from Berlin - The Hollywood Reporter

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Guerrillas in the midst
Filmmakers go native to get local stories
By Charles Masters
and Scott Roxborough
“Heart of Fire”
The Eritrean-set picture
“Heart of Fire,” which unspools
in Competition here today, is a
flag-bearer of a new brand of
“embedded filmmaking” on display in Berlin.
These films are characterized
by Western filmmakers working
in often-inaccessible or littleexposed regions, using local
actors and working in the local
language. The resulting films
provide what at first glance
seems like a “local” vision from
places where no local directors
are making movies, for the simple reason there is no cinemato-
graphic culture or infrastructure.
“There is a trend for films
from regions where there is
nothing to speak of in terms of
an independent film industry,”
said Thomas Hailer, director of
the Generation sidebar. “There
are young guys traveling there,
finding stories, going home and
See GUERRILLAS on page 15
Andreas Rentz/GETTY IMAGES
Li takes on Japan’s right
Karen Nicoletti
Director, staff face death threats
By Scott Roxborough
Madonna is flanked by her
"Filth and Wisdom" stars Eugene
Hutz and Holly Weston on Wednesday.
he message in pop star Madonna’s first
outing as feature film director, “Filth
and Wisdom,” is that all of us can find peace
of mind and happiness if we just get in
touch with our inner slut.
Ragged, uneven and potholed with some
dire dialogue and performances, the film’s
cockeyed optimism and likable leads conspire to bring a smile by the time it’s done.
Barely feature length at 81 minutes, it likely will appeal to Madonna’s fans for its
echoes of various threads of her own life
story and the grunge style of “Desperately
See “WISDOM” on page 14
review
‘Filth & Wisdom’
T
BY
RAY
BENNETT
Panorama
Special
the bottom line
Madonna’s
directing debut is
erratic but oddly
appealing.
The director and producers of
a documentary about Tokyo’s
Yasukuni Shrine have received
multiple death threats from rightwing groups in Japan that want to
prevent the movie’s local release.
Japan’s Dragon Films has
decided to move its Tokyo
offices and are taking steps to
protect its staff after anonymous
death threats against the company, its personnel and Li Ying,
the Chinese-born director of
“Yasukuni.”
“The threats began about two
Director Li Ying
months ago, when we started
press screenings of the movie in
Japan,” the director told The
Hollywood Reporter in Berlin,
See “YASUKUNI” on page 14
U.K. to help RAI open borders
By Stuart Kemp
The Italians are turning to a
specialist British-based sales and
co-production house in an
attempt to translate Italian success
stories into international ones.
U.K. based sales and co-production house Visual Factory has
sealed a first-look deal with state-
backed Italian movie production
house RAI Cinema to help get
Italian films across borders.
Visual Factory chief Igor
See RAI on page 14
dialogue
with Francesco Rosi
See page 6
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news
Berlin daily edition
EFM Business Offices
Office #520
Potsdamer Platz 11
+49 (0) 30.2589.4908
+49 (0) 30.2589.4909
Archives francaises du film
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
Silent rights:
Classic pics
to BAC Films
By Stuart Kemp
JOHN KILCULLEN
Publisher
ERIC MIKA
Senior VP, Publishing Director
ELIZABETH GUIDER
Editor
“Bucking Broadway”
E D I T O R I A L
DAVID MORGAN
Deputy Editor
STUART KEMP
UK Bureau Chief
SCOTT ROXBOROUGH
Germany Bureau Chief
CHARLES MASTERS
France Correspondent
BORYS KIT
Senior Film Reporter
LIZA FOREMAN
Film Reporter
KAREN NICOLETTI
Online News Editor
PATRICK HIPES
Copy Desk Chief
R E V I E W S
KIRK HONEYCUTT
Chief Film Critic
RAY BENNETT
Reviewer
MAGGIE LEE
Reviewer
A R T
+
D E S I G N
DEEANN J. HOFF
Director – Art+Design
JACKIE VUONG
Senior Designer
A D V E R T I S I N G
TOMMASO CAMPIONE
International Executive Director
ALISON SMITH
International Sales Director
LUCA VASILE
International Business
Development Director
DAMJANA FINCI
Treasures will abound in
VOD archive of archives
New site to amass historical films
film and restoration specialist
Lobster Films. The European
Union’s MEDIA Program has
pledged to put up half of the
See ARCHIVE on page 16
By Charles Masters
Where do you go if you want
to watch rare archive films like a
1916 document about life on a
German submarine or John
Ford’s 53-minute Western
“Bucking Broadway” from the
following year?
Until now, the answer would
have been a trip to one of the
film archives that house these
prints, London’s Imperial War
Museum and the French Film
Archive, respectively.
But that is about to change
with the launch in April of a
Europe-wide VOD platform
bringing together content from
37 film archives and cinematheques across the continent. And
the good news for film buffs is
that it’s free.
European Film Treasures, as
the site will be known, is the
brainchild of Serge Bromberg,
founder of Paris-based historic
Whisper it softly, but news of
one of the biggest deals to break
during this year’s European
Film Market sees a host of silent
movies, including a slew of
Buster Keaton vehicles, winging
their way to French distributor
BAC Films.
The French company secured
the rights to 21 movies from the
Rohauer Collection’s extensive
library of 700 silent and classic
titles, which includes Keaton
movies, for $500,000.
The titles also cover “Pandora
and the Flying Dutchman,” Harry Langdon and Roach/Sennett
silent comedies and Man Ray
avant-garde shorts.
The deal was struck by Los
See BAC on page 16
Good day for ‘Swim’ short
Mustata film wins Golden Bear
By Scott Roxborough
“A Good Day for a Swim,” a
short film by Romaninan director Bogdan Mustata, has won
the Golden Bear for best short.
The film follows three juvenile
delinquents who break out of
prison and head for the beach.
“The film raises questions
about its issues rather than bring
resolution to them. It does so in
a very precise and unpredictable
way,” said the Berlinale Shorts
jury in announcing its decision.
Indian director Siddharth
Sinha won the Silver Bear
for her coming-of-age story
“(Un)ravel.”
“Frankie,” from Irish director
Darren Thornton, about a 15year-old who is about to become
a father, won the Prix UIP, a
€2,000 short film award backed
by distributor Universal International Pictures and the European Film Academy.
Russian director Olga Popova
won the DAAD short film for
“In the Theme,” which focuses
on a young couple celebrating
their first anniversary.
Acccount Manager
IVY LAM
•
Two films, no limits
Asia Sales & Marketing Manager
ANDREW GOLDSTEIN
Acct. Manager, Independent Films
By Scott Roxborough
NINA PRAGASAM
International Marketing Manger
O P E R A T I O N S
GREGG EDWARDS
Senior Production Manager
Copyright ©2008 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means — electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise —
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in Berlin: Druckerei DMP, Zerpenschleuser
Ring 30, 13439 Berlin, Germany, Tel. 530 08-0 •
Fax 530 08-201
“Green Porno”
t h r. c o m
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The intriguing double bill of Guy Maddin’s
“My Winnipeg” and Isabella Rossellini’s short
series “Green Porno,” screening in the Berlinale’s Forum sidebar, offers a view back to cinema’s origins and a glimpse of a possible future
for the medium.
Maddin’s documentary features the director’s trademark use of silent film techniques
— with scenes shot in black and white and
with rear projection and stylized, melodramatic acting.
See LIMITS on page 16
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news
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
“Quiet Chaos”
“Cherry Blossoms — Hanami”
Veterans show age at Berlinale
Themes of death at forefront in hit-and-miss official selection
By Kirk Honeycutt
A filmgoer who comes to the
Berlin International Film Festival directly from Sundance experiences culture shock. This has
little to do with the differences
between a festival that is the premiere showcase of American
independent talent versus a festival that concentrates on international fare. The real disparity
stems from a generation gap.
Sundance overflows with
young writers and directors who
have embarked on their first
adventures in storytelling. Not
surprisingly, their themes revolve
around coming of age, first love,
family crises, sexual identity and
problems at school along with
imitations of Hollywood movies.
Berlin for the most part programs films from seasoned veterans. These older filmmakers have
more wide-ranging interests.
They explore historical topics and
social problems, marital failures,
midlife crises and the process of
aging. Their films show a greater
acceptance of life’s material limitations, often focus on characters
that seek spiritual meaning to
their lives and frankly face the
stark reality of death.
This has never been truer this
year as several competition films
dramatized people’s confrontations with mortality, either as
they find themselves nearing the
end of their lives or in the
t h r. c o m
|
her mother the year
anguished aftermath
before with Butoh
of a loved one’s death.
dancing — the older
For me, the two most
man,
blithely
touching films in
unaware of his own
competition
dealt
impending death,
directly with death.
finds inner peace and
In Mexican direcharmony. Dörrie’s
tor Fernando Eimending has astonishbcke’s “Lake Tahoe,”
ing power that resa son and peripherally
onates long after the
his family must
lights come up.
process grief over the
CRITICS
In
Antonello
loss of the father. But
NOTEBOOK
Grimaldi’s “Quiet
this is not clear until
the film is nearly an hour old. Chaos,” a father (Nanni Moretti)
Eimbcke’s dramatic strategy is to and his daughter must overcome
withhold this information to the loss of the mother. He impulconcentrate on a comic, Jim Jar- sively waits outside his daughter’s
musch-flavored, daylong odyssey school for an entire day and then
of a young boy across a small decides to continue doing so for
town that seems locked in a per- the foreseeable future. He soon
manent siesta as he searches for attracts co-workers and family
an auto part for his damaged car. member who share with him
Only after our realization of the their own pain and use him as
anguish that hangs over his head their sounding board. The man
do we see his calmness and seem- starts to look at the world with
ing nonchalance in the face of fresh eyes and a recovered spirit.
In Isabel Coixet’s “Elegy,”
failure at every turn mask much
inner turmoil. His encounters based on a Philip Roth novel, an
with an aging mechanic, a young aging New York intellectual
mother and a martial arts fanatic (Ben Kingsley) considers then
serve to reconnect him with life, rejects the thought of sharing his
declining years with a much
perhaps against his own wishes.
In Doris Dörrie’s “Cherry younger woman (Penélope
Blossoms — Hanami” from Ger- Cruz). The film is a real wet
many, a grieving spouse goes to noodle, though, as the point of
Japan to seek Zen-like wisdom to view remains steadfastly with the
reconnect spiritually with his lost self-absorbed, egotistical profeswife. In his relationship with a sor and fails to give viewers a sinyoung homeless woman — who gle reason why the beautiful
also is working through the loss of woman would contemplate a life
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with this old windbag.
Finnish
director
Petri
Kotwica’s “Black Ice” features a
man suffering from midlife crises
in the form of an extramarital
fling with — again — a much
younger woman, only here the
focus is refreshingly on the
women. The wife secretly
befriends the mistress to take her
measure, see what her husband
sees in her and, not incidentally,
to try out a new life for herself.
Asian directors Wang Xiaoshuai
(“In Love We Trust”) and Hong
Sangsoo (“Night and Day”),
both in their 40s, deal with
a midlife crisis as well, seeing
how each affects personal relationships.
The theme of family dysfunction prevailed in the American
competition films. Of course,
dysfunctional families can be
found in all international cinemas. Yet U.S. filmmakers currently dwell on this theme to the
See CRITICS on page 15
inside >>> >>>>
Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Festival Screenings . . .10
Market Screenings . . .11
Relaxing in Berlin . . . . .13
more news at thr.com
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
seems to include elements of
both Hollywood crime films of
that era and Italian neo-realism.
Rosi: Bravo. Yes, that’s absolutely true. I enjoyed those old American films. I think my generation
of directors was the first in Italy to
absorb the influence of American
films, which didn’t screen in Italy
during the years of fascism or during the war. By the time the films
made it to Italy, older directors
like Visconti already had a mature
style. But I was younger and
more impressionable.
THR: How do you see the Italian film industry today?
Rosi: I think we’re starting to
see an improvement over the last
several years. The Italian film
industry really went through a
dead period in the 1980s and
1990s, but now we’re starting to
see more quality films produced.
There also are more formulaic
productions, and that always
makes it tougher for serious films
to find distribution channels. But
they’re being made again, and
they’re finding an audience.
hen Francesco Rosi was 4, his father took him
to see Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid.” Afterward, the
father dressed the boy as Jackie Coogan and snapped
his photo. The elder Rosi entered the sepia image in a
local look-alike contest, it won, and the young Rosi
said he knew from that point that he belonged in show
business. More than eight decades later, Rosi sat
back in the same drawing room he used to produce
the majority of his most memorable work, in a twofloor penthouse apartment near the top of Rome’s
Spanish Steps. It is filled with awards, including a
Silver Bear from Berlin, where his “Salvatore Giuliano”
took home second place in 1962 after the festival
declined to screen it because, he told The Hollywood
Reporter’s Eric J. Lyman, they thought it had the feel
of a documentary. When Rosi returns from Berlin this
year, he will add another award: an Honorary Golden
Bear for lifetime achievement.
W
The Hollywood Reporter:
Over the course of your career
you worked with many of the
names that made the Italian film
industry famous, including
Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli, Luciano Emmer and
Michelangelo Antonioni. Which
of them made the biggest
impression on you?
Francesco Rosi: Oh, it would
have to be Visconti. Visconti was
my mentor: I first worked with
him in 1949, and I learned everyt h r. c o m
|
THR: What would you say to
young directors today who complain that it’s tough to make
high-quality films in Italy because
of the shadow cast by you and
your contemporaries?
Rosi: No, no, I don’t believe
that. We did break new ground.
But each generation has its story
to tell. The reality communicated
in a film I made 40 years ago is
much different than the reality we
see around us today. Young direc-
thing from him. I became the
director I became because of Visconti. The kind of neo-realism
that he helped popularize along
with Roberto Rossellini had a big
impact on me.
|
THR: How often are you able
to get out and watch films?
Rosi: I go to the cinema quite
often; there are some nice cinemas in this area. But it comes
and goes. Sometimes I don’t
watch a film for a couple of
weeks, and sometimes I’ll watch
three in one weekend. I’m still
fascinated by the cinema. DVDs
are convenient, but there’s still
nothing like watching a great
story made by great actors and a
great director on the big screen.
THR: I know you made many of
your films on a tight budget.
What do you think when you see
some of today’s budgets for films?
Rosi: Sometimes a small budget
can be a blessing because it’ll
make you consider certain alternatives you wouldn’t have considered if you had more money
to spend. And sometimes those
alternatives will be even more
interesting than what you originally had in mind. But that’s not
always the case. Very often a
small budget means you have to
cut corners to save money, and
the end result is a film that looks
like somebody cutting corners
made it. It’s a shame when that
reduces a film that could have
been a classic.
Nationality: Italian
Date of birth: Nov. 15, 1922
Selected filmography: “La SfiFrancesco Rosi
da” (1958), “Salvatore Giuliano”
(1962), “Le Mani sulla Citta” (1963),
“Il Caso Mattei” (1972), “Lucky Luciano” (1973), “Cadaveri Eccellenti” (1976), “Cristo si e Fermato a Eboli” (1979), “Carmen” (1984)
Notable awards: Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear,
“Salvatore Giuliano” (1962); Venice Film Festival Golden Lion, “Le
Mani sulla Citta” (1963); Festival de Cannes Palme d’Or, “Il Caso
Mattei” (1972); BAFTA Award, “Cristo si e Fermato a Eboli” (1983);
multiple David di Donatello Awards
vital stats
THR: It seems that American
films, specifically the gangster
films of the 1940s and ’50s, also
had an impact on you. I’m
thinking especially of “La Sfida”
(The Challenge), which is set in
your hometown of Naples and
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tors shouldn’t be trying to re-tell
the same stories. They should be
telling new stories in new ways.
Besides, the great work from previous generations should be an
inspiration, not something that
limits. People didn’t stop writing
after Shakespeare, did they?
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MORE REVIEWS INSIDE : “Standard Operating Procedure,” page 8
> “Night and Day,” page 8
> “Fireflies in the Garden,” page 9
THR.com/
berlin
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
‘La
Rabia’
I
out these five characters and realize that Alejandra is having a passionate, illicit affair with randy
neighbor Pichon, right under the
eyes of the children, both of
whom seem disturbed.
Poldo, a gruff but loving
father, tells Nati a ghost story to
make her stop undressing outdoors; Alejandra warns her to
stop drawing “dirty things.”
Pichon beats his son sadistically
and allows Poldo to shoot the
boy’s dog, which may have raided a chicken coop.
More than plot development,
the film moves forward through
an escalation of menace and
foreboding violence. Brutal sex
scenes between Alejandra and
Pichon alternate with squealing
pigs and the threatening sound
of Poldo’s chain saw, Nati’s
t h r. c o m
review
among the niche admirt takes courage to
ers of Lucrecia Martel’s
plunge into the psy“La Ciénaga.”
chological depths of
One caveat for counsex and violence in
tries like England is the
“La Rabia,” a dark
graphic deaths of severexploration of human
BY
al animals in the film,
nature at its basest and
DEBORAH
including the particumost animal-like.
YOUNG
larly gruesome slaughThe tragedy of vioter of a squealing sow
lence that erupts
Panorama
and assorted off-cambetween two families
the bottom line era drownings and
on Argentina’s remote
Very dark,
shootings, not to menPampas is succinctly
psychological
tion a hare’s bitter end
told in stark images
horror in the
after being chased by a
and strongly etched,
Pampas for plucky
art house auds.
pack of dogs. The
realistic characters that
opening disclaimer that
include two children.
the animals “lived and died
This is writer-director
Albertina Carri’s most pulled- as they naturally would” is prettogether film so far and a shoo-in ty chilling in itself. Still the viofor festival exposure. Commer- lence is never gratuitous, but an
cially, however, the atmospheric integral part of the film.
In a timeless dawn landscape
piece won’t be an easy or even
pleasant watch for most audi- of sky and pampas, little Nati
ences, who should be sought (Nazarena Duarte) takes off her
clothes. She is the mute daughter
of Alejandra (Analia Couceyro)
more reviews
and Poldo (Victor Hugo Carrizo), whose farm is near that of
Full reviews and
Pichon (Javier Lorenzo) and his
credits available
son Ladeado (Gonzalo Perez). It
at THR.com/berlin
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high-pitched screams and a
growling weasel Ladeado keeps
secretly in the woods like a pet
demon. A tip of the hat is owed
here to Rufino Basavilbaso’s
eerie sound design.
Giving the film a very distinctive look are rapid-fire animated sequences designed by
Manuel Barenboim to represent the disturbed, bloody fantasies of little Nati. They are
well-integrated into the film,
unlike an ill-conceived blast of
rock music that breaks the
mood of a night scene in desaturated colors, created by the
film’s fine cinematographer Sol
Lopatin.
Film comes with the pedigree
of director-producer Pablo
Trapero’s Matanza Cine productions.
LA RABIA
Matanza Cine
Credits: Producer-director-screenwriter: Albertina Carri; Producer: Pablo Trapero;
Executive producer: Martina Gusman; Director of photography: Sol Lopatin; Production and
costume designer: Ana Cambre; Music: Gustavo Senmartin; Sound designer, Rufino Basavilbaso; Animation: Manuel Barenboim; Editor: Alejo Moguillansky. Cast: Analia Couceyro, Javier
Lorenzo, Victor Hugo Carrizo Nazarena Duart, Gonzalo Perez, Dalma Maradona
No MPAA rating, running time 83 minutes.
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reviews
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
‘SOP’
E
review
Morris draws on three
sources for his film: The
photos themselves of
Iraqi detainees being
rrol Morris looks
physically abused, sexualat the abuse and
ly humiliated and in one
torture of prisoners by
BY
instance the body of a
U.S. soldiers in the
KIRK
prisoner evidently torAbu Ghraib prison in
HONEYCUTT
tured to death; interviews
Baghdad with a pecuCompetition
with the soldiers who
liar fixation in “Standard Operating Procethe bottom line took the photos or
appeared in them; and redure.” The scandal, of
Errol Morris’
created scenes with actors
course, came to light
docu about
the Abu Ghraib
portraying events surin 2004 through phoprison scandal
rounding the infamous
tographs taken by the
is too narrowly
photographic sessions.
Army members who
focused.
Where in Kennedy’s
served as prison wardens.
docu the soldiers wondered
In his documentary,
Morris focuses with near-porno- in amazement how they ever got
graphic obsession on how those involved in such appalling behavphotos were taken, by whom ior, Morris’ questions put them
and for what purpose. The wider on the defensive. They point fincontext of the war on terrorism, gers, the women blame the men,
the Bush administration’s com- the photographers insist they
plicity in prisoner abuse, the only wanted to document the
moral and legal implications and abuse, and everyone keeps saying
the damage the scandal did to they never really hurt anyone. In
U.S. prestige worldwide is not truth, daily shelling of the prison
by insurgents and constant
even mentioned.
Such subject matter was never threats of violence by prisoners
going to find a wide audience, did create an extremely
especially theatrically. But this unhealthy psychological state
Sony Pictures Classics release where illegal orders were obeyed
faces another challenge: A much promptly.
Morris’ interviews rarely rise
more encompassing film, Rory
Kennedy’s “Ghosts of Abu above the level of sergeants. He
Ghraib,” made a year earlier for did get on camera Janis KarpinHBO, covered the identical terri- ski, who as commander of the
tory — even to the point of military prison brigade in Iraq
duplicating some interviews — was a central figure of the scanand that film did explore the con- dal, and she doesn’t mince
words. But the film never foltext of the scandal.
lows up on her allegations. She
mentions that the military intelligence interrogators answered
to a Gen. Miller, but the film
never explains that this is Major
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, formerly
head of prison operations at
Guanatanamo Bay, who was
ordered by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to bring
his methods to Abu Ghraib.
Instead, Morris keeps returning again and again to those
photos and in one instance a
video and the time frames in
which they were taken. It seems
like Morris — no pun intended
— misses the bigger picture.
The film does make a solid
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Sony Pictures Classics
Participant Prods.
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Errol Morris; Producers: Julie Ahlberg, Errol Morris;
Directors of photography: Robert Chappell, Robert Richardson; Music: Danny Elfman;
Editor: Andy Grieve.
MPAA rating R, running time 121 minutes.
‘Night and Day’
from his wife and not getting
any flings there. He bumps into
an old flame, Minsun (Kim Youjin), and casually dates her. But
he gets cold feet when her husband is mentioned. In a wry
scene, he reads a fire and brimstone sermon to deter her
advances. He befriends art student Hyunjo but falls for her
flatmate and fellow artist
Yujeong (Park Eunhye).
They sit in countless cafes reenacting a fruitless flirtation to
the score of Beethoven’s 7th
Symphony, symbolized by an
oyster meal that is forever postponed. They make two trips to
Deauville, and here is where
therefore not
terribly engaging. A flippant
description of Rohmer
Hong Sangsoo
in “Night Moves”
film with no
seems apt for Hong’s
onscreen sex? A male
art-related film: “It was
protagonist who can’t
kind of like watching
get any? This is indeed
paint dry.”
a novelty for the HenBY
Hong has never bothry Miller of Korean
MAGGIE
ered to court the maincinema, whose charLEE
stream, so commercial
acters fornicate more
Competition
market returns are hardoften than martinis
are shaken, not stirred
the bottom line ly relevant. Regardless of
critics’ assertions of a
in Bond movies. To
Tale of
change in style, Hong’s
the audience, this is
exile’s frustration
and self-absorption
core group of intellectuhardly an aphrodisiac.
not absorbing
al admirers will still find
Set almost entirely in
enough.
pleasure in his cerebral
Paris, “Night and Day”
film language, nuanced
is the auteur’s first film
made abroad. Since Hong has dialogue and droll observations
been compared to Rohmer for of a Korean abroad.
Sungnam (Kim Youngho), a
the umpteenth time, what would
he make of Paris cinematically? painter, spends two months in
It’s a bit like Hou Hsiao-hsien’s exile in Paris to let a legal crisis
approach with “Flight of the Red blow over. He experiences the
Balloon” — impersonal and double frustration of separation
t h r. c o m
review
A
|
los angeles 323/525-2000
|
point that in at least one
instance an Iraqi who was willing to cooperate and give information shut up forever following his humiliation. A soldier
relates that one detainee in this
purgatory was a mere taxi driver
caught up in a sweep of adult
males by the U.S. military.
The interviews are the most
impressive element of the film.
Despite the pain and shattered
lives, these soldiers are willing to
face the camera — and themselves — to try to make sense
out of completely senseless
actions that never advanced the
American cause in Iraq. This is
the real value of “SOP.”
Hong seems most in his element, in a sister town to the
charmless provincial seaside
dives where sexual mischief takes
place in his works.
The first kiss happens 90 minutes into the film, and it’s 20
more minutes of mental dodgeball before an inferred sex scene
occurs. The twist-within-a-twist
at the end is esoteric to say the
least, revealing that Hong is even
more of a tease than his heroine.
This new chasteness might leave
feminists who have complained
about his projections of male
fantasy without an ax to grind.
But in a Hong film, nothing is
what is seems.
NIGHT AND DAY (BAM GUA NAT)
Bom Film Prods.
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Hong Sangsoo; Producer: Oh Jungwan; Executive producer: Michel Cho; Director of photography: Kim Hoonkwang; Music: Jeong Yongji; Co-producers:
Kang Dongku, Ellen Kim; Editor: Hahm Sungwon. Cast: Kim Sungnam: Kim Youngho; Lee
Yujeong: Park Eunhye; Han Sungin: Hwang Sujung; Jang Minsun: Kim Youjin.
No MPAA rating, running time 144 minutes.
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Page 9
reviews
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
‘Fireflies in the Garden’
D
uscript, he takes his revenge.
His mother’s sister Jane (Watson) disapproves of Michael’s literary character assassination but
is more absorbed in calming her
son, who blames himself for his
aunt’s death. To add to the nonmerriment, Michael’s estranged
and formerly alcoholic wife, Kelly (Moss), shows up for the
funeral.
Flashbacks to Michael’s childhood (Cayden Boyd touchingly
plays him as a boy) fill you in on
the abuse he suffered and how
no one, not even his mother,
could stop Charles from tormenting his son. Lee’s story
t h r. c o m
review
story. That’s still going
ysfunctional famito be a problem. Anylies in dramatic
thing starring Roberts
literature date back to
stands a chance, but
“Oedipus Rex,” so if
boxoffice in urban adult
you’re going to take
venues should be modthat route, you’d betBY
est. The film will probater have something
KIRK
bly play better as home
new to say.
HONEYCUTT
entertainment.
In his film “Fireflies
A family gathering in
in the Garden,” DenOut of
a small university town,
nis Lee comes up empCompetition
presumably in the Midty. Kids, parents, sibthe bottom line west, takes a tragic turn
lings, an aunt and an
A superficial
when a car accident
estranged wife all bickand clichéd look
injures family head and
er and yell, but the
at a bickering
family.
professor Charles Taynoise cancels itself out.
lor (Dafoe) and kills his
The movie is one long
argument, tiresome and repeti- wife, Lisa (Roberts). Animosity
tive, that produces more heat between Charles and his novelist
than light. The wonder is that the son Michael (Ryan Reynolds),
first-time writer-director round- who lives in New York, runs
ed up a cast that includes Willem deep, so his mother’s death only
Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie- exacerbates their hostility.
Most of the family travails
Anne Moss and Julia Roberts.
The script reportedly knocked stem from the basic fact that
around Hollywood for a long Charles is a self-absorbed, domtime before Senator Entertain- ineering, abusive jerk. Michael
ment decided to finance it since has every reason to dislike him.
no one saw a market for Lee’s Indeed, in his just-finished man-
|
los angeles 323/525-2000
|
purports to be semi-autobiographical, but these petty family
quarrels don’t play on the
screen. Abuse can be terrible to
suffer firsthand, but here it takes
on a certain banality. The cause
of Charles’ fury at the world is
never articulated, nor is it clear
why his wife tolerates so much
cruelty from her husband.
Michael does make a startling
discovery in going through his
mom’s things, which adds a
melodramatic note that is never
thoroughly convincing. A resolution, or at least a truce, is
reached at the end that also lacks
conviction. It arrives too easily,
and you suspect that if Michael
didn’t live in New York the truce
would be a short-lived.
FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN
Senator Entertainment in association with Kulture Machine
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Dennis Lee; Producers: Marco Weber, Vanessa Coifman,
Sukee Chew; Executive producers: Jere Hausfater, Milton Liu; Director of photography: Danny
Moder; Production designer: Robert Pearson; Costume designer: Kelle Kutsugeras; Editors:
Dede Allen, Robert Brakey. Cast: Lisa Taylor: Julia Roberts; Michael Taylor: Ryan Reynolds;
Charles Taylor: Willem Dafoe; Jane Lawrence: Emily Watson; Kelly: Carrie-Anne Moss; Ryne:
Shannon Lucio; Addison: Ioan Gruffudd.
No MPAA rating, running time 98 minutes.
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Page 10
festival festival festival festival festival
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
(E) = English; (D) = German; Competition films in blue
“Drifting
Flowers”
15.00 Seaview, Ireland, 82 mins,
Forum, Arsenal 1 (E); Nazarin,
Mexico, 94 mins, Retrospective,
Zeughauskino; Kabei — Our
Mother, Japan, 132 mins,
Competition, Urania (D);
Sweet Food City, China, 91
mins, Forum, CineStar 8 (E); Jeder fur sich und Gott gegen
alle, Germany, 109 mins, Rebellion of the Filmmakers, filmkunst
66; Calanda, France, 21 mins,
Calanda: 40 anos despues,
Spanish, 29 mins, Retrospective,
CinemaxX 8
“Son of a Lion”
>>> today
9.00 Fighter, Denmark, 90 mins,
Generation 14plus, Babylon
Berlin; Short Films Kplus 1,
Generation Kplus, CinemaxX 3
9.30 Lady Jane, France, 104
mins, Competition, Urania
(E); Flower in the Pocket,
Malaysia, 97 mins, Generation
Kplus, Zoo Palast (E)
an Engineer in Search of
Mechanical Saddles, Philippines, 80 mins, Forum, Arsenal 1
(E); Divizionz, Uganda-South
Africa, 91 mins, Forum, Cubix 7
(E); The Path, Costa RicaFrance, 91 mins, CineStar 8 (E);
United Red Army, Japan, 190
mins, Forum, Delphi Filmpalast
10.00 A Tale of Two Mozzies,
Denmark, 75 mins, Generation
Kplus, Cubix 8 (E); Correction,
Greece, 83 mins, Forum, CineStar 8 (E)
13.00 La mort en ce jardin,
France-Mexico, 104 mins, Retrospective, CinemaxX 8 (E);
Jesus Loves You, Germany, 80
mins, German Perspektive
Deutsches, Colosseum 1 (E); La
Rabia, Argentina, 83 mins,
Panorama Special, CinemaxX
7 (E)
10.30 Filth and Wisdom, U.K.,
81 mins, Panorama Special, CinemaxX 7
13.30 Counterparts, Germany,
96 mins, German Cinema, CineMaxX 1 (E)
11.30 Beautiful Bitch, Germany, 103 mins, German Cinema, CinemaxX 1 (E); Ben X, Belgium-Netherlands, 90 mins, Generation 14plus, Babylon Berlin (E)
13.45 Sonetaula, Italy-FranceBelgium, 157 mins, Panorama
Special, International (E)
12.00 Chop Shop, U.S., 84 mins,
Generation Kplus, Zoo Palast
(D); Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, U.S., 70
mins, Panorama Dokumente,
CineStar 7; Kabei — Our Mother, Japan, 132 mins, Competition, Urania (E)
12.30 The Muzzled Horse of
t h r. c o m
|
15.30 Sharon, Germany, 90
mins, Panorama Dokumente,
Colosseum 1 (E); Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, IranFrance, 81 mins, Generation
Kplus, Cubix 8 (E); Hey Hey It’s
Esther Blueburger, Australia,
103 mins, Generation Kplus, Zoo
Palast 1 (D); Sooner or Later,
Germany, 91 mins, German Cinema, CinemaxX 1 (E)
14.00 Generation Mix, Generation Kplus, CinemaxX 6
14.30 32 A, Ireland-Germany, 89
mins, Generation 14plus, Babylon Berlin (D); Boy A, U.K., 100
mins, Panorama, Cubix 9;
Bananaz, U.K., 92 mins, Panorama Dokumente, CineStar 7
los angeles 323/525-2000
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new york 646/654-5000
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17.30 Higurashi, Japan, 103
mins, Forum, CineStar 8 (E); RR,
U.S., 111 mins, Forum, Arsenal 1;
City of Men, Brazil, 106 mins,
Generation 14plus, Colosseum 1
(E); El gran calavera, Mexico,
92 mins, Retrospective, CinemaxX 8 (E); Suddenly, Last Winter, Italy, 80 mins, Panorama
Dokumente, Cubix 7 (E); Trade
— Welcome to America, Germany, 119 mins, German Cinema, CinemaxX 1 (E)
17.45 No Bikini, Canada, 9
mins, Panorama Supporting Film,
Drifting Flowers, Taiwan, 97
mins, Panorama, CineStar 3
16.00 Kung Fu Kid, Japan, 98
mins, Generation Kplus, CinemaxX 3 (E); Locations & Speculations Short Film Program,
Forum Expanded Shorts II, Arsenal 2
18.00 The Chicken, the Fish
and the King Crab, Spain, 86
mins, Berlinale Special, Cubix 8
(E); The Green Berets, U.S., 141
mins, War at Home, Filmpalast
Berlin
16.30 Paruthiveeran, India, 139
mins, Forum, Delphi Filmpalast
(E); Heart of Fire, Germany, 92
mins, Competition, Berlinale
Palast (D)
18.30 Quiet Chaos, Italy, 105
mins, Competition, Urania
(E); Berlinale Shorts IV, Berlinale Shorts, CinemaxX 6
17.00 Darling! The Pieter-Dirk
Uys Story, Australia, 54 mins,
The Glow of White Women,
South Africa, 78 mins, Panorama Dokumente, CineStar 7;
Abismos de pasion, Mexico,
91 mins, Retrospective,
14.45 Motherland, Italy, 120
mins, Forum, Cubix 7 (E)
Zeughauskino (E); Ciao bella,
Sweden, 86 mins, Generation
14plus, Babylon Berlin (E); Sleep
Dealer, U.S.-Mexico, 90 mins,
Panorama Special, International (E); Otto; or, Up With Dead
People, Germany-Canada, 94
mins, Panorama, Cubix 9
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10
|
19.00 Inside You, Germany, 23
mins, Lea, Germany, 45 mins,
Star-Crossed, Germany-Switzerland, Perspektive Deutsches
Kino, CinemaxX; Before the Fall,
Spain, 93 mins, Panorama Special, Zoo Palast 1 (E)
See FESTIVAL on page 12
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DAY8_011_mktSG_EDIT d
2/13/08
2:18 PM
Page 11
market market market market market
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
(E) = English; (D) = German; Competition films in blue
>>> today
9.00 Rosso malpelo, Italy, 90
mins, Adriana Chiesa Enterprises, CineStar 4
9.15 Cargo 200, Russia, 90
mins, Intercinema, Marriott 2;
Installation of Love, Slovenia,
97 mins, Slovenian Film Fund,
CinemaxX 18; Water Lilies,
France, 85 mins, Films Distribution, CinemaxX 13; 20 Cigarettes, Russia, 90 mins, Kinowelt
International, CinemaxX 6
9.30 Via láctea, Brazil, 86 mins,
Vereda Filmes, Marriott 3; Bestiarium, Czech Republic, 110
mins, Simply Cinema, CinemaxX
16; Brain Dead, US, 91 mins,
Shoreline Entertainment, Marriott 1; Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 — Das
Geheimnis von Schloss Kottlitz, Germany, 46 mins, Münchner Filmwerkstatt, CinemaxX 17;
The Golden Nazi Vampire of
Absam II — The Secret of
Kottlitz Castle, Germany, 46
mins, Münchner Filmwerkstatt
e.V., CinemaxX Studio 17
10.00 The Wrong Mr. Johnson,
Czech Republic, 85 mins, 51/50
Films, CineStar 5
10.30 Kamasutra Nights, U.S.,
95 mins, American Cinema
International, CinemaxX 17
10.45 Inhabited Island, Germany, 10 mins, Intercinema,
Marriott 2
11.00 Dragon Hunters,
France, 80 mins, Futurikon,
MGB Kinosaal; One Hundred
Nails, Italy, 92 mins,
Intramovies, CinemaxX 13;
Transfiguration, Greece, 60
mins, Greek Film Centre, CinemaxX 18; You, the Living,
Sweden, 94 mins, CoProduction Office, CinemaxX 19
11.10 My Career as a
Teacher, China, 95 mins, Beijing
Century Film & TV Promotion,
Marriott 1; Un buen dia lo
tiene cualquiera, Spain, 84
mins, KWA, Marriott 3
11.15 Glorious Exit, Switzerland, 75 mins, Adriana Chiesa
Enterprises, Marriott 2; The
t h r. c o m
|
“Import Export”
Hard-Hearted, Russia, 82 mins,
Intercinema, Parliament
135 mins, CoProduction Office,
CinemaxX 16
11.30 Beautiful Bitch, Germany, 103 mins, Atrix Films, CinemaxX 1; Fashion Victims,
Germany, 96 mins, EastWest
FilmDistribution, CinemaxX 16;
Sonic Mirror, Switzerland, 79
mins, Wide Management,
CineStar 5
13.30 Counterparts, Germany, 96 mins, Wide Management, CinemaxX 1
14.15 House, U.S., 89 mins,
North by Northwest Production,
Marriott 2
CinemaxX 16
16.00 Scenes From the Sex
Struggles at North Beverly
Drive, Los Angeles, CA
(Remix), Germany, 59 mins,
Ingolino Prods., CinemaxX 17;
Two Lines, Turkey, 10 mins, EFP
— Evci Film Production Company, Marriott 2
14.30 La sangre iluminada,
Mexico, 104 mins, KWA, CinemaxX 18; The American Way,
U.S., 85 mins, Da Starz, CinemaxX 17
16.30 La question humaine,
France, 141 mins, Films
Distribution, CinemaxX 12;
The Stray, Ukraine, 28 mins,
Ukrainian Cinema Foundation,
dffb-Kino
14.45 Agi and Emma, Serbia,
87 mins, Film Center Serbia, Parliament
16.45 Stolperstein, Germany,
73 mins, Hanfgarn & Ufer Filmproduktion, Marriott 3
12.45 A vos marques … Party!, Canada, 115 mins, Christal
Films Distribution, CinemaxX 13;
La carta esferica, Spain, 106
mins, Televisión Española, Parliament; The Brink, U.K., 75
mins, Genre Salon, Marriott 2;
Vacuum, Uruguay, 90 mins,
Hanfgarn & Ufer Filmproduktion, CinemaxX 17
15.00 Maradona the Hand
of God, Italy, 113 mins, Adriana Chiesa Enterprises, CineStar 4; Playing Solo, Finland,
99 mins, Nordisk Film International Sales, CinemaxX 11;
Rooster’s Breakfast, Slovenia, 125 mins, Slovenian Film
Fund, CinemaxX 13; Wind
Man, Russia, 95 mins, Cinemavault Releasing International, Marriott 3
17.00 The Oath, Ukraine, 14
mins, Ukrainian Cinema Foundation, dffb-Kino
13.00 El brassier de Emma,
Mexico, 100 mins, KWA, Marriott
3; Who The Fuck Is Milos
Brankovic?, Serbia, 90 mins,
Film Center Serbia, Marriott 1
15.30 Sooner or Later, Germany, 91 mins, the Match Factory, CinemaxX 1
17.30 Trade — Welcome to
America, Germany, 119 mins,
Hyde Park International, CinemaxX 1
15.45 Return of the Storks,
Germany, 96 mins, Stoked Film,
19.30 Mister Karl, GermanyAustria, 90 mins, CineStar 5
11.45 Mafrouza/Coeur,
France, 166 mins, Forum Office,
CinemaxX 5
12.15 Can Anybody Hear
Me?, Greece, 20 mins, ERT, CinemaxX 17; Play Me a Love
Song, Croatia, 106 mins, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, CinemaxX 18
13.15 Import Export, Austria,
los angeles 323/525-2000
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17.15 On the Edge, Ukraine, 6
mins, Ukrainian Cinema Foundation, dffb-Kino
17.25 Taxi-Driver, Ukraine, 20
mins, Ukrainian Cinema Foundation, dffb-Kino
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Page 12
festival screening guide
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
shooting st✮rs
< Last in a series of profiles on the 2008 Shooting Stars >
Name: Zsolt Nagy
Born: April 26, 1976
Nationality: Hungarian
Selected Filmography: “Nosedive”; “Eastern Sugar”;
“Kontroll”; “A New Life”; “Jadviga’s Pillow”
solt Nagy hails from
Kisvárda, in northeastern Hungary. Since graduating from the Hungarian
Academy of Drama and
Film in 2000, he has performed with the globetrotting Chalk Circle Theater
and appeared in 14 films. He
gained his first international
experience in 2002 playing
the lead in “A New Life,”
directed by Philippe
Grandrieux. His role in Nimród Antal’s film “Kontroll”
earned him the Hungarian
Film Critics’ best supporting
actor prize in 2004.
Z
“Sleep Dealer”
Festival
Continued from page 10—
19.30 La voie lactee, FranceItaly, 102 mins, Retrospective,
CinemaxX 4 (D); Sita Sings
the Blues, U.S., 82 mins, Generation 14plus, Babylon Berlin; I
magliari, Italy-France, 107
mins, Homage, Zeughauskino
(E); Restless, Israel-GermanyCanada-France-Belgium,
100 mins, Competition,
Berlinale Palast (D); What
the Heart Craves, Japan, 98
mins, Forum, Delphi Filmpalast
(E); Global Mobile — Food:
Tlala, U.S.-Canada-South
Africa, 3 mins, Estomago — A
Gastronomic Story, BrazilItaly, 112 mins, Eat, Drink, See
Movies, Martin-Gropius-Bau
Kinosaal/Spiegelzelt
What has been your most challenging role to date?
Perhaps the most challenging was “Nosedive.” I had to appear
in a getaway on one of the busiest avenues of Budapest. We
were filming in a Mercedes jeep, and the character next to me
had a hole shot through his shoulder. Both of us were covered
in blood. We were driving through red lights, and then a policeman appears, siren moaning. I’m signaling with my bloodstained hands that we’re shooting a film. Then they notice the
cameras behind the car and let us go.
20.00 Cet obscur objet du
desir, France-Spain, 103 mins,
Retrospective, CinemaxX 8 (E);
First Love, Japan, 96 mins,
Panorama, CinemaxX 7 (E);
Citizen Havel, Czech Republic, 120 mins, Forum, Colosseum
1 (E); Yasukuni, Japan-China,
123 mins, Forum, Cubix 9 (D);
Mafrouza/Heart, FranceEgypt, 166 mins, Forum, CineStar 8 (E)
Where were you when you were told you had been picked
to be a Shooting Star, and are you happy to be in Berlin?
I’m really pleased to be invited to Berlin. It’s a real honor for me.
Now that you are getting lots of film work, is theater still
important?
Doing theater is very important, but the most important is who
I’m doing it with. Film is also important because I take many
things from it into my work onstage. I love theater, and I’ll do it
while I’m still interested in it.
20.15 Loos ornamental, Austria-Germany, 72 mins, Forum,
Arsenal 1; I Am From Titov
Veles, Macedonia-FranceBelgium, 102 mins, Panorama,
CineStar 3 (E); The Aquarium,
Egypt-France-Germany, 111
mins, Panorama, Cubix 7 & 8
Interlocked (E)
Is the Hungarian film industry developing enough to where
there are more opportunities for young actors?
Actors are becoming more and more appreciated, but it is still
not a big deal to make only movies in Hungary, so an actor can’t
make a living at it.
How do you think being selected as a Shooting Star will
help your career?
20.30 Jesus Loves You,
Germany, 80 mins, Perspektive
Deutsches Kino, CinemaxX 1
(E); Cafe de los Maestros,
Argentina-U.S.-Brazil, 90 mins,
Panorama Dokumente,
CineStar 7 (E); Salvatore
Giuliano, Italy, 123 mins,
Berlinale Special Homage,
International (E)
It’s a huge chance. Actually, I’m a gambler. The stakes are enormous in Berlin, and I’ll try to play a good game.
What projects are you working on?
I’m preparing a stage project with (Chalk Circle Theater
artistic director) Árpád Schilling, and I’m going to be
playing one of the leads in Krisztina Goda’s new feature, “Chameleon,” which goes before the cameras
in May.
21.00 Lady Jane, France,
104 mins, Competition, Urania (D)
Kirill Galetski
t h r. c o m
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london 44/207-420-6139
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|
21.30 Steal a Pencil for Me,
U.S., 94 mins, Berlinale Special,
Filmpalast Berlin (E); 3 Women,
Iran, 94 mins, Panorama Special,
Zoo Palast 1 (E)
22.00 El, Mexico, 92 mins, Retrospective, Zeughauskino (E);
Nirvana, Russia, 89 mins,
Forum, Delphi Filmpalast (E);
Global Mobile — Food: The
Power of Chillies, U.S.-Canada-France, 3 mins, Sharkwater: The Truth Will Surface,
Canada, 89 mins, Eat, Drink,
See Movies, Martin-GropiusBau Kinosaal; Berlinale
Shorts V, Berlinale Shorts, CinemaxX 3; Cristo si e fermato
a Eboli, Italy-France, 151 mins,
Homage, CinemaxX 4 (D, F)
22.15 L’age d’or, France, 63
mins, Simon del desierto, Mexico, 45 mins, Retrospective,
CinemaxX 8
22.30 The Fight, Canada, 87
mins, Panorama, CinemaxX 7
(E); The Beauties From
Leipzig, Germany, 90 mins,
Panorama Dokumente, CineStar 7 (E); Love and Other
Crimes, Germany-Serbia-Austria-Slovenia, 106 mins, Panorama, Colosseum 1 (D); The
Exiles, U.S., 72 mins, Forum,
Arsenal 1; I’ve Loved You So
Long …, France-Germany,
110 mins, Competition,
Berlinale Palast (D); The
Feelings Factory, France-Belgium, 104 mins, Panorama,
Cubix 7 & 8 Interlocked (E)
22.45 Son of a Lion, AustraliaPakistan, 92 mins, Forum, Cubix
9 (E); Megane (Glasses),
Japan, 106 mins, Panorama,
CineStar 3 (E)
23.30 Quiet Chaos, Italy, 105
mins, Competition, Urania
(D)
More festival and
market screening
information at
THR.com/berlin
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Page 13
berlin spas berlin spas berlin spas
Day 8
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Last in a series
Badeschiff
esperately looking for sun?
D
Forget about it. You’re in Berlin
now, and if you see any sun here, it’s
Ever swum in a pool that was swimming? Try
the BATHING SHIP (Badeschiff), a barge floating
in the Spree River and converted into a heated,
covered pool. Also with saunas and chill-out
rooms with music, cocktails and a great view of
the city. Tickets from €8. Arena Berlin, Eichen
Strasse 4; Tel.: 0305332030; hours: daily at noon
(Sun. 10 a.m.) until around midnight;
www.badeschiff.de
probably a misunderstanding. But
there are ways to compensate. You
can push your system into overdrive
with indoor sports or surrender in
style in a luxurious spa … or even a
tropical beach.
Feeling pent-up? Tense? Frustrated? Let
yourself go in a go-kart. On the 1,000-footlong indoor race track at KARTLAND, you can
race alone or with others, as fast as you can
get the thing to go. Cost is €19 for 16 minutes; groups get a discount. Mirau Strasse 62/80
in Reinickendorf; Tel.: 03043566841; hours:
Mon.-Thu. 3 -11 p.m., Fri. 2 p.m.-midnight,
Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
The stylish fitness studio ARS VITALIS offers
such classes as pilates or yoga open to guests,
as well as a large spa with sauna, pool,
whirlpool and massage studio. Special offer for
Berlin International Film Festival guests:
A day pass costs only €21 if you bring your
accreditation. Haup Strasse 19 in Schöneberg;
Tel.: 0307883563; hours: daily 8 a.m.-11 p.m.;
www.ars-vitalis.de
The futuristic thermal bath LIQUIDROM IM
TEMPODROM is famous for its warm salt-water
pool with underwater music and light show —
very, very relaxing. Two hours cost €17.50.
Möckern Strasse 10 in Tiergarten; hours: daily
10 a.m.-midnight (weekends until 1 a.m.)
If there’s anything you can call “typical” about
Berlin, it’s the real Turkish steam bath. At the
SULTAN HAMAM you can order Orient-style fullbody-peeling with silk gloves, organic soap massages, cosmetics and an Oriental café. Threehour ticket begins at €16. Bülow Strasse 57,
Schöneberg; hours: daily noon-11 p.m. (Mon. for
men only, Tue.-Sat. for women only, Sun. mixed)
www.sultan-hamam.de
Take a trip right into the Arabian Nights at the
TAJIK TEA PARLOR (Tadschikische Teestube).
Take off your shoes, sit down on cushions among
carved sandalwood columns and order tea from
the Black Sea — or any of the other exotic teas
on offer. Am Festungsgraben 1 in Mitte;
hours: weekdays 5 p.m.-midnight,
weekdends 3 p.m.-midnight
The best way to get to the tropics from Berlin
is to take a train to the small town of Brand,
where a huge former zeppelin hanger has been
converted into TROPICAL ISLANDS. Sand was
shipped in for beaches, a jungle was planted,
waterfalls were built, saunas and jacuzzis
installed and just about everything else was
turned into a pool. You can even camp out on the
beach — or take a balloon ride through the hall
and watch the goings-on from 180 feet above.
Tickets from €25 (unlimited stay). Open 24 hours
daily; directions: take the regional train RE 2 from
Berlin-Alexanderplatz to Brand (they leave every
hour and take about 50 minutes). From there, a shuttle takes you to Tropical Islands. www.tropicalislands.de
Last but not least, here’s a good MOBILE
MASSEUR. 30 minutes for €30.
Tel: 01773868654
Astrid Ule
Ars Vitalis
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news
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
‘Wisdom’
Continued from page 1—
Seeking Susan.” To many, however, it will remain an oddity.
Focusing on three mismatched London flatmates who
accept dire jobs while waiting for
their dreams to come true, the
film is a curious mix of TV sitcom, madcap raunchiness and
rowdy gypsy music.
The male of the trio, a heavily
accented Ukrainian would-be
pop singer named A.K. (Eugene
Hutz), sets the mood by speaking directly to the camera and
espousing the general theme
that the path to enlightenment is
via the gutter.
A.K. spends a lot of time in the
bathtub, dressed or not, water or
not, drinking brandy, smoking
and pondering life’s vicissitudes.
He earns ready money by getting into costumes and beating
up paying customers who get
their jollies that way. He also
runs errands for a blind poet
(Richard E. Grant) who lives
‘Yasukuni’
Continued from page 1—
where “Yasukuni” is screening
in the Berlin International Film
Festival’s Forum sidebar. “The
threats have gotten worse and
worse as we have gotten closer
to the Japanese theatrical release
of the film in April.”
Li spent 10 years researching
and shooting his docu, which
looks at the controversy surrounding the shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including a
handful of war criminals. For
many, the site is a symbol of
Japan’s militaristic past and a rallying point for the far right.
“Yasukuni” was a hot seller at
the Pusan International Film
Festival in October and received
rave reviews when it screened at
Sundance last month.
Li said the Japanese embassy
in Berlin has expressed its concern following the threats.
Ulrich Gregor, founder and former director of the Berlinale
Forum, provided some moral
support Wednesday, meeting
with Li and telling the director
to “not be afraid, just go ahead
and do it (release the film).”
Gregor compared Li’s position to that of German directors
in the 1960s who turned their
cameras on the dark history of
the Nazi period.
t h r. c o m
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downstairs.
A.K. has a crush on flatmate
Holly (Holly Weston), a beautiful ballerina who, being flat
broke, resorts to stripping and
pole-dancing at a local club,
while equally lovely Juliette
(Vicky McClure) is putting in
time at a drugstore while dreaming of going to Africa to help the
starving children there.
There are scenes involving
A.K.’s clientele, Holly’s fellow
strippers and Juliette’s lustful
pharmacist boss, and occasionally the two young women join in
A.K.’s paid-for role-playing.
Some sequences are jarring in
their sudden shifts of tone, and a
few simply fall flat. The further
down the cast, the less Madonna, who co-scripted, demonstrates a firm grip as director.
“Wisdom” is unexpectedly
sentimental, too, but the three
leads are sufficiently engaging
that while chaotic and more than
a bit silly, the film in the end conjures up a surprising amount of
goodwill.
FILTH & WISDOM
Semtex Film
Credits: Screenwriter/director/executive producer: Madonna; Co-screenwriter: Dan
Cadan; Producer: Nicola Doring; Director of photography: Tim Maurice Jones; Production
designer: Gideon Ponte; Costume designer: B; Editor: Russell Icke. Cast: A.K.: Eugene Hutz; Holly: Holly Weston; Juliette: Vicky McClure; Professor Flynn: Richard E. Grant; Sardeep: Inder
Manocha; Businessman: Elliot Levey; Chloe: Clare Wilkie; Harry Beechman: Stephen Graham;
Businessman’s Wife: Hannah Walters; Sardeep’s Wife: Shobu Kapoor.
No MPAA rating, running time 81 minutes.
•
Madonna triumphant in return
“It isn’t easy, but you have to
confront the past and examine
the past to know who you are,”
Gregor said. “It is never too late.”
“I think Japan could learn a lot
from how Germany has dealt
with its war past,” Li said. “In
Japan the government is still very
ambiguous about the war. Internationally, they admit responsibility, but within Japan they continue to honor those who committed the war crimes.”
Li said he hopes his movie will
spark discussion in Japan about
the Yasukuni Shrine and Japan’s
role in World War II.
“I hope my film will help cure
what I think of as the postwar
syndrome,” Li said. “It’s a sickness, this ambiguity towards the
people responsible for the war. I
hope my film can help cure this
syndrome. I think it will be
good for the health of the
Japanese nation.”
While he is taking precautions
to protect himself and his team,
Li said he is going ahead with the
film’s Japanese release through
distributor Nai Entertainment.
“I have spent 10 years making
this movie,” he said. “The issues
in the film are key to many of the
problems Japan faces in dealing
with the war and dealing with
the rest of Asia. Compared to
that (my personal safety) is
unimportant.”
los angeles 323/525-2000
By Liza Foreman
The last time Madonna came
to the Berlin International Film
Festival she hid under a raincoat
and nobody knew she was here.
Or so the story goes. But this
time, she was out in full view
for her directorial debut, “Filth
and Wisdom,” playing in the
Panorama Special section.
Reporters queued for two
hours to catch a glimpse of the
diminutive director and her stars,
the Gypsy rocker Eugene Hutz
and the British actresses Holly
Weston and Vicky McClure.
“I stalked him (Eugene) like a
RAI
Continued from page 1—
Sekulic said in exchange RAI
Cinema will have a first look deal
with his company on any coproduction projects it is putting
together. Titles Sekulic doesn’t
select for sales duties will continue to be sold by RAI Cinema’s
own in house sales team. He
struck the pact with RAI Cinema’s Giovanni Scatassa.
Sekulic has cemented the deal
with RAI Cinema after brokering a deal between RAI and
Canal Plus Cine Cinemas in
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strange fan,” said Madonna of
getting the Ukrainian musician
to play in the film.
The Material Girl might have
all the success in the world, but
she can still feel the struggle of
her early years.
“I think that in spite of what
appears to be my material success, I still feel like the characters
in that movie,” she said.
•
more online
For more about
Madonna in Berlin,
go to THR.com/berlin
France to distribute “Cemento
Armato” (Concrete Romance),
directed by Marco Martani.
Said Sekulic: “We’re looking
for any film with an international angle and will market it that
way. It’s to try and avoid people
missing out on some quality
successes.”
Sekulic cites the €20 millionplus boxoffice success of Fausto
Brizzi’s “Notte prima degli esami”
(Night Before the Exams), which
remained unsold for months on
RAI Cinema’s shelves. Sekulic
brokered a deal with Canal Plus on
that, too.
•
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8:04 PM
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
Guerillas
Continued from page 1—
raising a budget going back
there. They’re not doing the
kind of film like the French did
for decades where they go into
the former colonies and shoot a
film with all these funky black
people and in the middle is the
noble French doctor or whatever. Those were French films
using the colonies as a décor.”
Italian director Luigi Falorni
called on his background as a
documentary filmmaker to go in
country for “Heart of Fire,”
which is based on child soldierturned-singer Senait Mehari’s
best-selling autobiography. The
director cast the film at an
Eritrean refugee camp.
“I didn’t want this to be a
Hollywood look at Africa — like
a ‘Hotel Rwanda,’ where Don
Cheadle flies in to play the lead
role,” Falorni said. “Authenticity was of the utmost importance. It was essential that people acting in the movie had been
through the war, knew what had
happened and would tell me if
anything wasn’t accurate.”
Falorni said it is “sort of a
scandal” that a white European
made “Heart” instead of a director from Eritrea. “But there is
no film infrastructure in Eritrea
and, to be honest, no freedom
of speech either. So it would
have been impossible.”
Australian director Benjamin
Gilmour shot his Forum title
“Son of a Lion” on an altogether different scale. He worked
alone or with a local camera
assistant for eight months in
Pakistan’s remote and lawless
Northwest Frontier region to
produce his story about a young
Pashtun boy in a village of gunmakers on a budget of only
$20,000. (The Australian Film
Commission later put in around
$400,000 to complete postproduction.)
“For a big film crew to go in
there was impossible. The Pakistani military would travel with
you and the Pashtuns hate the
military; you would not succeed,” said Gilmour, who
describes his film as “guerilla
filmmaking at its purest.”
“It took a long time. The
Pashtuns notoriously don’t trust
outsiders so for the first six
months I didn’t even pull out
the camera. It was just about
building relationships,” said the
former paramedic, who gained
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his first cinematic experience
working as a unit nurse on sets.
Gilmour arrived with a script
but ended up changing it radically as he worked with the
locals. “They ended up running
the show. Sometimes I thought
that the film was directing itself.
But in a sense, that is now what
people like about it — that in a
way it feels like an observational
documentary. The action is just
playing out naturally.”
The Generation 14plus picture “Munyurangabo” is another Africa-set film in stark contrast to previous Hollywood
takes on the continent. The film
tells the story of two friends
from either side of the tribal
divide in Rwanda, and was
directed by New York-based Lee
Isaac Chung, who gained privileged access to the country
through his wife’s work as a volunteer there. “Because of her we
had a lot of friends on the
ground who trusted us. It
allowed for us to have constant
interaction with people in their
homes. Being part of the community changes the film; we
didn’t come in with this foreign
concept,” Chung said. The film
is the first feature to be made in
the local language, and used
local actors. “The crew were students that we trained,” said the
director, who shot on 16mm for
less than $40,000.
So have these films managed
to avoid taking a colonial view?
“That’s something we were
very conscious of from the
beginning,” said Sam And
erson, co-writer and co-producer of “Munyurangabo.” “I
feel that we did, but the best
judge would be a Rwandan
audience.”
Gilmour said he, too, was
worried about providing a
“white man’s” view. “I had a
great response from Muslim
audiences at the Marrakesh Film
Festival,” he said. “None of
them could believe that a nonMuslim had made this film.
That’s an indication to me that I
didn’t leave too much of a Western mark on it. But if a Pashtun
had made this film it may not
have traveled as far it has.”
This type of filmmaking may
even be going some way
towards fostering an indigenous
cinema in visited countries. “A
lot of (Rwandan) guys who
worked on our movie are now
making their own shorts,”
Anderson said.
los angeles 323/525-2000
“Lake Tahoe”
Critics
Continued from page 4—
point of obsession. Little wonder. Americans today are one big
dysfunctional family. They no
longer know how to talk to one
another, to debate differences
and admit to shortcomings. An
ugly anger has entered the zeitgeist, and this hit home in several American films in Berlin.
Lance Hammer’s “Ballast,” following its multiple-award Sundance debut, watches the
extremely painful process through
which a black family in the Mississippi Delta must work through a
suicide death, another attempted
suicide and mutual recriminations
in order to achieve a spiritual and
psychological balance to their
lives. In contrast to other Berlin
filmmakers, Hammer is relatively
young and this is his first feature,
so it will be interesting to observe
his development after the impressive debut.
Dennis Lee’s “Fireflies in the
Garden” gives us a squabbling
Midwest family with a domineering control-freak for a father
and a grown son thoroughly poisoned by his father’s callousness.
The death of the mother brings
everything home to roost: All
the buttoned-up hostilities and
arguments boil over once more
in a story that, unfortunately,
reeks of soap opera rather than
incisive drama.
One could even argue that
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There
Will Be Blood” features a dysfunctional family and a spiritual
divide. In the film, a father and
adopted son grow increasingly
estranged as greed overwhelms
the father’s life purpose. The oilman’s counterpart is the son of a
family he once defrauded who
becomes an evangelist. But the
preacher is no more sincere in his
pursuit of heaven than the oilman
is in his pursuit of Mammon.
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The Berlinale finally caught
up to the rest of the festival
world by programming its first
documentary in competition,
Errol Morris’ disappointing
“Standard Operating Procedure.” Cannes made the move
several years ago, but until this
year, Berlin has stubbornly
refused to acknowledge the
vitality and artistic achievement
of documentaries worldwide.
This goes to the heart of what
ails the Berlinale. A certain
timidity and a propensity toward
safe rather than daring choices
dominate the selections year
after year. My colleague Maggie
Lee, with a deep knowledge of
Asian cinema, was surprised by
her first visit to the fest. Competition selections from Asia, she
felt, represent “safe choices,
technically excellent but not so
vibrant and exciting.”
Films such as the Weinstein
Co.’s right-wing vigilante movie
“Elite Squad” and the too-long
and lightweight Korean entry
“Night and Day” did not belong
in competition. And many felt a
film like Eran Riklis’ wise and
poignant “Lemon Tree,” a simple
tale of a Palestinian woman taking
on the might of the Israeli military in order to save her lemon
grove, did belong in competition
rather than in Panorama.
Finally, the Forum section
needs rethinking. Too many
extremely low budget and aesthetically wearisome films that
lack any true originality get
swept into that category. It has
become a section for poseurs.
•
Correction
Telepool sales executive
Wolfram Skowronnek said he
and his company fully support
the European Film Market and
the Martin-Gropius-Bau
location (The Daily, Day 7).
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7:24 PM
news
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 8
Archive
Continued from page 3—
about €500,000 ($725,000)
needed to fund the project for
its first year.
European Film Treasures is
hoping to tap into a chunk of
the huge audience for free
online video sites like YouTube
and Bebo. “The difficulty today
is not so much to find old films
and restore them, it’s finding an
audience for them,” Bromberg
said. “These are the some of the
best films shot in Europe over
more than 80 years, but it’s
often difficult to convince people to see films like these.”
Each partner archive will propose films, and a jury of historic
film specialists will decide which
to include on the VOD site
based on such criteria as historical interest and artistic quality.
Footage will be accessible for
streaming only, not download,
but the site could in the future
extend to associated DVD sales.
The platform is being developed
by Enki Technologies.
Films will be available in their
original language with translation where needed into five
European languages: English,
French, German, Italian and
Spanish.
The site is expected to launch
with about 100 titles, but the
Limits
Continued from page 3—
Rossellini’s shorts, produced
for the Sundance Channel, were
conceived and shot not for the
big screen but for mobile
phones and Internet viewing.
Maddin describes “Winnipeg”
as a “Chinese Whispers” form of
documentary, where the facts of
the city’s — and the director’s
own — history are distorted and
refined in the telling.
“It’s a bit like the stories in
the Old Testament or oral traditions, where the stories are told
over and over again until they
get focused, hardened, like a
diamond,” Maddin said.
Maddin’s technique of combining archive footage with recreated scenes from his own
childhood — using his mother
and actors playing himself and
his siblings — combine to portray Winnipeg in almost mythic
terms. A city most cinemagoers
couldn’t find on a map gets the
epic treatment usually reserved
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aim is to include up to 500 films
once fully loaded. Lobster is
coming up with original music
to accompany silent films.
It took two years to convince
all the archives to come on board.
“They thought it was a good
idea but considered it was
impossible,” Bromberg said.
“The idea is not just to show
their films but also to present the
archives and their work.” The
only major national archive that
decided not to be represented
was from Belgium. “That is to
their great shame,” he opined.
Bryony Dixon, silent film curator at the British Film Institute’s
National Archive, said that VOD
is a well-adapted platform for
these early and short films that are
otherwise difficult to program.
“Theatrical, you may get a few
thousand viewers. On the Web,
you can get hundreds of thousands or even millions. If you put
it out there, people will find it.
You get that long-tale effect.”
As with the other partner
archives, the BFI not contributing finance but simply making
films available. “We’re in a good
position to do that as probably
the biggest film archive in
Europe,” Dixon said. Among
films the BFI is submitting are
“Daisy Doodad’s Dial,” 1913
British-made comedy starring
U.S. actress Florence Turner,
and a rare film of a French boxing champion.
“We’ll pick things that have
appeal, like the boxing film,
which will be really interesting
for the boxing community
because it’s not seen before,”
Dixon said.
For its part, the Danish Film
Institute is submitting a 1923
Danish film that is one of the
earliest examples of a viable talking film; an animated sausage
commercial film from the mid1930s that uses Dufay Color, a
mosaic screen additive system
that predates Technicolor; and a
raunchy 1910 one-reeler about
Copenhagen nightlife.
“These are films that we
restored recently. They’re all
entertaining films, one about
color and cinema, one about
sound and cinema. It’s broadening people’s idea of the development of cinema,” DFI curator
Thomas Christensen said.
“It’s great that there’s this
kind of channel for content that
is otherwise sitting fallow in the
archive,” Christensen said. “I
don’t expect it to become a
blockbuster phenomenon. It
might never be more than marginal, but it’s an interesting
channel to be represented on. I
think this is very much a transition time, and we have to
explore the possibilities.”
BAC
for world capitals such as New
York, Paris or Berlin.
“Canadians are lousy at selfmythologizing,” Maddin said.
“I think it has something to do
with the humbling echo from
the United States. It makes us
grow shy.”
Rossellini, who has worked
with Maddin on several films,
including “Brand Upon the
Brain!” (2006) and “The Saddest Music in the World”
(2003), recalls her first visit to
the cold Canadian city.
“I was changing planes in
Toronto, and when I told the
woman at the gate where I was
going, she asked ‘Why are you
going to Winnipeg?” the actress
said. “I thought it was a security
question but it was just disbelief.”
But IFC at least thinks this history of a small prairie city can have
appeal beyond that of eclectic festivalgoers. It snatched up “Winnipeg” in Toronto and is hoping
for the same crossover success the
company saw with Maddin’s
“Brand Upon the Brain!”
“Our secret desire was by
making the film so specific to
Winnipeg — I don’t think any
other place is mentioned in the
film — it would make it universal,” Maddin said. “That seems
to have worked.”
For “Porno,” Rossellini chose
the one subject with guaranteed
universal appeal: sex.
“The idea was to have a subject, and a title, that might get
some attention, and so I
thought it has to be sex,”
Rossellini said. “I chose the subject of insect sex because it is
really strange and really funny
what they do.”
“Porno” is a series of five- to
seven-minute shorts following
the same premise: Rossellini
imagines herself as a different
type of insect and then mates
with her opposite pair. Because
they were designed for viewing
on mobile phone screens,
Rossellini and co-director Jody
Shapiro (the cinematographer on
“Winnipeg”) chose simple setups
with few camera movements.
“It was almost a classical cinematic look,” Rossellini said.
Rossellini describes the short
films as the cinematic equivalent
to “those little New Yorker cartoons,” a short bit of whimsy
between the serious stuff of festival feature films.
To accompany “Porno” in
Berlin, Rossellini and Shapiro —
together with artists Rick
Gilbert and Andy Byers — have
installed three insect terrariums
in the Filmhaus at the Sony
Center on Potsdamer Platz.
Inside, visitors can screen all the
films in the series and also learn
about the real sex lives of insects.
It is a cross among installation
art, museum exhibit and film
screening.
In making movies specifically
for mobile devices, Rossellini said
she feels like a trailblazer, comparing the experience “to how
my father (legendary Italian
director Roberto Rossellini)
must have felt when he started, as
cinema was just making the shift
from silent film to sound.”
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Angeles-based international
sales company Cinema Management Group, headed by veteran
international sales and distribution executive Edward Noeltner.
Noeltner made the deal with
BAC and is in Berlin at the EFM.
The Rohauer Collection is
owned by Douris U.K., which is
raising cash for creditors via the
sale of the collection.
“The collection has the unchallenged rights to important material which will hold immense
appeal to the specialist film industry,” said Nick Edwards, Deloitte
partner and administrator for
Douris U.K.
•
“Sherlock Jr.”
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•
beijing 86/10-6512-5511 (ext. 121)
THRKeyArt_D1_02_08_08.indd 1
2/4/08 11:37:51 AM
Shoreline would like to celebrate Valentine’s Day by
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SHANE WEST LEELEE SOBIESKI
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Shoreline D8 02_14_08.indd 1
2/12/08 9:25:21 AM