Continuing its commitment to contemporary Japanese fare, VIZ Cinema has been busy throughout the month of October with the San Francisco premiere of John H. Lee's Sayonara Itsuka: Goodbye, Someday (2010); encore screenings of Junichi Suzuki's documentary 442—Live with Honor, Die with Dignity (2010); the U.S. premiere of Takeshi Koike's anime Redline; while likewise hosting the San Francisco Film Society's Taiwan Film Days.
But VIZ Cinema has granted equal time to honor classic Japanese cinema, most recently with four Yasujirō Ozu films profiling the performances of Setsuko Hara—Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1954), Late Autumn (1960) and Tokyo Twilight (1957)—and currently with four films by Kenji Mizoguchi: Women of the Night (1948), Miss Oyu (1951), Life of Oharu (1952), and Sansho the Bailiff (1952) (running through early November).
As profiled at Wikipedia, "Setsuko Hara (原 節子, June 17, 1920) is a retired Japanese actress who appeared in many of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the Noriko Trilogy (Late Spring, Early Summer, and Tokyo Story). She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse and other prominent directors. She is called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s, although she is mostly unknown in the US. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and has since led a secluded life in Kamakura, refusing all interviews and photographs. Her last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio, in the 1962 film, Chushingura. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress."
Ozu-san.com has attractively compiled her collaborations with Ozu, including the essay "Something About Setsuko" (taken from her fan page), an article by Donald Richie, and Peter Bradshaw's profile for The Guardian.
I caught two of the Ozu films: Late Spring and Tokyo Twilight. Both have been released on Criterion with insightful essays by Michael Atkinson and Michael Koresky, respectively. Of equal interest is Dan Harper's profile on Setsuko Hara for Senses of Cinema and Jerome Delamater's for Film Reference (updated by Corey K. Creekmur).
Cross-published on Twitch.
When I was a child trick or treating in my neighborhood on Halloween, word would travel fast between us kids of which house had the best treats—gooey popcorn balls, handfuls of candy corn, or homemade cookies—and we would all converge on that doorbell in greedy anticipation like a flock of Hitchcock birds. Years later, my insatiable sweet tooth has turned into an equally insatiable cinematic tooth and—during this heightened season of ghouls and ghosts, muertos and the Bay Area's orange and black baseball team poised to win the World Series—I touch base with Hell on Frisco Bay's listing of festival treats awaiting the Bay Area cinephile, gleefully aware that I will not go home empty-handed. As Brian Darr has mentioned in his thorough survey of our local "in-fest-ation", The Roxie celebrates Halloween with three events: tonight's double bill of 1950s horror/sci-fi (The Creature With the Atom Brain and The Man From Planet X), tomorrow's double-bill featuring archive prints of David Cronenberg's The Brood and the Hammer studio's Corruption, and a third on Halloween night consisting of two films by director Alex Cox (Straight to Hell Returns and Searchers 2.0)—who will be present at the screenings! (and at the Rafael Film Center the following night).
In the face of so much arthouse festival fare and the daunting task of having to report on same, the mindless fun promised by Elliot Lavine's two evenings of "Halloween maudit" at the Roxie provide a welcome respite from exhaustive overchoice. I'm restored to the avid spirit of my childhood years curled up in the red and grey armchair in front of the Philco television watching late night creature features. It never ceases to amaze me how much comfort I still derive from black and white sci-fi films from the '50s, whose threat of nuclear proliferation feels nearly innocent in the face of festival proliferation (which seems strikingly more hazardous to my health).
The Creature With the Atom Brain (dir. Edward L. Cahn, U.S.A., 1955, 70 mins) will be presented in a 35mm Studio Archive Print for its single 8:00PM screening this evening. As Lavine advised me by email, this "hybrid masterpiece" features gangsters, a renegade former nazi scientist and lots of terrifying living dead. A major influence on both Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead, The Creature With the Atom Brain is one of the most bizarrely shocking horror hybrids of the 1950s, in which renegade Nazi scientist Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye) unleashes an army of zombies in order to help an exiled American gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) in his demented quest to get revenge on his enemies and regain his criminal empire! "This one has it all," Elliot promises, "and it truly needs to be seen on the big Roxie screen! More terrifying than you might imagine given its meager budget." According to Wikipedia, The Creature With the Atom Brain was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was the bottom half of a double bill with another SF favorite: It Came from Beneath the Sea. Co-starring Richard Denning (check out his beefcake portfolio at Brian's Drive-in Theater) and Three Stooges alumni Angela Stevens. Written by Curt Siodmak.
The Man From Planet X (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, U.S.A., 1951, 70 mins) comes from the amazing director of the cult noir Detour (1945). This beautifully spooky science fiction tale about the arrival of an alien from a distant planet whose presence on Earth triggers a chain reaction that could threaten our planet's very existence is brilliantly atmospheric, thought provoking and an understated little gem that—according to Lavine—is "one of Ulmer's most beautiful and baffling maudit Bs, that will slither its way into your dreams for many nights to come." Starring Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, and William Schallert. Presented in a 35mm Studio Archive Print this evening at 6:35PM and 9:30PM.
The Brood (dir. David Cronenberg, Canada, 1979, 92 mins), Elliot advises, is probably Cronenberg's "most profane film. What psychological secrets compelled him to make this film?" A shattering, brilliant early shocker from the director of such horror classics as They Came From Within, Scanners, and The Dead Zone as well as recent hits like A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. A sickening brood of mutant children begin a terrifying, inexplicable reign of terror with completely unpredictable results! Terrifying and gruesome, this is one that is tailor-made for Halloween! Prepare yourselves for a seriously insane movie! Starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, and Art Hindle. In Color. 35mm Studio Archive Print! Saturday, October 30 at 4:15PM and 8:00PM.
Corruption aka Carnage (dir. Robert Hartford-Davis, UK, 1968, 91 mins) is a rarely seen Hammer horror opus and a veritable slaughter-fest of gore as a crazed surgeon conducts severely disgusting acts of carnage in order to restore his hideously disfigured wife to the beautiful woman she once was. A not-to-be-missed mindbender, Corruption is—as the film's poster attests—"not a woman's picture", though I doubt the Roxie will insist on women being accompanied to this "super-shock" film. Starring the iconic Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen, and David Lodge. In Color. 35mm Studio Archive Print. Saturday, October 30 at 2:30PM, 6:15PM, and 9:45PM.
Cross-published on Twitch.
For as long as I've lived here (35 years come December), the Bay Area has been a swell place to be a French film fanatic. Nearly all French titles with U.S. theatrical distribution get released here. We've got our big, French-heavy SF International Film Festival in the spring, and other fests like Frameline, Mill Valley, the Jewish and Arab Film Festivals fill in gaps during the rest of the year. And yet, with a national cinema as prodigious as France, plenty of good stuff goes unseen.
To that end, French Cinema Now (FCN) was born two years ago. Presented by the San Francisco Film Society as part of its ambitious Fall Season, this mini-fest has become a vital supplement for local Francophiles. FCN 2010 plays for one week at Landmark Theaters' Embarcadero Center Cinema from Thursday, October 28 to Wednesday, November 3. It's a smaller line-up than last year—10 films instead of 12—but with the same 19 screening slots. The tantalizing roster consists of eight new narrative features and two documentaries. While seven of the films were already on my radar, I have especially high hopes for three that were not. That's because my two favorite FCN films from last year, The Wolberg Family and Stella, were complete unknowns. Here's a closer look at what's in store.
Copacabana (dir. Marc Fitousi)—Heading into FCN, I had a wish list of two dozen as-yet-unseen French films from 2009 and 2010. So it was very cool when my top choice not only appeared in the line-up, but was selected for opening night. This dramedy from director Marc Fitousi—his second feature—had its world premiere as a Cannes 2010 Special Screening. It earned solid reviews, but even if they'd been scathing I could never resist seeing Isabelle Huppert as a Brazil-obsessed bohemian Mom who starts selling vacation time-shares to impress her conservative daughter. Huppert's real-life daughter, Lolita Chammah, co-stars as the young woman too embarrassed to invite wild maman to her wedding. (Chammah made her 1988 screen debut as one of Huppert's children in Chabrol's Story of Women). Also in the cast is Jurgen Delnaet, who made an impression as the trucker boyfriend in 2008's Moscow, Belgium. Copacabana is set in the Belgian seaside town of Ostend. Bonus points are given because I totally dig films that take place in off-season beach resorts. Director Fitousi will be in town to attend both screenings. (Trailer)
Certified Copy (Copie conforme) (dir. Abass Kiarostami)—FCN's closing night will feature back-to-back screenings of the festival's highest profile film. It's the latest work from an Iranian master, for which Juliette Binoche won the best actress prize at this year's Cannes. After a decade of quasi-experimental works (of which I've only seen 2002's Ten), this is alleged to be the cerebral Kiarostami's most accessible film yet and also his first made in "the West." Still, I somehow doubt that will translate as a mindless night at the movies. Binoche stars as "She," a French antique store owner who connects with a British author (played by opera singer and first time actor William Shimell). His latest work is a treatise on the nature of copies and originals. He and She hit the road, philosophizing along the way, until they reach a tavern where they're mistaken as a married couple. They play along, inhabiting the roles so well that the viewer wonders if it's all really pretend. Sounds like classic Kiarostami, yanking our chain and operating on a dizzying number of levels. This is a director I've both loved (Close-Up, The Wind Will Carry Us) and loathed (the Palm d'or winning Taste of Cherry) and I can't wait to find out which this will be. For what it's worth, Certified Copy has U.S. distribution through IFC Films, but it doesn't appear anywhere on Landmark Theaters' 2010 release schedule. (Trailer)
Rapt (dir. Lucas Belvaux)—After Copacabana, this is the film I'm anticipating most. Actor/director Belvaux made a big noise in 2002 with The Trilogy, three films with the same cast and an interconnecting story line, but made in different genres. While his 2006 Cannes competition film The Right of the Weakest got a lukewarm reception (and consequently never made it to the Bay Area), it's nearly impossible to find a discouraging word about this latest work. Rapt is a social thriller about the kidnapping of a corporate CEO. When the abductors demand a €50 million ransom, his family and employer dig up lots of scandalous info about him, resulting in a decision not to pay up. Belvaux' story is based on the true 1978 kidnapping of playboy Edouard-Jean Empain. It's been given a contemporary setting with fictionalized characters, but is said to be very faithful to original events. Word is that fellow actor/director Yvan Attal is riveting in the lead role and it's always a pleasure to see Anne Consigny, who plays the wife. Best of all, Belvaux himself will be here for the festival. (Trailer)
The Princess of Montpensier (La Princesse de Montpensier) (dir. Bertrand Tavernier)—Wildly eclectic director Bertrand Tavernier (Let Joy Reign Supreme) is no stranger to historic costume dramas, a genre to which he's returned after last year's maligned, Tommy Lee Jones-starring detective drama In the Electric Mist. Set during the religious wars of 16th century France, the film stars the gorgeous Mélanie Thierry as a marquis' daughter who's married off to the son of a duke, despite feelings she has for a roguish cousin. When her husband is called to war, she's put in the care of her husband's tutor, who proceeds to fall in love with her. Princess screened in competition at this year's Cannes and reviews were all over the place. Some complained that Tavernier added nothing new or interesting to the genre, and Thierry's performance came in for particular drubbing. Variety's Leslie Felperin, however, felt "this visitation to 16th century France has both beauty and brains and offers a portrait of renaissance life leagues more accurate than the most historical epics." She also found Tavernier's direction "as elegantly fluid as his best work." For me, the presence of three favorite actors—Grégoire Leprince Ringuet (the husband), Gaspard Ulliel (the cousin) and Lambert Wilson (the tutor)—elevates it to a must-see. Like Certified Copy, the film has distribution through IFC but isn't on Landmark's 2010 schedule. (Trailer)
Sisters (Gamines) (dir. Éléonore Faucher)—Three young siblings obsess over their mysteriously absent father in this adaptation of actress Sylvie Testud's semi-autobiographical novel. Testud's alter-ego in the story is mischievous middle child Sibylle, the only one in this family of Italian immigrants who's blonde like her father (Testud appears in the film as the adult Sibylle). Amira Casar, perhaps best known for her lead role in Catherine Breillat's provocative Anatomy of Hell, plays the ambitious single mother who's determined to shield her daughters from their missing father. Writing in Variety, Jordan Mintzer called Sisters "a touching and tender portrait" and "bittersweet, dreamlike vision that never panders to cuteness or sentimentality as it reveals the hardships, both past and present, of being raised in a single-parent household." Director Faucher, whose very fine film Sequins screened at the 2005 SF International Film Festival, will make a personal appearance at FCN 2010. (Trailer)
A Real Life (Au voleur) (dir. Sarah Leonor)—Actor Guillaume Dépardieu, the ruggedly handsome son of Gérard, died in 2008 after contracting viral pneumonia on a Romanian film set. Last year the SF Film Society brought us Versailles and Stella, two works he'd completed before his death at age 37, and now they've programmed his final film into FCN 2010. In A Real Life, the actor plays a small town petty thief who encounters a mousy schoolteacher after she's been hit by a car. The pair later reconnects, and a scrape with the law sends them fleeing into the forest together. It's classic tale of love on the run that's a stylized mix of road movie and romantic drama. The film also features actor/director Jacques Nolot (Porn Theater, Before I Forget) in a supporting role as a fellow lowlife. Director Leonor is expected to be in town for the screenings. (Trailer)
Hidden Diary (Mères et filles) (dir. Julie Lopes-Curval)—A trio of powerhouse actresses portray three generations of women in this familial drama about how "past secrets irrevocably impact present relationships." A pregnant, successful industrial designer (Marina Hands) who lives in Canada returns to France for a family visit. After a nasty fallout with her emotionally distant, physician mother (Catherine Deneuve), she seeks refuge in the house of her recently deceased grandfather. There she discovers a recipe-filled diary belonging to her grandmother (Marie-Josée Croze in extended flashbacks), a woman who fled family life rather than tolerate the constricting circumstances of 1950s housewife-dom. Variety's Ronnie Scheib praised the film's "dynamite cast, assured direction and intriguingly far-fetched premise." This is the third feature from director Lopes-Curval, who won Cannes' Camera d'or in 2002 with her debut film Seaside. (Trailer)
Love Like Poison (Un poison violent) (dir. Katell Quillévéré)—This debut feature about the eternal conflict of flesh vs. spirit garnered strong reviews when it screened in Director's Fortnight at Cannes this year. The film also netted its director the Prix Jean Vigo, a prize given annually to a promising young director. In a small Breton town, 14-year-old Anna prepares for her confirmation in the Catholic Church, while experiencing the stirrings of first love with a neighbor boy. Her religious and newly single mother seeks solace with the local priest, who is himself suffering a crisis of faith. Meanwhile, Anna helps care for an infirm grandfather who's not ready to let go of this world's sensual pleasures. Writing in Variety, Alissa Simon declares Love Like Poison to be "beautifully written, extremely well played and sensually lensed." The French title comes from a 1967 Serge Gainsbourg song, "Un poison violent, ç'est ça l'amour" (a violent poison, that's how love is). (Trailer)
Irène (dir. Alain Cavalier)—The first of two documentaries in FCN 2010 is by veteran director Cavalier, best known for 1986's Thérèse, a formalist vision of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Shot with a small digital camera, Irène is an intimate meditation on the director's relationship with Irène Tunc, his troubled actress wife who died in a 1972 car accident. The film debuted at Cannes 2009 in Un Certain Regard and reviews were not kind. In Variety, Rob Nelson admitted that while "personal documentaries are self-indulgent by definition," Cavalier's "bid to turn decades of grief into watchable cinema" results in an "arrogant endurance test." But at least one person on the SF Film Society programming team thought highly of it, so I suspect we should give it a chance. (Trailer)
Two in the Wave (Deux dans la vague) (dir. Emmanuel Laurent)—This is FCN's first year without a single revival screening on the roster. The next best thing, however, should be this documentary about the initial friendship and ultimate enmity between film critics turned directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. The film almost exclusively consists of vintage film clips, archival interviews and newsreel footage, with the only new material being actress Islid le Besco thumbing through old magazines and visiting Parisian locales apropos to the doc's subject matter. Reviews from Rotterdam and Berlin were mixed, with detractors calling the film "gossipy" and lacking analysis. Others felt it would have been better served with present-day interviews of Godard's and Truffaut's still-living contemporaries. I'm encouraged that Jean-Pierre Léaud, an actor who worked extensively with both directors, is said to be a major presence and that the film contains his original screen test for The 400 Blows (a film FCN screened last year to mark the 50th anniversary of the French New Wave). If nothing else, the bounty of clips will remind me of nouvelle vague films I really should see again. Strangely enough for a film about film, Two in the Wave will be the only FCN 2010 entry to be shown digitally. (Trailer)
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While FCN presents the opportunity to catch the very latest in le cinéma français, it's also a last-chance saloon of sorts for the previous year's stragglers. If a French film did the international fest circuit in 2009 and didn't pop up in this year's French Cinema Now, the time has probably come to bid it adieu. It now seems likely the Bay Area will not see Isabelle Adjani's Cesar-winning performance in Skirt Day. Or Xavier Giannoli's Cannes competition film In the Beginning with Gérard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Devos and François Cluzet. Or the Yolande Moreau/Bouli Lanners anarchical comedy Louise-Michel. Interestingly, all three played this year's just-within-reach Sacramento French Film Festival. Too bad the damn thing takes place at the exact same time as Frameline. Other notable Bay Area M.I.A.s include Costa Gavras' acclaimed immigration fable Eden is West, Tony Gatlif's Korkoro (a film about Nazi persecution of gypsies which won the top prize at the Montreal World Film Festival) and Tsai Ming-liang's Face, a French-Taiwanese co-production that could have fit handily into FCN or the Film Society's Taiwan Film Days. And last but not least, there's Soeur Sourire, a biopic about The Singing Nun ("Dominique") starring Cécile De France.
Cross-published on film-415 and Twitch.
Lark Pien is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator. And she is also my friend. She is my sole connection to the world of comics, graphic novels, and animation. (I did have a comic book phase my first year of high school, but I noticed I wasn't hanging out with my friends nearly as much so I packed up the Power Packs, canceled my Alpha Flights and ceased the Secret Wars in favor of external rather than internal conversations.) Whenever Lark and I meet up, our conversations are rapid and breathless, having so many epiphanies and thoughts to catch up on. I have learned a great deal from Lark and she always fuels me to further explore my own ideas and interests.
Our meet-ups have become fewer because Lark's cartoonist career has been booming lately. She received the Harvey award for her coloring work on Gene Luen Yang's Printz winner American Born Chinese (the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award). And last year saw the release of her first book Long Tail Kitty (Blue Apple Books, 2009) and last weekend of her second book Mr. Elephanter (Candlewick Press, 2010). Both are characters she's been developing for years and—although classified as children's books—many an adult will find much to appreciate in Lark's quirky sense of humor and wonder along with the playful joy of her illustration style. And don't just take my word for it. Kirkus Review has this to say about Mr. Elephanter: "There isn't a page here that doesn't melt with charm." And Publisher's Weekly is sure readers will be converts begging for more after getting to the 70 frames of imaginative (and hilarious) games in Long Tail Kitty.
Along with this, Lark has found herself included in this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) as part of a series entitled "Californimation" on October 22, 2010 at 5:00PM at the Arts Court at Club SAW. Lark is on the docket with her video project Small Destructions which was a piece commissioned by San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) where Lark came into the museum and painted a daily frame on four large canvases, video-taping the entire process. This video was then sped-up in time-lapse fashion and synced-up with the music of Cherryweed with lyrics by Stian.
My thanks to Lark for taking a break from her busy schedule to indulge a brief email interview in hopes that the lucky folks attending OIAF might gain a broader context of her talented work.
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Adam Hartzell: Can you tell us how the Small Destructions video project came to be?
Lark Pien: In 2007, the CAM in San Francisco received funding [from the Feishacker Foundation and the Zellerbach Foundation] to house a new series in their facility—the Bay Area Spotlight. It took up an entire wing (a large room), and cycled biannually, featuring a comprehensive body of work from a local cartoonist.
I was invited to be the first in this series, and so I met with the curator to discuss details of the show. He expressed interest in having me paint a mural, and this idea grew and evolved into an installation piece for the museum, the Small Destructions installation.
I came in after hours and painted in 1.5 hour increments (employees were not getting paid to stay later, and I did not want to put them out). I am usually a very fastidious painter, but to set up shop, get the camera positioned and rolling, paint and then clean up all in an hour and a half was no easy task. The painting/filming portion of the project took one month. The film editing (which I am obviously novice to) and music coordination took another few weeks.
Hartzell: I assume the story you ended up painting was created for the commission (correct me if I'm wrong). Do you have a name for the characters and how long have you been developing these particular characters utilized in the story you paint in Small Destructions?
Pien: The Small Destructions story is a stand alone mini-comic, and was originally part of a limited edition handmade two-comic box set—pfew! that's a mouthful!—that my husband [fellow cartoonist Thien Pham] and I made in 2004. Each of us wrote our own comic stories, then combined them together in this Monster Box set. The only rule was that the stories had to have monsters.
When deciding on a subject for the installation, the first Monster Box story came to mind. I hadn't played with it for awhile, but it was a good length, fairly straight forward in concept, and had a lot of visual texture. The monsters, like many of my characters, do not have names; but you get the idea that they're neighbors or friends and that they share readily.
Hartzell: What I've always loved about your work is the playfulness with just the right subtext of wickedness and Small Destructions conveys that perfectly. However, what themes do you see emerging in your work? I see a consistent theme, but is that intentional? Is it laid out in a detailed way or is it something you more so let emerge as you go about creating?
Pien: One thing that I have been told repeatedly about my work is that my stories are lyrical but do not have a lot of plot. Some people find the lack of plot dissatisfying, but I think these kinds of stories are fine to tell. I don't think I'm telling a story to make a point but to illustrate a kind of "way"; is that Taoist? Ha! I'm interested in illustrating the unpredictability of the world we live in. I think our reactions to chance, to luck, and to fate are often painful and funny.
The realization that my work is thematic is a recent one. In my twenties I never focused on a project longer than when I was making it. Once a painting or comic was sold/adopted and in someone else's home, I'd carry on to my next adventure. But I'm nearing my forties now, and I've been thinking a lot about doing some projects that will take a long time to do; so stepping back and thinking about themes has become relevant.
Hartzell: How did this video project end up being included in OIAF and are you familiar with the work of the other folks who will be featured in the "Californimation" series?
Pien: The OIAF contacted curator Andrew Farago at the CAM and invited him to the festival. Mr. Farago was asked to assemble a group of animation pieces for the "Californimation" segment, and the OIAF asked specifically for my little film to be included, what luck!
I have met Dalton Grant on several occasions, but have not seen his animation pieces. I've seen a little of Nina Paley's work and love her designs for Sita Sings the Blues. I don't know how my rudimentary project will fit with the refined collection of their professional work, but I really appreciate the film being a part of OIAF this year. The festival will make for an incredible week.
Hartzell: I know you just released your second book Mr. Elephanter this weekend and Long Tail Kitty last year, could you tell us a little about those characters (and if the books will be available in Canada) and if there has been any discussion about taking those into an animated form?
Pien: Yes, the books are available in Canada. My comic audience consists of mostly adults, but now the stories are in children's book formats as well. Obviously, I'm happy to have both. Long Tail Kitty emerged in the early 2000's, and was featured in a story for my pet rabbit, who died while I was traveling. It was a sad story and made some people cry. Over the years I've written ten or so Long Tail Kitty stories, but they are all pretty happy.
Brave Mr. Elephanter (the comic) was written for my brother, who loved all kinds of pachyderms when we were growing up. He has been considering adoption, so I decided to write a story about that. The adoption theme is much more prominent in the comic than it is in the children's book.
Mr. Elephanter and Long Tail Kitty are some of my kinder characters. They live in worlds where there is a strong sense of well-being. If there is ever any drama, it usually doesn't get any crazier than fighting with a friend, or accidentally getting roped into a babysitting session. I've been asked to option Long Tail Kitty for cartoons, but I think companies are asking for the character and not the stories. I'm interested in Long Tail Kitty's world and his stories, and less interested in branding his character.
I like interactive formats (games, choose-your-own-adventure type stories), so if it was an interactive animation project or video game, I'd be interested in looking into it. Recently someone showed me how to do some rudimentary animation using Photoshop. That was neat. And I have a brand new Final Cut application that I'd like to install and learn, so I think some in-house cartoons may be in my future.
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Lark Pien's full bio can be found on her website and further samplings of her art are galleried here. All images copyright of the artist.
Cross-published on Twitch.
Sophoan Sorn is a Cambodia-born, American multi-faceted artist and film festival programmer. A miracle child, he was born in 1985, two weeks after his mother's water broke, in a refugee camp on the border of Cambodia. He arrived in the United States of America in 1991 with his family. He began classical and contemporary piano studies at age 11. An honor graduate of Lodi Seventh-day Adventist Academy Class of 2003, he has been studying at San Joaquin Delta College and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, focusing on Film.
From 2001 through 2010, he was proactive in the California Central Valley's art scene—working in documentary filmmaking and photography, performing as a contemporary and classical pianist, programming cultural arts events, and volunteering for local and international non-profit organizations. He served on various community projects, and contributed his talent diversely to arts, cultural, educational, health, humanitarian and religious institutions.
In 2007, he founded the San Joaquin International Film Festival. In 2009, the festival expanded into a year-round program as the San Joaquin Film Society—with its diverse slate of events, including: the World Cinema Series of unique mini-festivals focusing on particular nations or cultures; and the San Joaquin Children's Film Festival. Sophoan's collaborative spirit, innovative leadership and steadfast advocacy supported the growing culture of the San Joaquin region.
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Michael Guillén: Your arrival to the Goethe Institut and Berlin & Beyond (B&B) has involved navigating some choppy waters: namely, the resituation of the festival into San Francisco's already-crowded October landscape and your replacement of former Festival Director Ingrid Eggars. Let's smooth those waters first. What do you feel you will be bringing to B&B that will be a signature contribution to Bay Area audiences?
Sophoan Sorn: My first concern was simply to make sure B&B would continue to happen past its first 14 years. Secondly, I come from a background of diversity and—though I program from an international perspective—my work reflects the diversity of the San Franciscan community. Cinema is an all-encompassing and embracing art and communication form and so B&B isn't just about German or German-speaking people. For me to be invited as Festival Director speaks to the Goethe Institut's commitment to diversity, and a different, fresh approach to the festival.
I've also brought new partnerships to the festival. When "Rudy" de Baey, President of Goethe Institut San Francisco, brought me into B&B, one of his hopes was that I would reconnect the festival with old friends along with building new partnerships and friendships. If you look at the roster of supporters that we have for the festival, we've achieved just that.
Guillén: I appreciate your emphasizing the festival's commitment to diversity, with your appointment to Festival Director being a primary testimonial. I am intrigued that someone born in Cambodia is helming a festival of German, Austrian and Swiss cinema. Were you familiar with these national cinemas before you accepted the position with B&B?
Sorn: My family and I moved from Cambodia to Stockton, California in 1991 and about five years ago I began working on creating the San Joaquin International Film Festival (SJIFF). I founded, directed and programmed that festival for its first three years. I also developed programs catering to Latin America and helped create the San Joaquin Children's Film Festival. Curating these events involved collaborating with several different countries. I developed connections with German and Austrian film distributors through programming these San Joaquin festivals. For example Doris Dörrie—whose film Cherry Blossoms opened last year's B&B—was a contact of mine because she went to school in Stockton at the University of the Pacific. Cherry Blossoms played at SJIFF and won a jury prize there. With regard to Swiss film, Marcello Marcello was the opening night film at our 2009 SJIFF and Denis Rebaglia, the director of that film, is on the board of Swiss Films. As for Austrian film, I programmed Thomas Woschitz's Universalove (2008). So, yes, there has been linkage to these national cinemas but now with this opportunity at B&B I've been allowed to focus my lens.
My hope is not only to transform B&B into a more universal program that will attract an audience beyond B&B's core group—which we truly value!—and to expand outreach. We've tried to achieve that with our co-presentation partnerships with fellow Bay Area film festivals. Honestly, I see the Bay Area as a globalized community, much like Germany. It might seem incongruent at first to have a Cambodian Director for a festival of German, Austrian and Swiss film; but, we're in San Francisco where all things are possible. I consider it a smart, creative and innovative decision on the part of the Goethe Institut to have a director from a different cultural background. Diversity is beautiful.
Guillén: It certainly is. Regarding shifting the festival to October, I can see the immediate benefits of B&B linking in with German Currents in L.A., particularly with regard to enhancing the festival's spectacular dimension. Can you speak to the decision to go that route?
Sorn: That linkage occurred before I arrived on the scene. B&B remains the largest German-language film festival in America. Our festival has 27 feature-length films. Our partnership with German Currents in Los Angeles involves only about 9 films—which is about as many as they have in their festival—but, this allows us to share talent. When guest artists want to fly to America, they think of three major cities: New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Having at least two of these territories share talent during a competitive awards season—which has just launched—is attractive to these artists. Not only do we get to share the talent, but we share the costs of shipping prints for the shared nine films. This also gives a bigger marketing advantage to our main supporters like German Films. They benefit from such coordination and it encourages them to support us even more. An American analogy to German Films would be the American Film Institute. German Films is the national institute of films in Germany. Our second major partner is Lufthansa who helps us fly this talent to America.
October is a great time of the year. Most festivals are about premieres and new films; but—when you have a festival that takes place in October—we can include programming from the whole year. We can include films from so many great festivals that have had works premiering from Germany: Sundance, Tribeca, the Munich Film Festival, Locarno, and especially the Berlinale. Obviously, the largest German film selection is at the Berlinale and for us to be able to work around that benefits us. Further, many of these German films open in Germany in the fall so having them programmed in B&B is a parallel release between Germany and America.
Guillén: Have you received much consular assistance?
Sorn: All four consulates—Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxemborg—are involved, not only as supporters but co-presenters. They've all been wonderful support for community outreach.
Guillén: You stated earlier that your initial concern was simply to get B&B off the ground and running in October. How much of your fingerprints are all over the programming?
Sorn: I pretty much reviewed all the films. First, I wanted a program that reflected the current state of German cinema. Second, I wanted diversity in the program. Third, I wanted a program that would celebrate and enrichen the human experience. As one sidebar, we have three English-language films this year: Animals United 3D, Pope Joan, and the Rock Hudson documentary. This year we also have a focus on women and their roles in society: Pope Joan, When We Leave (the German Academy Award® entry), The Last Giants, Silvergirls, Julia's Disappearance and the just-announced revival screening of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola.
Guillén: I meant to ask, why a revival screening of Lola (1981)?
Sorn: I love Fassbinder! It's unfortunate that he died young but he left a legacy. His films are unique, intentional, and vivid and we wanted to show a film from a legend of the German New Wave. Lola also fit perfectly with our focus on women this year. It's a political film set after the Nazi regime when Germany was experiencing an economic boom. People used their affluent lifestyles to try to forget what had just happened. At the same time it's a wonderful story about a woman who works as a prostitute but also craves her independence. She has her own mind and her own thoughts. Barbara Sukowa delivers a wonderful performance in the role of Lola.
Guillén: I was also heartened overviewing this year's program to see your representative inclusion of filmmakers from the so-called "Berlin School": Thomas Arslan (In the Shadows) and Benjamin Heisenberg (The Robber). Can you speak to that?
Sorn: I can't speak too deeply about the talent from the Berlin School because that wasn't the criteria by which we were selecting films for B&B. It was more that we found In the Shadows and The Robber within the German programming at this year's Berlinale. Then again, when I'm looking for films it's not always about the films that are the most-awarded or the most-celebrated. I look to give opportunity and showcase filmmakers whose talent promises in some way in the future to satisfy the public. In the Shadows is a low-key drama, no special effects, that reminds me of a popular German television series Tatort. TV is big in Germany. Getting a gig on TV can be an even greater break than cinema for many well-known filmmakers. Germany's TV audience is near 80,000,000 people.
Guillén: Can you speak to your sextet of short films this year? I was glad to see that at least a couple of them are animated shorts.
Sorn: Sure. We chose six short films to play before the feature films rather than within their own shorts program. We believe these shorts reflect innovative, creative and talented filmmakers who have promising careers. For example, A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg is an absolutely beautifully made film. When I first started programming film festivals, I curated several short films as part of my endeavor to build connections and make friendships because short filmmakers are the filmmakers of tomorrow.
Guillén: My final question is most likely an unfair one; but, I'll ask it anyways. If you could name three events at this year's B&B that you wouldn't want your audiences to miss, which would you recommend?
Sorn: I would recommend the opening night feature Vincent Wants To Sea because it's a simple, meaningful film about three strangers-become-friends on an adventure. One has Tourette Syndrome, one has obsessive-compulsive disorder and one has anorexia. It's a moving, funny, and charming screenwriting debut by the film's star Florian David Fitz. Right now he's one of the hottest stars in Germany because he's on a soap opera and he'll be at B&B to introduce both Vincent Wants to Sea and Men in the City.
My second recommendation would be Feo Aladag's When We Leave, Germany's Academy Award® entry. I first saw this film back in June when it arrived on the scene. It's the only film in the program that made me cry. It's such a moving film about the world issue of honor killings in the Turkish-Germany community. It's an intelligently-told story and the screenwriting and directorial debut of Feo Aladag.
The third film I would vouch for would be Jan Tenhaven's documentary Autumn Gold. This is a powerful, inspiring and—for me—a victorious film about 80-year-old athletes who are racing against the clock of age and disease, battling the many obstacles that try to stop them; but, which they will not allow to stop them.
So those are the three films I would say, "Catch them! Catch them if you can!"
Cross-published on Twitch.
Pianomania (Austria/Germany: Lilian Franck / Robert Cibis, 2009) screened at the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival [where it won the Golden Gate Documentary Award] and plays at Berlin & Beyond on October 26. For those who love piano and the mysteries of sound, this documentary will be a treat. It's also a 90-minute-long commercial for Steinway & Sons, being a profile of its master tuner Stefan Knüpfer and a career that matches the exacting artistry and high professional standards of the pianists he serves—big names like Lang Lang, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Alfred Brendel. Knüpfer is remarkably patient and diplomatic with the extremely minute, sometimes incomprehensible demands of the artist preparing for a big performance at a major concert hall. He tunes the piano also to accommodate the hall's acoustics, the recording of the performance and the instrument's own peculiarities. The problem always arises of how to verbalize a problem with sound, how to express in words something that one hears or even can't hear. Then of course, there's the delicacy of moving an instrument that weighs half a ton. Amid all this tense, (literally) high-strung urgency it's fortunate that Knüpfer has a sly sense of humor, seen in a sequence where he plays a prank on other soundmeisters with a precious violin. Pianomania's official website includes a BBC interview with director Robert Cibis.
Julia's Disappearance (Switzerland: Christoph Schaub, 2009) screened at Mill Valley Film Festival this past week and closes Berlin & Beyond on October 28. It's a sincere, well-meaning ensemble film about getting older and feeling lousy about it. Julia (Corinna Harfouch), riding a bus to her 50th birthday dinner party, overhears a conversation between two teenagers discussing what gift to give a friend. When an elderly woman sits beside her, Julia suddenly can't see herself in the window glass. She's become invisible—a condition that continues off the bus and in a boutique where she stalls pre-party, until she catches the eye of an enigmatic older man (Bruno Ganz, with whom Harfouch appeared in Downfall). Meanwhile Julia's friends, a couple of middle-aged couples and a single man fending off middle age with gold sneakers, wait impatiently for her at a restaurant. The elderly woman on the bus continues on to a different birthday party in a retirement home, where the elderly birthday girl embarrasses her daughter by staging a series of petulant meltdowns devolving into a food fight.
The "punchline" of this film is that everybody ends up at the same restaurant—the teenager and her feuding parents; survivors of the retirement home debacle; and Julia's partygoers. But ultimately it's weak—there's no strong reason why they should all end up there, and the whiffs of magical realism involving disappearance end up only baffling. What remain are a few good-natured chuckles about the universal human condition of growing older and the possibility of love and happiness beyond all the aches, forgetfulness, humiliation and invisibility.
When We Leave (Germany: Feo Aladag, 2010) screens the final weekend of Mill Valley and is the Centerpiece film for Berlin & Beyond (October 24). Every bit as powerful and downbeat as Germany's 2009 Oscar submission The White Ribbon, which was nominated, this year's entry When We Leave stars Sibel Kekilli (who also starred in Fatih Akin's Head-On) as a young Turkish wife raised in Germany who flees her abusive husband in Istanbul to return to her family in Berlin. At first her conservative parents and siblings welcome back Umay and her young son Cem, but they demand that she return to her marriage so they can preserve their reputation in the Muslim immigrant community. In choosing between that and the welfare of their own daughter and grandchild, she's reminded, they will always choose the former. It's a tricky balance Umay tries desperately to create, keeping her family ties along with her own independence. Up to the end we're not sure who will win this stubborn battle, but as both sides' options narrow it's clear that the results will be devastating. The depictions of kind and generous Germans and the angelic Cem versus the heartless, vindictive Turkish men threaten to turn this into a Manichaean struggle, even a horror film.
Cross-published on Twitch.
In its 15th edition, Berlin & Beyond (B&B) resituates itself from its previous mid-January slot to San Francisco's October film festival calendar, enrichening the Bay Area's autumnal palette of national cinemas with select films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Running October 22-28 at San Francisco's historic Castro Theatre and October 30 at the Camera 12 Cinemas in San Jose, the festival's fresh disposition is being helmed by incoming Festival Director Sophoan Sorn. Saluting previous Festival Director Dr. Ingrid Eggers for her 14 years of creative spirit, dedicated service, and impassioned leadership, B&B turns its eye "to another 15 years and beyond!"
Berlin & Beyond's calendar shift to October affords the festival the opportunity to join forces with their sister festival, German Currents in Los Angeles, coordinated by each city's respective branches of the Goethe-Institut as "a united West Coast German Film Event". The rewards of such a maneuver are immediately apparent. Boasting 24 feature films from seasoned masters and up-and-coming innovators, and six short films from bright new talents, B&B will enhance its impressive program with a spectacular line-up of on-stage appearances by such artists and luminaries as Michael Verhoeven, Cristoph Schaub, Benjamin Heisenberg, Feo Aladag, Florian David Fitz, Baran Bo Odar, André Schäfer and Donna Woolfolk Cross, among several others [the complete list is here].
Berlin & Beyond kicks off on Friday, October 22, with an opening night party in the Castro's mezzanine (6:30PM) followed at 8:00PM with the shared West Coast premiere of Ralf Huettner's Vincent Wants to Sea (Vincent will Meer, 2010). At the recent German Film Festival in Paris, the Audience Award went to Huettner's road movie, in which a young man with Tourette's syndrome fulfills his recently-deceased mother's wish to go to the sea. At Variety, Boyd von Hoeij writes: "Teuton dramedy Vincent Wants to Sea takes a threadbare road-movie template involving three walking (no, make that driving) clichés and transforms it into a surprisingly effective portrait of damaged but lovable lost souls on the road. Though the film is ably directed by Ralf Huettner, kudos go in large part to thesp Florian David Fitz (Men in the City), who not only stars but also penned the solid screenplay, his first." In a deft stroke of programming, Florian David Fitz will accompany Vincent on opening night.
On Saturday, October 23, B&B offers four films: the shared West Coast premiere of Vadim Jendreyko's documentary The Woman With the 5 Elephants (Die Frau mit den 5 Elefanten, 2009; 12:00PM), the U.S. premiere of Simon Verhoeven's Men in the City (Männerherzen, 2009; 2:30PM), the shared West Coast premiere of Michael Verhoeven's documentary Human Failure (Menschliches Versagen, 2008; 4:45PM) and a special screening of Sönke Wortmann's Pope Joan (Die Päpstin, 2010; 7:30PM).
The "5 Elephants" of Vadim Jendreyko's documentary refer to Dostoevsky's five great novels, translated by the film's subject Swetlana Geier. Neil Young reported that The Woman With the 5 Elephants "turned out, most encouragingly, to be one of the word-of-mouth successes" of the 2009 Viennale, and a film with which he was "much taken." Young writes: "Quite conventional in form but fascinating in content, this is the story of Swetlana Geier, an octogenarian Ukrainian who has devoted most of her life to translating Russian classics into German. She's shown returning to Kiev for the first time since 1943—and the circumstances behind her departure provide the material for a sensitive and intelligent exploration of highly complex moral issues." Dispatching from Toronto's 2010 Hot Docs, Shannon Ridler effuses at Movie Moxie: "The Woman with the 5 Elephants is a beautiful reminder of the power and depth of language, and how it's a true skill to know language. A valuable skill. What could be more valuable than being [able] to express something precisely how you intend to? And what a skill it is, to know languages so well and understand them on a deeper level and how language says a lot about the culture of those who use it. Fascinating." Locally, at San Francisco's new festival-focused website Filmbalaya, Adam shares Ridler's fascination with "Swetlana's descriptions of the difficulties she undergoes while translating. For instance, how does a country whose language does not have any words for certain important ideas translate their meanings to those who speak another language?" He concludes that Jendreyko's debut documentary "reveals the main focus of his film, Swetlana, as a modern-day literary sage." Ridler provides ample film clips of the Hot Docs Q&A with Jendreyko and producer Thomas Tielsch; but B&B's audience will have their own opportunity to query Jendreyko during his on-stage appearance.
Simon Verhoeven's Men in the City offers a second opportunity to view the acting talent of Florian David Fitz who returns to the Castro stage to introduce the film. Co-starring Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds, Phantom Pain), this comedy's English title riffs lightly on Sex in the City but shifts its perspective to masculine emotion in its diverse amusements. Simon's film is followed by his father Michael Verehoeven's documentary Human Failure; an examination of the expropriation of assets from German Jews during the Third Reich by state tax officials. The film's import, Charles Mudede suggests in his review for The Stranger, is the recognition that "Nazi Germany was a state and not a clan or tribe or some other lower and more chaotic social order"; a state that efficiently practiced Hannah Arendt's still-controversial concept of the "banality of evil." Mudede explains: "What is even more frightening about this form of banality is that it shows that the state can function as a state while committing barbaric acts. The Nazi state did not collapse into chaos—it operated within a strictly legal and highly organized framework. In Human Failure, we see 'the horror': the lack of a distinction between barbarism and civilization. Barbarism can exist (indeed thrive) in a state of order. 'There is no document of culture that is not at the same time a document of barbarism,' wrote Walter Benjamin, a victim of Nazi state power/madness (a madness with a method). The same is true of the state—it can be at once totally barbaric and totally civilized." Michael Verhoeven will be on hand to navigate anticipated discussion after the film.
One of B&B's educational imperatives within this year's edition is the festival's celebration of the art of storytelling, the joy of reading, and the importance of literacy through their new program Book to Screen, which showcases books that have been adapted into films presented at the festival. Sönke Wortmann's filmic adaptation of celebrated American author Donna Woolfolk Cross's international bestselling novel, Pope Joan, provides an appropriate opportunity to pursue the theme, and—along with her on-stage presentation of the film—author Cross will engage an interactive discussion of her novel with a book signing to follow on Saturday, October 23, 5:30PM at Books, Inc., 2275 Market St., San Francisco (415/864-6777). A feminist subversion of the apostolic succession, Pope Joan insinuates an intriguing evening of revisionist religious history, despite a tepid review from Variety's Derek Elley who found Pope Joan "a disappointingly dull workout" that "drifts along in neutral like a cut-down miniseries."
Berlin & Beyond continues on Sunday, October 24 with five entries. At noon is the U.S. premiere of Saara Alia Waasner's Silver Girls (Frauenzimmer, 2010), preceded by the shared West Coast premiere of Fabian Busch's short film Edgar (2009). At 2:00PM is the special "Film for the Family" screening of Animals United 3D (Die Konferenz der Tiere, 2010), Germany's first RealD 3D animated feature, co-presented by ASIFA-SF International Animated Film Society. On hand to discuss the film will be directors Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe. Next at 4:45PM is the shared U.S. premiere of Jan Tenhaven's documentary Autumn Gold (Herbstgold, 2010), preceded by the Northern California premiere of Christoph Englert's short film Side by Side (Nebeneinander, 2010).
But it's Sunday's 7:00PM Centerpiece presentation of Feo Aladag's directorial debut When We Leave (Die Fremde, 2010) with director Adalag in attendance that promises to be the day's highlight. Screening a week earlier at the Mill Valley Film Festival, When We Leave is Germany's recently-announced submission to the Foreign Language category of the Academy Awards®. Winner of the Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, When We Leave has garnered favorable reviews, notably from Variety's Derek Elley: "Sheer acting, lensing and helming smarts elevate When We Leave, a not-unfamiliar tale of a Turkish woman seeking emancipation from her conservative Muslim family, into something special, with considerable emotional payoff." He adds that the film "succeeds at a purely metaphysical and character level, without any strident sexual politicking, thanks to sensitive, dignified playing by lead Sibel Kekilli." Following When We Leave at 9:30PM is the California premiere of Dietrich Brüggemann's Run if You Can (Renn, wenn Du kannst, 2010), preceded by the animated short A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation (2010) directed by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg.
On Monday, October 25, B&B offers four films, only three of which have been announced; the fourth being the festival's first-ever "surprise film", which—B&B teases—"might be announced days prior, or it might be kept a secret until the lights go out!" The known quantities, however, start off at 2:00PM with the U.S. premiere of Thomas Arslan's Im Schatten (In the Shadows, 2010). Dispatching to MUBI from the 2010 Berlinale, Neil Young observes: "Although occasionally flagging just a little during the occasional sequences when [Mišel] Matičević is off-screen, In the Shadows proceeds with a steely efficiency and directness very much in keeping with the modus operandi of its ultra-professional main character, all the way to its genuinely tense finale (the last shot concludes proceedings on just the right note of tenebral, gnomic intensity). Brought in at an admirably brisk 85 minutes by editor Bettina Blickwede, and made for a reported budget of only 500,000 Euros, In the Shadows is boosted by a moody, subtle, susurrant. Geir Jenssen's moody, subtle score, which combines with Andreas Mücke-Niesytka's pin-precise sound-design with absorbing effect. Reinhold Vorschneider's cinematography, meanwhile, represents yet another fine advertisement for the RED ONE digital camera, which comes up particular trumps in its depictions of Trojan's various low-lit milieux." Young has likewise conducted an informative interview with Arslan.
That Berlinale darling is followed at 4:00PM by the Northern California premiere of Nicolas Steil's Draft Dodgers (Réfractraire, 2009), billed by B&B as a "Luxemborg special". This film was Luxembourg's official entry in the race for the 2010 Best Foreign Film Academy Award®. Based upon Robert Koehler's negative Variety review, one can surmise why it didn't make the final five. Even Boyd von Hoeij's negotiated impartiality at Cineuropa cautions that Draft Dodgers relies "a bit too much on clichés." Also at Cineuropa, Van Hoeij interviews director Steil. Notwithstanding, I have been infatuated with actor Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet since his seductive turn in Christophe Honoré's Love Songs (2007) and—coupled with the rarity of Luxemborg film in general—might be more patient with this film than most.
If my penchant for eye candy leaves me dissatisfied with Luxemborg, I'm hoping I will be satiated by the 6:30PM shared West Coast premiere of the André Schäfer and Andrew Davies documentary Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger, with André Schäfer on hand to field queries from the film's audience. Though I'm not sure. Admittedly, Rock Hudson was the epitome of masculine beauty in Hollywood, but the reviews of this documentary are far less attractive. At Variety, Jay Weissberg describes Dark and Handsome Stranger as "maddeningly reductive." He complains: "This unsatisfying look at the late star is stuffed with inconsequential sex gossip and starved for real meat, relying on tired presumptions about life in the Hollywood closet." Weissberg does concede that Dark and Handsome Stranger works "as a reminder of the shameful brouhaha surrounding Hudson's AIDS diagnosis. The pic boils the star down to the stereotype of the closeted actor whose fame intimidated sexual partners, and whose death in 1985 put a face to a demonized disease. Of the various interviewees, Belgian publicist Yanou Collart is best at evoking the AIDS panic of the early 1980s: She had to charter a 747 for $250,000, because no commercial airline would take the dying Hudson from Paris to L.A." At It'sJustMovies.com, Bev Questad criticizes: "Perhaps intended as a tribute, a love poem, or an attempt to chronicle an icon, this begging cup is rattling empty. ...Just because of the iconic title viewers will probably flock to the film just to see archival shots of this beautiful man. But be forewarned, after 95 minutes Hudson still remains an emotionless stranger and the audience will be left unsatisfied." As might be expected, gay sites like Alt Film Guide are more accommodating.
On Tuesday, October 26, B&B offers four films; the first at 11:00AM is the West Coast premiere of Detlev Buck's Same Same But Different (2009). Based on Benjamin Pruefer's 2006 Neon article, and subsequent novel, about his relations in Thailand with an HIV+ young woman, Same Same But Different premiered at the 2009 Locarno International Film Festival where it won the Variety Piazza Grande Award, conferred by Variety critics to films that satisfy both artistic quality and international opportunity. Derek Elley then took up the honors at Variety to finesse the film's winning points: "Irreverent humor and down-to-earth characters prevent the potentially soupy mix from curdling in its own juices, and the Asian setting is never exoticized for cheap emotional gains. The film split viewers at its Locarno preem, with some finding it too unemotional, others refreshingly different." Elley considered it remarkable that "given its subject, the movie never becomes remotely preachy or didactic; nor does it allow its characters to wallow in their grief. They had sex; they fell in love; she turned out be HIV+, so both look for a way to continue their life together. Period."
Tipping its hat to environmental concerns, B&B screens Daniele Grieco's The Last Giants—Oceans in Danger (Wenn das Meer stirbt, 2009) at 2:30PM, preceded by the West Coast premiere of Angela Steffen's animated short Lebensader (2009). That program is followed at 5:00PM by the documentary Pianomania (2009) by filmmakers Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck.
Then at 8:00PM, B&B continues its Book to Screen sidebar with the shared California premiere of Benjamin Heisenberg's The Robber (Der Räuber, 2010), with director Heisenberg in attendance. Based on the eponymous 2005 novel by Martin Prinz of the true story of Austria's infamous "Pump-gun Ronnie" Johann Kastenberger and starring Andreas Lust (Revanche), The Robber was nominated for a Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale and scored favorable reviews. At the Village Voice, Nicolas Rapold praised The Robber as "an intelligently shot study in self-control and calculated release, it's equally surprising as an action film and character portrait." At The Flickering Wall, Jorge Mourinha agreed: "Intriguing combination of kinetic thriller and cerebral drama, inspired by a real life case, with an outstanding lead performance." Though Aaron Cutler stages his reservations at Slant, he does admire how "lightweight video cameras can move as fast as the runner can, and help the viewer feel like he or she is running that fast too. The Robber, Benjamin Heisenberg's new crime thriller, takes full advantage of this, and also shows how DV can use lighting to flatten the screen image and make it look like you're hurtling full across a straight line. Backgrounds and other distractions are eliminated. All that matters is the race." Cutler, like Variety's Alissa Simon, are less entranced with helmer Heisenberg's refusal to apply psychological motivation to the criminal's actions, such that—according to Simon—"With no emotional or stylistic hooks, there's not much compelling viewers to engage with what's happening onscreen." My gut sense, however, is that I'll be robbing myself of an evening's entertainment if I miss The Robber.
Of the remaining films on B&B's program, I wish to single out only two. On Wednesday evening, October 27, at 9:00PM I encourage you to catch the shared North American premiere of Baran bo Odar's The Silence (Das Letzte Schweigen, 2010), winner of the Piazza Grande award at this year's Locarno Film Festival. I've had the chance to view this film on screener and am gnashing at the bit to see it in 35mm on the Castro's big screen. A profoundly disturbing narrative supported by one of the strongest and bravest acting ensembles I've seen in recent years, the film's cinematographer Nikolaus Summerer employs haunting aerial overhead shots to distance the audience from the perverse underpinnings of the rape and murder of young girls, while composers Michael Kamm and Kris Steininger quicken the tension through a nerve-grating score. With Baran bo Odar on hand to answer questions, this is—in my humble opinion—the not-to-be-missed gem in this year's edition of Berlin & Beyond.
Finally, on Thursday, October 28 at 7:30PM B&B's Closing Night film will be Christoph Schaub's Julia's Disappearance (Giulia's Verschwinden, 2009), winner of the Piazza Grande Audience Award at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival. As synopsized by Françoise Deriaz at Cineuropa, Julia's Disappearance is a comedy that lifts smiles and spirits: "An initiation into the art of growing old with humor from the ages of 14 to 80, all the symptoms of early or late decline are revealed with refreshing irony in this feel-good comedy." Deriaz attributes much of the film's success to the screenwriting expertise of Martin Suter; "This because the writer is no amateur. Suter has won acclaim in both Switzerland and France, where his novel Small World won the Best First Foreign Novel Prize in 1998." Likewise at Cineuropa, Deriaz interviews Schaub on how he got his hands on Suter's comic screenplay. Locally at the San Francisco Examiner, Pamela Alexander-Beuter found Julia's Disappearance a "charming and insightful film about coming of age at every age." What a pleasant note on which to enter B&B's Closing Night party in the Castro's mezzanine (9:30PM).
To purchase tickets for Berlin & Beyond, click here.
10/17/10 UPDATE: Of related interest, Girish Shambu explores the Berlin School, providing insight on featured guests at B&B.
Cross-published on Twitch.
Continuing its commitment to contemporary Japanese fare, VIZ Cinema has been busy throughout the month of October with the San Francisco premiere of John H. Lee's Sayonara Itsuka: Goodbye, Someday (2010); encore screenings of Junichi Suzuki's documentary 442—Live with Honor, Die with Dignity (2010); the U.S. premiere of Takeshi Koike's anime Redline; while likewise hosting the San Francisco Film Society's Taiwan Film Days.
As profiled at Wikipedia, "Setsuko Hara (原 節子, June 17, 1920) is a retired Japanese actress who appeared in many of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the Noriko Trilogy (Late Spring, Early Summer, and Tokyo Story). She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse and other prominent directors. She is called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s, although she is mostly unknown in the US. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and has since led a secluded life in Kamakura, refusing all interviews and photographs. Her last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio, in the 1962 film, Chushingura. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress."
I caught two of the Ozu films: Late Spring and Tokyo Twilight. Both have been released on Criterion with insightful essays by Michael Atkinson and Michael Koresky, respectively. Of equal interest is Dan Harper's profile on Setsuko Hara for Senses of Cinema and Jerome Delamater's for Film Reference (updated by Corey K. Creekmur).
