Baltic Sea Forum 2018

It’s a classic, this documentary event in Riga, Latvia. I am proud to say that I have been part of it since the beginning. An event that has nurtured my love to the Baltic documentary cinema. Here is a brief from the website on the history:

The Baltic Sea Forum took place for the first time in 1997 in Denmark, initially it was a Danish initiative for the Baltic countries, Poland and the western part of Russia. It continued to be a Danish initiative until 2001 and then, as the Baltic countries were on their way to enter the European Union, the Danish government decided to let Latvian organizations continue this adventure. At the beginning of this “second phase”, the Baltic Sea Forum was a travelling event through the Baltic countries, but since 2005 it always takes place in Riga…

24 projects have been selected for the 2018 edition, reflecting indeed the social and political situation in the region. See the link below.

One of the projects to be presented is by talented Tatiana Soboleva, whose films, first of all “The Floating Hospital” I have written about/praised on this site. The new film to be presented is called “The Russian Way” (PHOTO) and the description goes like this:

After twenty five years spent abroad, Natalya comes back to Russia and tries to change the life in her native village by using European experience. Her attempts are not approved by the local authorities and makes her neighbors fear…

http://balticseadocs.lv/

Ingmar Bergman 100 år /5

Jane Magnussons Bergman – Et år, et liv er et dramatisk kunstnerportræt om omkostningerne ved at satse hele livet på kunsten… (Kim Skotte)

 

DOKUMENTARFILMINSTRUKTØR

Så kom de danske anmeldelser af filmen, jeg sådan glæder mig til, Jane Magnussens dokumentarfilm om Ingmar Bergmans liv (og måske også hans værk, det er stadigvæk lidt uklart for mig), men i dag har den premiere i en række biografer (desværre ikke også i min by) og så får de udvalgte se. Jeg selv prøver at følge lidt med i anmeldelserne, og i mine aviser i dag finder jeg to. De er naturligvis begge mest optaget af Ingmar Bergman og dokumentarfilmens belysninger af de fortrinsvis mere udvendige sider af hans biografi, ikke så meget af dens behandling af det kunstneriske indhold i hans værker, i teateropsætningerne, fjernsynsproduktionerne, bøgerne og filmene.

Heller ikke dokumentarfilminstruktøren Jane Magnusson journalistiske / cinematografiske kunst er i fokus i de to tekster, til trods for hun må siges at være hovedpersonen. Ikke Bergman for så vidt, men hun har premiere i dag. Der er dog i konklusionerne blevet plads til at kommentere hendes arbejde. Jeg skriver lige lidt af fra disse afsnit:

Fra Caspar Vangs anmeldelse i Randers Amtsavis (Kultur, JF Medier) til 4 af 6 stjerner disse citater:

”Med fornemt overblik og konstant pendulering tilbage til skæbneåret 1957 fortæller Magnussen historien om den store svenske filmskaber, mens der sættes spørgsmålstegn ved, hvor meget der i virkeligheden er selviscenesættelse. Uden at der rokkes ved Bergmans status som kunstnerisk ikon og svensk films mægtigste skikkelse.

Det kan diskuteres om dele af ’Bergman’ fremstår som selvfølgelige og unødvendige som fx de afsnuppede interviewbidder, hvor nutidige filmskabere uden de fjerneste nuancer skamroser manden til skyerne, men overordnet sige, at Magnusson kommer flot omkring manden og myten Bergman. Man får lyst til at gense en masse film…”

Fra Kim Skottes helsidetekst i Politiken til 5 af 6 hjerter denne konklusion:

”Bergman – et år, et liv er et dramatisk kunstnerportræt om omkostningerne ved at satse hele livet på kunsten. Bergman nåede helt ind til veddets hårde kerne ved ’at bruge sig selv som både træ og økse’, som han selv udtrykte det. Han var nådesløs over for sig selv og andre, når først filmens magiske sjælelampe blev tændt. Når han arbejdede, var der ingen pardon, og arbejdsnarkomanen Bergman arbejdede altid.

Jane Magnussen har med svenske nøglevidner lavet en på mange måder fremragende film om Ingmar Bergman. Desværre har hun også skullet markere 100-året, så berømtheder fra Barbara Streisand til Zhang Yimou og Lars von Trier bliver luftet for at minde om, at Bergman også internationalt var en gigant.

I en film, der ellers ikke mangler bid, er disse ligegyldighedr som at blive bidt i benet af en tandløs hund. Heldigvis fylder denne logren ikke voldsomt i det samlede billede.

Jane Magnusson: Bergman – Et år, et liv, Sverige 2018, 117 min. Medvirkende: Ingmar Bergman, Lena Endre, Thorsten Flinck, Elliott Gould, Barbra Streisand, Lars Von Trier.

Biografpremiere I DAG torsdag den 12. juli i Grand Teatret og Dagmar NFB, København, i Bibliografen, Bagsværd, i Reprise Teatret, Holte, i Humle Bio, Humlebæk, Nicolai Biograf & Cafe, Kolding, i Biffen, Aalborg, i Øst For Paradis, Aarhus og i Cafebiografen, Odense.

https://biograf.blog/2018/06/01/bergman-et-aar-et-liv/ (Synopsis and NB trailer. Dansk og svensk)

Mansky Wins in Karlovy Vary

The winner of the documentary competition at the festival in Karlovy Vary was – no surprise – “Putin’s Witnesses”, which I did not manage to watch while at the Czech festival, that had – according to competent sources – a good documentary section. I take a bite of the review at Cineeuropa, written by Vladan Petkovic:

…With Mansky’s approach, the film might as well have been titled Putin and I, as his closeness to the Russian ruler during that period provides for unprecedented access and remarkable insight. You would be hard pushed to find such intimate and close-up footage of the president in his early days elsewhere. But what Mansky does best here is showing us the reasons for Putin’s popularity and detailing his rise and gradual evolution into the autocrat that he is today. While the president will still essentially remain a mystery to us mere mortals, Mansky’s film brings us much closer to him than, say, Oliver Stone‘s panegyric The Putin Interviews..

http://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/356761

Ingmar Bergman 100 år /4

Jane Magnussons Bergman – Et år, et liv skildrer hele mennesket Bergman – alle hans sider…


PRIVATLIV

Det drejer sig om hele mennesket Bergman forstår jeg på pressemeddelelsen, jeg håber det også drejer sig om hans film, teateropsætninger, tv-produktioner og forfattervirksomhed, altså Bergmans hele værk og dets indhold. Jeg har ikke set filmen, så jeg ved det ikke, men jeg glæder mig meget, rigtig meget. Og jeg forbereder mig lidt ved at læse, hvad jeg sådan lige her og nu kan finde om Magnusson og hendes film. Først altså fra biograf.blog pressemeddelelsens synopsis:

”Jane Magnusson har med filmen forsøgt at portrættere HELE mennesket Bergman – alle hans sider. Både de fantastiske og de mindre flatterende for at forstå denne store kunstner endnu bedre. Filmen tager sit udgangspunkt i 1957, hvor Ingmar Bergman fik sit store gennembrud. 1957 var året, hvor Bergman var allermest produktiv – han lavede to spillefilm, havde premiere på ”Det syvende sejl” og ”Ved vejs ende”, stod bag fire teateropsætninger, en TV film, havde seks børn med tre forskellige kvinder, og der skete samtidig en masse andre vigtige ting i hans liv. Ingmar Bergman betragtes af mange som en af verdens absolut største kunstnere i moderne tid, først og fremmest indenfor film og ikke mindst ved Cannes Film Festival efter gentagne triumfer. Bergman – Et år, et liv havde sin verdenspremiere på ”Bergman – Et år, et liv” havde sin verdenspremiere på Cannes Film Festival i år.”

Dernæst læser jeg altså så anmeldelser fra Cannes deltagelsen. I The Hollywood Reporter ser jeg dette indholdsreferat, en synopsis sådan lidt mere lovende:

”Bergman: A Year in a Life is nominally structured as a look at what Magnusson argues might be Bergman’s most “productive year of his career,” from the premiere of The Seventh Seal, in February 1957, through the premiere of Wild Strawberries, on Boxing Day. But the focus on those specific months, during which Bergman turned 39, is for the most part a structural device that’s kept in the background, while Magnusson free-associates and roams throughout Bergman’s entire life to illuminate and explore his character. The work’s Swedish title, which literally translates as A Year, A Life, is a more accurate description of what to expect. “ Boyd van Hoeij fra The Hollywood Reporter konkluderer sin anmeldelse sådan:

“… Magnusson is a TV journalist and director who has previously explored Bergman’s legacy in the Trespassing Bergman/Bergman’s Video project, which looked at his influence on filmmakers ranging from Woody Allen to Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, who all visited Bergman’s iconic Faro Island location. She here makes a more clearly biographical work that delves into the life and work of the writer-director and only occasionally gets carried away by the impression he left on other famous people, like when Barbra Streisand recounts her set visit to Bergman’s 1970 English-language debut, The Touch, which starred her then-husband, Elliott Gould. While what’s being said is fun to hear in a trivial kind of way, the film’s few snippets of celebrity talking heads — others include Holly Hunter, John Landis and Lars von Trier — are unnecessary distractions that don’t add all that much (a few at the end especially feel like an unnecessary retread of Trespassing Bergman territory). “

The Variety’s Owen Gleiberman skriver en langt mere accepterende, lang, grundig og detaljeret anmeldelse, som han begynder således:

“We tend to think of film directors as generals, a cliché that’s useful, and accurate, as far as it goes. Yet compared to almost any other vocation, the essence of what it means to be a film director — especially if you’re a serious and powerful artist — is that you occupy a dozen roles at once. You’re a politician, an acting coach, a therapist, a budget manager, an image technician, a literary dramatist, a back-room manipulator, a dictator, and (when you need to be) everyone’s best friend. Not to mention the things that often go with the job: a media star, a sexual hound dog, and a workaholic.

When you see a typical documentary about a filmmaker, much of this stuff often ends up on the cutting-room floor. But Jane Magnusson’s “Bergman — A Year in a Life,” a portrait of Ingmar Bergman in the pivotal year of 1957 (though it covers his entire life and career), is one of the most honest and overflowing portraits of a film artist that I can remember seeing. It’s one of two Ingmar Bergman documentaries at Cannes this year (the other, which has yet to screen, is Margarethe von Trotta’s “Searching for Ingmar Bergman”), and it captures Bergman as the tender and prickly, effusive and demon-driven, tyrannical and half-crazy celebrity-genius he was: a man so consumed by work, and by his obsessive relationships with women, that he seemed to be carrying on three lives at once…”

Jane Magnusson: Bergman – Et år, et liv, Sverige 2018, 117 min. Medvirkende: Ingmar Bergman, Lena Endre, Thorsten Flinck, Elliott Gould, Barbra Streisand, Lars Von Trier. Biografpremiere torsdag den 12. juli i Grand Teatret og Dagmar NFB, København, i Bibliografen, Bagsværd, i Reprise Teatret, Holte, i Humle Bio, Humlebæk, Nicolai Biograf & Cafe, Kolding, i Biffen, Aalborg, i Øst For Paradis, Aarhus og i Cafebiografen, Odense.

https://biograf.blog/2018/06/01/bergman-et-aar-et-liv/ (Synopsis and NB trailer. Dansk og svensk)

https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/bergman-a-year-in-a-life-review-ingmar-bergman-1202808268/ (Review, English)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/bergman-a-year-a-life-bergman-ett-ar-ett-liv-1111535 (Review, English)

Ingmar Bergman 100 år /3

Ingmar has a great feeling for the unique situation of the actor… (Erland Josephson)

 

SKUESPILLER

Torben Skjødt Jensen havde 4. juli et opslag på sin facebookside om Erland Josephson. Jeg blev interesseret ved hans første begejstring for Ingmar Bergmans film, meget interesseret i hans og Ulf Peter Hallbergs film om Erland Josephsen fra 2006, Spelar du i Kväll, en film jeg til nu intet havde hørt om, og jeg blev dybt er dybt fascineret af det Bergmanafsnit, den monolog, næsten, af Josephsen, som Skjødt Jensen præsenterer i sit opslag ved et link til et You Tube klip, som sidder ved. Klik endelig og se under alle omstændigheder det hele. Link til Facebooksiden længere nede, hvor Torben Skjødt Jensen beretter:

”Den 14.Juli er det 100 års fødselsdag for Ingmar Bergman, og der kommer bla. en ny dokumentar om han op, også her i Danmark, som jeg glæder mig rigtigt meget til at se – jeg blev for alvor smittet af begejstring for Bergmans film da jeg lærte Hans Henrik Lerfeldt at kende tilbage i 1987 (og hans begejstring for den svenske mester havde jo sit eget personlige afsæt i Fanny og Alexander serien/filmen), men tættest på ham kom jeg jo nok da jeg i årene 2003 – 2006 sammen med Ulf Peter Hallberg over en årrække indspillede filmen “Spelar du ikväll?/Are you playing tonight” om Erland Josephson og hele hans liv i skuespilkunstens tjeneste, med udgangspunkt i hans 50 som skuespiller på Dramaten i Stockholm, men også hans samarbejde med store instruktører som netop Ingmar og Tarkovsky.

Filmen blev til på den helt ekseptionelle måde at Peter og jeg over en årrække besøgte Erland i Stockholm og så enten samtalede Peter og Erland eller de havde skrevet en scene med Erland og andre skuespillere som jeg så teknisk instruererede og fotograferede og efterfølgende klippede til vores næste tur: som var vi på en lang og intensiv workshop – og flere gange undervejs oplevede vi når vi kom i hjemmet hos Erland så sad han i sin ugentlige samtale med Ingmar og vendte livet og kunstens væsen – og grinede meget og højlydt. Det havde vi meget morskab ud af.

Filmen havde verdenspremiere i Stockholm i 2006 netop som en del af fejringen af Erlands 50 års jubilæum og var efterfølgende på svensk bio, og TV i Sverige, Norge og Finland, samt en del filmfestivaler i hele verden. Og Danmark ? Næ næ … kom ikke her min ven! Her er filmen aldrig blevet vist!

I 2014 klippede jeg er nyt “Directors cut” af filmen og udvidede bla. hele sekvensen om Erlands relation til Bergman så den både indeholdt en refleksion om forskellen mellem Bergman og Tarkovsky og noget om Erlands relation med Bergman både på teater og film.

Peter brugte senere samtalerne fra filmen som udgangspunkt i den samtalebog “Livets mening og andre bekymringer” som udkom på dansk i 2012 på Batzer & co. samme år som vi desværre også mistede Erland. Men her er Bergman sekvensen fra vores film – til minde om 2 store kunstnere i livet:”

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=717078205

og om Spelar du ikväll?/Are you playing tonight:

https://www.folketsbio.se/regissor/ulf-peter-hallberg/

 

Claude Lanzmann 1925 – 2018

Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted…

 

MURMELSTEIN

The Guardian published a very interesting article Tuesday, May 14th 2013, Agnès Poirier had seen the new film by legendary Claude Lanzmann about Benjamin Murmelstein, who collaborated with the Nazis as the last Jewish Council President in Theresienstadt. Poirier talks to Lanzmann about Murmelstein and the film that will be shown in Cannes tomorrow (May, 18 2013). I have taken some quotes from the long article:

… There are two men on a balcony looking out at the panorama of Rome. It is the summer of 1975. “Are you happy in Rome?” says one. “As happy as an exiled Jew can be,” says the other. The man asking the question is Claude Lanzmann. He has just started work on what will take him 10 years to finish: Shoah, the ground-breaking, nine-and-a-half-hour film about the Holocaust, composed of first-hand testimony and eschewing historical footage…

Still: Lanzmann and Murmelstein, Rome 1975, “The Last of the Unjust” (2013)

Lanzmann never included Murmelstein in ”Shoah”, now he gets ”his own film”… Murmelstein, who called himself “the last of the unjust”, perfectly represented (those) contradictions…

His testimony raises a trail of questions, all painfully complex. Indeed, his extraordinary presence, blunt sincerity, acerbic wit and erudition would shake anyone who has inherited history’s prejudices against those Jews who worked with the Nazis. Lanzmann has endeavoured to rehabilitate them. In the preamble to his new film “The Last of the Unjust”, which will screen at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, May 18th, he writes that Murmelstein’s revelations never ceased to haunt him, and that the time had come to share them. “Murmelstein was brilliantly intelligent and extraordinarily courageous,” Lanzmann says. “During the week I spent with him, I grew to love him. He does not lie: he is as harsh with others as with himself”… (Blogpost 17-05-2013 by Tue Steen Müller)

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST

The film of Lanzmann is extraordinary in all aspects: The story about how the film was made and why it did not come out before now has been dealt with in numerous interviews with the author, journalist and film director – you should read them as well as his praised ”The Patagonian Hare”, his written memoirs, from where this statement comes: “Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted.” Indeed, this film is a strong evidence of the energy and power of a man, who was born in 1925.

The main character is extraordinary: Benjamin Murmelstein, Jewish Elder in Theresienstadt, interviewed by Lanzmann in Rome in 1975, a controversial person, strongly accused for his collaboration with the Nazis. ”The last of the unjust”, as he called himself, is rehabilitated by Lanzmann, and others, for his saving of 120.000 Jews from Vienna before the war (a number mentioned by Lanzmann in an interview in Le Monde 13/11/13) as well as his keeping Theresienstadt running as the working place it was supposed to be, planned by Eichmann as the ”model camp”, a gift to der Führer. As you see in the propaganda film, that Lanzmann shows clips from, the only archive from the camp, otherwise he uses drawings made by survivors.

Murmelstein is fascinating to watch and listen to in the interview, that Lanzmann did not manage to include in ”Shoah”, that came out 10 years later. But now it is there and stands on its own as a unique film contribution to an eventual rewriting of history. It calls back and questions the view upon Eichmann put forward by Hannah Arendt, who followed the process against him in Jerusalem, and characterised Eichmann as a man who worked according to what a system asked him to do. In the film, however, Eichmann, by Murmelstein, is characterised as ”a demon”, who was very much involved in the ”Crystal Night” in November 1938, and from the very beginning, before any talk about ”Endlösung”, planned and followed the mission to get all Jews out of ”Der dritte Reich”.

But is he the main character? No, Claude Lanzmann is, the chainsmoking interviewer you see in 1975 on a balcony in Rome with Murmelstein, filmed extraordinarily by the late French cameraman William Lubtchansky in 1975, and by Caroline Champetier, who went with Lanzmann to search for cinematic solutions for the narrative, he wants to convey.

And they are wonderfully out of mainstream: Lanzmann has chosen to start the film by taking the viewer to the train station Bohusvice, where he with manuscript in hand introduces the ghetto nearby, Theresienstadt, where he later in the film consequently also performs reading with papers in hand. You could argue that this is totally unfilmic, if there is such a thing (!), but it works here because of the charisma of Lanzmann, his commitment, his powerful husky voice that gives the viewer the information about what happened in the camp.

Still: Lanzmann, train station Bohusvice, “The Last of the Unjust” (2013)

Champetier makes stunning images from Theresienstadt, moving through the empty streets, she has filmed streets of Vienna, where Murmelstein was working as a rabbi and for Eichmann, she films in Jerusalem and in Prague, where some of the most moving and beautiful sequences are to be found:

Lanzmann is walking in the Golem synagogue, the camera is not close to him (filming prohibited), it is almost candid when you see and hear him reflecting/commenting for himself, when he recognises names on the wall from Theresienstadt. There is a change in his mood, a sadness that goes with him to the next scene in the camp, where he is at a ”lieu mort” that he describes also to be a ”lieu de mort”, a ”sinister place with an unforgettable beauty” – abandoned and devastated it looks – and in comes the song of a Rabbi, introduced earlier on in the film. Lanzmann is a master of written and verbal language and it is fascinating to see how a man in his late 80’es walks to and fro talking to the audience, stopping to sit at the gallows in Theresienstadt, giving both facts about when and how it happened at the same time as you can see how he totally understands and lives what happened.

Back to 1975, to the interview in Rome, to a 40 year younger Lanzmann, who talks to Murmelstein, 70 years old. Lanzmann’s German is far from perfect and you can see, and hear, that he misses a lot of what says Murmelstein, who talks quickly and often in methaphors. It is actually sometimes funny to see how Lanzmann insists on getting the time correct from Murmelstein (”when was this, when was that”) and it takes a long time (around two hours into the film) before Lanzmann directs the obvious question to Murmelstein about how he felt being at a place, where death was present every day. That scene is a two-shot with both of them in the picture – you are invited to read the faces. Lanzmann and Lubtchansky knew apparently precisely what they wanted to get from Murmelstein in that scene.

I saw the film in Paris (in a, projection-wise, good UGC-cinema in the ugly surroundings of les Halles). The version was vo = Lanzmann speaks in French, he and Murmelstein German with French subtitles. My French is far from perfect so I did not get it all… 220 minutes, no break, not needed for this extraordinary film. To be seen again and again. (Blogpost 16-11-2013 by Tue Steen Müller)

SHOAH

November 27th 2015 Claude Lanzmann could celebrate his 90 year birthday. It gave me the inspiration to celebrate him by visiting youtube, where you can find a lot of clips from from Shoah and other of his films plus a long, very fine filmed masterclass with him from IDFA 2013, where his ”The Last of the Unjust” (220 mins.) was shown. In his written memoirs, “The Patagonian Hare”, comes this statement: “Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted.” Indeed, and he repeats this in the conversation parts of the new film with him, ”Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”, directed by Adam Benzine, 40 mins. with BBC, ZDF/arte, DR and HBO as ”involved tv channels” as it is put on the IDFA Docs for Sale, the excellent service from the festival.

Lanzmann says that he still is full of ”vitalité”. As usual it is fascinating to watch and listen to him, while the film apart from those sequences does not really add anything (except for some unknown footage from his interview with a high rank Nazi and the trouble it gave Lanzmann). Anyway, for those who have NOT yet seen ”Shoah”, watching ”Spectres of the Shoah” afterwards makes sense. Here is the description from the IDFA website:

In 1973, Claude Lanzmann started shooting Shoah, a nearly 10-hour film that many regard as the most important ever made about the Holocaust. The Frenchman worked for a full 12 years on the documentary, which was commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But making Shoah left its mark on Lanzmann. He filmed 200 hours of material in 14 countries, before spending five years editing it. And then there was the infamous confrontation with a former Nazi and his henchmen. The director described his documentary as “a film about death, not about surviving.”

DE BEAUVOIR AND SARTRE

He explains in “Spectres of the Shoah” how it wore him out and almost deprived him of his will to live. Lanzmann experienced the completion of “Shoah” as a death, and it took a long time for him to recover from it. The now almost 90-year-old filmmaker discusses his warm friendship with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, and his teenage years in the French resistance during the Second World War. The film also features unseen material from his magnum opus. (Blogpost 29-11-2015 by Tue Steen Müller)

Photo: Lanzmann, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir 1964

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/14/claude-lanzmann-last-unjust

Ingmar Bergman 100 år /2

I Marie Nyreröds tv-serie Ingmar Bergman på Fårö, 2003 som denne tid genudsendes på SVT Play og som bestemt skal ses igen, er der i sidste afsnit et sted, hvor Bergman fortæller om sin daglige gåtur. Det er det første han gør om morgenen. Det er fordi dæmonerne ikke kan lide den friske luft, siger han. Så er de væk, når han efter en halv time til tre kvarter vender tilbage og sætter sig ved skrivebordet og hver dag skriver tre timer før frokost.

 

LOMMEBOG

1

Den 29. juni. Jeg begynder og umiddelbart tror jeg det er Bergmans film, at han er dens forfatter og dens instruktør. Men tænker jeg mig om, ved jeg også, ser jeg det også, at det er Marie Nyreröd. Bergman er jo iscenesat og udspurgt. (Fortællepositonen er så afgørende for mig, og de to driller mig…)

2

Jeg ser Nyreröds film, men det er Bergman jeg lytter til, som meningen også er. Hele tiden. Er tv-dokumentaren så Nyreröds eller Bergmans – den er naturligvis Bergmans. Hans instruktøroverblik og -vilje kommer helt klar frem.

3

Skuespillernes altafgørende betydning i al Bergmans arbejde… (for Nyreröd og mig optræder han ind imellem så muntert, ellers bare er han, hele tiden på i scenen, altså skuespiller)

*

Bergmans beslutsomme brug af tv-interviewets mulighed (som fjernsyn engang)

4

Film, teater og tv. Teater er det vigtigste.

5

Det berømte hus på Fårö er rammen om samtalen, filmen, serien.

6

Serien er ét eneste interview, i afsnit opdelt af stederne, hvor der filmes.

7

Biografisk tv-serie på 3 x 57 min.

8

De 2. juli. Jamen, Bergmans samtlige spillefilm kan sådan på denne bestemte måde ses som en lang række dokumentariske film eller blot én eneste lang og stor dokumentarfilm om en gruppe skuespillere, som arbejder med i filmromanform (filmdrama, spillefilm) at undersøge Bergmans liv og tænkning og erkendelser og dæmoner.

9

Dæmonerne – sedlen – morgenturen.

10

Det første jeg skrev på min første dag på Filmkommentaren (6. august 2007) var en Bergman nekrolog. Samme dag skrev jeg en Antonioni nekrolog og en anmeldelse af Asger Leths da helt nye film Ghosts of Cité Soleil. Ghosts…

11

Den 4. juli. Jeg er så bange for at jeg ikke kan skrive. Jeg er bange for jeg er gået i stå med Marie Nyreröds tv-serie fra 2003 om Ingmar Bergman, som nu så passende i 100-året kan ses på SVT Play. Den blev således lavet få år før hans død og står i dag som en lysende klar og humørfyldt testamentarisk begivenhed, som Bergman sammen med Nyreröd skænker tv-mediet, som han opregner ved siden af de to andre kunstformer han arbejdede med: filmen (cinematografien) og teatret (scenekunsten). Af dem er for Bergman teatret det største.

12

Imidlertid hviler de alle tre på skrivekunsten som dels førte til mesterværket, erindringsbogen Laterna magica, 1987 og til den lige så uundværlige Bilder, 1990, men også til en række bøger med manuskripterne til spillefilmene. Skrivebordet var den vigtigste scene tror jeg, det var jeg inde på i mit første blogindlæg her på filmkommentaren.dk

13

Men Ingmar Bergman elskede teaterscenen mest (måske fordi han der stod med en andens tekst) dog han fører os, også med sine egne smalfilmoptagelser fra dengang, imidlertid også til en række locations for centrale filmoptagelser: jordbærstedet i Smultronstället, kyststrækningen på Fårö i Persona og arbejdsværelset med skrivebordet i hjemmet på denne ø, som bliver den egentlige rammescene for Liv Ullmanns Trolösa (2000) som han selv skrev manuskriptet til.

14

Marie Nyreröd har i sin tv-serie et andet højdepunkt, en lille håndskrevet liste som Bergman fumlende og rørende tager frem og folder ud og kameraet og jeg ser den, det er listen over dæmonerne, som her konkretiseres. Disse dæmoner, som har spillet deres roller i vist nok samtlige Bergmans film.

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Kun Bergman interviewes? Én lang fortælling? Fortællestemmen? Arkivstoffet? Citater og belæg? (Spørgsmål til nyt gennemsyn…)

Marie Nyreröd: Ingmar Bergman på Fårö, Sverige, 2003, 3×57 min. Distribution nu: SVT Play

https://www.svt.se/ingmar-bergman/ (SVT Play’s gratis streaming)

Ingmar Bergman 100 år /1

Det må så blive manden selv, som alene i huset ved havet ved skrivebordet i arbejdsværelsen tager et sidste opgør med sig selv. Det er i Trolösa, 2000, som Liv Ullmann instruerer på Bergmans manuskript. Bordet står midt på gulvet. Bag det reoler med bøger og plader, tekster og musik og den indbyggede bænk i nichen med det store vindue med havet lige udenfor. Igen bordet midt på gulvet, hvor manuskript efter manuskript er blevet afsluttet med ”Fårö…” og så datoen. Som gør, at jeg fornemmer vejret den dag, han var færdig.

Jeg ser igen ivrigt efter i Marie Nyreröds dokumentarserie Ingmar Bergman på Fårö, 2003, som SVT Play genudsender disse dage. Jo, det er intakt, det rum. Det er en fast kulisse. Filmenes billeder står alvorlige og rolige omkring teksterne herfra. Vi ser huset og havet. Personerne kommer ind på scenen. I begyndelsen er bænken ved vinduet tom. Bergman begynder manuskriptet sådan:

”En mild forsommerdag. Vinduet står åbent. Havet og fyrretræerne bruser. Jeg sidder ved skrivebordet, der står midt i værelset. En rødbrun soldatertæge kravler tøvende op over bordkanten. Der står helt afgørende nogen bag min ryg, selv om døren hverken er blevet åbnet eller lukket. Der står altså nogen bag min ryg, men det er ikke Døden…” (Trolösa, 2000)

Det er kvinden, skuespillerinden, som endnu en gang dukker op der i erindringsarbejdet, i selvangivelsen før døden. Han havde tilsagt hende, men glemt det…

https://www.svt.se/ingmar-bergman/ (SVT Plays gratis streaming af Marie Nyreröds tv-serie i 3 afsnit Ingmar Bergman på Fårö.)

Godard Makes Festival Spot

87 year old Jean-Luc Godard  has made a festival spot for the 22nd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. It was released here in Karlovy Vary yesterday. I have copy pasted fragments from the press release published with quotes from festival director Marek Hovorka:

“And even if nothing turned out how we’d hoped, it would not have changed what we’d hoped for,” says Godard in the festival spot. “This year’s festival spot created by Jean-Luc Godard follows in the line of outstanding works made for the festival by such figures as Godfrey Reggio, Jan Němec and Jóhann Jóhannsson. The festival spot comes in the format of a short film, an intimate haiku. Even within the framework of this minute-long minimalist format, Jean-Luc Godard remained loyal to his signature method of layering meanings and references. Each new viewing opens up new interpretations,” says Marek Hovorka, the director of the Ji.hlava IDFF. 

“Godard sets filmmaking in the context of the history of arts, works with references to popular works of fine arts. At the same time, it shows how inseparable the work is from the author and how important role inner authenticity plays in terms of authorship. Flipping through photos in Godard’s cell phone, the history of arts spontaneously alternates with his own memories, selfies and the perspective of a dog that gives the human position a different angle,” adds Hovorka.

Watch the official spot of the 22nd Ji.hlava IDFF

Premiere of Bridges of Time

I write this the day after the premiere of the film by Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys at the festival in Karlovy Vary. Warm applause after the screening of a film with many layers, an auteur film but first of all an homage to the masters of the Baltic New Wave: Herz Frank, Uldis Brauns, Ivars Seleckis, Andres Sööt, Robertas Verba, Henrikas Sablevicius, Arvis Freimanis, Mark Soosaar. The three of them still very much alive and kicking were there, see photo, Soosaar, Sööt and Seleckis.

The festival, that I have never visited before, has set up screenings of short films made by the directors in the 60’es and 70’es during the period of Soviet Union. We hope that “Bridges of Time” will make you want to go and see the films we quote from – around 20 are screened in four programmes, that also include films by Audrius Stonys himself and Laila Pakalnina.

The two were in focus this morning in a “Meet the filmmakers” session of the festival. Audrius

Stonys showed a beautifully restored copy of his “Antigravitation” from 1995, Laila Pakalnina came with “The Linen”, shot by Gints Berzins, a fantastic cameraperson with whom Pakalnina has been working on many of her films. We went at film school together, he in camera section, me in direction. Berzins is shooting Pakalnina’s new film, working title “The Spoon”.

Also on stage in the “Meet the filmmakers”, that was moderated in a very competent way by Latvian Zane Balcus, were Soosaar, Sööt and Seleckis – the films shown were “The Coast” by Arvis Freimanis with Seleckis doing the camera., “511 Best Photographs of Mars” by Andres Sööt and a fragment of “Woman from Kihnu” by Soosaar. I had not seen Sööt’s film before, it’s shot with hidden camera in a café with classical and Beatles music, yes it was in 1963 that I heard Beatles from morning till night. Sööt said in his humorous way that “we could use Beatles music as the USSR did not make contracts”!

The man behind getting a Baltic delegation to Karlovy Vary, Uldis Cekulis, a generous man with an impressive energy brought along a 8 page newspaper Baltic New Wave, a collection of articles on the filmmakers in “Bridges of Time”, a small gift for all those, who love documentaries.

Happy people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and proud ones, who have deserved the great attention they get at this super-professional festival for feature and documentary films.

Photo from right to left: The three masters from the film Estonians Mark Soosaar and Andres Sööt, Latvian Ivars Seleckis, the director of the film Kristine Briede, Estonian producer Riho Västrik, Lithuanian producers Alge and Arunas Matelis, Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis, me and Audrius Stonys, the interpreter and two festival programmers.