Well, the week has ended and its time for Father Geek here to post another of Dr. SOTHA and Rigobert Song's regular Africa-AICN Columns for all you fans out there. This is issue number 93, almost two year's worth for those of you keeping track of such things. There's a couple of really good indepth reviews in this one as well as the latest news from the African Film Industry and the Afro-American film scene, sooooo ol' Father Geek will step to the side, and turn it all over to SOTHA and crew...

DR.SOTHA back for Africa-AICN #93. Just got back from another gruelling session with my shrink. It’s emotional roulette week.

"You play self-loathing and I’ll play love. Okay? Go" she says with a murderous glint in her eye.

"Okay, here goes", I say. "On Valentines day the best I could do was harass Nurse Hollis?".

"But you’re so beautiful. So full of love. How can this be?"

"Easy, I’m like some sort of noxious repellant to the opposite sex."

"But you have such beautiful err…wrists , and I love the way I can comb my fingers through the hair on your back?"

"Oh sure, but what about my crooked hairline, and my appalling film reviews?"

"But Love is blind. It sees no such imperfections."

"Even ingrown toe nails, excessive masturbation, and hair loss?"

"Well, now that you mention it, yeah. Okay time’s up. Get the fuck out of my office".

My shrink is nothing short of a revelation. I really think I’m making huge strides, and dealing well with my physical shortcomings.

Before I get on with the regular column, here is my much delayed review of Mike Figgis’s ‘Hotel’ that I caught a screening of at the recent Rotterdam International Film Fest.

Mike Figgis’s ‘HOTEL’

You’ll hear many people call this an indulgent, pretentious piece of crap…but you’ll hear no such thing from me. I love Mike Figgis. He is the estranged love-child of the Marquis De Sade. He’s an experimentalist and provocateur of the best kind. He makes films that challenge audiences. His films reveal a decadent world masked by a decaying, misguided society. You may not like some of his films but they always affect you on some subversive psychological plain. Plus his techniques and stylistic devices push the boundaries of what is possible in cinema (and particularly digital cinema).

Sex always plays a big role in his films, and it’s no exception in 'Hotel’. There’s a mixture of sexual interplay between the characters who inhabit this world. There’s also a hint of cannibalism, sadomasochism, and ritualism to boot. Admittedly, not much of it makes sense. Figgis introduces sub-plots and disregards them just as quick. Characters pop up all over the place and disappear just as quick. It’s incomprehensible, but you go along for the ride anyway. I’m not really making a good case for this film so far, but bear with me. Part of the fun with Figgis’s new digital style – improvisation, very rough story outline etc. is that nothing ever feels bogus despite the outlandish plot scenarios. The actors all do very solid work, and in the spirit of digital filmmaking all seems grounded in reality. So there’s this strange hybrid of film-noir/dogme/gothic horror and dark comedy.

‘Hotel’ is about a group of dogme filmmakers, led by a madcap director (Rhys Ifans) and an insecure producer (David Schwimmer), who swoop into an eerie Venice town to shoot an adaptation of that famous seventeenth century play ‘The Duchess of Melfi’’ (to be honest I’ve never heard of it). Then there’s a documentary crew who show up, led by an overtly vain presenter (Salma Hayek), who intend to follow the filmmakers and chronicle the process. So it’s a film within a film within a film multiplied by a 100, equals, and then multiplied by Michel Gondry. Ironically, the film crew is using traditional dogme techniques to shoot what is essentially a period piece. Then Figgis introduces some East European faction who appear to be butchering humans in the dark cellars beneath the hotel where all the crew are staying. Later we learn that they have some sort of vendetta against Rhys Ifans character. So all of this kind of makes sense. But this doesn’t: Lucy Liu showing up exc! hanging insults with Salma Hayek, Stefania Rocca dipping her well endowed breasts into 2 cups of milk, Suffron Burrowes giving it to Danny Huston up the ass in the film within the film, Suffron Burrowes giving birth to a shrink-wrapped plastic baby, John Malkovich’s lost poet cameo in the beginning, Burt Reynold’s self-righteous intro, a doctor explaining how the bullet that hit Rhys Ifans managed to cannon through his body ricocheting up and down the spine and eventually exiting from the same spot that it entered, and much much more. You got to love this film. Why do films have to make sense? Why do we need to have closure on stories? Why not let the chips fall where they may? I say never be complete.

Again Figgis uses his split-screen, 4-screen technique during points throughout the film, and also uses an interesting way of photographing the night sequences. He uses his actors very well too. Rhys Ifans is hilarious as the over-the-top dogme director asking his actors to perform absurd scenes out of the adapted material. David Schwimmer puts in a noteworthy performance as the insecure producer, and managers to shake off Ross for 90 minutes (no small feat). Suffron Burrowes gets special credit for having to go through with some of more the audacious scenes in the film, including keeping a straight face at giving birth to a plastic baby (don’t ask.) Salma Hayek scores points for her cat-fight with Lucy Liu’s hotel manager, and for being a complete bitch for much of her screen time. Oh heck I don’t know where to begin or end with this film. I loved it, but most of you won’t. Enjoy.

SOUTH AFRICA

* Faye Peters, one of the top attractions of the South African soapie ‘Generations’, is about to hit the big time – starring alongside Hollywood lustbabe Angelina Jolie. The South African actress has landed a plum role in the movie Beyond Borders, whose other major star is British actor Clive Owen of Croupier fame. The script was co-written by celebrated filmmaker Oliver Stone and the movie will be directed by Martin Campbell whose work includes The Mask of Zorro, Vertical Limit, and Goldeneye. Cid Swank, publicist for Beyond Borders, confirmed that Peters would play a supporting role to Jolie when the film is shot in Namibia later this year. Peters is learning a Northern Ethiopan language as part of the preparation for her role. Beyond Borders is about 2 star-crossed lovers whose romance is set in some of the world’s most dangerous hot spots. Jolie stars as an American living in London. She encounters Owen’s character, a renegade! doctor whose impassioned plea for help to support his relief efforts in war-torn Africa moves her deeply. The characters embark on a journey of discovery that leads to danger, heartbreak and romance. The film will be distributed in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia.

* ‘The Piano Player’, said to be one of the biggest International films ever shot in Cape Town, wrapped on 18 January amidst accolades from producers Phillipe Martinez (The Night and the Moment) and Andreas Klein (Traffic). The film stars 60’s Easy Rider cult hero Dennis Hopper and Christopher Lambert (The Highlander series). Multi-award winning commercials director Jean-Pierre Roux directed the screenplay by Brad Mirman (Body of Evidence, Resurrection). So impressed was Martinez by the professionalism displayed by the South African facilitating company Film Afrika and the crew, that he decided to base himself in Cape Town with the intention of shooting a further 3 features in the Mother city. The film, a co-production between Britain, Germany, and Spain was originally destined to be shot in Turkey. Due to the terrorist attacks in September last year, the producers decided that despite extensive pre-production already done in Turkey, to move th! e production to South Africa which they considered a safer location.

* A Billy Wilder-like gangster film is being shot in Johannesburg called ‘Hoodlum & Son’. The film marks the directorial debut of Welshman Ashley Way. The 29-year old describes the film as a "dramedy with human drama elements coupled with quirky, off-beat humour". Set in America during the depression, ‘Hoodlum & Son’ follows the adventures of streetwise, 10-year old Archie and his inattentive father, Charlie, a reluctant gangster indebted to a mob boss. Ron Perlman (Alien Resurrection) plays the main villain, while Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and character actor Robert Vaughn also star.

* The Digital Content Company & African DVD (DCC) successfully launched Africa's first DVD catalogue in November 2001 with six classic titles (Mapantsula, Jump the Gun, The Native who caused all the trouble, Yizo Yizo, Shaka Zulu and Chickin Biznis). DCC is planning a 40-title African DVD catalogue for 2002. The purpose of the catalogue is to entertain while showcasing Southern Africa through the choice of film titles. The catalogue will include a range of quality, entertaining films that may not have been screened in cinemas but which provide insight into the people of our country, past and present. A short film will be on every DVD to allow new filmmakers a platform to show their work and to stimulate the filmmaking process.

* Steven Soderbergh's big-Hollywood-name-offering, Ocean's Eleven continues to hold its own at the South African box office by remaining in the number one position for the second week of its release. Leon Schuster's slapstick comedy "Mr Bones" has slipped to third spot, behind new release, the war drama, Behind Enemy Lines. Another new entry, the Robert Redford versus James Gandolphini military penitentiary yarn, The Last Castle is at number four, followed by Vanilla Sky. Just by way of comparison of two of the biggest current box office earners, Lord of the Rings has taken R19 878 145 (about the price of a suit on Melrose Blvd.- DR.SOTHA) after nine weeks of release, while "Mr Bones" in its twelfth week has now grossed more than R30 million at the boxoffice. It is the only South African film in history to have achieved this record boxoffice earning. The film, is the second highest grossing film of all-time in South Africa behind Titanic which grossed R40 065 856 in its entire run of over one year. It's great to see a South African film in the money!

* One of the world's biggest film markets, the American Film Market in Los Angeles opened yesterday with a certain amount of caution according to international reports. The effects of the US slowdown, aggravated by the 11 September terrorist attack, have dampened enthusiasm for risk-taking on the part of buyers. Anant Singh's "Mr Bones" will have its international market premiere at the AFM and hopefully Leon Schuster's brand of humour will lift the spirits of international buyers and inspire them to take on the movie. Figures released for the AFM show that the exhibitors have grown this year by 10 to 342. The number of film screenings at this year's event will be 408 which means the second highest in the market's 22-year history. But for sellers, the disappointing news is that the number of buyers is expected to be down 8% from last year's figure.

NORTH AFRICA

* Rigobert Song is back:

Hello loyal readers. It was a relief to take a break from the column last week. It allowed me to re-jiggle my schedule and make more time for watching African films. I watched ‘Dôlè’ this week and it is one of many first time films made by young, exciting African filmmakers. It’s done extremely well on the festival circuit, and should be available on DVD later this year. Try and find it. Remember to email me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your African film ideas.

Dôlè (Money) Produced & Directed by Imunga Ivanga -- Gabon -- In French with English subtitles

Dôlè offers a Gabonese perspective on the global crisis facing today's youth. With familial and societal structures crumbling, young people are increasingly thrown back for support on each other and an all-encompassing international pop culture. This film reveals that, whether in Libreville or in our own inner cities and suburbs the underlying causes of youthful disaffection can be remarkably similar. Dôlè provides one of the most affectionate and affecting portraits of African youth poised precariously on the cusp of modernity. Winner of the first-place Gold Tanit at the 2000 Carthage Film Festival, It has already been widely compared to François Truffaut's iconic coming of age film -- a kind of "Le quatre cents coups" in Gabon.

Dôlè begins not with plot but with performance. On a rooftop overlooking the city, in a scene which could happen anywhere, a group of young men vent their frustrations in instantly recognizable rhythms. Performing only for themselves, they aggressively search for an identity through the universal patois of hip-hop. When they plot a robbery to obtain one of the necessary accoutrements of that lifestyle, what they call un ghettoblaster, one cannot help but wonder if the image is reflecting reality or has begun to determine the reality. This begs the question: What does it mean to be "real" if this is essentially a pose, one stance among many for approaching a particular reality?

The main character, Mougler, seems almost to be a sociological study of a ghetto youth slipping into a life of petty crime. As is so often the case, there is an absent male figure, a dissolute father who has abandoned his family; there is also a strong, long-suffering mother who, however, is slowly dying from an unspecified disease. The larger society represented by school does not appear to offer Mougler any better support system. Once an outstanding student, he now affects the defiant stance of a gangbanger, reading rap magazines rather than his texts in class.

Mougler finds an alternative to family and school among his peers, specifically in a not very intimidating gang. The four boys in his group are each following an unrealistic or at least unlikely path out of poverty and obscurity. Joker is still young enough to live out his fantasies through toy boats and tales of buried treasure. Baby Lee, the gang leader, dreams of becoming a rap star. Akson, like so many poor boys before him, looks to prize fighting as his route to fame and fortune. Mougler's mother has given him a name "that sounds like a movie star" as a talisman for success.

For the millions of people like Mougler living on the margins of the emerging global economy, a lottery can seem like their only hope for financial success. Looked at in this light, a lottery is a kind of travesty of a healthy economy, where the connection between work and material rewards has become purely a matter of luck. In ‘Le Franc’, Djibril Diop Mambety used the lottery to symbolize the dependent relationship between Africa and international finance capital. In Dôlè we see how the media cynically collaborate with the lottery to divert desperate people's economic aspirations into a spectacle, a contemporary combination of "bread and circuses."

When Mougler urgently needs money to buy medicine for his mother, he decides to up the stakes and even the odds by robbing the cash box at the lottery kiosk. What has up until now been a fairly light-hearted look at the follies of youth suddenly turns sombre. The kiosk has an armed guard, nicknamed "Rambo," who kills Baby Lee in the heist (what makes the situation so dangerous is that pop fiction and reality inter-penetrate everywhere in this world). Although Mougler succeeds in purchasing the medicine, it comes too late to save his mother.

Dôlè ends, however, not with this denouement but with a dream. It is as if the filmmaker cannot bring himself to consign his young cast to its dreary fate. In a coda or epilogue, the scene shifts abruptly from the congested city to the open sea; Mougler and his friends relax on the deck of a ship slicing through the water. The ship belongs to Mougler's Uncle Charlie, the positive male role model in his life. The director even draws attention to the arbitrariness of this ending by having Baby Lee magically reappear from the dead through a hatch. As a final gesture, Mougler throws a lottery ticket into the sea because he "doesn't want to lose anymore." Perhaps he is remembering Uncle Charlie's observation: "There are two kinds of people in the world; those whose destiny is shaped by events and those who shape their own destiny."

This is what other critics had to say:

"Provides a rare peek into life in Gabon's capital, Libreville. This likeable first directing effort by Imunga Ivanga has a laid-back authenticity missing from more dramatized tales of African youth." -- Variety

"Dôlè is a droll film that knows how to turn the tragic into candid satire. In the director's hands the narrative often takes on the demeanor of a documentary."
-- Libération

"African cinema is moving into cities and rejuvenating its characters. Between high school and delinquency, rap and dysfunctional families, we recognize familiar figures and situations … The director hits the right spot."
--Le Monde

* CBS acknowledged Tuesday that as the result of "a screw up, not a scandal," it had decided to pay two runner-up contestants on Survivor: Africa $100,000 apiece, the amount that they would have received if they had been second-place winners. Lex van den Berghe and Tom Buchanan received the money after it turned out that there had been two possible answers to a final question: "Which female survivor does not have anything pierced, including her ears?" Although runner-up Kim Johnson correctly identified Kelly Goldsmith, it turned out afterwards that Lindsey Richter also had no body piercings.

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Denzel Washington has suggested that civil rights activists deserve no credit for his landing his third best-actor Oscar nomination this year. In an interview appearing in the current issue of Newsweek, Washington remarks: "To say that these nominations mean that African-Americans are now getting the recognition they deserve is to give a lot of power to people who don't have it. ... Three nominations means three nominations -- nothing more or less for black actors." While other actors (including Julia Roberts in the Newsweek article) have questioned the reasoning of their fellow actors in denying Washington an Oscar for such movies as Malcolm X, The Hurricane and Philadelphia, Washington pointed out that Al Pacino had been nominated far more times than he had before winning for Scent of a Woman in 1992. "Hey, at least I'm not 0-8 like Pacino," Washington said, "Then I would ! be screaming bloody murder."

* Premiere magazine reported on its website that Wesley Snipes is balking at orders to reshoot several scenes in his upcoming Miramax movie ‘Undisputed’ in order to make his character more sympathetic to white audiences. In the film, Snipes plays the champion boxer at a prison where he is an inmate who is forced to confront the world's heavyweight title holder (Ving Rhames) who has been sent up for rape. According to Premiere, the film has tested well with black audiences but not with whites. The magazine said that Snipes has not been shown script changes and has said that he will refuse to agree to shoot them until he has.

* Comedian Jamie Foxx has been given the all-clear to poke fun at his pal Mike Tyson as long as he tells him what he'll be saying before shows. Foxx, who'll be making fun of the troubled boxer during his new HBO cable stand-up show I Might Need Security on Saturday night, claims he has been given the OK by Tyson himself. Foxx says, "I know Mike and he's OK, but I have to ring him and let him know what I'm saying about him. You don't want that in your backyard." The comic admits filming ALI with Will Smith in the wilds of Africa gave him a lot of material for his new special. He adds, "We were filming one day and there was this whole pride of lions right next to us. The guides tell you not to be nervous, but these beasts are looking at you like, `Any time, I can have you. One of the guides was hitting the horn and trying to make you jump, saying the lions won't hurt you. The lions are looking at you like, `Don't believe that'."

* Actress Julia Roberts knows who she wants to present this year's Best Actor Oscar to – Denzel Washington. Julia, who picked up the Academy Award for her role in Erin Brockovich last year, is gearing up to present the golden statuette to either Denzel, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Will Smith, or Tom Wilkinson next month. Julia describes Denzel, who is nominated for Training Day, as, "the best actor of his generation." She enthuses, "He should be on his third Oscar by now, and that might not be enough. I cannot absorb living in a world where I have an Oscar for best actress and Denzel doesn't have one for best actor." Julia starred with Denzel in the 1993 thriller The Pelican Brief. (Yeah whatever – DR.SOTHA)

* After receiving a string of favorable reviews for her starring turn in the Sundance Film Festival selection "Wisegirls," Mariah Carey is set to reteam with the film's producer for her next acting job, the indie drama "Sweet Science." Carey will star in the project as a determined boxing manager who drafts an unknown female boxer to make a name for them both. Gary Goldman ("Total Recall"), Stan Seidel ("One Night at McCool's") and Rick Angres penned the screenplay.

* Screen legend Warren Beatty is hoping his Bulworth co-star Halle Berry will pick up an Oscar next month. Halle has been nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her role as widow Leticia Musgrove in Monster’s Ball and Beatty is standing staunchly behind her. Warren enthuses, "Have you seen her in Bulworth? Have you seen her in the Dorothy Dandridge film? I don't like to show partiality to one film over another. But I want to come out in support of Halle. I'm terribly fond of her. She's an incredible actress. Halle is such a beautiful woman and, at the same time, has such a sense of humility that people have trouble adjusting to it." (I agree with everything Warren has said and more – DR.SOTHA)

* Oscar-nominated actress Halle Berry is begging husband Eric Benet to include her in his acting career decisions - so he can avoid flops like Glitter. Berry admits she was disappointed when singer/songwriter Benet didn't ask for her advice while he was preparing for his movie debut opposite Mariah Carey - and she is convinced she would have spotted the film was a flop. She says, "I wanted to help him in some way because he's so strong for me. I include him so much in my decision-making and my career and I felt a little crushed when he didn't ask for advice. I realised, after the fact, just like I don't like to sing in front of him, he didn't want to act in front of me. I told him, 'Next time let me help you decide what movies to do.'"

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT