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Claudia Llosa at the Berlin Film Festival 09


59th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Published in the journal Sequences

Claudia Llosa, or hope for a Peruvian film

It should not that the low resistance of the 2009 competition will come to darken the triumph of the film The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta asustada) , the unexpected winner of the Golden Bear. In only two feature films, Claudia Llosa, who was barely 32 years old and a native of Lima, has managed the feat to deliver a dense and personal while the first director of Peru to grab top honors at the Berlinale. Sequences collected his testimony a few days before his triumph.

You can count on the fingers of one hand the production designed and filmed in Peru have caught the imagination of festival gente, except perhaps those of Francisco J. Lombardi, winner in 1990 Grand Prix of the Americas with Caídos del cielo , but whose production remained confidential with us. With a first feature ( Madeinusa ) noticed in Rotterdam and elsewhere, Claudia Llosa, daughter of the great Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa of and raised in a liberal family and globetrotter, was quickly realized that Peru could not exist in the cinema without international assistance to all participating laboratories writing possible (in Los Angeles and Berlin, among others) while ensuring the participation of English producers willing to come and shoot in his native country in trusting the local workforce. Also

resulted in political, poetic, social, anthropological and plastic The Milk of Sorrow could do the most good for both young talents Peruvian lack of visibility, but also in film the feminine in general, especially for its great artistic maturity and his fierce desire to anchor his story in a reality defended authenticity. The evil of milk referred to by the title of the film has raised many questions among his first audience.

"There were several suspected cases in the mountainous regions exposed to the barbarity of terrorism during the 1980s, psychological studies have shown that this was a psychosomatic disorder which had affected women living in fear being raped or beaten again, explained Llosa. The only literal name of the disorder, the 'breast scared' is so evocative that it is passed from one generation to the next, often associated with shamanistic rites. Although psychoanalytic aid has been deployed by NGOs to come to their rescue and help them talk, it is they need more help. "

a strong image to another, the filmmaker has created from scratch using the potato down deliberately low sex Fausta to visually illustrate the pain that gnaws. "Again, the potato came to my mind after hearing testimony from a friend about a similar case reported in a medical report, remembers Llosa. Fausta bleeds caused by sprouting of potatoes was more emblematic of his intimate beliefs and fears. However, I had to get a medical opinion on the credibility of this situation ... In Peru, the potato is seen paradoxically as a symbol of fertility and rootedness, a sense that I turned into the film to indicate trauma, injury, a type of tumor that wants to hide. "The director

intersects this cruel myth in a ritual very concrete and very popular in Peru, the group marriages, a recurring theme of the film. "This practice is authentic and very common in Lima, the director assures. Moreover, the extras scenes wedding had already taken part in the ritual and had even dressed in their ceremonial robes again during the filming! "

production of the film took place in several languages, while English has given way to the Quechua, a dialect still spoken among the indigenous in Bolivia and Peru and in northern Colombia. " It is true that Quechua is losing ground in Peru, "agreed the director. On the plateau, several types of Quechua were spoken, however, because the members of our local team came from different regions and even on stubborn how to speak it well. "

Llosa has finally been lucky in discovering the talented Magaly Solier, who plays Faust, a young woman ready to undergo a purge incongruous desire to ward off men. "She herself has written songs of the film after several hours sitting at the piano because it is a real singer," she confirmed. For a singer, it is natural deport his torments by voice, and the character of Faust, and before her, her grandmother, have fed several songs to avert their fate but also to perpetuate their memories, as painful as they are. "

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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Bertrand Tavernier at the Berlin Festival 09


59th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Published in the journal Sequences

Tavernier, the beast light

veteran Bertrand Tavernier returned to Berlin In this year with the Electric Mist , awaited adaptation of the novel by the American James Lee Burke revered in France as one of the most brilliant heirs of the classic thriller. Largely ignored by critics, the film has also left the jury with marble but to rediscover a landmark of French cinema-loving American culture.

Tavernier did not take the camera and the megaphone from the well-meaning Holy Lola in 2004, but at age 68, preferred the former critic more selective, even if the wait ... to visit. The poster of In the Electric Mist had everything to hide this absence: Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman, both residents at the edges of bayous of Louisiana, mouth and had lived in employment to embody the irascible Dave Robicheaux and Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni, add to this duo Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty, John Sayles and guitarist Buddy Guy in small roles and whole has the air ticket to stardom American, 20 years after Tavernier has traveled the country with Cajun Mississippi Blues and 'Round Midnight .

Alas, the film unpacks all the defects of the co unhappy - here between the U.S. and France - especially at the mounting drifts artistic and narrative tension, which was quick to sack the real capital of authenticity made by Tavernier to express his deep love of Southern culture and mores.

"I had a fascination Robicheaux his earliest appearances in the novel Burke, in fact, I could choose any of his stories, but In the Electric Mist seemed the most acceptable and necessary to sum up the spirit and characters, told Tavernier at the Berlin Festival. I love him because he fights against the stupidity and violence, although it is often angry and full of contradictions. "

Tavernier discovered the work of Burke by Philippe Noiret, shortly before his death. The filmmaker had even tried to dedicate the film, but his producer had advised against the U.S., citing legal problems. "Noiret was crazy Burke, he had devoured his work, he recalled. He said it was the greatest thriller writer alive. "Welcoming also

he could recover John Goodman, who lives three hours of filming locations, Tavernier spoke evocative side of Louisiana to camp history. "For me, the environment defines the character when he is not himself a character in itself, "he resumed. It is for this reason that most minor roles were assigned to non-professionals, who were anyway all a bit theatrical in their own way. For his part, the cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer has had to spend several days with the director to find the right locations, particularly because of the constant light capricious in that corner of the United States.

The filmmaker was able to count on Burke himself to complete the screenplay, he did not hesitate to change dialogue or rewriting some entire scenes. Tommy Lee Jones, who confessed to Tavernier had some spats during filming, however, contributed in its way to script it up with suggestions. "I like working with actors getting involved in every scene, and Jones was one of those. It can evoke the past of his character with a single word, a single tone. "

admitted taking turn some liberties with the novel by James Lee Burke, Tavernier held accountable in his film of the present state of Louisiana following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. "Having made reference to Katrina was not a purely political gesture, but mostly reflected a reality that we faced during the filming, the director explained. I met the nuns who were busy rebuilding a church, as it defined the current state of this region, the character of this community, accustomed to rise after having experienced several tragedies. Moreover, it seemed to me interesting to ensure that the character of Balboni has defrauded federal aid to Katrina instead of dealing with porn cinemas as was the case in the book. The fact is genuine, because tens of millions of dollars have disappeared during the tragedy. "Goodman, meanwhile, confessed to having to deal with post-Katrina three years now:" It's part of our lives, and this is the case for years to come. "

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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Killer Films RVCQ 09


APPOINTMENT OF QUEBEC CINEMA

2009 Appeared in the journal Sequences

Christine Vachon, queen of American independent

By a happy combination circumstances, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois hosted the American producer Christine Vachon, head of early Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, Larry Clark, Kimberley Pierce, Mary Harron, Mark Romanek, Ethan Hawke, John Cameron Mitchell, Rose Troche and Tom Kalin, while having back on track the old road John Waters and Robert Altman. Vachon animated film is a lesson particularly relevant and dynamic state of the U.S. production outside the major Hollywood studios in its box Killer Films.

BEGINNINGS
"I started in this business in the mid-1980s in New York. The time was very exciting, especially in Manhattan, where Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee made their debut. One felt that a revolution was being born.

I do not know much about the production, but my ambition was to work in film. So I started by doing various jobs, including serving as production coordinator, supervisor, assistant editor and assistant director on films with small budgets, including co-productions. Todd Haynes approached me to produce his first feature, Poison, which was more experimental, even for the time.

So I learned my craft on the heap, often, reminding me my debut, I say that ignorance is the best thing that can happen to someone who nurtures an ambition. Over time, however I am still convinced of one thing: produce is never easy. It is also difficult, but differently. "MY STYLE


" I try to keep myself between Hollywood films and experimental. When I started, it was queer cinema, AIDS was everywhere and decimated many artists who lived in a hurry and wanted to create at any price, without compromise. Today, the independent film has become quite classic, each studio had until recently a subsidiary called 'independent' ...

My experiences on different positions have also taught me to see the film, independent or otherwise, as a vast mechanical and exciting encounter between the interdependent commerce and art. Deal with the financial package, make sure everything is consistent with the expectations of the director and the economic realities are what I like about my job. Many people ask me if I would have rather liked to be director and I answer that ... no. The dynamics of production stimulates me more than high point. "

ECONOMIC CRISIS AND HOLLYWOOD
" must now be more flexible and creative than ever before, because the studios do not really involved in the type of cinema that I produce. I must then I invariably turn to three sources: equity investors in equity, foreign presales and tax incentives offered in some areas as much as home runs with professionals in the area. Obviously, the Canadian dollar and tax credits are very beneficial to you, thankfully! * But I must admit that U.S. producers envy governmental funding agencies such as Canada or France, which ensure that manages to make films without having to solicit private funds. It would be unthinkable in the United States.

's how I got to run right now in Saskatchewan and Manitoba Lullaby for a Pi Benoit Philippon, a France-Canada co-production, so that these provinces have put forward tax credits very interesting. My dual US-French also allowed me to board the project.

PAY FOR THE FEAST
"Usually, two types of investors are willing to put their money in the production of films: those who believe may affect profits with revenue and sales of film abroad and those who simply want to put one foot in Hollywood and s' imagine going to the Oscars with Uma Thurman ... Most of the time, I meet people seriously, but all in all, I seek primarily individuals who think with their heart rather than strictly with their wallets. THE ESSENTIAL LUXURY


"When I Happiness, Todd Solondz had already been a modest success with his previous film, Welcome to the Dollhouse , but it was not enough for it to turn with greater resources. I needed $ 6 million and the investors have promised me the money if Patricia Arquette, who was popular at the time, ensured its participation in the film, which she did. But his mother fell ill and was forced to break his contract. The shooting would start and we were suddenly in search of an actor and capital once again. That was when I visited my early investors and asked them how much they were willing to give me if I was shooting without stars, or $ 2 million. Todd has adjusted and made at the end the film he wanted.

The same thing happened when Boys Do not Cry, Kimberly Peirce while wanted to hire Hillary Swank, a pure unknown at the time, but our investors held fiercely to hire an established heading. The identity of the actors became more important than before and this trend is not about to fade. "

OF DIRECTORS PARTNERS
" There are many filmmakers who I want to work - Robert Altman was the One of them - and Robert Benton, another director I admire, will make his next film at Killer. But the important thing is the relationship that I can grow with them. You should know that I will fight alongside them and defend them beyond reason on projects that can take several years to materialize. In fact, the director has to feel concerned as it was co-producer of the film with me. Sometimes it does not work. Then I must also find the rare pearl, often reading from a script, because I enjoy working with young filmmakers at the time of their first feature film. But you must know that the younger generation is often more interested by the proposed TV series as films, a situation that saddens me. "THE GRAND SLAM


" The film festivals are always in my eyes the most important rendezvous of the year to secure financing or sell their movies once completed. I limit myself to Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto, although SXSW (South by Southwest in Austin, TX) and Telluride are in growth phase. Anyway, these platforms are essential, not least that they generate for the attraction and recognition for our work. "

* Christine Vachon has toured the Eastern Townships Eastern Townships and Montreal several scenes of the film I'm Not There Todd Haynes in 2007, while using the services of Studio Ex-Centris in order to produce certain visual effects through the special effects supervisor Louis Morin.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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Critical "Tomorrow"


TOMORROW
Maxime Giroux Released

2009 in the journal Sequences

Micro manifest extreme banality

Sophie, So the streets are long, and finally Tomorrow. The first feature film project Maxime Giroux, one of short films Quebec's most visible internationally, has passed through several titles and identities (the original cast was very different from that found on the screen) before taking its final shape. Unrealistic expectations have preceded a very discreet and finally output a recognition almost nonexistent abroad. What explains this reversal?

notorious refusal to deal with Maxime Giroux tastes of today's commercial cinema is consistent with this aspiration generational animating his contemporaries Denis Côté, Rafael Ouellet, Stephane Lafleur and Yves-Christian Fournier, cosmetic treatment yet excavated, refined and adopted en masse abroad since the early films of the Dardenne brothers ... there are now fifteen years, proving again the shift of the Quebec film industry with trends International (pointed or not).

Tomorrow Yet more than a simple extension of the current hyper-realism by its desire to avoid any waiting dramatic, the film can be seen as the culmination of this film intentionally non-commercial limited to this , narrative arcs completely released, and whose concern is limited to the construction of scenes at the expense of their actual content.

Tomorrow reveals still more talent. He first Eugenie Beaudry, who plays with lots of natural main character, a young woman eking out a living from his diabetic father and a new lover sometimes placid, sometimes temperamental. The film rests entirely on his shoulders and his amazing lack of expression, despite a lifetime without relief, or to private ambition. Yet we cling readily to his wanderings, his inability to lead anything, his empty secret if only by his inability to look behind her.

The other obvious talent is the director of photography Sara Mishara camerawoman become the benchmark of social realism, of the ordinary style. Accomplice and creative in its own right alongside the young wolves Lafleur and Fournier - his gaze was recently commandeered by Bernard Emond on his next film The Last Things , its contribution tends to be drawn up by this whole scene so that stripped 'they graze constantly absolute disembodiment.

However, do not be fooled by aridity of the process, even if he seems to consider this path as an imperturbable cross vow of simplicity, Maxime Giroux remains by far the main interest of his own movie. No comparison with his younger contemporaries hold water: Giroux, even injure himself in a class by itself, even if his trial could jeopardize the future of things. Whether you agree or disagree with his vision of what should be a story in film, the filmmaker shows an undeniable know-how and, ironically in this case, a real attachment to his characters, a gap contagious among its green peers, more worn on formal and narrative audacity.

However, although the type of film that Giroux practice usually requires a certain level of emotional display, one of many banned Tomorrow is precisely the absence of emotional causality among the characters, which seem all suffering from a lack of perspective on their interpersonal behaviors. Giroux and his co-screenwriter Alexandre Laferrière - who signed most of the director's short - opted instead for dramatic gaps, thereby leaving the plane in the viewer, who is forced to seal the interior of the Abyss characters film.

Such a calendar can only view quickly its limits and the inevitable predictability of its conclusion here, Sophie ends up imposing its implosion in lax Jerome. No redemption or rehabilitation is possible, opening to the family or love can only lead to disintegration. One would think that would emulate her heroine Giroux on these holy martyrs morbidly fond Lars von Trier; if Sophie is never really a victim of the plight of men, she wallows in deeper and deeper into a compulsive idleness, even to become completely invisible.

The premise, at first sight disconcerting, however, adds a curious balance between the ideological hesitation (or nihilism Jansenism?) And maturity formal. The proposal is not without promise, but also unique as it is, that experimentation is Tomorrow can only lead to a cul-de-sac anyway.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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Critical "Tulpan"


TULPAN
Sergei Dvortsevoy

2009 Appeared in the journal The footage

elected Plains

Former radio engineer at Aeroflot past darling documentary festival programmers, Sergei Dvortsevoy book first fiction film in exotic infectious humor, designed in the vastness of poetic steppes of Central Asia.

The surprise has incorporated Tulpan on the international circuit is matched only by the freshness and humanity of his approach, sufficiently free of austerity and exotic flashy alleged before this type of co-Is West, recalling a success unknown, the heartfelt Desert Dream Zhang Lu However, we must not forget that Dvortsevoy an authentic creature designed and weaned by festivals, could have a free after accumulating a huge amount of awards around the world. In Tulpan, the simple life of a family of sheep farmers is transformed into a den of human experience (and animal) rendered with acuity and insight of a documentary narrator, one capable of transforming the picturesque Fairy . We quickly forget the overly pathetic caricature of Kazakhstan Borat , it was also hilarious.

If the Kazakh steppes evoke westerns, Dvortsevoy sticks to a study of manners among members of a clan anything but sad, always about to explode ... but where can you save when you live in the middle of nowhere? Remains a life organized under the basic needs, child rearing and breeding of sheep, in the middle of nowhere (the movie was filmed in an area called Betpak located in southern Kazakhstan, 500 km from the nearest village ...) in those regions where the sky visibly occupies more space than the ground.

In this end of the world, humans do not seem to be worth more than the beasts, the women men than older children. And yet, the family of Asa, who returns to live among his own at the end of his military service in the navy, customs defers constantly to survive, resulting in several spats and sometimes bewildering changes of tone .

Asa would like to marry and start a family, but Tulpan, his unapproachable promised pushes because of his protruding ears too, which applies to our newly decorated pan embarrassing comparisons with Prince Charles, it appears a photo at every opportunity to ridicule. But this is not a whole movie, and hastens Dvortsevoy to lead the cast of unexpected guests, as an exuberant singer jeep and camels recalcitrant. They seem to run their number under a tent in the open, with only spectators as their hosts, themselves caught in a precarious haven it would look bad not to share with passengers. Although

Tulpan not take refuge in any other drama that dashed hopes of this band of merry men with severe strokes, the filmmaker has the kindness and tact to avoid some waffle with any use of postcard effects, preferring the film with good intentions. The camera, always looking, often translates the beauty in the unexpected, such as mop mysterious Tulpan - we will see only once, back - or those wide shots of a purple sky hot and threatening time of a lightning storm striking.

Fan of Vigo, Antonioni and Forman, Dvortsevoy directed his first feature film out of spite, exhausted by the search for funding from the television during his years as a documentary. Tulpan, one notices quickly, reflects a yearning for freedom and authenticity uncommon. The film exudes energy and mainly a form of gratitude to the spontaneity of his subjects to show through their compassion and afford to ridicule the image of the rural back exile among his own people with the attitude of civilized triumphant.

With certain privileges to own documentary as the duration of filming (full year), the filmmaker has been so complete that the key scene of the birth of a sheep after several weeks spent studying the response of females made pregnant face humans in such situations, as another scene involving the death of a lamb. In both cases, this actor has never had to deal with such an event before, but the preparation, execution and intuition Dvortsevoy has kept many movie moments oxygenating.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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Review "Never Apologize"


NEVER APOLOGIZE
Mike Kaplan

2009 Appeared in the journal Sequences

scene tribute

It's been 15 years since the director Lindsay Anderson broke his pipe. With him is missing a whole part of history British cinema, the film critic and staged in the purest sense. Actor Malcolm McDowell, a faithful son of the filmography of Bangalore, has paid tribute to his spiritual master in a solo show.

Never Apologize was one of those recent shows new genus, between performance, storytelling and biography, not hesitating to be illustrated by a film or television archives, thereby leveling the time lags in using them increased power elliptical stage, like the 700 Sunday Billy Crystal.

McDowell, who played under the rule of Anderson four times (the Mick Travis trilogy and the resumption of Look Back in Anger of 1980), was inspired by various books written by English filmmaker, but also their continued friendship over years, to deliver the show in question, whose title is taken from a replica of a John Ford film, the avowed idol Anderson, who was the subject of a trial.

In turn, the film version of the play, which is more uptake than any reinterpretation or respatialisation - as it is about the boards - The show is entirely a family affair, while the director, Mike Kaplan, produced The Whales of August , Anderson's latest film, incidentally, and attended several years Stanley Kubrick, who, like everyone known, cemented the international potential of McDowell on A Clockwork Orange.

What interest can there be to film a show in general? To the memory performance per se, but sometimes the content. As such, Never Apologize figure is small personal encyclopedia, a tribute to cherish because of the presence of McDowell in one of its best 'interpretations' to life. As if to revisit his mentor, if only in thought, had improved his game but in fact the secular work of Anderson could also find its just as important as the actors or film buffs, at the sight of this sum of anecdotes, quotations and imitations of such education on the art of playing, to stage or only influence the life of a young rebel eager for knowledge to break up any his talent.

McDowell starts his speech at a time when Anderson enters her life masquerading another between two performances of a play at the Royal Court Theatre in London, co-director of the filmmaker in the late 1960's after her first cycle of creation to the movies. Quickly, McDowell Anderson hired to embody Mick Travis, a student protest in the firebrand ... If that really started their careers by winning the Palme d'Or winner.

Inspired by this sudden visibility, McDowell moved Anderson to continue their cooperation in staging a film based on his own experiences traveling salesman of coffee experienced in his youth. Unconvinced, Anderson assigns David Sherwin, the screenwriter of ... If to refine the script for O Lucky Man , who brought the duo to Cannes and then remarked Awards BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes.

Their paths will cross only for a few more years, until his early wanderings McDowell knows the big screen for Anderson consolidate its gains in the middle of the stage and made a few recordings of his plays for television. Their last stop

common in cinema occurs with Britannia Hospital in 1982, with a third appearance in competition at Cannes. Long married to actress Mary Steenbergen (whom he met on the set of Time After Time in 1979), McDowell puts it in contact with Anderson, who, having made videos for the band Wham! and George Michael, will hire seven years later The Whales of August alongside legends Bette Davis, Lillian Gish and Vincent Price, which will however be preferred Ann Sothern at the Oscars.

In a sense, Lindsay Anderson has been during the protest of his contemporary Ken Russell, who chose a similar path throughout his career, to make a mockumentary about their own careers. That perfectly befitted the spirit of candid and voluntary McDowell, the ideal pupil's dream stirrer.

Through play, in imitation of its stars and reading various journals, the interpreter of Alex de Large is the story of their affinities, taking in turn the tribute that Anderson had developed with his his art (writing) on its predecessor Ford. Without excuse, the actor shows all angles - even down to its imperfections - with a generosity rare and manifest in his own way all his admiration and gratitude suspicion towards this father figure, coupled with an unknown poet.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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59th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL - Out of Competition BERLIN FESTIVAL


59th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Published in the journal Sequences

Quebec was rather quiet at the last Berlin Film Festival. Still, It was not me, I swear! Philippe Falardeau got away with two awards in a parallel section, while the documentary River Encirclement Richard Brouillette caught the attention of critics. It is in these parts peripherals the real discoveries are taking place.

Panorama and Forum sections are the two most searched for anyone wishing to identify emerging talent in Berlin. The 2009 selection of alternative programming was not often live up to expectations, although some titles have managed to capture the attention of critics, festival programmers and international buyers. Some familiar names like Catherine Breillat, Julie Delpy, Michael Winterbottom, Tom DiCillo and Hans-Christian Schmid was the game, but did not generate the interest that their status as authors anticipate export permit.

The Danish Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners ) is returned to the United Kingdom turn once again in the language of Peter Brook, seven years after the mixed Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself to adapt a novel endorsed by the popular Nick Hornby sought ( About a Boy, High Fidelity ). Relying on a cast of hell - the redoubtable Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, the hilarious, the discreet Emma Thompson and especially the dazzling Carey Mulligan, monitor - Scherfig chose the wise reading a sex scandal of the 1960s unbridled that may alarm many more parents, especially in America, despite the draining of the controversial elements calculated by a direction of actor and treatment provided in good taste.

a spade a spade, the fourth feature from actress Sophie Fillières, seduced as he seemed enraged the public, in the tradition of Ouch, his only film distributed in Quebec. Chiara Mastroianni A reinvigorated squatting all plans for this not always happy fantasy in which a writer tries to find inspiration in spite of a fan a little too insistent.

Rhythm uneven distributed that sometimes falls flat and other deformities in cinema French undermined what could have still be a very pleasant walk in the imagination of the filmmaker's real left field, to be classified as Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi as the first Bruno Podalydès.

So Yong Kim took the platform in Germany to present his second film, Treeless Mountain , but his first shot in his native South Korea. Near the heart of Nobody Knows by Kore-eda's film So Yong relies entirely on two girls under the age of 7, whose mother disappears and their alcoholic aunt let them wander alone through Seoul to the whereabouts of their father, they have never known. Co-production between Korea and the United States, Treeless Mountain builds memories of the filmmaker as the spontaneous play of his young actors, both non-professional, and the proximity of the camera in the mode of cinema verite .

Two films are nevertheless able to really stand out of the lot this year, unexpected works of several signatures overly tight ( Land of Scarecrows Roh Gyeong the Korean Tae-top). Figurehead Renewal indie emerging from Austin, Texas where Richard Linklater seems to have sown the seeds of a movie 'neo-slacker, just as radical in its infancy, Andrew Bujalski has unpacked the hilarious Beeswax to Berlin four years after having consumed his honeymoon with U.S. criticism following Mutual Appreciation .

The film, which could be easily confused with a year long student of his bill by casting technique and its low profile, is characterized by a sluggish use of transitions, while the pace and story seem to constantly jostled by the front, but by his allegiance to the movement 'mumblecore', or 'mumble extreme', in which the members exchange roles and responsibilities of a production to another, creating a sexy little movie voluntarily, with hesitation and deluge of dialogue are common features.

The real surprise came, however, another American production, the feature documentary Sweetgrass Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash, best known art dealers or anthropology departments as festival-goers. Inspired by art videos preparatory about the latest herd of sheep in the Midwest, the film shows the daily life of a farm by road through the pastures and villages of Montana, hurtling the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains for nearly a hundred miles.

With means evoking Pierre Perrault and Albert Maysles, the duo went on plans for a stunning tide of sheep invading the screen, interspersed with moments of intimacy often unusual in the company of herdsmen, who escorted them appear here turn by their animals, sometimes losing control in conditions reminiscent of a Wild West still alive. That is how the documentary manages to deliver the best westerns produced in 20 years.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

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59th - 52nd San Francisco


59th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Published in the journal Sequences

This time, it was Peru (despite appearances )

In each edition, we hear the same speech critical of the Berlin competition: where are the (real) stars, where are the great writers? Faced with disgruntled art director Dieter Kosslick will watch impassively and reply by the steadily increasing ridership its occurrence. Whether you agree or disagree with this philosophy, the fact remains that many would envy Berlin, if only by his ability to curl one year with a first class event in spite of constraints beyond his control.

Berlin must contend with a thankless time slot (sandwiched between the American Film Market and Cannes), a wintry red carpet, stars Frosty Gap and programming alternatives. Its main assets are his unwavering however, as the film market, a must to prepare for Cannes and the rest of the year, his loyal audience, his movie theater chain perfectly adapted to the magnitude of the event, his organization and his impeccable attendance affordable for Germans and foreigners.

The Achilles heel of the festival still remains the difficulty of attaining its editorial focus on social and political values, and proposals for original movies. This year again, the programmers have put so much emphasis on American-popping The International of the prodigal son Tom Twyker, the pamphlet schematic London River Rachid Bouchared.

Festivalgoers were surprised to notice some recreations of interest among the various contenders for the Golden Bear, like the fanciful Ricky François Ozon, a regular at the festival, or the eloquent Cheri Stephen Frears, a period drama Belle Epoque which confirms the brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer back in a production worthy of that name, alongside the young Rupert Friend, amazing in his role as early Dandy pulled straight from Oscar Wilde.

Berlin again tried to impose on us Annette K. Olesen ( Little Soldiers ) or Lukas Moodysson ( Mammoth ) as the voice most representative of the penultimate generation of world-class filmmakers, although it would be more than tempted to blame their insistence. Moodysson overestimated the club offered a parable of the effects of globalization on families post-nuclear operator unimaginative the international potential of its headliners Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams. Otherwise, some ancient glories ran dry as Costa Gravas, Bertrand Tavernier, Theo Angelopoulos, Andrzej Wajda, Chen Kaige, or Sally Potter did try to inject a bit of luster to the competition, but by repeating formulas bordering on self -parody.

It took a little new blood coming shake the fleas of a selection dangerously pulling down to revive the hope that Berlin can still dig up some nuggets of cinema. Since Whisky Acne and we had learned not to ignore the traditional production reaching out to Uruguay. Gigante, the first feature film by Adrian Biniez, is made of the same wood as his fellow comedians and maximizes the effects from a simple frame and catchy, the attraction that develops a keeper for a supermarket colleague in charge of maintenance, it observes and learns without his knowledge by surveillance cameras. Dismissing the sordid of Alexandra's Project and disposal of films by Atom Egoyan, Gigante spreading some laughs with a clear scenario thinness more clever than it appears.

The jury chaired by Tilda Swinton with foresight awarded the Golden Bear at The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada) Claudia Llosa , the first selection of Peruvian history of the festival, also the most satisfying surprise competition. Already out of the shadows with his first test Madeinusa , Llosa, the daughter of writer Mario Vargas Llosa of says with a ubiquitous symbol of the fight Fausta, a young Peruvian struggling with symptoms of 'milk scared' psychosomatic illness afflicting women abused or misused terrorism during the 1980s in Peru. Living in slums on the outskirts of Lima, Fausta facing the modern world and become a maid of a wealthy pianist of the city in order to pay the funeral of his mother, whose body begins to rot from his cousins.

will be discussed potato inserted into the vagina to discourage potential rapists, songs with evocative lyrics and simultaneous marriages in this film evokes a real step female (not feminist), an eye for the yuppie and a talented storyteller. The festival would have found a better ambassador of his aims with The Milk of Sorrow already financed by the World Film Fund of the Berlinale in a previous edition.

© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy

Do You Wear Clothes Under The Sauna Asuit

Competition Film Festival Critics


River People
by He Jianjun

2009 Released on the site www.fipresci.org

The Boatman's Call

The blending of fiction and documentaries, such as the exact opposite, is a common tread nowadays. In fact, to leave the traditional edges of both genres intact may even be considered old-fashionned, specially if one storyline isn’t compelling enough to uplift the entire film by itself.

There may be as much fiction than facts in He Jianjun’s masterly shot River People ( Shang ren jia ), and to try to discern one from the other would be pointless and silly, as they feed up each other pretty nicely throughout the film. Shot over the course of three years around the Yellow River in the Shanxi province, River People abundant use of ‘cinema verite’ gimmicks plunges us into the daily life of The Shan clan, two generations of rural fishermen torn between tradition and modernity.

Living miles away from the city, young Laba enjoy fishing with his cousin Baowa as taugh by his colourful uncle Chuan Laoda, who leads a reclusive life on a boat during the fishing season and runs a restaurant during wintertime. Chuan Laoda forbids Baowa to leave the family business even if his son believes that his future as a fisherman might not be as bright as his father thinks.

Like Laba, we witness the simple yet skillful rituals of those who are still making this lost part of the world much alive despite their humble condition, such as many other films did before. While it shares some of the same up-close observations of other recent ‘endangered rurals’ themed films – such as Yung Chang’s multi-awarded Up the Yangtze and Wang Bing’s West of the Tracks – River People manages to deliver a fresh perspective on this matter by enhancing the characters struggles and indecisions through what seems to be staged situations, fueled by its protagonists’ abilites to improvise from their very own personalities and histories. We are otherwise updated ponctually with oblique insights of the real heritages at stake thanks to Laba’s own narration about the way the family’s expectations matches less and less Baowa’s ambitions.

This whole approach to the story may sound awfully awkward or overwhelming, but He Jianjun, whose Red Beads won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1993 Rotterdam Festival, always keep the balance right between intervention and distance, mostly with a cohesive, complex-less lavishing HD cinematography and stricking framing, pulling a somewhat small scale portrait far beyond the usual intergenerational cleavage effort and turning it into a rich cinematographic experience. Alike Baowa, He Jianjun expands his view of the world outside tradition while staying true to himself by aknowledging, if not amplifying, the resonance of one family’s ties.

© Charles-Stéphane Roy 2009