Thursday, June 5, 2008
New Global Cinema Blog
The material on this blog has now been transferred to a new blog where it can be viewed in the context of 'global film culture'. The new blog is called 'The Case For Global Film'. A recent post there looks at the recent Czech film I Served the King of England (2006) and another deals with the classic Russian film Solaris (1972).
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wesele (The Wedding) (Poland 2004)
I've posted a review of the Polish film that screened in Pictureville on Sunday evening on my blog at http://itpmag.blogspot.com/2008/02/wedding-wesele-poland-2004.html
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Jewish identity in Hungary
I'm looking forward to our discussion of Fateless. I don't know what to expect, but I got the impression that most people were moved by the film. I'm still mulling over what writer and director Imre Kertész and Lajos Koltai were saying about Jewish identity in a Hungarian context. I discovered this passage in an interesting web account of an American filmmaker's fascination with Hungarian Cinema:
History, the staple of Hungarian cinema, now presents an obstacle. Director Diana Groo (26) explains that today’s filmmakers are searching for new topics and new stories and that they are not allowed to retell the stories of the past. “We are the third generation after World War II. Our parent’s generation could talk about communism and they were closer to their parents war experience. For us to talk about the past is very unusual. As a result, our generation is not just searching for money, but also for an identity and topics that will appeal to a broad audience. We no longer have a common landscape. Everybody is searching to express him or herself. The style of a 1990s director has to be completely different from Szabo, Makk, Jancso, Elek or Rozsa.”
What sets Diana apart from many of her colleagues is the fact that she is Jewish and that her heritage still carries plenty of baggage in Hungary. “The Prime Minister,” Diana recalls “recently said that only those who follow the Christian-Hungarian tradition and are proud of the states foundation are Hungarian.” As a result of this continued conflict, Diana aspires to continue the socially relevant trend of Hungarian filmmaking. History must indeed answer to man. Diana sees her heritage as an asset, an inner conflict that translates to story. When the iron curtain came down, she along with many young Jewish Hungarians immigrated to Israel but there, Diana felt too comfortable. “To be Jewish in Israel is different. It’s like, I’m here – it’s okay. I don’t have a conflict any longer. I started to miss the conflict. It was my identity. To be Jewish in Budapest is much more interesting because you have to fight.” It’s no surprise that Diana chose this struggle as the topic for her stories. She recently came to New York with a documentary on the former Jewish Ghetto in Budapest and she is currently working on a documentary about the young Hungarian Jews who emigrated to Israel only to return to Hungary. For her feature, Ms. Groo is developing a love story about a chance encounter between a Jewish girl from Budapest and a Jewish man from New York. The film will compare the bonds of heritage via New York and Budapest. (Laurent Rejto on http://www.farmhousefilms.net/hungarian_cinema.htm)
"I started to miss the conflict . . ." reminds me of the two occasions in Fateless when György tells us that his favourite time of day in the camp was that hour between the return from the factory and the evening meal. I take this to be a reference to the sense that the the contrast between hard labour and relaxation was so important because being in the camp became part of his identity. Only if this was the case could the relaxation be enjoyed. Without the camp there would be no magic hour.
History, the staple of Hungarian cinema, now presents an obstacle. Director Diana Groo (26) explains that today’s filmmakers are searching for new topics and new stories and that they are not allowed to retell the stories of the past. “We are the third generation after World War II. Our parent’s generation could talk about communism and they were closer to their parents war experience. For us to talk about the past is very unusual. As a result, our generation is not just searching for money, but also for an identity and topics that will appeal to a broad audience. We no longer have a common landscape. Everybody is searching to express him or herself. The style of a 1990s director has to be completely different from Szabo, Makk, Jancso, Elek or Rozsa.”
What sets Diana apart from many of her colleagues is the fact that she is Jewish and that her heritage still carries plenty of baggage in Hungary. “The Prime Minister,” Diana recalls “recently said that only those who follow the Christian-Hungarian tradition and are proud of the states foundation are Hungarian.” As a result of this continued conflict, Diana aspires to continue the socially relevant trend of Hungarian filmmaking. History must indeed answer to man. Diana sees her heritage as an asset, an inner conflict that translates to story. When the iron curtain came down, she along with many young Jewish Hungarians immigrated to Israel but there, Diana felt too comfortable. “To be Jewish in Israel is different. It’s like, I’m here – it’s okay. I don’t have a conflict any longer. I started to miss the conflict. It was my identity. To be Jewish in Budapest is much more interesting because you have to fight.” It’s no surprise that Diana chose this struggle as the topic for her stories. She recently came to New York with a documentary on the former Jewish Ghetto in Budapest and she is currently working on a documentary about the young Hungarian Jews who emigrated to Israel only to return to Hungary. For her feature, Ms. Groo is developing a love story about a chance encounter between a Jewish girl from Budapest and a Jewish man from New York. The film will compare the bonds of heritage via New York and Budapest. (Laurent Rejto on http://www.farmhousefilms.net/hungarian_cinema.htm)
"I started to miss the conflict . . ." reminds me of the two occasions in Fateless when György tells us that his favourite time of day in the camp was that hour between the return from the factory and the evening meal. I take this to be a reference to the sense that the the contrast between hard labour and relaxation was so important because being in the camp became part of his identity. Only if this was the case could the relaxation be enjoyed. Without the camp there would be no magic hour.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Director Pen Portraits: Valeska Grisebach
Valeska Grisebach was born in Bremen and studied Direction in Vienna, at its Film Academy in 1993. Her graduation film and first full-length feature was Mein Stern (You’re a Star 2001). This concern with the ordinary carries through to her latest project Sehnsucht (2006), which distinguished itself at the Berlinale for that year, and received a nomination for the Golden Bear award.
Mein Stern demonstrates a sensitive documentary realism in its portrayal of a relationship between two fifteen year olds, but not to examine social themes of adolescence; rather to draw out emotional realities. Sehnsucht remains in similar territory. Grisebach shows an interest in the different roles we assume at different points in our lives, but how those experiences are demonstrated in the everyday exchanges and minutiae. Interviewed about Mein Stern, she said: “The normal, the quotidian interests me. I didn't want to make a film with any generic statements about youth in the year 2000 but rather to capture a timeless and perhaps even old-fashioned moment.”(www.sensesofcinema.com)
Having trained in Vienna, Grisebach has been making her way back to Berlin where she grew up. She acknowledges being influenced by the films being made by other Berlin-based filmmakers, and describes the idea of a ‘Berliner Schule’ as a “friendly, pragmatic union. Perhaps the connection, as far as the content of our films is concerned, is the attempt to find an approach to reality, and thus to our own identities.” (www.german-films.de).
Mein Stern demonstrates a sensitive documentary realism in its portrayal of a relationship between two fifteen year olds, but not to examine social themes of adolescence; rather to draw out emotional realities. Sehnsucht remains in similar territory. Grisebach shows an interest in the different roles we assume at different points in our lives, but how those experiences are demonstrated in the everyday exchanges and minutiae. Interviewed about Mein Stern, she said: “The normal, the quotidian interests me. I didn't want to make a film with any generic statements about youth in the year 2000 but rather to capture a timeless and perhaps even old-fashioned moment.”(www.sensesofcinema.com)
Having trained in Vienna, Grisebach has been making her way back to Berlin where she grew up. She acknowledges being influenced by the films being made by other Berlin-based filmmakers, and describes the idea of a ‘Berliner Schule’ as a “friendly, pragmatic union. Perhaps the connection, as far as the content of our films is concerned, is the attempt to find an approach to reality, and thus to our own identities.” (www.german-films.de).
Director Pen Portraits: Hans-Christian Schmid
Hans-Christian Schmid has made his mark as a producer, director and writer. In addition, one of the most intriguing parts of his identity (and something that marks him as part of the new set of young German directors) is that range of genres and dramatic material he has worked in.
Qualified from Munich’s Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, he studied scriptwriting at the University of Southern California, L.A. His first films included awarding-winning documentaries, Sekt Oder Selters (1981), about gambling machine addicts and Die Mechanik Des Wunders (1992) exploring the drama and personal tensions around a pilgrimage in his native Altötting.
His career has been built on long-standing associations with producers Jakob Claussen and Thomas Wöbke, and writer/director Michael Gutmann, all being involved in his debut feature Nach Fünf Im Urwald (It’s a Jungle Out There 1995), which also launched Franka Potente. Other acting discoveries include August Diehl (23 and Lichter), who went on to play the morally superior Adolf Burger in Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters 2007).
In 2004, Schmid founded his own production company 23/5, which produced his own film, Requiem and Robert Thalheim’s 'Am Ende Kommen Touristen, (And Along Came Tourists), a contemporary examination of Auschwitz, the relationship of the town to its visitors. The vibrancy of the current German film industry can, I think, be explained in part by this entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by its directors.
Requiem (2006), which followed the Hollywood version The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a far more controlled and powerful study of the death of an epileptic girl after a series of church-sanctioned exorcisms. Sandra Hueller’s intense central performance won her a Silver Bear at 2006 Berlinale, and the film allows the complexity of the character and the family relationships that conspired with simple religious belief. It, like the documentaries mentioned above, has strong roots in his biography and his early experiences of growing up in Bavaria.
He has been classified as part of a new German school of directors but in a recent interview classifies himself as working on the margins and “watching what they’re doing, although I’m pleased it exists.”
Qualified from Munich’s Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, he studied scriptwriting at the University of Southern California, L.A. His first films included awarding-winning documentaries, Sekt Oder Selters (1981), about gambling machine addicts and Die Mechanik Des Wunders (1992) exploring the drama and personal tensions around a pilgrimage in his native Altötting.
His career has been built on long-standing associations with producers Jakob Claussen and Thomas Wöbke, and writer/director Michael Gutmann, all being involved in his debut feature Nach Fünf Im Urwald (It’s a Jungle Out There 1995), which also launched Franka Potente. Other acting discoveries include August Diehl (23 and Lichter), who went on to play the morally superior Adolf Burger in Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters 2007).
In 2004, Schmid founded his own production company 23/5, which produced his own film, Requiem and Robert Thalheim’s 'Am Ende Kommen Touristen, (And Along Came Tourists), a contemporary examination of Auschwitz, the relationship of the town to its visitors. The vibrancy of the current German film industry can, I think, be explained in part by this entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by its directors.
Requiem (2006), which followed the Hollywood version The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a far more controlled and powerful study of the death of an epileptic girl after a series of church-sanctioned exorcisms. Sandra Hueller’s intense central performance won her a Silver Bear at 2006 Berlinale, and the film allows the complexity of the character and the family relationships that conspired with simple religious belief. It, like the documentaries mentioned above, has strong roots in his biography and his early experiences of growing up in Bavaria.
He has been classified as part of a new German school of directors but in a recent interview classifies himself as working on the margins and “watching what they’re doing, although I’m pleased it exists.”
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Czech/Slovak New Wave
We are now very used to the idea of the 'New Wave', applying it to literature (especially science fiction) and popular music as well as cinema. The term appears to have become current in relation to the French New Wave in the late 1950s and the other two New Waves that have been most foregrounded are the British (late 1950s to 1963/4) and the Czechoslovakian (roughly 1962-68). The one that is left out tends to be the Japanese New Wave at roughly the same time as the British and French (probably because the films weren't seen in the West). Others followed under slightly different titles -- often simply as 'New Cinema'.
It strikes me that the French New Wave had two major distinctive features – the enormous number of first-time filmmakers in the period (and thus a 'youth quality') to much of the work and secondly the development of critical writing from the directors themselves and others. Some of the short dictionary type entries make the mistake of linking the Czech/Slovak directors to those in France, but in fact there seems to have been some antagonism between them. The Czech/Slovak directors were generally well-trained and experienced (unlike Godard/Truufaut etc.) and older filmmakers released 'new style' films alongside the younger directors. Like the British, some of the Czech directors used a form of social realism, but others used fantasy and surrealism. Also like the British, literary adaptations were important. Where the French turned to American pulp fiction, Czechs turned to Bohumil Hrabal and other writers. The French New Wave comprised some 200 films mostly made by small production companies, the British New Wave coming at the end of the studio period relied on new companies and state funding in a changing industrial scene. The Czech/Slovak productions all came from state-funded studios but several films were banned in the late 1950s and not released until 1963, the 'New Wave' then being a possible in a 'reform period' between two bouts of repression. Note that the 'Prague Spring' (when the reformist Alexander Dubcek took control of the Czech Communist Party) was just the Spring of 1968, the New Wave started much earlier. Institutional factors are often important in New Waves.
Reference: Alistair Whyte (1971) New Cinema in Eastern Europe, London: Studio Vista
Useful links
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/czech-slovak-1.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_New_Wave
http://www.criterion.com/asp/in_focus_essay.asp?id=8&eid=177
http://www.popmatters.com/film/features/020331-czech-new-wave.shtml
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839566,00.html
It strikes me that the French New Wave had two major distinctive features – the enormous number of first-time filmmakers in the period (and thus a 'youth quality') to much of the work and secondly the development of critical writing from the directors themselves and others. Some of the short dictionary type entries make the mistake of linking the Czech/Slovak directors to those in France, but in fact there seems to have been some antagonism between them. The Czech/Slovak directors were generally well-trained and experienced (unlike Godard/Truufaut etc.) and older filmmakers released 'new style' films alongside the younger directors. Like the British, some of the Czech directors used a form of social realism, but others used fantasy and surrealism. Also like the British, literary adaptations were important. Where the French turned to American pulp fiction, Czechs turned to Bohumil Hrabal and other writers. The French New Wave comprised some 200 films mostly made by small production companies, the British New Wave coming at the end of the studio period relied on new companies and state funding in a changing industrial scene. The Czech/Slovak productions all came from state-funded studios but several films were banned in the late 1950s and not released until 1963, the 'New Wave' then being a possible in a 'reform period' between two bouts of repression. Note that the 'Prague Spring' (when the reformist Alexander Dubcek took control of the Czech Communist Party) was just the Spring of 1968, the New Wave started much earlier. Institutional factors are often important in New Waves.
Reference: Alistair Whyte (1971) New Cinema in Eastern Europe, London: Studio Vista
Useful links
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/czech-slovak-1.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_New_Wave
http://www.criterion.com/asp/in_focus_essay.asp?id=8&eid=177
http://www.popmatters.com/film/features/020331-czech-new-wave.shtml
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839566,00.html
Monday, January 14, 2008
Pen Pictures 2: Milos Forman
Milos Forman (b. 1932) was one of the major figures in the Czech/Slovak 'New Wave' of the mid 1960s. He became known for a series of observational social comedies that also satirised the communist state. The four films from this period are:Konkurs (Talent Competition) (1963)
Peter and Pavla (1964)
Blonde in Love (1965)
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
Forman and his collaborators (including writer/director Ivan Passer and cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek) found non-professional actors and filmed them in a documentary style. Many of the films included music performances and several of these can be seen on YouTube (search under "Milos Forman"). In 1968 after many years when Czech films were ignored, three were chosen for screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968, including The Fireman's Ball. However, the events of Paris, May 1968, had made an impact on French directors such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard and to Forman's dismay, they and other French directors picketed the festival and caused it to close. Returning briefly to Prague, Forman saw the Russian tanks coming and decided to get out to America while he still could.
In Hollywood, Forman and Ondricek made Taking Off (1971), a wonderful film that continued the Czech sequence of comedies, this time dealing with middle-class American families whose teenage daughters had run away from home. Several of the techniques adopted for Konkurs are repeated here. The film flopped (it got a wide circuit release in the UK) primarily, Forman argues, because it was a European film without a 'proper' ending. Forman went on to have many big hits including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984). His latest film is Goya's Ghosts (2006), made in Spain with Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman in the lead roles, which reunited Forman with scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière who worked on Taking Off.
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