World Documentary 2008Skrevet den 31-12-2008 11:28:51 af Tue Steen Müller  I am not going to nominate the 10 Best, even if I like these kind of games. If you browse through filmkommentaren.dk, click ”Articles/Reviews ENGLISH”, you will find the priorities of mine. When I again and again have written ”East Beats West”, it is not only a publicity stunt to make festival organisers and tv buyers aware of the gold there is to find if you go East, it is certainly because originality and vision and non-mainstream (= non-tv-format) is to be found there, very often made on small budgets but by filmmakers, who have something important to say in a personal film language. Still: Z32 Tilføjet i kategorierne: Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Danish Documentary 2008Skrevet den 31-12-2008 11:25:18 af Tue Steen Müller  Below you will find a couple of brief status articles on Danish documentaries in the year that is about to finish, 2008. Nothing sensational, nothing quality-wise to be compared to ”The Monastery”, the Danish documentary from the last years but that is maybe also too much to ask. Pernille Rose, Phie Ambo, Eva Mulvad, Jeppe Rønde, Max Kestner, the young ones, and Jørgen Leth, Jon Bang Carlsen and Anne Wivel from the older generation did not present new films in 2008. Still: Burma VJ Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Mads Baastrup: Verdens morsomste mandSkrevet den 31-12-2008 09:17:04 af Allan Berg Nielsen  Jeg lukkede op for programmet/dokumentaren/filmen, fordi Mads Baastrup har lavet den. Jeg respekterer Baastrup meget, en alvorlig, højt begavet og dygtig tv-mand, som vist altid koncentrerer sig om tv-arbejdets indhold frem for den formodede smag hos seerne. Og jeg fortryder ikke, det er gedigen tv, han her har lavet. En Victor Borge biografi (ikke et "portræt") i klassisk tv-dokumentar stil. Omhyggeligt forberedt og gennemført i stor ro, med fornem værdighed, uden udpegede pointer og understregninger, i min øjenhøjde. Den er simpelthen behagelig at se. Udholdelig hele vejen igennem. Og sådan står den Victor Borge an, er den sammenfattende tv-biografi, han fortjener. Dertil er den naturligvis masser af steder meget,meget morsom, det har i og for sig ikke med dokumentaren at gøre. Det sørger Victor Borge for! New York Times anmelderen havde ret: når man oplevede ham, må man have tænkt: dette er verdens morsomste mand. Lige i øjeblikket. Alt dette skyldes Mads Baastrups fagligt kompetente forståelse af materialet. Man mærker han kender den historie og dens nuancer, ikke kun fra researcharbejdet, men fra sit eget levede liv, personligt faktisk. Men Baastrup sætter sig ikke ud over materialet og den i forvejen etablerede forståelse af den berømte entertainer, gør det ikke til sit. Hvad jeg sådan havde håbet. Tilrettelæggeren forbliver skjult bag sit fags konvention. I den forstand er den besynderlige genrebetegnelse med dens statslige spændetrøjefornemmelse "DR-dokumentar" meget passende: en udadlelig voice over, ingen filmiske forsøg med at lade billed følge billed og tale for sig selv, hver scene er en illustration af det tekstlige grundlag, af den litterære tanke. Billeddækning i ordets forstand. Men, men der rystes ikke på hånden. Interviewene samles klogt, så der udvikles en vigtig dobbelthed, som fjerner dokumentaren fra den officielle fyrsteskildring. Verdens morsomste mand er også historien om fars karriere frem for alt. Det kommer til mere og mere at handle om prisen og afsavnene. Bitterheden strejfes, omgås ikke. Og så kommer det første Tine Harden fotografi. Borges på den jødiske kirkegård. Den ydmyge hat. Der kommer flere og flere billeder fra arbejdet med fotobogen. En ganske anden stil, en helt ny lille film tegner sig. En personlig lyrisk tone, en nøgen ærlighed - som Baastrup giver plads til. Og det er godt. Foto: Borge signerer Tine Hardens bog. Danmark 2008, 52 min. DR1 i aftes kl. 20 http://www.dr.dk/Kultur/Kulturguiden/temaer/victor_borge/borge
Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Reviews, Artikler DANSK Dokumentaren i Danmark 2008/1Skrevet den 30-12-2008 18:58:13 af Tue Steen Müller  Det begyndte med en klump i halsen og en lille tåre i øjenkrogen, da 1500 tilskuere klappede i et par minutter efter at have set Pernille Rose Grønkjærs mesterværk ”The Monastery”. Instruktøren var på scenen i Beograds store koncertsal, hvor filmen blev vist som én af de ”Magnificent7”, de syv enestående film, som var udvalgt til denne ganske særlige festival. En dansk, tilsyneladende lokal film om en gammel mand og hans ruin af et slot, som han vil gøre til et kloster – fik alle de roser, som den har fortjent.Instruktøren var mange år om at lave denne film, og der vil sikkert gå mange år før der kommer én til af den slags, på det internationale niveau. Der er store forventninger til denne instruktørs næste film, som der er til de andre danske dokumentartalenter, som ikke præsenterede nye film i 2008 – Eva Mulvad, Phie Ambo, Jeppe Rønde og Max Kestner. Ligesom der ikke var nye film fra Anne Wivel, Jørgen Leth og Jon Bang Carlsen, for at nævne de tre store navne, som alle har lange imponerende filmografier at skilte med. Til gengæld viste Anders Østergaard igen sit professionelle håndelag, denne gang med ”Burma-VJ”, som vandt den store festival idfa i Amsterdam, ligesom Nanna Frank Møller med sin dokumentarfilm nr. 2 ”Let’s be Together” igen pegede på sit indlysende instruktørtalent. Det er vel disse to film fra 2008, som har international klasse, med mindre (det gør man på dfi’s hjemmeside) de i 2007 premieresatte tælles med: Jon Bang Carlsens flotte comeback ”Purity Beats Everything”, Michael Noers herligt vilde ”Vesterbro” , kærlighedshistorien fra Chile ”Solange on Love” af Tine Katinka Jensen og Mikala Kroghs ”Everything is Relative”. Men : der har været bedre år end 2008. Nu er der jo ingen, der siger at alle danske dokumentarfilm skal kunne gøre sig udenfor landets grænser, så ihvertfald tre andre fine, tematisk lokale film skal nævnes her (som de ovenfor omtalte er alle beskrevet på filmkommentaren.dk): Ulla Boyes film fra Kofoeds Skole ”Kun med hjertet kan man rigtigt se”, Cæcilie Holbek Triers generationsberetning ”Tomme rum” og Mads Kamp Thulstrup og Carsten Søsteds ”Og det var Danmark...”, som pt lanceres voldsomt og fortjent på dvd. Foto fra sidstnævnte. http://www.dfi.dk/NR/exeres/848598CE-39F7-46CF-953C-B66290D62B21.htm Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Artikler DANSK Dokumentaren i Danmark 2008/2Skrevet den 30-12-2008 18:53:52 af Tue Steen Müller  Her på redaktionen prøvede vi at starte en debat om DFI’s støtte- og distributionspolitik. Jeg prøvede at sige, at DFI forsømmer at udvikle FilmKunsten til fordel for den journalistiske dokumentar – og såvel kollega Allan Berg og jeg havde indlæg omkring dokumentarens evige problem: hvordan kan man komme til at se dem.Det journalistiske blev tilbagevist af DFI’s konsulent Dola Bonfils, som dog mere end antydede, at DFI skal samarbejde (Brian Mikkkelsens opfindelse) med de to tv-stationer, som har fået tildelt øremærkede filmpenge. Og jo ingensomhelst forpligtelse har overfor filmkunsten i Danmark. TV vil have serier, som giver seertal. Resultatet har været - med få undtagelser – dokumentar i tv-format om danske emner. Med hensyn til distributionen har DFI etableret den udmærkede og fremadrettede ”filmstriben”, som er et tilbud til skoler og biblioteker, som kan downloade film til brug på stedet. Der er bare lige det, at bibliotekernes lånere IKKE kan låne filmene med hjem eller downloade på egne computere i hjemmet. Retten til såkaldt home video ligger hos producenterne, som kan få støtte til udgivelse hos DFI, men hvem skal så tage sig af det praktiske? Resultatet er at mange film slet ikke er tilgængelige for private. Kollega Allan Berg mener at det er producenternes fejl, at de ikke gør noget ved det, de tænker kun på penge, jeg drømmer mig tilbage til et langt liv i Statens Filmcentral, hvor det offentlige - som med bøger og musik - sørger for at offentlige støttede kulturprodukter var tilgængelige, hvorend i landet du bor. Vi arbejder på sagen, siger DFI... og producenterne hører man ikke fra. Til gengæld skal der kippes med flaget for det ellers gennem året konstant udskældte DR: Hver tirsdag kl. 20.30 blændes der op for nyskabelsen ”Dokumania”, navnet på det strand, som DR har startet – verdens bedste dokumentarfilm vises her, annoncerer redaktionen på hjemmesiden, og det ser lovende ud i starten, hvor det er engelsk-sprogede film, der har fyldt fladen + et par danske. Hvis de vil finde film fra andre sprogområder, kan de jo bare bladre i filmkommentaren.dk! Foto fra ”Jesus Camp”, vist på Dokumania. http://www.dr.dk/dr2/dokumania Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Artikler DANSK Agnes Varda: Les Plages d’AgnèsSkrevet den 29-12-2008 20:01:11 af Tue Steen Müller  From le monde 16.12.08, a clip from the review of Jean-Luc Douin, for our French reading readers, about a film that previously was praised briefly by my colleague Allan Berg:”Toute mémoire est en désordre, toute sensation difficile à capturer, et ce type de défi délicat à relever entre pudeur et affichage de l'intime. Le projet d'Agnès V. ne pouvait prendre sens que si elle lui trouvait une forme appropriée, une cinécriture qui lui ressemble. "Peut-on reconstituer quelqu'un ?, dit-elle. Le côté puzzle me plaît." Va pour le puzzle, le kaléidoscope, et même plus que cela. Il faut prendre ici le projet de "tout déballer sans pour autant tout dévoiler" au sens visuel. Cet autoportrait est à la fois un résumé biographique et un patchwork de ses techniques esthétiques, usant de la photographie, de l'extrait de films, de l'installation et du dispositif via cadres, miroirs, trucages, bricolages, costumes, décors, parenthèses et digressions. Varda y fait les puces dans son bric-à-brac, elle fait la glaneuse de moments privilégiés, elle chine, flâne, filme et s'amuse : "Faire un peu le clown me convient et m'a permis de prendre du recul."” France, 110 mins., 2008 http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2008/12/16/les-plages-d-agnes-agnes-varda-reconstitue-le-puzzle-de-sa-vie_1131771_3476.html Tilføjet i kategorierne: Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Sight and Sound: The Best of 2008Skrevet den 29-12-2008 09:55:34 af Tue Steen Müller  The highly estimated film magazine Sight & Sound has made its hit list for 2008, to be published in the January 09 issue. Winner is Steve McQueen’s Hunger. This is a clip from what the editor Steve James wrote about the procedure: We asked more than 50 writers around the world which five films seen in 2008 most impressed them (they didn't all stick to the number). Their answers include more than 150 different titles made in the last two years (and at least 20 more made earlier). Only a cynic would say that the wide choice must reflect a weak year, with our writers looking for consolation prizes. The reason for this large number is surely because cinema is now so rich in variety that opinion is diffused...To be noticed from a documentary point of view are the many titles that are included from this genre. Among them the following, all written about or reviewed on filmkommentaren.dk: Of Time and The City (Terence Davies), The Lie of the Land (Molly Dineen), Man on Wire (James Marsh), Waltz With Bashir (Ari Foldman), The Beaches of Agnes (Agnes Varda), Z32 (Avi Mograbi). Can’t help quoting the editor again on his choice of The Lie of the Land, as I agree completely: The most affecting film about England (with all due respect to Terence Davies) that I saw this year. So powerful is its gentle examination of the often brutalising lives of farmers that it’s capable of changing minds on such divisive issues as animal welfare, fox-hunting and vegetarianism. http://www.bfi.org.uk/ Tilføjet i kategorierne: Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Sourav Sarangi: BilalSkrevet den 27-12-2008 21:13:40 af Tue Steen Müller  Bilal is a boy, whose parents are blind and have a hard life in a poor area of Calcutta. For a year the director has followed the little boy stumbling into the world as any other child does, who is not born with a silver spoon in hand. He has a smaller brother, who has to suffer from some beatings of the older Bilal, as small brothers normally do. It is laughter and crying, shouting and teasing, and learning in school and at home, where the blind parents do an unbelievingly beautiful job to bring up two seeing children. The father had a phone booth close to home, but it was closed and he ended up having heavy debt but they cope, probably due to help from the family that lives – literally – next door, and due to the return to serving a public street phone seems to happen. The director manages to lift this film from being just-another-film-about-poverty to something universal about childhood to identify with, told from a humanistic point of view, where you can not help fall in love, as the director did, with the boy who ends the film having a circumcision done - ”they cut my dick”, he says to his father. Banal you might say, yes it is, as the observational documentary is at its best. With a calm rythm where you almost sense the days just going on and on, as they do for a child and his family. And thematically I got to think about the trilogy about Apu, by Satyayit Ray. I wish all the best for Bilal, and please follow him with the camera in the years to come! The film had its premiere at idfa 2008. Supported by Jan Vrijman Fund and YLE. India, 2008, 92 mins. souravsarangi@hotmail.com http://www.millenniumfilm.fi/tbr_bilal.html
Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Reviews, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Claus Bohm: Tiden er Guds hemmelighedSkrevet den 25-12-2008 00:14:04 af Tue Steen Müller  ... har undertitlen ”en film om forfatteren Leif Hasle”, om hvem filmen sig drejer, en sympatisk og beskeden ældre herre, som instruktøren lader komme til orde, og han har mange kloge reflektioner at byde på, først på en rejse tilbage til hans barndomsby Århus og så i forskellige sammenhænge i by og på land, i mange tilfælde med fin oplæsning fra hans romaner, som har besættelsestiden som tema, men som rummer både fortid og nutid. Med andre ord, en behagelig introduktion til et forfatterskab, jeg ikke kendte til, loyalt formidlet af Claus Bohm, som har gjort det til sin genre at introducere gode kunstnere, som ikke rammer kultursidernes forsider. Problematikken, fra en filmisk synsvinkel, ligger i måden hvorpå Bohm kombinerer sine billeder – han fotograferer selv – og teksterne. Undertiden bliver teksterne meddigtende og fortolkende og får sit eget liv som i en ordløs sekvens med en mariehøne, der udforsker verden. Men undertiden bliver sammenhængen for bastant, et ord fremsiges og vi ser, hvad ordet rummer. Bohms stil kræver en høj grad af præcision og stramhed og den er ikke til stede hele vejen igennem. Hvorfor skal vi f.eks se ligegyldigheder som Hasle på café og restaurant. Men lyst til at læse en af hans bøger fik jeg nu. www.multivers.dk www.leifhasle.dk
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Reviews, Artikler DANSK D. Taylor Black: David Farrell's Elusive MomentsSkrevet den 22-12-2008 15:35:51 af Tue Steen Müller  This documentary is an inspiration for people, who deal with, work with or like to watch a photographer at work and listen to his thoughts about what he is doing and why and how. The documentary has for me too many words, and I could have done without some few scenes where people say how good David Farrell is, but those are details that a critic has to say in order to get to the point – that Farrell invites us generously to share the many projects he has worked on and is working on, as well as his dilemma (as any creative documentarian) to get into a market that is main-stream, tough and money-orientated. Logically the last sequences of the film shows him as a teacher, who teaches (which he must be good at, my remark from seeing this film) to have a steady income and then go and make his photos as he wants to.The quality of Taylor Black’s work lies comes from the simple fact that he has followed Farrell for years and that he takes his time when he is with him in the Irish landscapes and in Italy, in Lugo, a place that I want to visit having seen the photos of Farrell. He says himself that the cities he saw was like Fellini, I would say Olmi, the fog, the emptiness, the has-been atmosphere. The technical side is also touched upon. He shoots on film material, he loves the development process, he shot 900 pictures during 12 days in Italy, he has to edit them, this is where the work starts he says. Does it ring a bell, you documentary observers out there? Ireland, 64 mins. 2008
Tilføjet i kategorierne: Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Volha Nikalaichyk: KhashSkrevet den 22-12-2008 15:32:41 af Tue Steen Müller  An envelope arrived with a dvd. Posted in Lithuania by Volha Nikalaichyk, a woman from Belarus, producer of documentary films, and many times a participant in workshops in Eastern Europe, outside her own country, where I also met her once, years ago, in Minsk, capital of Belarus, a country led by Lukashenko. I had no idea about the content of the dvd but guessed that it could have something to do with Yuri Khashchavatski.It had, Volha - calling herself one of Khash’s disciples – had made a film about her master, the film director who turned 60 last year and has made more than 30 films, many of which deal with life in Belarus and the tough militant dictatorship of the president, as seen for instance in ”The Square” that has been texted about on filmkommentaren.dk In this wonderfully unpretentious film (title written on the dvd: Cinema and Cutlets) with Khash (nickname) and his very close friend, the singer, actor etc. Zhora Melski, the two of them go shopping and return home to prepare a meal which is inspired – as I got it – by the native town of Khash, Odessa. The director talks us through the film with clips from his films, those that were, and the ones to come, among them ”Searching for Yiddish”, where Khash declares his love to the painter Soutine, and in general to why he makes documentary films: to learn about something new, not to preach. My films are not political, he says... well, you taught me about Belarus and Chechnya (”Prisoners of Caucasus”) but I want to see more of your films. In other words, a retrospective must be organised for this important documentarian, a man who enjoys Life, as the film shows. Thank you Volha. Bramafilm, 2008, 70 mins. Lon7volha@gmail.com
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH 1/2 Meter of Berliner BratwurstSkrevet den 22-12-2008 15:30:46 af Tue Steen Müller  ... yes, you can buy that in the streets of Berlin, ready for the xmas holidays as this wonderful city is, markets all over, too many sausages for my taste but also glühwein and chocolate and marzipan and beer, economic crisis... not visible, at least not when you walk the streets around Wittenberger Platz and enter into KaDeWe, Kaufhaus des Westens. Consume and more consume. You are part of it. You enjoy and dislike at the same time.But Berlin is also two K´s for the moment, both to be found at Neue Nationalgallerie – Paul Klee and Jeff Koons. Klee, who had his big artistic development between two wars, presented with a huge and very exciting exhibition showing his refined, colour balanced philosophical and often very humourous work, and Koons the Sunnyboy, who acts like the showman he is according to the rules of the market. The dog, the heart and so on, we know them all. No crisis for his market, it seems. And Bertolt Brecht is not out of fashion as the Robert Wilson edition of ”Die Dreigroschen Oper” at the Berliner Ensemble runs for full houses, with an enthusiastic reception, lots of fun, relevance of today? Well, dont we have a lot of Mackie Messer’s who survive any crisis whatsoever? And Brecht as intelligent entertainment is always relevant, is it not? Tilføjet i kategorierne: Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Sarkozy (1)Skrevet den 19-12-2008 15:58:07 af Tue Steen Müller  ... is the name of the hyper active French president, very much disliked by the French film people I know, for his law proposal, his ”réforme de l’audiovisuel” that (according to le Monde 18.12) now has passed through the Parliament to be further discussed at the Senate from January 7. The opposition was very much against the proposal, some even comparing his move to how Berlusconi and Putin control the media.The idea of Sarkozy is 1) to make France Télévisions into one enterprise with for example one overall documentary unit for the involved France 2, 3, 4, 5, to 2) have the President (c’est moi!) appoint the Presidents of the channels, to 3) take away commercials from the channels from 8pm to 6am with a total disappearance of commercials from 2011. The financial compensation is to be made up by a tax on commercials from the commercial channels and electronic operators plus a guarantee from the state that runs until 2011. The executive council of France Télévisions has already decided to follow the president’s commercial proposal. What all this means for the creative (and critical) documentary in a country that has always been at the foreground when it comes to the financial support for the arts – I will ask some French documentarians for their comments. Will a lot of people be fired? How will the decision making be if there will only be one unit for documentaries? Centralisation? Will the foreseen raise in budget/income for the commercial channels mean a fall in financing for documentaries on the public channels? And so on, so forth... Voilà! Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Justin Webster: The Madrid ConnectionSkrevet den 19-12-2008 15:56:40 af Tue Steen Müller  March 11 2004, the bombings in Madrid. 191 people died, more than 2000 were wounded, when trains were exploded in the early morning. Two young males stood behind the crime, Jamal and Sarhane, a criminal and an islamic extremist, both from North Africa.
Tilføjet i kategorierne: Reviews, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Andrej Tarkovskij: SolarisSkrevet den 19-12-2008 08:32:38 af Allan Berg Nielsen  "... Wie grossartig dagegen etwa Antonionis Schauspielerarbeit in seinem Film "L'Avventura" oder jene von Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane". Bei ihnen kommt einfach das Gefühl auf, einmalig überzeugende Figuren vor sich zu haben. Doch das ist einequalitativ ganz andere, filmspezifische Überzeugungskraft, die sich prinzipiell von der Expressivität eines Theaterschauspielers unterscheidet. So kam es seinerzeit nicht zu einer wirklich kreativen Zusammenarbeit mit Donatas Banionis, der die Hauptrolle (Kris Kelvin) in meinem "Solaris"-Film spielte. Banionis Gehört nämlich zur Kategorie analytischer Schauspieler, die einfach nicht arbeiten können, wenn sie..." Læs mere / Read more
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Film History, Artikler DANSK Docpoint Celebrates Documentary LegendsSkrevet den 17-12-2008 19:19:36 af Tue Steen Müller  The British Dochouse at the Riverside Studios in London does a lot for the creation of a documentary culture in the UK... but is apparently not only promoting films within the UK but also outside. I found this very interesting press release about the Finnish documentary film festival Docpoint (January 20-25 in Helsinki) that clearly wants to celebrate two documentary icons: and Sara Thelle`s recommendation: http://www.richardleacock.com/index.html Tilføjet i kategorierne: Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Warhol in BerlinSkrevet den 17-12-2008 10:22:48 af Tue Steen Müller  It is still fascinating and entertaining to watch Andy Warhol exhibitions: ”If you want to know all about AW, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There´s nothing behind it”. Sounds one of the texts written on the wall at the Berlin ”Celebrities and the stars and Andy Warhol”, that is a small exhibition with some interesting drawings and photos and of course the magnificent painting of Mao. One more quote: ”Publicity is like eating peanuts. Once you start you can´t stop”. (Open until January 11).Hamburger Bahnhof is a great place for exhibitions. We also saw Joseph Beuys, the German phenomenon, the man with the hat, huge exhibition under the title ”Die Revolution sind Wir” – and some contemporary artists with inpiration from Duchamps and Fluxus. The museum is easy to reach – go to the new Hauptbahnhof, 5 minutes from there. http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/exhibition.php?id=16914⟨=en Tilføjet i kategorierne: Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH EDN new chairmanSkrevet den 15-12-2008 11:34:30 af Tue Steen Müller  Many other sites have already informed about this. Now we do so as well, even if personalia is not our stuff. BUT Mikael Opstrup has published his documentary poetics on filmkommentaren.dk, in Danish and English, just search ”Mikael Opstrup...”. Here is the news about his future, taken from EDN press release:At the newly held EDN General Assembly Danish Producer Mikael Opstrup was elected as the new Chairman of the EDN Executive Committee. On the same occasion a new EDN Executive Committee was elected. During the yearly EDN General Assembly the members of EDN voted unanimously for electing the Danish documentary producer Mikael Opstrup as the new Chairman of the EDN Executive Committee. Mikael Opstrup has been a member of the committee for three years, where he among other things has contributed to outlining a survey on the status of the European documentary industry. Tilføjet i kategorierne: Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Nye billeder på Filmkommentaren.dkSkrevet den 15-12-2008 08:21:51 af Allan Berg Nielsen  De tre billeder i toppen af vores forside er jo fra film, som er vigtige for os. De er fra film, som Tue Steen Müller har valgt ud til 7BEST i Randers i marts: "Deconstruction of an Artist" af Peteris Krilovs, "Life in Loops" af Timo Novotny og "Black Sun" af Gary Tarn. Læs mere / Read more Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Artikler DANSK Thomas Danielsson: Troell's magic mirrorSkrevet den 14-12-2008 14:21:07 af Allan Berg Nielsen  Igen en vigtig nyhed fra Filmstriben.dk: "Troells troldspejl". Så opmærksomt koordineret med Troells "Eva Larssons evige øjeblik" har Danielsson fået sin film om og med Jan Troell færdig og ud, så den kan bruges på visse skoler og ses på enkelte biblioteker, som abbonnerer på denne netadgang. Tue Steen Müller så den under CPH:DOX ved et arrangement med Jan Troell. Han skrev 11. november her på siden blandt andet: "...This first part opened with the film about Troell, "Troell's magic mirror" by Swedish Thomas Danielsson. Sympathetic it is - even if it sometimes feels a bit messy as it wants to have too much information conveyed within the hour it lasts. But you love every little word Troell says, this modest lyrical observer of the world we live in." Jeg har det som Tue. Timen forekommer at være alt for kort til dette store og mærkeligt nærværende og gribende materiale, som truer med at sprænge rammen... Læs mere / Read more Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Reviews, Artikler DANSK Dainis Klava: Aigi (Time)Skrevet den 13-12-2008 15:27:18 af Tue Steen Müller  Trying to understand what is going on in the world takes a lot of time. These banal but wise words come from the old reindeer herder, who is the character of this visually strong reflection on time in an isolated area in the North where the Samis live. You never see him talk to the camera, the narrative construction is built like one long monologue of the reindeer herder accompanied by stunning scenes of the landscapes and from the life of the reindeers. Winter, spring, summer, autumn. Snow melting for the spring when the calves are born. Snowmobiles. Reparing the houses in summer time. Fishing. Training with the family in lasso’ing. Visit from researchers in culture and climate. And the continous return of the missile question, those being fired from the land areas of the reindeer and their herders. If they are dangerous or not, the Sami protagonist does not conclude, it seems like he has decided that this is how it is, we can live with that, and we may even re-use some of the remaining rests from the missiles when they land on our fields. There will always be reinder raising. Good for your soul to watch a film like this. Reflective, beautiful to build a story like this far away from urban structures. Refraining from any romanticising of Sami life or making it an exotic tourist tour. Latvia/Estonia, 2008, 52/26 mins. (I saw the 52 mins. Version) www.vfs.lv
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Werner Herzog Retro in ParisSkrevet den 11-12-2008 21:51:14 af Tue Steen Müller  Le Monde (11.12.08) includes an interview with Werner Herzog to announce the big retrospective of the German master and his around 50 films. The series run from December 10 to March 2 2009.He says nothing specific new in this interview but can not refrain from a new provocative remark. Last time it was the documentary cinema vérité people who was hit by the Herzogían anger, this time it is his generation peers Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Schroeter, who are characterised as ”petits bourgeois” with no connection to Herzog himself. Photo: From the documentary masterpiece ”Little Dieter Needs to Fly”. ... I am sorry but in the complicated (= bureaucratic) website of Centre Pompidou I cant find the day-by-day mention of the retrospective. Try other sources, please. Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Katrine Østlund Jacobsen: Aftaler med GudSkrevet den 11-12-2008 12:40:01 af Allan Berg Nielsen  Filmen er en af nyhederne på Filmstriben.dk og den blev vist i MandagsDokumentaren for nogen tid siden. Ebbe Preisler noterede efter visningen i sine meddelelser, at publikum stillede instruktøren en lang række spørgsmål om hendes "meget rene og ukunstlede film", som netop er "langt fra at være et nyfigent portræt af en eksotisk person..." Preisler havde forinden skrevet om den i MandagsDokumentarens katalog: "Hovedpersonen er en dansk komtesse, Antonia Holstein-Ledreborg, der blev religiøst vakt under en pilgrimsrejse i Jugoslavien og dernæst valgte en tilværelse som katolsk nonne i Paris. Filmen skildrer blandt andet bønnens betydning og afkaldets dilemma. Der er en stor ro og ulmende skønhed i filmen, men også en nærhed og intimitet, der det svært tilgængelige tilgængeligt. Man forstår den dragning mod det katolske univers, som næres af det materielle og det sanselige og ikke kun af akademiske sysler." Agreements with God: Synopsis in English: "The film is an essay about faith and prayer as told by the Danish novice Antonia Holstein-Ledreborg on her continuous path to her appointment with God... Læs mere / Read more Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH, Artikler DANSK Anders Østergaard: Burma-VJSkrevet den 09-12-2008 19:50:29 af Tue Steen Müller  ... that has the subtitle, ”reporting from a closed country” is content-wise a totally shocking experience. There you are in the middle of a military brutality that is filmed by courageous video journalists, who know that a documentation like this can only be done by them, and not by the foreign news teams that get into the country. And the reason why it touches you so much, is the stylistical approach that Østergaard has chosen. In an unsentimental, almost cool tone, he builds a story with a main vj character who is a kind of executive producer for all the cameramen, who turn up whenever there are demonstrations, most of the time with hidden cameras, and constantly reporting back by mobile phone on what happens. A drama is created through a classical dramaturgical structure but there is space left for the audience to think about what is shown. The film won first prizes at cph:dox and idfa 2008.
Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Andrej Tarkovskij: OfferetSkrevet den 09-12-2008 09:42:08 af Allan Berg Nielsen  "...Die Gegenfigur Adelaides ist die demütig-bescheidene, stets schüchtern und unsicher wirkende Maria, die im Haus Alexanders ihren Dienst als Zugehfrau versieht. Zwischen ihr und dem Hausherrn scheint zunächst keine Annäherung möglich - wie sollte sie auch? Dann aber kommt es zu jener nächtlichen Begegnung, nach der Alexander nicht mehr so weiterleben kann wie zuvor: Angesichts der bevorstehenden Katastrophe erfährt er die Liebe zu dieser einfachen Frau wie ein Geschenk Gottes, das sein ganzes Schicksal rechtfertigt. Das Wunder, dessen er inne wird, verwandelt ihn.." (Andrej Tarkovskij 1984) Læs mere / Read more
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Film History, Reviews, Artikler DANSK Helena Trestikova: RenéSkrevet den 08-12-2008 21:34:13 af Tue Steen Müller  Am I just an object of study for you, René asks Helena, the director of the film, in one of their numerous conversations during the 20 years, she has followed the child/the youngster/theman René, who spends most of his life time behind bars sentenced for robberies. Nobody is never only an object, she responds, and indeed the film gives you the impression that she helps him strongly financially and supports him in the organising of his career as a writer, who gets his books published. He has a lot to thank Helena for, and he does so in the film.However, the film loses its truthfulness as the director does not reflect on her own role towards René. He is quite open about himself, but we dont hear how she must have been trying to get him out of the disastrous life he leads - or about her general relationship to him. She has opinions about this, I am sure, I was maybe in love with you, René says at a certain moment... She must have felt this, but it is not in the narrative. Or how did she feel when he robbed her flat! In other words she stays at a distance as an anonymous voice behind the camera. A wrong choice I think. No doubts, no feelings about this constant filming a man in trouble, she insists on studying him, as he said. And she receives a lot of ”Dear Helena...” letters. She does that with a lot of empathy, absolutely, it is - as the Germans would have said - ”eine Dokumentation” of a life of a human being, who had a bad childhood and never made it to be ”a useful member of society” as he phrases it himself, ”sinking lower and lower”. But we did not get the whole story. Czech Republic, 2008, 83 mins. EFA Documentary Award as Best European Documentary. First Prize at DOKLeipzig.
Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH EFA – Sergey Dvortsevoy, DocumentarySkrevet den 07-12-2008 20:50:10 af Tue Steen Müller  Sergey Dvortsevoy thinks it is important to reflect on WHY you make documentaries, well film in general. He started late as a filmmaker, he made ”Paradise”, ”Bread Day”, ”Highway”, ”In the Dark” and now ”Tulpan”, the latter a film with actors, nominated for a Discovery Prize af the EFA last night in Copenhagen... as if this brilliant filmmaker had not been discovered before due to his excellent documentaries. There are too many superficial films, he says, you have to go deep, you must have something important to say.The camera can´t think, all starts up here, he says and points at his forehead. Photo: The unique scene in "Paradise", the child that eats. Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH EFA and Copenhagen and DocumentarySkrevet den 07-12-2008 20:17:27 af Tue Steen Müller Below - in Danish - a critical text about yesterday’s broadcast produced by DR, our public broadcaster in Denmark. Today I met some of the participants at the party for European films, organised by European Film Academy, EFA. They had a good time last night and thought well of the Danish presenter, Mikael Bertelsen. Wish we had a man like that in our country, a Swiss film director said.All right, but it does not make the Danish broadcast better... If the French/German works, you can check for yourself, those of you who can watch Arte tomorrow, monday night. ZDF/Arte’s fine Hans-Robert Eisenhauer told me that a 90 mins. version commented by himself will go on Arte and on the question if the documentary prize clip would go out (DR transmitted the whole 2 hours), he said NO. Nevertheless there is big reason to blame EFA for giving documentary very low priority. The nominations for the documentary prize are made a long time before the ceremony, the winner, this year René by Czech Helena Trestikova, is appointed before the ceremony, unlike the other prizes, apparently because the EFA does not want to fly in the documentary nominees. For financial reasons? This prizegiving is something that needs to be done quickly so we can get to the real thing: the feature films. Many will say, the same old story, documentaries are not valued, and right they are. Nevertheless something needs to be changed, film director Arunas Matelis said to me. Next year in Vilnius, when the city is Cultural Capital of Europe, we want to bring nominees and documentary ceremony into the spotlight. I have talked to EFA about this. Wish him all the best luck! http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/ Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Europæisk Film-Prisuddeling på DR/TVSkrevet den 06-12-2008 23:13:05 af Tue Steen Müller  Jeg vidste jo godt, at det ville være umuligt for DR/TV at hylde europæisk film på en værdig måde. Jeg vidste, at Mikael Bertelsen ville være mindre plat end de sædvanlige presenters, og han havde også flere fine indslag, som mindede os om det talent, han udfoldede i ”Den 11.time”. Han kan improvisere og løfte absurditeten ud af et sådant arrangement, hvor kameraer rettes mod mennesker ved borde med rødvin i glasset og rouge på kinderne. Men han overspillede også sin rolle, der var mange pinlige øjeblikke, hvor tæer blev krummet. Tekniske fejl, indstuderede gimmicks, der var gættet længe før de fandt sted. Og – for at være en smule sprogroyal – dumsmarte bemærkninger. Plakatbillede fra den italienske film "Gomorra" (omtalt her tidligere).
Tilføjet i kategorierne: TV, Artikler DANSK 7BEST med Tue Steen MüllerSkrevet den 04-12-2008 17:37:10 af Allan Berg Nielsen Tue Steen Müller har her på siden gennem snart halvandet år skrevet om alle de film, han har set - mest på sine mange rejser til seminarer, pitchings, undervisningen på sin italienske filmskole, festivals og en del mere. Og det er blevet til mange omtaler og anmeldelser, de fleste skrevet i tog, fly, cafeer og på hotelværelser. I øjeblikkets begejstrede eller kritiske fart. Og han har kastet de spidse penne efter dem. Nu har han valgt de syv bedste blandt de mange han har set i 2008 og for FOF i Randers tilrettelagt denne lille kræsne festival over en weekend i det tidlige forår. Han vil kort introducere filmene og efter visningen holder han en masterclass for biografpublikum og især for venner af dokumentarfilm, den store, kreative slags. Læs mere / Read more Tilføjet i kategorierne: Festival, Artikler DANSK Eva Weber: The Solitary Life of CranesSkrevet den 03-12-2008 21:08:20 af Tue Steen Müller  Sometimes it is easy to express your opinion. Like in this case where I found a text from the film critic at The Guardian, Nick Bradshaw (November 28), that precisely and in much better English than I can perform – praises a beautiful film by Eva Weber, a big talent in British documentary. He saw it at Sheffield Doc/Fest, I saw it on a computer from the dvd that Eva gave me:
Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Festival, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH Jørgen Leth: Portrætfilmene 2Skrevet den 03-12-2008 09:40:54 af Allan Berg Nielsen  Hvad er det, som holder disse skildringer sammen under den overskrift (portrætfilm), dette mærkelige ord, som bruges (efter min mening misbruges) af filmfolk i dette land. Ustandseligt. Handler de alle om personligheder? Om personlige kvaliteter? Om store præstationer? Tilsyneladende er det om dans, om digtning, om sport. Så det er noget med at træne, at yde det ypperste, at måle sig med de andre.. Stikord: tilblivelse af kunst i tanke og tekst, det perfekte menneske i kød og blod, danseren, digteren, bokseren og i mange scener instruktøren. Eller er det så meget andet også? Især noget helt andet, som ligger så forskelligt i hver enkelt unik film? For eksempel: Klaus Rifbjerg (han sidder så selvfølgeligt og ubesværet ved sit lille skrivebord foran vinduet, helt anderledes end forfatteren i fortællingens ramme i Notater om kærligheden, dette andet jeg, som er så besværet, fortvivlet, manieret) Peter Martins - en danser (den perfekte krop, den enestående præstation, den kødelige erotik, trænet op til brug for instruktørens tankes iscenesættelse) Læs mere / Read more Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Film History, Artikler DANSK Cinemateket: Den etnografiske dokumentarSkrevet den 01-12-2008 23:06:08 af Tue Steen Müller  Der er mulighed for søde gensyn og nyopdagelser i Cinematekets december-program. Under overskriften ”Den etnografiske dokumentar” er der Basil Wright (”Song of Ceylon”), flere gange Jean Rouch, inklusiv foredrag om ham, den fremragende Vietnamfilm af Trinh T. Minh-ha fra 1989 (”Surname Viet Given Name Nam”) og meget mere, f.eks. Pierre Perraults ”The Moontrap” (billede) fra 1963. Perrault er alt for lidt kendt i Danmark, jeg har haft det held at se hans film på Cinéma du Réel og i SFC, hvor Dola Bonfils i sin tid gjorde mig opmærksom på denne mesterlige poetiske filmskaber, som i lang tid i de hektiske Quebec libre-dage nægtede at lade sine film udgive i engelske versioner. Kryds af i kalenderen!Allerede nu på søndag kan der være grund til at gå i Cinemateket for at møde bl.a. Janus Metz (anmeldelse her af ”Fra Thailand til Thy”) og Andreas Møl Dalsgård (anmeldelse her af ”Afghan Muscles”), der sammen med andre sætter den etnografiske film til debat under overskriften ”Os og dem – her og nu”. Ikke nogen klog titel på et arrangement, men deltagerne kan rette op på det. In English: I mention a series of etnografic films to be shown at the Danish Cinemateket through the month of December, among those films by Jean Rouch but also the far too little appreciated Canadian film poet Pierre Perrault, whose ”Pour la suite du monde” (”The Moontrap”) Rouch talked about in an interview: It's about fishing for a white whale, a film where you might say [Henri] Cartier-Bresson's camera grows out of Vertov's brain and falls back on Flaherty to give us Man of Aran in direct sound. If it lives up to the promise of the rushes, it is absolutely fantastic, a complete success, it's Rouquier's Farrebique with the wonderfully participatory camera of Flaherty but at the same time this camera walks--thanks to Brault--with direct interviews, and with fantastic characters. http://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/Program/seriebeskrivelse.htm?pageType=&id=3988 Tilføjet i kategorierne: Film History, Articles/Reviews ENGLISH, Artikler DANSK Jørgen Vestergaard: At være sig selvSkrevet den 01-12-2008 17:25:57 af Tue Steen Müller  Utrættelige Jørgen Vestergaard har lavet en film om ”Kirsten Kjær og hendes museum” i Langvad ved Frøstrup. Den varer 33 minutter og lader kunstnerens nevø, Harald Fuglsang (billede), fortælle historien om en farverig og kontroversiel personlighed, hvis mange portrætmalerier kan beses på museet, eller rettere kunstcentret, som Fuglsang kalder det sted som han og vennen John Anderson har skabt, hvor der betales entré efter behag og hvor der nu også er et specielt koncerthus at finde. Tilføjet i kategorierne: DVD, Film History, Artikler DANSK |
Seneste tekster/latest textsSeneste bemærkningerTue Steen Müller: ooops! NOW he in the right shirt...... yrf: Why do you actually have a picture of him in a Argentina shirt. Shame on you.:)... Tue Steen Müller: Det var ærgerligt. Her troede vi lige at Kasper Torsting var modtagelig for kvalificerede kritiske overvejelser. Det er han ikke. Hans film er ikke ti... Hugin Eide: FYI: Filmvisningen i Kolding er flyttet til d. 22. marts 2010... Michala Kolarikova: Jeg vil gerne tilføje, at dokumentarfilmen "René" bliver kun vist i Cinemateket i København.... Relevante websites
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