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Monday, February 25, 2008











 


ONCE (click here)
IR/ 2006 85 min
Director: John Carney
Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová
Music: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová (OSCAR WINNER - Music SONG)
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2008 produziert für den Hörfunk Leipzig - mephisto 97,6

"Once is not once enough..."
Schwermütige Liebeserklärung an Dublin, das Leben und die Liebe. Glen Hansard und Marketa Irglova umarmen den tristen Alltag Dublins und streicheln das rauhe Leben. Authentisch, ehrlich, MAGISCH.

Friday, February 22, 2008












CAOS CALMO
(Competition)
IT 2008
105 min
Director: Antonello Grimaldi
Cast:
Nanni Moretti, Isabella Ferrari, Valeria Golino, Alessandro Gassman, Blu Yoshimi
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Dietro le quinte…


L’esercito del cast si affaccia alla conferenza stampa – adirittura 11 ospiti sul palco accompagnati da una responsabile della Rai (sic!). Moretti come al solito fa di tutto per esibirsi davanti alle telecamere: officia una carità invadente prendendosi cura con la massima attenzione plateale di tutti i suoi colleghi vicini! Esempi: Mentre Grimaldi cerca di rispondere alle domande, Moretti interrompe e mesce l’acqua nei bicchieri degli altri dopo di che ammicca qualche amicone in pubblico, dopo di che si alza in piedi per togliersi la giacca. E quando la piccola stellina Blu Yoshimi racconta come si è preparata per il film lodando il favoloso e gentilissimo Moretti, lui sfrutta il momento per un’altra scena da fotografare: si alza e la bacia dimostrativamente in testa. Non è finito qui! Quando tocca a Valeria Golino di rispondere a qualche domanda, Moretti acchiappa la sua telecamera ed inizia a girare i colleghi. MO’ BASTA…, eh! Che guitto!
Una panchina come l’ombelico del mondo
L’estate a Roccamare diventa la più grande sfida per la famiglia Paladini. Tutto esce dai binari della “normalità” quando la madre muore all’improvviso. Da un momento all’altro ogni cosa cambia. Da qui in avanti toccherà a Pietro occuparsi della figlia.
Persi nell’ombra della vicenda, i due provano ad arrendersi al destino cercando silenziosamente di tornare sulla strada della normalità. Pietro pero è posseduto dalla paura di perdere anche la figlia e non la molla più. Invece di tornare in ufficio si arresta su una panchina davanti alla sua scuola. Non si muove finché non esce e, il tutto, per tre o quattro mesi! Il prato e la panchina come cappella di compianto. Qui il tempo è come ritardato e segue un ritmo rallentato. Sbattuto fuori da un mondo preordinato e conosciuto, il protagonista si ritrova rinchiuso in un universo tutto nuovo. In maniera abbastanza “contemplativa”, il padre smonta la precedente esistenza, venendo a conoscenza per la prima volta di cose mai sapute su Lara e la figlia. Pian piano riconquista vita e gioia.
Disgraziatamente pero il film CAOS CALMO rispetto al libro di Sandro Veronesi (vincitore del premio strega 2006) non funziona - soprattutto per vacuità presuntuosa del regista e probabilmente anche degli sceneggiatori (Moretti, Paolucci, Piccolo). Nonostante il cast sia composto da attori di discreta fama– come già fatto notare – la maggior parte delle figure rimane entro i confini di un bozzettismo vuoto, poco elaborato e men che meno raffinato. Li si sacrifica per mettere in scena momenti esilaranti, cosa che vale per tutto il film, raccontato in una maniera negligente e sciatta. Peratanto il film si frammenta in tante piccole storie meno profonde anche se talvolta divertenti. Imperdonabile è soprattutto la scialba messinscena della morte di Lara, sulla quale tutte le vicende si appoggiano. Altrettanto vale per una conclusione troppo forzata e poco raffinata, quasi tirata via.
In sintesi, quel che rimane è il cameo di Roman Polanski, che appare in una scena assolutamente fuori da ogni nesso, come anche la leziosa e gonfiata scena del sesso. A questo riguardo, la stampa si è già espressa negativamente anche qui a Berlino. Purtroppo nulla funziona a causa della sciatta narrazione della storia e delle figure. Grimaldi sacrifica la disperazione di Pietro e la sua voglia di liberarsi dalla vita precedente, per liberare gli italiani dai vincoli della loro bigotteria cattolica. Che pena!
Questo film butta via le proprie potenzialità e il poco che regala al pubblico, ovvero la musica dei Radiohead o di Rufus Wrainwright ed un Moretti che al contrario della sua natura interpreta Pietro in una maniera dignitosa, modesto e autentico, padrone di una gestualità abbastanza raffinata in qualche momento della pellicola.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Tortured

Torture seems to be one of the major topics at the 58th Berlinale. Innumerable children suffer any kind of violence like war, rage, abuse or abandonment while grown-ups are painfully tormented by repression, punishment or barbaric torture. And such disturbing stories are completed by the experience of what one might call the everyday torture of a film critic, sitting in an overcrowded cinema closely packed with hundreds of colleagues in a screening starting way too early in the morning. Some journalists are heavily breathing or snoring peacefully while others cough and sneeze straight to one’s neck – especially now since the influenza virus has infected everybody. The most terrible thing, however, is being trapped in a tier in a darksome cinema among all of them when suddenly out of nowhere some unpleasant odour billows through the tiers – wafting like an invisible mist through the seats trying to grab attention while displacing the film for an instant. Disturbing and annoying! Some days started like that and proceeded just exchanging the tortures.













GARDENS OF THE NIGHT (Competition)
US/GBR 2007
110 min
Director
: Damien Harris
Cast:
Gillian Jacobs, Evan Ross, Tom Arnold, John Malkovich, Ryan Simpkins
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It's been almost 20 years since director Damien Harris first spotted the pictures of two missing children in a milk carton that haunted him ever since. Several years of research and travelling followed and forced him to write a script entitled “Gardens of the Night”. Another 17 years were needed to get the film funded. The process of finding money allowed Harris to work on the script and refining it as he mentions at the press conference. It was sadly not enough time to give this one its final touch.
8 year old Leslie (Simpkins) got abducted by Alex (Arnold), the typical cliché of a paedophiliac psycho – a heavily breathing and corpulent pale-face with that typical sweet-talking softness of a sneaky man. He’s a wolf in a sheep’s clothing pretending to take care of two children (Leslie and Donnie) - who believe themselves abandoned by their parents - while in fact he’s selling them every now and then to solvent costumers. Nine years later Leslie and Donnie are living as street-kids, struggling with their future and trying to cope with their past.
It’s hard to criticise a film that demonstrates such an honourable intention, which is symbolically trying to tell the story of 58.000 children abducted in the US every year (half of them becoming sexually assaulted). As Harris explained, his film is picturing their journey and tells their story of losing home and the fact of its irreversibility. However it’s simply the well-meaning of it which remains. Because in fact Damien Harris (writer and director) is losing himself in the same odyssey in which these children disappear. Maybe that’s the reason why his main characters remain merely faceless and sometimes a bit too glossy drafts, too. He is too exerted in following every single path his protagonists pass through. In consequence the movie is falling apart into too many semi-finished and careless elaborated stories just because of his lack of focus. He scratches on the surface, evoking just pathetic descriptions and flashy clichés - less authentic than expositional! That’s cruel and it gets even crueller as Arnold (an abused child himself) reveilles his emotional involvement with that story in the press conference.
Unfortunately Harris’ film doesn’t work. He seems to be too involved himself and too dedicated to keep the distance to dig down deep where it would really hurt. What is left is superficial, aseptic, catchy and not a bit moving.
Berlin - Cinecittà

After the opening night with the granddaddies of Rock – the Stones – and Martin Scorsese, there is no slowdown in town. More than 20.000 accredited guests among them 4000 journalists mixed with movie junkies from all over the world and one of the biggest fan clubs all together drowned the city. A weird colourful crowd of women dressed in the traditional saree in anticipation of Shah Rukh Khanh – the biggest star in Bollywood and one of the most beloved crushes in the world.
OM SHANTI OM
IND/GBR 2007
168 min
Director: Farah Khan
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone


Already on february 5th the premiere of Om Shanti Om was sold out after five minutes - some where sold for almost 350 Euro on Ebay afterwards - no wonder that many tears of joy were seen, when Khan himself gave away more tickets on the red carpet. Thanks to the organisation of the Berlinale team another screening was scheduled the same night. King Khan (his nickname in India) enjoyed giving autographs (even on a babybelly!), hugs and kisses for about 30 minutes. The atmosphere in the cinema was euphoric and very entertaining, one could feel the excitement of the audience - lots of clapping, singing and screaming during the film made the screening into a real Indian experience. At the end everyone was dancing, including Dorothee Wenner (director of the Berlinale Talent Campus) who was trying very hard to get Khan to Berlin for many years and finally succeeded. During the Q&A the Indian superstar confirmed that he will be coming back to Berlin soon to shoot for his next film, mostly action scenes, since he will be taking over the European mafia in the story. His German fans prefer him as the romantic charming and dancing protagonist that he performs in most of his films, which is one of the reasons why he was part of a Berlinale Talent Campus Talk with the title: Love International.
Alongside the stars in the program bad news from the Jury: Formerly eight international guests called to form the Competition Jury got reduced to six members only. Sandrine Bonnaire and Susanne Bier had to cancel their participation in the very last minute because of some unpredictable urgency for their own next film projects. The Jury took it easy.
Ready, Steady, Go!
The competition kicks off















THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Competition)
US 2007

158 min
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (Silver Bear)
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor
Music: John Greenwood (Silver Bear)
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On the first day it seems as if there was already a favourite candidate for the Golden Bear. There Will Be Blood from the States sets up high the bar. Although
the audience became querulous at the beginning because of some sound setting problems, nobody despised the film or lost track of the haunting tension of the movie. Already nominated in eight categories for the Academy Award and just won the Golden Globe in the category of best actor. It’s a story about an evil and destructive man, who sacrifices everything he has till he has nothing more to loose, intensely played in a painfully bitter manner by Day Lewis being surrounded by dark angels. On one hand the Machiavellian hypocrite and bigot preacher Eli who follows his own path and mission to banish the devil from the so called lost souls. And on the other hand the black gold - named oil! Paul Thomas Anderson set up an allegoric parable about greed and the potency to wield power, which is as up to date as it was centuries ago. It’s a powerful painting wrapped in an impressive beautiful cinematography - deserted lands, digging men in muddy gorges and exploding oil rigs hotly burning the men faces and enlightening darksome nights till morning comes and the fire gets choked. Not to forget the painful melancholic music of Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood.
















MUSTA JÄA (Competition)
FIN/DEU 2007
100 min
Director: Petri Kotwican
Cast: Outi Mäenpää, Ria Kataja, Martti Suosala, Ville Virtanen, Sara Paavolainen
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Less brilliant is the Finnish contribution in competition: Musta Jaä/ Black Ice unintentionally comical sometimes. The film is focussing on the invisible mazes in love and the classical ménage a trois story. When a man loves two woman and two women love the same man. But as the women build up a friendship things become not only complicated but deeply painful. So far a seductive and thrilling plot. Leo doesn’t know that his wife Sara does know and would never imagine his wife to creep in in Tuulis and Leos lover life manipulating their relationship and becoming friend with Tuuli his architecture student. The film starts dynamically, soaked in various shades of blue of a cold and melancholic winter landscape. But there is this feeling that something is not working, not reliable. Especially because the characters remain some drafts and close to the end things go far beyond. Especially when director Petri Kotwica starts playing games with the expectations of his audience, trying to catalyze his story with too preconceived thrilling elements of suspense. It seems he didn’t know where to end losing himself a bit along the road. Peccato! A moral story in which neither can live while the other stays alive.





58.
Internationale Filmfestspiele
Berlin 07. - 17.02. 2008






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DINOSAURS OF ROCK in Berlin
The Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese opened the
58
th
International Filmfestival Berlin


SHINE A LIGHT (world premiere)
US/UK 2008
122 min
Director: Martin Scorsese
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For the first time the International Filmfestival of Berlin screened a documentary at the opening night. Bringing the Rolling Stones in town is the biggest coup since Kosslick’s beginning as Berlins festival director. A very glamorous and vibrant prelude to a large program focused on music. Besides Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Woods and Charlie Watts the crowd is waiting for several other legends of music to appear. Probably the most attractive one is the Queen of Pop Madonna, who is presenting her feature film debut with Filth & Wisdom. Neil Young who is working as a filmmaker since the early 70’s using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey is presenting his documentary CSNY- DÈJÁ VU on tour with “Crosby, Stills and Nash”. And last but not least activist and music legend Patti Smith is presented by the very intimate portrait Dream of Life made by Steven Sebring.
Not really an ambitious movie genre - strictly speaking, but there could be worse parents than Daddy Scorsese and Mummy Smith. That leads to another point. Besides the focus on music and documentaries, striking is the presence of stories about children struggling with their destinies. Among them Heart of Fire or music documentaries like “War Child”, a documentation about a Sudanese Hip Hop Star or the Filipino film “Tribu”. The focus on music is completed also by a range selection of very fascinating movies and films like Heavy Metal in Baghdad.
These films are much more discerning than the hero worship of the first ones mentioned. But the selection reveals the cross marketing ambition between the two market giants and their peering to profit from one another. It totally worked today with a fulminant opening – unorthodox but clever.
Let’s rock!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008



BABEL
(click here)
US 2006 142 min
Director: Alejandro Gonzáles I
ñárritu
Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga
Producers: Steve Golin, John Kilik
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Gael García
Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi
Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Music: Gustavo Santaolalla
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2006 produziert für den Hörfunk Leizpzig - Mephisto, 97,6

"Ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend Worte". Ähnlich wie Tucholsky schon 1926, sehen es heute auch Filmemacher wie Martin Scorsese. Deshalb sei das Kino auch so wichtig. Weil Bilder Grenzen überwinden können, ist er überzeugt, dass Kino etwas bewegen und verändern kann. Regie-Shooting-Star Alejandro González Iñárritu knüpft an diese Vorstellung an. Mit seinem neuen Film BABEL ist ihm ein bemerkenswerter Film gelungen, der schon jetzt mit Ehrungen überschüttet wird. In kraftvollen Bildern inszeniert der Mexikaner die Parabel auf unsere Zeit: eine Geschichte über globale Kommunikationsprobleme, Verantwortung und Vorurteile.




KEN PARK (click here)
US/NL/FR 2002
92 min
Director: Larry Clark, Edward Lachmann
Screenplay: Harmony Korine, Larry Clark
Producers: Kees Kasander, Jean-Louis Piel
Cinematography: Edward Lachmann, Larry Clark
Cast: Adam Chubbuck, James Bullard, Zara McDowell, Tiffany Limos
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2002 produziert für den Hörfunk Leipzig - mephisto 97,6

Gib mir deinen Saft, ich geb dir meinen!" Die Statistik bestätigt inzwischen: das Durchschnittsalter für den ersten Geschlechtsverkehr liegt mittlerweile bei 13 Jahren! Also: Let's talk about sex!"


Für den Photographen und Regisseur Larry Clark ist Sex unter Minderjährigen kein Tabuthema. Bereits 1995 schockte er die Öffentlichkeit mit dem Film "Kids". Kontrovers und verstörend ist auch sein neuer Streifen Ken Park.











Open Range
(click here)
US 2004
139 min
Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Bening

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2004 produziert für den Hörfunk Leipzig - mephisto 97,6

Come to where the flavour is, come to Kevin Costner Country. So oder ähnlich dachte wohl Herr Costner, als er seinen neuen Film “Open Range“, zu deutsch: „Weites Land” abdrehte.
Ein klassisches Westernmärchen über starke Jungs, die sich nichts gefallen lassen.
Für Ruhm und Gerechtigkeit immer bereit!