Hell by Tim Fehlbaum
By Johannes Scholten | February 23, 2012
In photo: Scene from Hell by Tim Fehlbaum, courtes Filmfest München
A postapocalyptic feature film from Germany. This almost sounds like a miracle. Actually, one rarely stumbles across film releases from this sort of genre over here. This fact in itself should have guaranteed director Tim Fehlbaum’s feature film debut a great deal of attention at various film festivals.
Besides the fantastic, imaginative and hauntingly suggestive traits when it comes to humankind’s bleak future, Hell has a gritty and utterly realistic touch. This is because you can recognize certain places and even notice some street signs and other minor details which you have probably seen before in real life. Another reason for its authenticity might be the fact that the plot relentlessly focalises the protagonists’ fate.
Hell is definetly a movie without big, flashy CGI. Probably the braggiest effect in the movie is the cross-faded look of the film which sort of reminisces The Book of Eli by Albert and Allen Hughes. The storyline, though, shows off analogies with The Road since it has the same character- focused approach like John Hillcoat’s bestseller adaption. Even though the creators of this piece have gone for a visual approach typical of the genre, the imagery strives to tell a good story and not just at making it look fancy.
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GoEast Symposium April 2012: RealAvantGarde – With Lenfilm through the short 20th century
By admin | February 20, 2012
The 2012 goEast Symposium in Wiesbaden (April 19-22, 2012) departs from the pattern established in previous years: instead of covering a theme with general relevance for Central and Eastern Europe, this year’s Symposium focuses on a single national institution: Lenfilm, the first film studio to be set up in the USSR. Lenfilm recently returned to the headlines after plans were announced to liquidate (in other words, privatize) the studio and public protests came from the internationally renowned directors Aleksandr Sokurov und Aleksei German. Some insist that the studio is (still) alive, pointing to the impressive total of 1,500 productions since 1918. Lenfilm’s day is over, argue others, saying the once-grand institution symbolizes the USSR’s decline as a cinematic power.
From the 1920s up to the final phase of perestroika, Lenfilm provided a space inside which avant-garde cinema, genre film and artistic ambition influenced and enriched one another. Driven by creativity and the pioneering spirit, Lenfilm repeatedly broke new ground. In conjunction with the on-going re-assessment of figures and productions associated with the studio, recent discoveries of films previously thought to be lost suggest that the history of Lenfilm is far from complete. At times it seems we are only beginning to catch up.
RealAvantGarde – With Lenfilm Through the Short 20th Century proves that film history must be viewed as a work-in-progress, as a fleeting construct shot through with ruptures. Lenfilm emerges as a point of confrontation for very diverse disciplines, a studio open in equal measure to the compositions of Shostakovich, to the synthetic sound techniques of Sholpo, to the master animator Tsekhanovsky’s experiments with colour and objects, to the manifold forms of historical knowledge and the handling (and manipulation) of the same. Whether dealing with the wars, nimbly juggling genre-topoi (science fiction, thrillers and musicals were always welcome), or establishing alternative forms of (sur)realism, Lenfilm proved capable of linking the avant-garde up to day-to-day life. Lenfilm is history in serialized form.
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“The Red Dream Factory” Berlinale Retrospective 2012
By Barbara Wurm | February 14, 2012
Pozelui Meri Pikford (The Kiss of Mary Pickford) – Poster by artist Semjon Semjonow (1927), courtesy Russian State Library, Moskow
This year’s Berlinale retrospective sounds promising: The Red Dream Factory. What it is actually about is easy to explain – the most productive and avant-garde years in Soviet film history and its relation to the Weimar Republic – yet hard to describe. The word ›factory‹ relates to the common notion used in the early years of the Proletarian State in order to make clear that what was going on in a film studio was actually linked to the workers’ world. ›Red‹ then quite obviously stands for the broad range of leftist ideology (from Marxism via Socialism and Communism towards Leninism, and later Stalinism).
In the given case it does, though, also slightly allude to the universal idea of love, leading us directly to the third and most ambiguous title element: the dream. The film studio presented in the retrospective – Mezhrabpom-Rus’ from the time of its foundation around 1923/1924, but renamed to Mezhrabpom-film from 1928 to the end of its existence in 1936 (when it was shut down by Stalin’s rigorous cultural politics) – produced approximately 600 films, out of which an enormous number was dedicated not to so much to the fabrication of utopian imagery, but rather to an intellectually and aesthetically ambitious analysis of the (first) crucial decade of the 20th century … decisive as much as for politics as for the art of cinema.
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Hail the American Mustang!
By Gabriele Moritz | February 13, 2012
James Anaquad Kleinert in Wild Horses and Renegades, courtesy Jennifer Esperanza
Google the word »mustang« and the search engine produces an emotional account of a sleek, well engineered and stylish vehicle with a highly coveted hood emblem showing a racing steed, similar to the Mercedes-Benz star …
Now add the word »Horse« and the list of sad refrains and government bureaucracy litters the page. Our civilization assigns value only to what can be utilized, explored, extracted, exploited and manipulated – a wild horse that is not for hunt, nor slaughter, nor harvest or market – holds little to no value. The film industry has recognized the mustang for symbolizing wild and freedom: »In Wildness is the preservation of the world.« (Henry David Thoreau)
I have selected seven of several of 2010-2011 releases addressing the modern times of mustang life, once a symbol of the American pioneer spirit and western heritage and the only means of transportation. Most of these documentaries show the stark contrast of equine beauty opposite degradation to pest and peril with no parole to the bottom of the pole. The viewer is reminded that this is the only animal that had an entire act of congress devoted to its protection in 1971 and yet the mustang is struggling to survive a ruthless persecution by the very agency that is charged with its governance, maintenance and protection. With clean cuts of horses sparring in play to drill-rigs these films expose the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Dept. of Interior carving in under pressures of industry stakeholders in a grotesque display of conflicting special interests. An accelerated and aggressive soundtrack to images of stunt helicopter flying and sweat drained horses colliding with steel panels flushes out the fairytale that all is good on the western front. Steam rises from the prairie as 45,000 horses ship to await their sentence in Federal capture corrals.
What began with the commercial slaughter of mustangs for newly introduced dog food in Misfits (1952, Marilyn Monroe) and the children series Fury (1960s) lead to a public outcry in 1971 when Wild Horse Annie (Velma Johnson) followed a slaughter truck that was leaking a trail of blood. A nationwide letter writing campaign ensued that resulted in the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection act.
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Berlinale 2012 – Perspektive Deutsches Kino
By Dorothea Holloway | February 8, 2012
In photo: Westerland by Tim Staffel in Perspektive Deutsches Kino, courtesy Fabian Spuck/Salzgeber Medien
With curiosity and while scratching my head a bit I watched the long documentary – 96 minutes – Man for a Day by Katarina Peters. The story revolves around a social lab experiment, a workshop by performance artist Diane Torr with a dozen women from Berlin. The question: »What makes a man a man – what makes a woman a woman?« for those who want to know this is a must see. Man for a Day is the opening film for the Perspektive Deutsches Kino – curated by Linda Söffker.
And another definite is This ain’t California by Marten Persiel – 90 minutes. It is a Super 8 production about skateboarders, the youth of East-Germany in the 80s (mostly young men) that have build their own DIY boards. What a document! And the accompanying press release is translated and available in seven languages. Production by Wildfremd GmbH.
I am already realizing, I could probably recommend every film of the Perspektive: For example, Sterben nicht vorgesehen (Dying not planned for) by Matthias Stoll. Or, Rodicas by Alice Gruia (53 minutes) who accompanies two life-loving and humorous ladies, her grand-mother Rodica Gruia – 88 years old – and her friend Rodica Grill – 86 years.
›Perspective‹ derives from the Latin: To penetrate with looks and recognize clearly. So it is with Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2012. Each contribution to this program gives an insight into worlds that we are not so familiar with and illuminates problems. A mostly reflective and critically serious section of the Berlinale. One example: Tage in der Stadt (Days in the City) by Janis Mazuch. We are familiarized with the fate of a woman who has spent years in prison and now seeks to find her place in the world. I love Westerland on the island of Sylt in summer. The winter I have never experienced. Filmmaker Tim Staffel’s Westerland unravels a peculiar love story – the beginning and the end – on this winter island. Very important: Karaman by Tamer Yiit and Branka Prlic. These youth from Turkey is longing for the future. They want to find their own way, test new horizons, experience the world, Europe or at least Berlin. Zehra studies in Istanbul and visits a family in Karaman in Central Anatolia and asks her father to have permission to continue her studies in Berlin.
In Gegen Morgen, directed by Joachim Schoenfeld, two police officers are literally ›chained‹ together since they both are assigned to observe a released murderer. This Personenschutz turns out to be boring and absurd, full of suspense, but also bitter…
Sometimes we sit and think and sometimes we just sit by Julian Poerksen, script and direction. A man of approximately just 50 years (remarkably convincing: Peter Rene Lüdicke) moves into a retirement home and does do simply nothing there. He is cared for – he eats and drinks – and does do nothing. He sits in the recliner, legs up on a stool. The surrounding world is upset. To do nothing, just to sit around – life goes on. How often have I heard this phrase. Just a clichée! The film provokes reflection and concern. Do we always have to fulfill society’s expectations? He just wants to sit around.
Ararat by Engin Kundag: Deutschländer Nuh travels to eastern Turkey to attend the funeral of his father. It comes to painful frictions in his brother’s home. At Ararat, an extinct volcano, is Noah’s Ark to be stranded. From the final scene of this feature short (26 min.), I’m intrigued. The image of Mount Ararat, I will never forget.(Camera: Borris Kehl). Also in Soleen Yusef’s Trattoria, there are tragic family problems, this time between father and daughter.
And again the topic is a daughter in The Missing. The 14-year old Martha has disappeared. I associate Jean-Paul Sartre: »The youth longs for the future.« The father learns in his search for his daughter, that it is not unusual for young persons to just disappear. Why? You just do not want to have your feet under the family table any longer? Self-discovery? As a teenager I wrote into the diary of my girlfriend: »Who can be silent and wait, the roses will bloom in the garden.« I am sure that the problems of coming of age will be also a topic in Generation and Forum.
The 90 minutes of Dichter und Kämpfer (Poet and fighter) by Marion Hütter were both entertaining and instructive. Marion Hütter chronicles four Poetry Slammers over the period of a year in conversation, rehearsals and performances. Thank you for the Insight into the Poetry Slam scene!
Now one more important advice: In the Perspektive Deutsches Kino will be a film, which has received the Main Prize at the Max-Ophüls-Festival in Saarbrücken. It is Michael by Markus Schleinzer (see KINO 101’s Cannes Report) Don’t miss this film, but also do not miss the Panorama’s King of the Comics by Rosa von Praunheim. You will have a ball. Most likely the funniest film of the festival. In any case –do not miss the GERMAN FILMS!
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Udo Jürgens – The Man with the Bassoon
By Dorothea Holloway | January 2, 2012
In Photo: Udo Jürgens – Der Mann mit dem Fagott, courtesy ARD Degeto
In the second day of Christmas I was so lucky to experience Udo Jürgens in MDR, as he directed a Christmas show called, »There shall be light.« Jürgens guided us into the winterworld of Arlberg, where without pretense he and the children sang »The little Drummer Boy« a favorite of my mother. He meets ski-legend Karl Schranz (World title) and Egon Zimmerman (Olympic medal winner), chats, accompanies himself on the piano and performs in church in the end. A celebrative hour with wonderful music, a narrator and a cameraman, Alfred Bein, who without tricks and panning allowed us just to see and listen. Thank you.
Two months ago I saw Der Mann mit dem Fagott (The Man with the Bassoon, script by Miguel Alexandre and Harry Goeckeritz, directed by Miguel Alexandre) after the autobiography of Udo Jürgens. In two parts it opens with stories of Jürgens’ father and grandfather. Grandfather (Christian Berkel) emigrates to Moscow and escapes to Sweden after the declaration of war, where he is reunited with his family. Then the film plays in Austria, where father (Ulrich Noethen) becomes Mayor of Ottmanach. The Second World War is over. The atmospheric fabulous time travel (camera: Gernot Roll) leads to the Wirtschaftswunder. Udo Jürgen Bockelmann, a young man with great musical talent has become a bar-piano-player and is sponsored by manager Hans Beierlein (Fritz Hammel). Udo Jürgens (Bockelmann omitted, his middlename becomes his last name with the additional ›s‹) wins the 1966 Grand Prix d’Eurovision de la Chanson. Particularly convincing was David Rott’s portrayal of the young Udo. A special bonus for the producers: The Film Orchestra Babelsberg was involved! The press release quotes Christian Berkel: »Udo Jürgens is a wonderful composer, a singer, who with ease turns words into stories, stories into music and back into stories again. In this film which chronicles the history of his family and the 20th century, he has found he bond between them all.« Der Mann mit dem Fagott received the Bambi (public favorite) in November 2011. During the New Year festivities at the Brandenburger Tor Udo Jürgens’ performance was the highlight of the evening.
Note: The basson has been elected »Musical Instrument of the Year 2012«– www.instrument-des-jahres.de
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Zu Gast im Filmkunst 66: Fabian
By Dorothea Holloway | December 20, 2011
Tanja Ziegler und Regina Ziegler laden sehr herzlich ein. 80 Jahre nach dem Erscheinungsdatum von Erich Kästners Fabian wurde in Anwesenheit des Hauptdarstellers Hans Peter Hallwachs und des Regisseurs Wolf Gremm in Berlin im Filmkunst 66 der Spielfilm Fabian wieder aufgeführt (Kamera: Jürgen Wagner). Es war ein schönes Erlebnis. Natürlich kannte ich den Film und hatte “Die Geschichte eines Moralisten” in bester Erinnerung. Jedoch mit Fabian ging es mir wie mit einem nicht mehr jungen Wein: er beeindruckte mich mehr als vor Jahren; ich war fasziniert. Hans Peter Hallwachs ging durch die Kästner-Verfilmung, etwa durch das Berlin um 1980, als sei dieser lakonische Spaziergänger eigens für ihn geschaffen worden. Bravo für Regisseur und Schauspieler. Vor Jahren meinten Ron und ich, Fabian sei vielleicht ein Alter Ego von Erich Kästner: zurückhaltend und immer freundlich. Ich spreche mit Wolf Gremm; er ist freundlich und zurückhaltend.
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Cannes 64
By Dorothea Holloway | December 7, 2011
This article has been published in three parts in German language (1, 2 & 3) on KINO – German Film online and has been published in the print issue of KINO – German Film No. 101 in October 2011.
In 2007, Ron Holloway wrote about Cannes: »By all counts, the 60th Festival de Cannes (16-27 May, 2007) will go down as one of the best in the distinguished history as the queen of international film festivals. Delegue Artistique Thierry Fremaux achieved a remarkable balance in the Competition, mixing veteran filmmakers with debutants and blending, in particular, Asian entries with films by American mainstream and European auteur directors. Further, the Competition was backed by a high-caliber Un Certain Regard section.«
I can only repeat Ron’s praise for the festival’s 64th edition (11-22 May, 2011) as well: the Competition was remarkable and the same can be said of Un Certain Regard. Once more, the festival succeeded in having the old masters gracing the »queen« with their presence – from Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne through Aki Kaurismäki, Lars von Trier, Pedro Almodovar and Paolo Sorrentino to Alain Cavalier, Gus van Sant, Kim Ki-Duk and Emir Kusturica (in the jury for Un Certain Regard). Only Terrence Malick hadn’t come to Cannes – or did he after all?
In any case, his masterpiece The Tree Of Life left a deep impression on me – a wonderful work. And congratulations to the director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki! Ron and I had always played a so-called »Palm Game« in Cannes, with me predicting the winner of the Golden Palm. My prediction was almost always right. And this didn’t change this year, either: when Malick’s film came to an end in the press screening on the morning of May 16, I knew right then: this is the Palm! I wrote in the press screenings guide that Ron was with us.
From the first image, I was drawn into this expressionist marvel, into the enchanting whirlwind of images, sounds, and also words – Bible quotations, scenes from space, childhood scenes, fleeting music, music growing in crescendo – the Moldau – captive for probably almost an hour by the opulence of the solar system, a cosmic creation: heaven, earth, explosions in outer space, revelling in other galaxies. There’s only been one other occasion – I was a student at the time – when a film touched me to the quick: Les Enfants du Paradis by Marcel Carné. I saw it one whole winter every Sunday at 11.00 in the Dammtor-Kino in Hamburg.
Then a story unfolds, a story of a family set during the fifties in the mid-West of the USA. The middle one of three sons dies; the loving mother (movingly played by Jessica Chastain) is petrified by pain. The strict father raises his sons with »paternal« severity – mercilessly. There are jumps in time and place, the characterisation is clear and plausible. At one point, the eldest son Jack is still a schoolchild whom the father wants to raise to become a real man, and, at another point, the adult Jack recounts how complicated his youth was. Sean Penn as Jack is absolutely marvellous, unpretentious and restrained. Brad Pitt is unforgettable in the way he portrays this curiously naive-hard father who wants to teach his sons to box.
The Tree Of Life began with a hymn to life and enchantingly beautiful images and now the downfall – resurrection? – is evoked: images of nature, spellbound treetops, a woodpecker tapping on a tree-trunk, couples on a beach, a sunset, the atmosphere of a requiem at a haunted salt lake. Then, a voice off-camera says that there is no place to hide from grief. Ron is always there.
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»Lauter Geschenke« – Radu Gabrea’s First Medias Central European Film Festival (MECEFF)
By Dorothea Holloway | November 22, 2011
In the early 60’s during my first visit to Warsaw, I saw a wonderful performance that I will never ever forget in the Jewish Theatre under the direction of Ida Kaminska. It was the melancholic comedy with music Goldfaden’s Traum. And now the hour-long documentary Goldfaden’s Legacy (2004) by festival director Radu Gabrea was showing in the programme of the first edition of MECEFF in Romania (5-11 September, 2011).
On the basis of precious photos and newly discovered film excerpts, we hear moving Jewish songs and Zalmen Mlotek tells us about the history of Jewish theatre, how it began in Romania and came to Broadway where it was innovative in influencing American popular culture – the musical (!).
Zalmen Mlotek is the artistic director of the »The Folksbiene Yiddish Theater« in New York, which was founded in 1915. The profound documentary simplicity, the charismatic narrator at the piano and some of today’s artists make the Goldfaden’s Legacy an unforgettable gift.
A symposium was held each morning from 6-10 September by experts, academics and film historians. The subjects included Romanian and Central Europe’s Culture, The History of »Yiddish Cinema«. Sharon Pucker Rivo, Executive Director of the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University (NCJF) in USA, showed film excerpts she had brought from »Brandeis«. We got to see some real treasures, and it was particularly moving for me because Ron had often talked about the precious films he had seen in Brandeis.
Helmuth Knall, a teacher at the German School in Medias also came to the conference and gave me a gift: the German-Romanian bilingual edition of Schiller – Ehrung zum 200. Todestag. Studien und Aufsätze, introduced and edited by Maria Sass for Editura Universitatii »Lucian Blaga« din Sibiu. A second gift is Erinnerungen – Ich habe drei Leben gelebt by Brigitte Niedermaier. And a third gift was The Last Pottsville Warrior. America, The Sea-Change Years. A Chronicle of an Era Novel by David Blum.
Radu Gabrea and his excellent team – with important support from mayor Teodor Neamtu – had the great idea of staging open-air screenings on the town hall square. »The whole kaboodle« came. Percy and Felix Adlon’s Mahler On The Couch (see KINO 98) was shown on the opening evening …
A glittering presentation for the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death. The film was shown a second time on the big screen and won the Audience Award, yet another gift.
Talking about the awards: All of the films were distinguished by accomplished cinematographic achievements. Only those films which have already been awarded prizes were invited to the Competition.
The Best Film Award went to Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s Little Rose (Poland). The still quite unstable atmosphere in Poland of the 1960’s is surprisingly perceptible without any kind of cliche. The ensemble of actors is first-rate.
The Best Director Award was presented to Florin Serban’s If I Want to Whistle I Whistle (Romania). An outstanding masterpiece, already awarded such prizes as the Silver Bear and the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2010 Berlinale (KINO 97).
Best Cinematography was awarded by KODAK to Andras Nagy for Szabolcs Haydu’s Bibliotheque Pascal (Hungary). This was not the first time that Nagy’s camerawork has been awarded.
The Best Acting Award went to actress Ursula Strauss in Elisabeth Scharang’s Viel-
leicht in einem anderem Leben (Austria). In my opinion, the film would have earned a second trophy because I was convinced by the adaptation of a screenplay by Peter Turrini.
Well, good films are gifts, and another two were Vladimir Balko’s Soul at Peace (Slovakia), and Arnon Goldfinger’s highly entertaining, reflective and informative documentary The Komediant (Israel). The concept of MECEFF is 7 + 1. Films are invited from seven countries in Central Europe and an alternate guest country – Israel this year. The highlight for me was Valley of Strength (Gei Oni) by Dan Wolman which was awarded the Gerhard Klein Prize at the Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Potsdam in May 2011. In Medias Dan Wolman got a Special Prize for Gei Oni. More to come in KINO 102 about him as well as about Jiri Menzel who at MECEFF was honored with a Portrait of the Director. Ron was intrigued by the Czech master’s irresistable virtuosity.
This post has been recently published in German-language version here at www.kino-germanfilm.de. The English-language version is taken from the current print issue of KINO – German Film & International Reports No. 101 from November 2011.
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Michael Nyman in Progress – a documentary by Silvia Beck
By Tanja Meding | November 14, 2011
Another subtitle for this film could be Filmmaker in Progress: from the start of the documentary, we see British composer Michael Nyman ready with a camera to take pictures, whether in London, Poland or on tour throughout the world.
Probably best known around the world for his film compositions, Nyman wrote his first film score in 1967 for British filmmaker Peter Greenaway’s black & white short 5 Postcards From Capital Cities and has since contributed to many of Greenaway’s films, including the critically acclaimed 1982 feature The Draughtman’s Contract as well as The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover in 1989. His score for the Academy Award-winning The Piano by Jane Campion was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Australian Film Institute Award. He has furthermore contributed to films by Patrice Leconte, Volker Schlöndorff, Antonia Bird and many more.
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