sergey Dvortsevoy thinks it is important to reflect on WHY you make documentaries, well film in general. He started late as a filmmaker, he made ”Paradise”, ”Bread Day”, ”Highway”, ”In the Dark” and now ”Tulpan”, the latter a film with actors, nominated for a Discovery Prize af the EFA last night in Copenhagen… as if this brilliant filmmaker had not been discovered before due to his excellent documentaries. There are too many superficial films, he says, you have to go deep, you must have something important to say.The camera can´t think, all starts up here, he says and points at his forehead.

I met him at the Radisson lobby, a happy man, fluent in English contrary to 10 years ago when he came to Copenhagen with ”Paradise” – but expressing the same spontaneous, almost childish joy out of the fact that his new film from Kazahkstan, that took him four years to make, is going very well on festivals, winning prizes to support the director and his family. And with the coming cinema release in several countries.

I went away from documentaries, he said, because of moral problems. I thought I could not any longer make art out of tragedies… I interrupted him, but ”Paradise” is not a tragedy… For you and me, maybe not, but the main character of this small film got a lot of problems from the authorities after the film. How can you allow someone to film a woman washing her hair without shampoo, why do you only show the bad sides of our country and so on so forth. You make us look stupid, they said… The new film with actors and a script that the director followed 20% (!) is also having problems, but they are actors and the audience knows that. Food for thought. His ”Tulpan” is not yet available on dvd.

Photo: The unique scene in “Paradise”, the child that eats.

EFA and Copenhagen and Documentary

Below – in Danish – a critical text about yesterday’s broadcast produced by DR, our public broadcaster in Denmark. Today I met some of the participants at the party for European films, organised by European Film Academy, EFA. They had a good time last night and thought well of the Danish presenter, Mikael Bertelsen. Wish we had a man like that in our country, a Swiss film director said.

All right, but it does not make the Danish broadcast better… If the French/German works, you can check for yourself, those of you who can watch Arte tomorrow, monday night. ZDF/Arte’s fine Hans-Robert Eisenhauer told me that a 90 mins. version commented by himself will go on Arte and on the question if the documentary prize clip would go out (DR transmitted the whole 2 hours), he said NO.

Nevertheless there is big reason to blame EFA for giving documentary very low priority. The nominations for the documentary prize are made a long time before the ceremony, the winner, this year René by Czech Helena Trestikova, is appointed before the ceremony, unlike the other prizes, apparently because the EFA does not want to fly in the documentary nominees. For financial reasons? This prizegiving is something that needs to be done quickly so we can get to the real thing: the feature films. Many will say, the same old story, documentaries are not valued, and right they are. Nevertheless something needs to be changed, film director Arunas Matelis said to me. Next year in Vilnius, when the city is Cultural Capital of Europe, we want to bring nominees and documentary ceremony into the spotlight. I have talked to EFA about this. Wish him all the best luck!

http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/

Europæisk Film-Prisuddeling på DR/TV

Jeg vidste jo godt, at det ville være umuligt for DR/TV at hylde europæisk film på en værdig måde. Jeg vidste, at Mikael Bertelsen ville være mindre plat end de sædvanlige presenters, og han havde også flere fine indslag, som mindede os om det talent, han udfoldede i ”Den 11.time”. Han kan improvisere og løfte absurditeten ud af et sådant arrangement, hvor kameraer rettes mod mennesker ved borde med rødvin i glasset og rouge på kinderne. Men han overspillede også sin rolle, der var mange pinlige øjeblikke, hvor tæer blev krummet. Tekniske fejl, indstuderede gimmicks, der var gættet længe før de fandt sted.  Og – for at være en smule sprogroyal – dumsmarte bemærkninger.

Da filmkommentaren.dk i høj grad sætter fokus på dokumentarfilm og auteurfilm, var det pinligt interessant at lytte til de to sidekommentatorer, Adrian Hughes og Per Juul Carlsen. Specielt den sidste, som sad der for at give seerne faglig besked, krukkede med ikke at vide noget om dokumentarfilmen, der skulle vinde. Jeg checkede på wikipedia, hvor jeg selv er nævnt, sagde Carlsen, men den var der ikke. Han henviste til ”Réne” af Helena Trestikova, som Carlsen kunne have set i biografen i ugen op til festen eller på cph:dox eller han kunne have fået en dvd til gennemsyn.

Dårlig forberedelse pakkes ind i at ”nu er vi da også helt ude i ekstremerne”, som Hughes sagde flere gange og afbrød, hvad der skete på scenen og nu er det hende der den tjekkiske skuespiller, der taler om kritikernes pris, som også normalt er sådan en mærkelig film. Carlsen mente i øvrigt også det var forkert, at man i Europa i denne sammenhæng satser så meget på ”auteur”film, når det er Hollywood, man skal slå…  Sådanne prisoverrækkelser er født til at give dårligt tv, jeg ved det, man kan gå til og fra, men trods alt forvente at folk ved, hvad de taler om.

Plakatbillede fra den italienske film “Gomorra” (omtalt her tidligere).