Hey folks, Harry here with the latest from Ghostboy... who isn't in Dallas like usual, but in far off Berlin. Hey! I've been there. BTW - My AEON FLUX report is coming shortly - just got the photos to go with the piece, now I'll knock your pretty striped socks off! Anyways. This is one of the festivals that I've long dreamt of attending. Such a wonderful city. And always such a great line-up of titles. Anyways... here ya go...
Howdy Harry, Moriarty, et al,
Ghostboy here, having just returned from my first experience at a film festival abroad: the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, touted as the third biggest European Film Festival (after Cannes and Venice) and, with its huge European Film Market, surely the second most important, as far as world cinema is concerned.
Now, I wasn't there as a festival attendee, per se. I was selected to participate in the festival's annual Talent Campus, and so I spent the better part of each day attending workshops and lectures and mingling with other filmmakers from around the world. But the nights were dedicated to the festival, and while I didn't manage to see any of the big award winners (not that many press members seemed to catch Marc Donford-May's Golden Bear winning U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, either), I did catch a wide slate of films that ranged from amazing to mediocre.
Since I have so many to cover, I'll spare you my normal loquacity and cut to the chase with a series of mini-reviews.
YES (directed by Sally Potter)
This was by far the best film I saw at the festival: an astonishing marriage of words and images, a cinematic poem in a very literal sense. On the most basic level, this is the story of the wife of a politician (Joan Allen) who has an affair with a Lebanese surgeon (Simon Abkarian). On a more sublime, sensual, intellectual level, it is a study of race, class, religion and ideology, delivered in long monologues and conversations. Not only is the content of this dialogue incredibly rich, but so is the form. If you read the reviews from last fall, when this played at Toronto, then you may remember that the entire film is written and performed in iambic pentameter (flawlessly written by writer/director Potter). It isn't completely apparent at first; the invaluable Shirley Henderson opens the movie, speaking to the camera, and only gradually do we realize that her words rhyme, and that she's speaking them with a subtle but very definite rhythm. The grace with which the cast (especially the two leads) handles the dialogue is remarkable, and the end result is a movie that is as intoxicating to listen to as it is to think about afterwards. I look forward to a second viewing, and I wouldn't be surprised if this popped up on a few top ten lists at the end of the year (I know it's too early for such predictions, but what the hell).
THE DYING GAUL (directed by Craig Lucas)
This American indie premiered at Sundance last month; going into it, I couldn't remember what the buzz was like, but I knew it had Peter Sarsgaard in it, and he's always worth watching in whatever he does. Indeed, he's the best thing about this particular film; he plays a gay screenwriter whose lover has just died. He's poured his grief into a script called 'The Dying Gaul,' which attracts the attention of a slick Hollywood producer, played by Scott Campbell. In their initial meeting, Campbell assures Sarsgaard that he loves the script, but wants him to think about changing the orientation of the romance that is central the story. "Audiences hate gays," he explains. Sarsgaard, of course, resists, but Campbell urges him to think it over, and invites him over to his house to maybe work on a new draft. There he meets Campbell's wife, played by the luminous Patricia Clarkson. She, Sarsgaard and Campbell end up forming a rather unexpected romantic triangle, but don't let the words 'romantic triangle' give you the wrong impression; this is a heady, abstract film, with some surreal sequences involving internet chat room conversations that flower into eerie, stream of consciousness monologues that are quite moving. There's an element of revenge to the film, too, although it's such a subtle development that I would never have considered it as such had not director Craig Lucas (who adapted the film from his own play) mentioned it in the Q&A after the film. All in all, it's not an entirely successful picture, but it's also too fascinating to pass up.
PLASTIC FLOWERS (directed by Binjian Liu)
Um...I don't feel comfortable reviewing this Chinese entry, since I kept falling asleep throughout it; this isn't a commentary on the film itself, but on the fruitlessness of trying to sit through several movies while recovering from jet lag.
ASYLUM (directed by David MacKenzie)
David MacKenzie directed one of the best films from last year, the erotic psychodrama Young Adam; this follow-up effort has some of the same rough sexuality and disturbing psychological implications that made his previous film so strong, but they're contained within a more traditional melodramatic narrative that, while certainly entertaining, never quite achieves any sort of greatness. Set in the 1950s, the film concerns a housewife (Natasha Richardson) whose husband gets a new job at an insane asylum. She ends up having an affair with a patient (Martin Csokas, having lost a great deal of weight from his LOTR days, leaving him a dead-ringer for Clive Owen) who's been imprisoned for brutally murdering his wife in a fit of jealousy. Nice girls always go for the bad guys, it seems. As a result of her indiscretions, familial distress and shocking tragedy ensue, and all the while we're wondering if everything isn't in fact the machinations of the head of the asylum, played with charming menace by another LOTR alumni, Ian McKellan. The film has one truly disturbing, Douglas Sirk-esque sequence that makes it far more memorable than it would be otherwise; if you're in the mood for some nicely refined pulp, this should prove plenty satisfying. It was produced by Paramount Classics, so it should be hitting the States before too long.
THE GOEBBELS EXPERIMENT (directed by Lutz Hackmeister)
As the title might suggest, this is a documentary about Hitler's right-hand man, Joseph Goebbels. It is an adaptation of his diaries, which are read aloud by Kenneth Brannagh over archival footage. Never deviating from Goebbels' own point of view, this highly subjective look at the rise of the Third Reich from the 20s until the end of World War II is fascinating - invaluable, even, and the juxtaposition of Goebbel's final message to the followers of the Nazi party with his actual fate is incredibly powerful. Worth noting is the Q&A that followed the film with the writer and director, which was one of the most intelligent and enriching Q&A's I've ever witnessed; several members of the largely German audience has some well thought-out and perfectly legitimate issues with the film; the filmmakers' responded with equally informed responses; it was an edifying discussion, one which ultimately left me feeling even better about the film than I had before.
MARS (directed by Anna Melikian)
This Russian film is an odd hybrid of Aki Kurismaki and Jean Pierre Jeunet; it involves a man who gets stuck in an tiny oddball town called Mars, where most of the inhabitants work at a stuffed-animal factory. He meets an assortment of quirky characters, most of whom are looking for love in some fashion, and eventually has a romance of his own before finally managing to get back on a train and continuing on his way. The first quarter of the film has a lot of deadpan charm to it, but eventually it gets a little too sweet for its own good. There may be a bit of a political tinge to it, too, that I didn't completely pick up on.
LOST AND FOUND (directed by Nadjeda Kosva, Jasmila Zbanich, Stefan Arsenjiveic, Mait Laas, Kornel Mundrouczo, Cristian Mungiu)
The second best film I saw at the festival, this portmanteau consists of six short films, all set in and dealing in some way or form with Eastern Europe. One of the films is a documentary, one is animated, and the rest are all fictional; all are outstanding. I won't delve into all the various plots and characters; suffice to say, if you get a chance to see this, don't pass it up. It's a showcase of some of the most exciting new European talent I've seen in a while.
THAT MAN: PETER BERLIN (directed by Jim Tushinski)
This frequently low-fi documentary succeeds on the basis of its subject alone: former porn star and gay icon Peter Berlin, who is the 70s and 80s became an emblem of sexuality unto himself. Interview subjects such as John Waters and Armistaud Maupin discuss his influence on gay culture, and Berlin himself, now in his sixties, reflects back on his superstar days in San Francisco. Although part of his original charm was his rather vacuous personality, he comes off as a fairly intelligent man who knew exactly what he was. Due to the poor production value and relatively limited scope, this isn't on the level of, say, Wadd: The Life And Times Of John Holmes, which is sort of what I was expecting going in, and I'd ultimately say it's for interested parties only. There is, however, one standout moment where he recalls the death of his longtime lover that is honestly heartbreaking, and I'm glad I saw it for that particular scene.
TRANSAMERICA (directed by Duncan Tucker)
I knew Felicity Huffman was in this film (which was produced by her husband, William H. Macy) ; she was the first name listed in the program. I kept waiting for her to show up, and it wasn't until the last few scenes that I realized she'd been in it all along, playing Bree, a man one surgical procedure away from becoming a woman. I felt the way Roger Ebert must have felt when he learned, after the fact, that Charlize Theron was the leading actress in Monster. What Huffman does in this film is unbelievable; it's one of the best and bravest performances I've seen in ages, on more than just a transformative level. It's slightly disappointing that the film itself isn't on the same level; it has a distinctly TV-movie feel to it, and lacks the transcendent qualities of Huffman's performance. It's a road movie, as the double entendre title suggests, about a nearly transgendered individual who is almost but not quite a woman and the rebellious son he/she never knew he/she had. The character of the son is one of the film's biggest problems; he's an annoying character, which would be more forgivable if he wasn't so woefully underdeveloped. Still, this is definitely very worthwhile, simply to see what Huffman achieves in her role: it's a thing of real beauty.
TORI (directed by Asano Tadanobu)
Asano Tadanobu is one of the coolest actors in Asian cinema at the moment; you may have seen him as the lead in Last Life In The Universe or Ichi The Killer, or as the renegade samurai in Kitano's Zatoichi. This is his directorial deubt; deubts, actually, since it's made up of five unrelated short films, each of which he claims is based on a dream he had. The second segment is the most worthwhile; a beautifully shot bit of surrealism involving samurais and suicide. The rest are mere trifles, in comparison, and overall the film hardly warrants a recommendation unless one is a fan of Tadanobu and wants to see what he can do behind the camera; hopefully, his next attempt will be more outstanding, and until then I'll look forward to seeing him in front of the cameras again.
COMA (directed by Mike Figgis, et al)
This isn't a Mike Figgis film, per se; it's a workshop caught on film. Late last year, he taught a Master Class at the European Film Academy, in which the participants had to collaborate with him on a feature film over that would be produced, from conception to final screening, over the course of one week. What they came up with is frequently interesting but never actually any good; that they chose to make a mockumentary seems like a cop-out, and although it's amusing to try to figure out what is reality and what is fiction, one feels that the participants in the exercise (and indeed, it is an exercise, an experiment, rather than a film) gained far more than any audience ever could. Luckily, I think Figgis and his collaborators realize this, and I don't believe they have plans to show it outside various screenings at which they'll be able to discuss it with the audience (said discussion being both complimentary to and more interesting than the film itself).
FOURTEENSUCKS (directed by Filippa Freijd, Martin Jern, Emil Larsso and Henrik Norrthon)
Filmmakers should never put a negative word like 'sucks' in their title, because it makes it far too easy for critics to make clever puns on the title when slamming the movie. This DV film was part of the Berlinale's '14plus' program, which is a series of film ostensibly appealing to younger viewers. Younger viewers could do a whole lot better than this. It's basically a European take on Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen - except that it, well, sucks.
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (directed by Wes Anderson)
Okay, I didn't actually see this at the festival; but it was an official selection, and since it seems to be a rather misunderstood film, I thought I might take this opportunity to link to my full review from last December.
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (directed by Sergei Eisenstein)
This last review isn't really a review at all, but more like a case of delirious bragging. This silent masterpiece has been slightly reconstructed and remastered, and new prints have been struck, and it they were screened for the first time at the Berlinale to the accompaniment of a live orchestra. I was sitting in the front row for the screening and after it was over, after the ten minute standing ovation, I realized I never wanted to see the film again, because there's no way it could live up to this experience.
THE INTERVENTION (directed by Jay Duplass)
This brief effort won the Silver Bear for short films, and it was well deserved; it's an hilarious docudrama about a group of friends trying to get an acquaintance to admit that he's gay. Duplass, who I believe hails from Austin, TX, made this with that nifty Panasonic DVX-100A camera for about 200 bucks (not counting the 35mm transfer, which was so flawless that I would have sworn he shot it on 16mm) -- 200 bucks well spent, it turns out. Keep an eye out for this; it'll probably end up on IFC or something, and it's worth spending ten minutes with.
And that's everything I saw. The one film I regret missing the most is Tsai Ming Lang's The Wayward Cloud, which I actually had a ticket to but had to forego for various reasons - hopefully some US distributor will have the guts to pick it up, although I'll probably be able to pick up a region 0 dvd before that happens. It sounds amazing.
Now I'm back, and ready to get ready for another big festival, this time much closer to my North Texas stomping grounds: SXSW. It's gonna be a blast, and I'll undoubtedly be reporting from there as well. Before that, though, I should have a few more reviews to submit...for better or for worse.
Until then, I'm outta here.
