Ken Burns: The War

Det forsoner mig på forhånd med værket her, at tv-serien har en autor. At der i filmen kan findes en lidenskab, et enkelt mennneskes kamp med eksistensen simpelthen.. Kan findes. At det ikke blot er en undervisningstimes repeteren tekster og billeder. For sådan plejer vi. Vi på tv. Og skulle der være et personligt skabende tankearbejde, dette voven sig selv, forsvinder ophavet ellers altid i en strøm af navne i latterlig hastighed.

Forleden skrev producenten lige efter titelskiltet til en stor tv-biografi "en film af" og så instruktørens navn, og det var godt (selv om det var skidt, det var en dårlig film). Det kunne samle nogle, vist nok mange og advare andre.

Dette er et nyt værk af Ken Burns. Og det får forventningen hos mig til at stige. De fleste af os kender ham nok kun fra det erklærede mesterværk The Civil War, 1990. Og så for hans stil, som Wikipedia skriver.. som er hans overføring af det gamle trickbords kamerabevægelser på stills til computerteknik, "The Ken Burns Effekt", som Apple markedsfører i deres software. For hans egentlige stil er at han bruger mange stillbilleder og i dem, opfattet som små locations, indlægger kameraframings og -bevægelser, som var det ude i landskaberne, inde i rummene, kameraets blik undersøgte tilstandene.

Arkivmaterialet er imponerende, ser det ud til, og det er nyt for mig. Og selv om det koncentrerer sig - krigsreportagen, mener jeg - om de militære højdepunkter, ser det ud til at Burns undgår denne de store slags kongerække, som reducerer de fleste fortællinger om verdenskrigen til militærhistorie. Burns indkredser med andet materiale, mentalitetshistorisk og socialhistorisk en særlig stemning af et fremmed vemod, som måske er filmens kerne. Vi får se..

Det er så godt, at DR2 bringer os den film. Jeg så et afsnit i aften, der kommer et nyt i morgen 18:15. Det er værd at bruge tid på. jeg forstår godt den mand er kendt. Tingene hænger sammen og betyder noget. Den anden Verdenskrig som filmelegi. Tøvende, måske tvivlende. Forfærdet.

Ken Burns: The War 1-14, 2006. DR2. DVD-udgave kan købes i Laserdisken og hos iMusic. Filmens hjemmeside: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Vurdering:

Brian Hill: Sangfugle

To the Danish readers and tv viewers, in Danish:

HUSK AT SE DR2 21.40 I AFTEN hvor "Sangfugle" bliver vist, et hit over den ganske verden.

Here is an excerpt from the review written on this blog (the film is on DR2 tonite):

Things are moving in the documentary genre. New and original ways of storytelling come out of the blue. Like in this case where British director Brian Hill went to the Downview Prison in Sutton England to make a film with and about the female prisoners.

He hired a composer and a songwriter to make human and compassionate those often very tough and tragic stories that got the women into prison. The prisoners themselves sing their stories... 

... a documusical, quite extraordinary. You are totally taken by the women and their stories...

Brian Hill: Songbirds. UK, 2005

Vurdering:

Torben Glarbo: Historien bag kameraet

Ved et lukket arrangement på Den danske Filmskole blev Torben Glarbos dokumentarserie, produceret for og allerede vist på DK4, vist i sin fulde længde. 6 timers dansk kort- og dokumentarfilmhistorie. En præstation, ganske simpelt, af fotografen og instruktøren, der så godt som egenhændigt, og med stor stædighed og kærlighed til sin metier, arbejdede på serien i årevis.

Historien fortælles med vinkel på de mange selskaber og enkeltpersoner, som har skabt den position og tradition, som dansk film kan være stolt af. Det begynder med Theodor Christensen og Karl Roos i 30'erne, går via Minerva Film og Nordisk Film videre op til TV2's etablering, som alle havde store forventninger til, men som endte som vi kan se i dag med en total kommercialisering af den tv station, som blev skabt efter engelsk forbillede - Channel4. Nul plads til kreative dokumentar.

Serien er underholdende fra start til slut, det vrimler med herlige anekdoter og med klip fra de mange perler, som dansk dokumentarfilm har frembragt, via folk som lavede film for erhvervslivet, for Dansk Kulturfilm, Ministeriernes Filmudvalg og Statens Filmcentral. Og for sig selv, ud af egen lomme. Serien er naturligvis den rene glæde for folk som undertegnede, der arbejdede for Statens Filmcentral i 20 år, og vel er der meget "internt" for folk i branchen. Men den generelle appel er også oplagt. Jeg har mødt mange tv-seere, som har rost serien for dens indirekte bidrag til Danmarks historie. Og så er det en fryd at se en tv serie, hvor de interviewede får lov at tale ud.

Herligt at gense klip fra mesterværker som Henning Carlsens "Limfjorden", Ole Askmans musik-digt "Capriccio" om politibetjenten, der dirigerer trafikken på Skt. Hans Torv, Franz Ernsts "Livet er er drøm" om psykisk syge, Jørgen Leth og Ole Johns "Motion Picture" med Torben Ulrich og Jon Bang Carlsens "Jeg ville først finde sandheden" om mesteringeniøren Ove Arup.

Filmen er tilegnet dansk dokumentarfilms største navn: Jørgen Roos. Selvfølgelig! Kristen Bjørnkjær interviewede for nogen tid siden Glarbo om projektet: http://www.information.dk/137318

Interesserede kan kontakte Torben Glarbo på torben@glarbo.dk  for køb af serien. 

Vurdering:

Fitna, amateur-like and clumsy

Can you write about ”Fitna” as a film? Can you separate it from all the furore the film has already created due to its content and the fear for consequences? Can you do so with a film everyone talked about before it was made... A 16 minutes long film that is now being talked about in all media as more than 3 millions have watched it on the internet?

Probably not. Nevertheless let me try to be laid back and watch it as a film by Geert Wilders, a politician who chose the film medium to communicate his opinions. But who has a filmmaker to help him, with a very interesting name:

According to the credits of the film, it is the idea of Wilders, which has been made into a film in collaboration with a professional film maker, who has chosen to call himself ”Scarlet Pimpernel”. He made the direction and the editing. Anonymous... Scarlet Pimpernel,  "they seek him here they seek him there..." as it was said when Leslie Howard played the role in the film with the same title.

Wilders message is conveyed as a propaganda film that has borrowed language from the commercials and communicates through extremely strong visual archive material: The terror images from the NY twin towers in 2001, the train bombing in Madrid, the bombs in London and the killings in Somalia. We see burnt corpses, we hear terrible screams and cries, we know these images and sounds as we know the videos of a beheading and the stoning of a woman at a stadium in Afghanistan. The film wants to scare us. Violence after violence scene.

The images are taken out of their original contexts to be connected to texts from the Quran and mixed with quotes from fanatic bearded religious men, who talk to the muslims of the world. Relevant? Obviously found effective by the Scarlet Pimpernel. The Jews are according to several quotes from Muslim leaders to blame for everything. A little girl says that Jews are apes and pigs. She knows it from the Quran. Voila!

The purpose of a propaganda film is to convince, send a strong message and mobilise to protest. To reach that goal the film uses a strong music score from Grieg to influence us emotionally of the fearful world we live in, because the muslims want to conquer the world, as another chapter communicates.

The texture of the film is graphic. The archive material emerges from, sort of ”comes out” of the pages of the Quran, as do the faces and figures of all the religious leaders.

Its’s done very amateur-like and clumsy, as is the structure of the film, where Scarlet Pimpernel suddenly goes from ”the world” to show us ”what the muslims have done and will do with the Netherlands”. Two films in the same so to say.

The Danish Mohammed cartoon starts and closes the film. At the end the ticking bomb explodes on the head of Mohammed... according to the sound track and to some school film images of thunder and the world that goes under!

Wilders and the Scarlet Pimpernel have chosen to talk in headlines with pure exaggerations. They have chosen the form of a propaganda film, but without any elegance and intelligence and without any willingness to make the viewer reflect. The conclusions are clear from the very start. It’s all very bombastically performed.

Was this a "normal" film review? Of a film that has an enormously hateful purpose. No, not a review, I can give no pens. Is it basically a film, or a political promotion to achieve more than the already too many votes that Wilders have in the Netherlands?

Vurdering:

It's All True

Wish I were in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo! For the 8th time Amir Labaki (it started yesterday) launches his documentary film festival with the provoking Orson Welles inspired name "It's All True". I was there years ago as a juror and it is such a pleasure to see - on the site - that the festival is still high-quality with a strong international focus, and at the same time, if you go there, you will see films from Latin America that never reaches Europe.

As you may read this far away from Brazil, go to the website and watch clips from the programme. It starts with the face of Anna Politkovskaya, very moving and right choice to have her first.

And a bit food for thought taken from the intro to a seminar to be held during the festival:

"The recent acclaim that the engaged documentary school has received – whose most prominent global symbol is the work of Michael Moore – poses a collateral risk for the documentary genre. Non-fictional cinema might be captured through the lenses of this purely instrumental account to the detriment of one of its richest contemporary resources, namely, the autonomization of documentary film as a free authorial discourse.

John Grierson’s model had many lessons in store, while engaged documentary launches campaigns. Both are filmmaking with a cause. The former preaches from the pulpit, the latter from a dais. But contemporary documentary making is not standing at the forefront of artistic experimentation thanks to signature films. Quite the contrary".

http://www.itsalltrue.com.br/2008/home.asp?lng=I  

Chris Marker: La Jetée 2

The interview that Allan Berg refers to in his Danish language article "La Jetée" is in English and is one of the very rare conversations that are printed with the enigmatic French master. The interview is wonderful reading. Here are two bites to evoke your hunger for more:

On film and television:
Godard nailed it once and for all: at the cinema, you raise your eyes to the screen; in front of the television, you lower them. Then there is the role of the shutter. Out of the two hours you spend in a movie theater, you spend one of them in the dark. It's this nocturnal portion that stays with us, that fixes our memory of a film in a different way than the same film seen on television or on a monitor.

And on how ”La Jetée” came into being:
I was filming "Le Joli mai", completely immersed in the reality of Paris 1962, and the euphoric discovery of "direct cinema" (you will never make me say "cinema verité") and on the crew's day off, I photographed a story I didn't completely understand. It was in the editing that the pieces of the puzzle came together, and it wasn't me who designed the puzzle. I'd have a hard time taking credit for it. It just happened, that's all.

www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2003/markerint.htm

Anna von Lowzow: P.S. Krøyer

Enten bliver det ganske kort: det kan man bare ikke. Kalde dette en film, som det så påståeligt står allerførst. "En film af Anna von Lowzow". En film er det imidlertid, men hvilken? Der er mange slemme steder, men værst de ufølsomme citater fra intime breve fra Marie Krøyer til sin mand. Især ét citat var sårende brugt i den mærkeligt overfladiske sammenhæng, tv-produktionen insisterede på. Jeg ved godt, de breve for længst er offentlige, men de er ellers diskret gemt i bøger. Her i tv bliver brevcitaterne ydmyget som illustrationer i en oppustet sladderhistorie af en voice-over uden litterær eller journalistisk rygrad. Som jeg hørte teksten den ene gang for lidt siden i aften. I dette mærkelige stort anlagte, kedeligt strukturerede lysbilledforedrag.

Eller også bliver det længere, når jeg får tænkt mig om og den øjeblikkelige vrede har lagt sig. Allerede i titlerne er ubeslutsomheden til stede, igen det med titel og undertitel. P.S. Krøyer hedder den, en biografi altså, en tragedie,måske. En vemodig stemning af kærlighedstab. Men så hedder den også Sikken fest! Med udråbstegn oven i købet. Nu er det en kollektiv historie, en komedie måske. En overstadighed. Filmen her magter simpelthen ikke de to forløb (Krøyer magtede dem..) Instruktionen er ikke beslutsom nok, ikke indsigtsfuld nok, vil for meget, skulle selvfølgelig have valgt én af de to historier. Og festhistorien ville bedst kunne holde til en så hårdhændet håndtering.  

Foreløbig én pen til Jon Holden Dahl og Jette Thage, som alene kunne have fortalt den historie om Krøyer, vi allesammen kender i ALLE detaljer. én gang til (vi hører jo gerne de store kærlighedshistorier igen og igen..) på en ny måde med deres værdige varme og ro.. 

Anna von Lowzow: P.S. Krøyer, 2008. DR1. Genudsendes 24. marts kl. 20:00.

Vurdering:

Chris Marker: La Jetée

Jeg skulle jo have noget med hjem til min filmklub. Noget fra Paris. Noget rigtigt. Jeg fandt det i Pompidoucentrets butik. En nyrestaureret udgave af den udødelige film om byen, om kærligheden og om døden. Om tiden og om krigen og om det umulige at undslippe.

Dette billede er fra afsnittet om mødet og forelskelsen og foråret i Paris. Det er et still fra location. Jeg har et andet Paris billede med også. Det er fra samme film. Byen lige før udslettelsen.

Onsdag aften ser vi filmen i FOF filmklubben her i byen.

Chris Marker: La Jetée, 1962. Udgivet på DVD 2003 sammen med Sans Soleil, 1983. Arte Video.  www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2003/markerint.htm Et af instruktørens meget sjældne interviews, her fra Libération i forbindelse med DVD udgivelsen. Hentet på Film Comment's hjemmeside.

Naglowski og Dybczak: Gugara

Cinéma réel festivalen har en socialantropologisk pris (Prix réalités de l'immatériel), dens 2500 euro blev givet til en film om den sibiriske rensdyr-nomade- og jægerkultur Evenk, som er ved at forsvinde ind i den russiske agrare kultur, en problemstilling, filmprojektet oprindeligt tog udgangspunkt i, idet Andrzej Dybczak, som er etnograf, lavede filmens research, herunder castingen, som en del af et videnskabeligt feltarbejde.

Jacek Naglowski er filminstruktør og det er skam filmkunst, der er kommet ud af det, ikke en rapport, ikke et kulturpolitisk debatindlæg. Uden svinkeærinder (næsten) gennemfører det observerende kamera sin iagttagelse. Filmscene for filmscene. Vi belæres ikke, vi ser hvad der sker, og vi har god tid til det. Det er frydefuldt og smertefuldt. Der ser jo ud til, at det smukke viger for det grimme, det ægte for det forlorne. Men det er også en usentimental resignation: det er jo sket. Og det er vigtigt, det er bestemt ikke en naiv fremstilling.

En indvending til filmen kunne være, at fokus ikke holdes ganske skarpt. Et folklore afsnit fører på vildspor, skønt det end ikke er fri for pegefingre - det er en skam, filmen kunne være helt ren. Og så er der det, at vi i disse klassiske kollektive skildringer er blevet så vænnet til at have karakterernes udvikling som dynamo skabt i klippet. (Nicolas Philibert, Niels Pagh Andersen, Adam Nielsen). I denne og de to andre af slagsen, jeg så på Cinéma réel findes de forløb ikke. Filmene er som statiske øjebliksbilleder. Affilmet "virkelighed" hedder ideen, grebet og moralen.

Jecek Naglowski og Andrzej Dybzcak: Gugara, Polen 2007. Kamera: Patryk Jordanowicz. Klip: Jacek Nablowski.

Distribution: http://www.deckert-distribution.com/news/new_films.htm.  

Still: Efter de første scener i taigaen og i teltet hos familien er den næstyngste generation i båd ad floden på vej til byen med en indkøbsseddel, man ikke glemmer. En rejse fra en århundredgammel statisk kultur til en helt ung og dymanisk.

Vurdering:

Agnès Varda: Lions Love

Den forrygende oplevelse på Cinéma réel sidste uge var Vardas cinéma vérité om at tage til Hollywood og optage en film med udsøgt casting: Viva (Warhols superstar), Jerome Ragni & James Rado (Hair) og i biroller Shirley Clarke (!) og Eddie Constantine (!!). Han i den mindste.. kun én kort scene, hvor han som Vivas forhenværende bliver afvist i døren.

Alle spiller sig selv og lyver som de plejer. Og det skildres altså som sandfærdig film.. Det kan være der kun smålyves, drillende. I denne overstadige komedie, som jeg tilgiver alt for dens charme, dens tempo i scenerne, dens vilje til det teatralske. Så tydeligt.

Viva er stjernen, jo.. lige fra begyndelsen. Hun er dette americana, som festivalen undersøgte. Hun er, hvad Agnès Varda fandt, da hun med dette filmprojekt undersøgte det amerikanske .

Varda fandt også Shirley Clarke. I en scene bytter de tøj og rolle. Hyldest til Shirley Clarke og hyldest til Agnès Varda. Viva er modellen, Shirley er dokumentaristen og digteren og alter egoet.

Jeg så aldrig filmen dengang og heller ikke senere. Så først nu giver jeg altså dette gamle vildskab fem penne. Finder senere på hvorfor. Det er jo ikke nok at have haft det sjovt og tænksomt..

Agnès Varda: Lions Love, 1969. Still: Vivas bog, forsiden.

Vurdering:

EDN Prize to IDF

May sound very "internal" to many of you, and it is indeed. But you should know about the fact that Institute of Documentary Film in Prague has been rightfully honoured by its sister/brother institution European Documentary Network. I am very much biased in this matter as I was director of the latter when the prize was initiated, and as I am now working for the IDF activity Ex Oriente. Nevertheless, here come the motivating words from EDN director Leena Pasanen to IDF director Andrea Prenghyova:

It is a great honour to present the EDN Award 2008 to IDF. Their work with establishing a documentary institute and all their activities to develop, encourage and promote documentary films have been of great importance for filmmakers and producers in the Central and Eastern European countries. Their tireless effort to contribute to the development of the documentary genre and industry is outstanding. IDF's work with creating better conditions for this region's documentary filmmaking and bring the regional films to the international scene serves as an excellent example of outstanding pioneer work.
Both institutions have very useful sites for those of you, who are interested in international documentary matters:

www.docuinter.net www.edn.dk

Citizen Havel cinema success

The documentary film about Vaclav Havel (directed by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek) has now been seen by 100.000 viewers in the Czech Republic. The film was released in January 2008, runs 119 minutes but can now also be seen in a director's cut version that runs twenty minutes longer.

I had the chance to watch a rough cut version back in September last year, which I wrote about for this blog – title ”Documentary on Vaclav Havel”. Here follows a brief excerpt:

The film is wonderful being the result of 12 years of shooting by Pavel Koutecky who died last year in a tragic accident. The film has been completed by Mira Janek, and covers sequences from the life of Havel when president until the moment he steps down and leaves the castle in Prague. Private life and official life...  A film full of humour about a gentle man, who - as he says himself - is unwilling to conform to the stereotypes...

Apart from the joyful meeting with a man of great modest charisma, the film gives you an inside to important moments in Czech politics when EU is to be the reality for the former communist country.

http://www.obcanhavel.cz/

Volker Koepp: Holunderblüte

Men filmen vil alligevel for meget. Den uddyber børneflokkens sammenhæng med landskabet i smukke naturbilleder, men fortaber sig i det. Den vil stedets historie og topografi, men skildringen knækker over på halvvejen. Den vil studiet af samfundsforholdene. Det, at det engang var en tysk by oplyses i filmens voice-over, men det får ikke betydning for vores opfattelse af disse børn, som alle er russiske i tredje generation, og det får ikke betydning for filmen, som er og bliver børnenes. Og i den enestående serie af lange interviews med børnene, hvor denne viden er indlejret, erobrer disse meget levende medvirkende på hver deres måde optagesituationen, så filmen bliver til "Børnene og kameraet", og det er dens store, store fortjeneste. Koepps faste greb, at lade kameraet køre og køre - fortæller Tue Steen Müller mig - kaster de smukkeste resultater af sig.

Filmen er således en ok vinder. En fremragende casting, en mere end grundig research og en bevægende historie, bundet i en kompetent instruktion af de livlige og nærværende medvirkende og forstået i et bemærkelsesværdigt kameraarbejde, bærer således en film, som trods (efter min opfattelse) slemme svigt i fortællingens konstruktion og klarhed er i høj grad seværdig og et vigtigt bidrag til denne tilsyneladende uudtømmelige tradition af klassiske kollektive historier som Philiberts Étre et avoir, og på årets Cinéma du réel film som Ciuleis Podul de Flori og Naglowskis og Dubczaks Gugara.

Volker Koepp arbejdede som dokumentarist ved DEFA i Berlin fra 1970 til 1992. Siden er han som selvstændig filminstruktør fortsat med at lave talrige film, senest Uckermark, 2001, Kurische Nehrung, 2001, Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz, 2004 og Söhne, 2007.

Volker Koepp: Holunderblüte, 2007. Fotografi: Thomas Plenert, klip: Béatrice Babin, produktion og distribution: Vineta Film.

Vurdering:

Cinéma du Réel Report 5

The festival is over. The prizes have been given. It happened saturday night and the winner was Volker Koepp with his story about the children in Kaliningrad, ”Holunderblüte”. No objections, not at all, Koepp is a master and deserves to be appreciated.

Whereas I could come up with some critical remarks about the selection for the international competition. Several films left me asking: why is this film in Cinéma du Réel?

A tribute to the special programmes, however. My co-blogger Allan Berg discovered Shirley Clarke and Jim McBride, and many people expressed their enthusiasm over the programme ”tourism”.

Full houses. There is an audience for Cinéma du Réel, the stories from all over the world, stories about how people survive hard living conditions. A look at the world of today away from urban richness, from other continents. Not bad at all.

That´s all for now.

http://www.cinereel.org Still: Shirley Clarke: The Cool World, 1964.

Cinéma du Réel Report 4

Maybe - at the end of the day - documentary festivals will be events that you travel to in big numbers as you travel to visit art exhibitions, says Allan, my co-blogger. He could be right if you consider the enormous number of people who visit this year's Cinéma du Réel.

Festivals have changed completely. When I started to go in the late 70'es, the festival in Paris was for the professionals, first of all. Festivals in general were for the community, they tended to be élitaire, those days are over. Luckily. Most festivals are for the audience and the average age is low. Festivals are part of the distribution scheme strategy for the producer and distributor. Young people want to watch documentaries. They have given up on television, and right they are.

Apropos. I talked to a French producer, who told me about the stand still of French documentary production due to the discussions initiated by monsieur le président Sarkozy. He wants to get commercials out of France Télévisions, i.e. FR2, FR3, FR5 and Arté France. But who is to finance the funding that does not come in when the commercials are no longer there. Remains to be seen! No commissions for the moment.

Cinéma du Réel Report 3

Saturday morning in the café. The sun is shining in Paris today. In 90 minutes we have booked the videotheque to catch up with some films in the international competition. And then a couple of films later this day. Here are some words from yesterday...

... which was not that easy a day to be visitor at Cinéma du Réel. It made me think of the late Danish cinema owner of the Grand in Copenhagen, still the most important Danish cinema for art films, his name was Peter Refn and he always said - with a smile - that you had to suffer for the art! He was referring to bad projection or lack of comfort.

We "suffered" yesterday. We had to stand in queus for a long time to get in to the Cinéma 2. The people like us who have an accreditation have the second priority after the paying audience, which is absolutely ok but the balance between sold tickets and badges have to be established in a way so the guests of the festival, coming from far away continents, can get a seat. Many who don't know the system - like we do - were rejected entrance.

This is one of the problems that the festival has: It has one big hall, where you can almost always get a seat, and then two smaller that lack seats and comfort (=oxygene). There should be one in between big and small.

On the other hand, no more complaints, because it is nice to be to a festival that is a pitching free zone, where the focus is totally on the films that have been made. Yesterday the entertaining Swiss film "Glorious Exit" by Kevin Merz was followed by a short film programme by Danish/Polish Jacob Dammas ("Kredens"), which had some charm, Oksana Buraja ("Kretos Sala"), a new Lithuanian talent, and American "Minot, North Dakota" by Madansky and Brudniak, which there is no reason at all to say something about.

The last film we saw, however, first film by Polish Jacek Naglowski and Andrzej Dybczak, "Gugara", was a beautiful visit to the Evenki people in far away taiga in Russia. Classical and as usual well crafted cinematography.

www.cinereel.org Still: Naglowski og Dybczak: Gugara

Cinéma du Réel Report 2

Cinema du Réel Report 1

I am sitting in the niveau -1 in the Centre Pompidou. This is where the acceuil for the Cinema du Réel is situated. As always in the Centre during the festival, it is difficult to create anything just close to be called a joyful or cosy atmosphere. I love the Centre Pompidou, as an old librarian, I am so happy to see all the people who go to read books, or seek information online, or watch films in the library - but for a festival it has never been a good place. It is difficult to meet the filmmakers, people come here to get their papers, go to the cinemas (there are three of them), watch films, this is how it is and always has been. And it's ok like that. Of course it is. Coffee drinking and talking can be done elsewhere in the small cafés around Beaubourg.

We got the catalogue, we made our day plan, I wanted to go to the videotheque to watch some films, that have already passed, but all booths were occupied.

Impressions... the wall of news clips are full. The festival has got its mention in le Monde and Libération, there is a lot of focus on the series "Americana", Shirley Clarke and Jim McBride, an interesting series that other festivals could pick up.

The director of the festival Marrie-Pierre Duhamel-Müller tells that she received 2300 films for the international and French competition. To end up by selecting 40.

www.cinereel.org Still: Centre Pompidou, nat.

Cinéma du Réel

Yes, for those who do not read Danish, "we" (Allan Berg Nielsen and me, Tue Steen Müller) leave for Paris tomorrow to follow the 30th edition of Cinéma du Réel, which took off with the subtitle "antropological and ethnographic films". It has always for me been the place for watching films about the world we live in. Interpreted by, seen through the eyes of filmmakers like Joris Ivens (his last film "Histoire du Vent" I saw there), Jean Rouch, even if this founder of cinéma vérité  has never really meant something to me, Helga Reidemeister, Sergey Dvortsevoy, Volker Koepp - and all the retrospectives that the former director Suzette Glenadel put together against any kind of what was "a la mode" at that time: The czekoslovak documentaries, where I met Dusan Hanak, and the Baltics where we had the pleasure of meeting them all, these great filmmakers like Herz Frank, Ivas Seleckis, Arunas Matelis, Navasaitis, Stonys, Mark Soosaar and so on.

Cinéma du Réel has always been excellent in making clever and thoughtful side programmes, next to the international programme.

This year there is themes like Americana, In South-East Asia, Images / Prison: visions from inside, Figures of tourism : for a history of the "view" , special screenings of for instance Bernardo Bertolucci’s "La Via del petrolio".

I am there to watch the international programme and write an article and make interviews for DOX - www.edn.dk - but there will also be some English words from me and many Danish from Allan.

www.cinereel.org Still: Former director Suzette Glenadel.

Werner Herzogs poetik 5

5. Herzog slår fast at de findes der i den filmiske konstruktion. I modsætning til den journalistiske reportage, hvor de ville forstyrre. Men det må ikke få os til at det samme gælder film, hvor der findes sådan noget som poetisk og henreven sandhed. Den er mystisk og flygtig og kan kun nås ved digtning, fantasi og stilisering.

6. Cinémá verité folk ligner turister som tager billeder midt iblandt kendsgerningers ældgamle ruiner, erklærer han bekymret. Jeg tror han tænker på om hans egne reportager slår til, om de mange fluen på væggen film nu virkelig tænkes færdige. Jo, ok, mestrenes gør, Dvortsevoys gør. Franks, men Wisemans? Altid? Bang Carlsens? Wivels? Aldrig turismens lethed? Jo, da, som vi andre. Dog, Leth digter, fantaserer og stiliserer hele tiden.

7. Men tordner den evigt kontinent-vandrende Herzog: turisme er synd, fodrejse er dyd!

8. Og så fortæller han en historie om de snesevis på snescootere som i det smeltende forår braser igennem isen på søerne i Minnesota. Presset på guvernøren er stort for at få ham til at lovgive om det. Men denne forhenværende bryder og bodyguard har svaret: man kan ikke lave love imod dumhed.

9. Så er handsken kastet, noterer Herzog. Dette er modstanderen. Og det bliver hovedtema i speaken til Grizzly Man, naiviteten over for naturens virkelighed set gennem mange erkendelseslag i et filmværk.

10. For månen er mat, moder natur kalder ikke, taler ikke til dig, lige meget hvor meget gletscheren giver lyd fra sig. Og lad være med at lytte til livets sang. Bedrøvede råd til Amie Huguenard og Timothy Threadwell, som forførte af et naivt natursyn leverede den ultimative reportage.

11. Så vi skal være taknemmelige for, at universet derude ikke kender noget smil.

12. Werner Herzog konkluderer sin erklæring og filmkunstneriske program: Livet i oceanerne må være et rent helvede. Et umådeligt, nådeløst helvede af permanent og direkte fare. Så meget helvede, at nogle arter, herunder mennesket, under evolutionen kravlede og flød op på nogle små stykker fastland, hvor mørkets lære fortsætter.

Movin og Møller Rasmussen: Words of Advice

Filmen har også en undertitel og det er en uskik, og det udstiller dens problem. Den hedder både Words of Advice og William S. Burroughs on the Road. Der peges i to retninger. Burroughs i teksten, i ordene, et filmessay nærmest. Og så Burroughs på tur, eller på tur efter Burroughs, en road-movie, tilnærmet.

Det første er langt det sjoveste. Og det klogeste. Undskyld Lars, undskyld Steen. Men jeres scoop i jeres journalistik er oplæsningen i Saltlageret. Og så arkivmaterialet. Ikke alle de møjsommeligt indsamlede vidner, slet ikke den pinlige scene med Turèll. Burroughs bærer som medvirkende selv det hele, og så er der Steen Møller Rasmussens kompetente billeder og Lars Movins ordenlige indsamling og viden og flid.

Der er bare ikke plads til det hele. Og enkeltdelene klæder ikke hinanden. Værre endnu, belyser ikke hinanden. Burroughs søges reduceret til illustration af venners og eksperters træt kedelige oplevelse af biografien. Men han spræller så gevaltigt, at han slipper fri af det litteraturhistorisk-pædagogisk-journalistiske net.

Og han er filmen værd, så han får seks points posthumt for sin indsats og Steen Møller Rasmussen får fem for billederne og for at han gemte dem og Lars Movin får fire for sin flid og vilje til, at vi andre må få del i alt det meget han ved. Men at sætte sig mellem to stole og annoncere det i en tvedelt titel trækker fra!

Men tak for dejlige stykker film i de store bidder. Men altså Turèllafsnittet måtte jeg vende ryggen til ved andet gennemsyn, musealiseringen af de to hjem er pinefuld og kustodernes omvisninger frygtelige, Men Steen Møller Rasmussens smukke, smukke still-leben scener fra bunkeren i New York er til gengæld umistelige. Ja, vi kan godt se selv, vi herude.. Og musikken er på vores side..

Men, men køb den film! De gode bidder er det hele og mere værd..

Lars Movin og Steen Møller Rasmussen: Words of Advice, 2007. Produktion: Plagiat Film, København plagi@get2net.dk  Distribution/Sales: Pan Vision  http://corporate.panvision.com/management.html 

Men hvor kan den mon købes på DVD? Kort&Dok? Nej. Lånes? Bibliotek.dk kender den ikke. DFI kataloget og filmstriben.dk heller ikke. Den er ellers oplagt på biblioteket og i skolen, langtidsholdbar. Hvad her er set som svagheden, vil nok der være styrken.

Vurdering:

Werner Herzogs poetik 4

Tue, jeg tror altså ikke, at Herzog er oppe mod filmhistorien og dens anerkendte helte, han er oppe mod overfladiskhed, naivitet og dumhed i tænkningen med kameraet og i klipperummet. Oppe mod sig selv for så vidt. Så er man modløs, må man tage sig sammen.

En myte fortæller, at han tilfældigt mødte et kamerahold i lufthavnen i Wien. Det skulle til Kuwait, det var lige efter krigen. De var modløse, havde ikke rigtigt greb om opgaven. Derfor ikke lyst til reportagen, som ventedes af dem. Herzog foreslog, at han tog med og instruerede. Det ville være en ære, sagde de, ordnede det med deres tv-station og deres tv-reportage blev til "Lessons of Darkness".

Det afgørende ved den historie er jo ikke, om det faktisk er foregået, det der i Wien og så videre, men om den er sand i sin fortælling om fortælling.

Og sådan er det for mig at se med Herzogs punkter. De er ikke politiske, de er poetiske.

Herzog Footnote 2

Allan refers to the point 5 in the Minnesota Declaration of Werner Herzog:

"5. There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."

Noone will object to that this is what Herzog at his best has achieved, at least in his "Lessons of Darkness" - it is mysterious and elusive.

But I could mention several "mysterious and elusive" magical moments in films that have been made from the observational approach that Herzog's whole Declaration was made to oppose.

It reminds me about la nouvelle vague in France (Godard, Truffaut et co.), who rejected the qualities of Jean Renoir and Marcel Carne when they launched their programmme.. Or, in a much friendlier way, our own Danish Jon Bang Carlsen, who had to fight for his "staged documentary" style for many years before it was accepted by hard core documentarians. But that was 20 years ago, long time ago, now we can value both Albert Maysles and Werner Herzog and Jon Bang Carlsen and Joergen Leth and Anne Wivel.

Werner Herzogs poetik 3

Jamen Tue, han var da ikke, og er, i sine filmpoetikpunkter, da ikke ude efter disse fine folk, du nævner. Slet ikke personligt. Derfor undskyldningen, vil jeg tro. Fordi, han fornemmede eller fik at vide, at de følte sig personligt stødt. Og han har jo naturligvis heller ikke slettet denne pamflet fra sin hjemmeside. For den handler nemlig om noget inden i ham selv. Og tilbydes os andre som udfordring til vores tanke, som Perse siger om havet hver morgen. Hvordan er det med forholdet mellem sandhed og virkelighed på film?

Om lidt sidder vi på festivalen med det provokerende navn: Cinéma du réel.. vi må nu lige tilbage til Herzog, som i filmen om de to, der bliver spist af bjørnen, udreder, hvordan deres filmmateriale er enestående med hensyn til virkelighed, men naivt i analysen, falskt..

Vi må lige tage nogle flere punkter fra Minnesotaerklæringen.. Punkt 5 stiller virkelig krav til dokumentarfilmens selvopfattelse. Herzog finder der under den filmede reportage, samtale, intervieu i filmen er dybere lag med egenskaber som poetisk, ekstatisk sandhed. (fortsættes)

Mikhail Vartanov: Parajanov: The Last Spring

This documentary from 1992 tells about Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990), considered to be one of the masters of cinema, far too little known compared to his importance as it is said on the website

www.parajanov.com

that honours him, brings quotes about his greatness from Fellini, Godard and the one that could be said to resemble him in film language, also a master: Andrey Tarkovsky.

The film by Vartanov is a breathtaking hommage to Parajanov, who due to his long emprisonment during the Soviet times ended up having a consequent limited filmography, complemented by an extensive collection of paintings, drawings and collages. In most of the film the camera puts the focus on the beautiful old man with the white beard, he moves badly, he is completely introvert, he is moving towards the end of his life. Contrary to how he was, as shows the archive material from his shootings and the clips from his films firmly grounded in Armenian reality and culture and poetry. The film is chaptered with long sequences without words, only image and music. Pure beauty.

I have never seen a film by Parajanov... I want to do so in the near future. His films are available on Amazon, and for Danish readers - go to Laserdisken and iMusic.

Vurdering:

Razvan Georgescu: Testimony

The director was - in his own words - given a second chance after a brain tumor operation. The doctors gave him three years more to live and he has used these three years to - own words again - enter this film journey between life and death, where he visits artists who are in the same terminal illness situation or who in other ways have been inspired by challenging their mortality. 

The viewer meets sociologist and writer Helmut Dubiel, screenwriter William Finn, artist Katherine Sherwood, video artist Bill Viola, painter Jörg Immendorf, the director´s father Remus Georgescu and the sculptor Peter Jecsa.

... and the director himself. We don´t see him but we hear his voice once in a while to remind us how long time there remains of the film, and - he plays in a completely unsentimental way with this - maybe of his life. (Razvan Georgescu is still alive and continues filming other people from the art world for a new version of the film).

All the way through the film we return to the operation room, doctors put on gloves ready for action, as is the sculptor, the conductor, the painter and the video artist Bill Viola, who has one of the most interesting parts of the film, in which he describes what was behind his masterpiece "The Passing". I mention this but could have taken other sequences from this very well constructed and inspiring film essay on the healing nature of art.

2008, 90 mins. Sneak preview. Will go to festivals and on Arte. http://www.ovie.com/projects/testimony/

Vurdering:

Herzog footnote

Allan Berg, my fellow blogger, is fascinated by Werner Herzog. And indeed, he is a great filmmaker, who has brought something new to the documentary genre. "Little Dieter Needs to Fly", as an example, is a pure masterpiece.

Allan advises you to go to the Werner Herzog site to read his Minnesota Declaration, which he made to comment on what he calls the cinéma vérité. Allan writes in Danish, the declaration is in English.

Fun to read it is and inspiring, but also nonsense from the side of Herzog to denounce - let´s call it that - the observational documentary cinema. Is there no truth in what Sergey Dvortsevoy does, or what about Herz Frank, Pennebaker, Leacock, Wiseman? Is it reasonable to reduce observational documentary to mere search of facts...

Of course not, and Herzog knows that, and that is why he publicly excused his provocative Minnesota statement at a meeting where all the old boys - Maysles included, he is probably the one that Herzog refers to when he says that he has heard a filmmaker say that he can find the truth by observation, by being there - were present.

But fun reading. The documentary genre is alive and kicking. The diversity is a sign of good health for the genre.

http://www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm

Jeremy Isaacs: Cold War

Måske er den historiske serie, som lige nu kører sit 14. afsnit ud fra DR2 stationens valg og smag for oplysning, et eksempel på, hvad Herzog mener, når han siger, at kendsgerninger skaber normer, men sandheder skaber indsigt.

Afsnittet handler om Krusjtjovs og Dubceks periode, og der er fascinerende arkivmateriale at gense og en imponerende række vidner i interviews fotograferet i den sædvanlige skrå vinkel i det den sædvanlige teatralske lyssætning. Fint nok, kendsgerninger at se og høre, og alt, jeg til nu har sammenfattet om de folk og den tid, bliver bekræftet. Kendsgerningerne normaliserer.

Det er sandhederne, afsnittet mangler. Jeg havde måske ventet, Havel kunne levere dem. Det skete ikke, det lykkedes ham ikke at trænge gennem konceptet. Han, der nok ellers har kunnet undgå at forveksle kendsgerning og sandhed..

Jeremy Isaacs: Cold War 1-24, 1996, afsnit 14: Prags korte forår, DR2 i dag, 18:15. Isaacs skabte i 1973 med The World at War denne særlige model for det storpolitiske tv-epos. www.dr.dk/dr2/Den+kolde+krig  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/isaacs/ 

Vurdering:

Werner Herzogs poetik 2

Blot at tage et kamera og så prøve at være ærlig er naivt og både rigtigt og forkert på en måde, som minder Herzog om nattevagten i Supreme Court, som fortørnes over mængden af skrevne love og tilladte procedurer. "Jeg synes, der bare skulle være en eneste lov: De slemme fyre skal puttes i fængsel." Uheldigvis har han på en måde ret, for de flestes vedkommende, det fleste gange, bemærker Herzog.

Cinéma Vérité forveksler kendsgerninger med sandhed og pløjer derfor kun sten. Og dog, kendsgerninger har somme tider en mærkelig, en sælsom kraft, som gør, at deres nedarvede sandhed forekommer vanskelig at tro på, hedder det i Minnesotaerklæringens tredje afsnit, Herzog fascineres ved visse kendsgerninger, men tordner alligevel i afsnit fire: Kendsgerninger skaber normer, sandhed skaber belysning og viden.

Og netop i filmkunsten er der dybere lag af sandhed... (fortsættes)

Werner Herzogs poetik

Den er fra 1999, denne erklæring om sandhed og kendsgerning i dokumentarfilm, som Herzog kalder Lessons of Darkness. Den er underskrevet 30. april det år på Walker Art Center i Minneapolis, Minnesota. Det er snart ti år siden og Dogme 95 var dengang det filmiske æstetik regelsæt, man talte om. Herzog opfatter von Triers og Vinterbergs regler "som en madopskrift", fortalte han, da han oktober 2006 holdt master class på filmskolen.

Herzog stiller helt andre og inderligere krav til et kyskhedsløfte. Hans tilværelsessyn er ældre og har i sig en ganske anden grundstemning. Og følgelig en anden etik. Der er 12 punkter i hans Minnesotaerklæring, som kan læses på hans hjemmeside

http://www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm 

(vælg "Minnesota Declaration" i indexet), og han begynder med at konstatere, at trods sin sin erklæring om det modsatte er den såkaldte cinéma vérité blottet for verité. Det bliver i dens ortodokse naivitet til en kunstig sandhed, til en bogholdernes sandhed. En fremtrædende repræsentant for kunstretningen erklærede engang offentligt, at sandheden let kan findes ved blot at gribe et kamera og prøve at være ærlig.

Annie Leibovitz - Life through a Lens

I missed it when it was at cph:dox last year but the Swedish broadcaster SVT2 had it on its excellent strand KSpecial programme last night. And I was glad to see it. Not so much because of the film itself - which is one of those "look at this genius" programmes, where a lot of the celebrities, she had photographed was interviewed to tell us how brilliant she is. From Mick Jagger to Hillary Clinton - but because the film showed the development of a classic documentary photographer who started as an observer, who was inspired by Robert Frank and Cartier-Bresson, to end up as a set-up portrait photographer of celebrities.

Her sister made the film, that is most interesting when it describes the observational period at the cult magazine Rolling Stones where she made exceptionally good photos based on her close relationship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and with the members of the Rolling Stones. But not only that, also a wide range of social issues was covered by Leibovitz, a daring character, as one says about her, a person who says that "mobility is my God - as long as I´m travelling I´m happy", a person who was able to make herself unnoticed because she as a true documentarian stayed with her characters for a long time so they forgot she was there.

The film can be bought through Amazon.

More about the film: http://www.cphdox.dk/d1/ft.lasso?s=2007106&ser=512&e=1

USA, 2006, 83 mins.

Vurdering: