Kino Anders

Dienstag, 24. September 2013

take 49: 25.9.2013

Women's Liberation on Celluloid

Door open 20h

20h30: France 1971, 93min, english subs

Director:Moshé Mizrahi

Writers:Moshé Mizrahi (adaptation), Christiane Rochefort

Stars:Bernadette Lafont, Michel Duchaussoy, Bulle Ogier

Celine (Bernadette Lafont) is a free-spirited woman who marries a dull, middle manager named Philippe (Michel Duchaussoy) in this comedy drama. The union results in her being pegged as a household ornament for her husband by her husband's coworker. She makes friends with a woman who shows her how to juggle the couple's living expenses to get whatever material goods she desires. When the couple entertains the coworker and his wife, the drunken men suggests they swap wives... ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Features the legendary soundtrack of Chicago Art Ensemble.

KINO ANDERS vote: 4 of 4 STARS

A MUST SEE!!!

22h10, France 1973, 73min, english subs

I've long been a fan of the sculpture of Niki de Saint Phalle, so I really looked forward to seeing her speak and move in the flesh. Whitehead is a very personal director, and along with her intensely personal story, it is almost hard to watch this film. Apparently Whitehead wanted to do a biographical story about St. Phalle, but instead she wrote a 90-minute rant about her father, and acts out his sexual abuse of her while she tortures him, first by sexualizing her mother, then by bringing in a "young girl from the convent". The nutty piano repeating over and over in the background emphasizes the insanity of the whole film. St. Phalle is in her early forties and still very attractive here, but her therapeutic and ritualized dissection of her father doesn't feel successful, and I came away from this film feeling sad for her... Joel Rayne , L.A.

Dienstag, 17. September 2013

take 48: 18.9.2013

CINEMA NOVO part I

Doors open: 20h15

IN 1968, Jean-Luc Godard was about to give up mainstream filmmaking, and become an even more militant figure with his Dziga Vertov group. But while he moved over into obscurity, a new generation of filmmakers worldwide were using Godard’s techniques to challenge institutions that were arguably more overbearing than the ones Godard was railing against.

20h30, Brazil 1969, 104min, with english subs

Macunaima is Monty Python meets Jodorowsky and Robert Downey Sr. in a pool of piranhas. A full-grown black man, a " Brazillian hero", is birthed from a white woman in drag in the middle of the jungle. He discovers a magical water fountain that turns him white. He moves to the city, falls in love with a bomb bearing urban radical activist who wears a magic stone necklace that brings good luck. The magic necklace is stolen by a by an evil corporate cannibalistic millionaire. This causes a bomb to kill his wife and son (done in such a cartoonish way that it is all the more ridiculous). At this, Macunaima is plagued with bad luck through many of his misadventures and wants to get back the necklace from the evil corporate honcho.

Part social satire, part serious political commentary set in a folklore steeped surreal Brazil. Based on the 1928 novel by Mario De Andrade that is considered on of the founding texts of Brazilian modernism; and the film itself is widely considered one of the most important films of the Brazilian Cinema Novo. But if you forget all the academics, it's a wild, weird, colorful, magical, surreal wonder-work with endless memorable moments, such as: a defecating goose, a pool of piranhas in which people swing above on a trapeze until they fall in, a water nymph and much more!! Who can forget such brilliant one liners such as "God gives nuts to those with no teeth". This film is a must see! One of the funniest films of any country! An underrated gem!

22h15: Brazil 1968, 92 min, with english subs

, Red Light Bandit was made under highly oppressive conditions – it was at the cusp of increasing repressiveness in Brazil (under the AI5, a government decree that curbed political freedom) and many artists were forced to either renounce their previous opposition or go underground and making highly symbolic and coded films.

The film is directed by Rogério Sganzerla, an obscure name in the West, but one who is gaining more and more popularity. His reputation is intact in Brazil, but his films are near impossible to source overseas. Red Light Bandit was the twenty-three year old director’s debut, and starred his soon to be wife, the legendary Helena Ignez. The film certainly feels like Godard – there are clear homages to Pierrot le Feu and A Bout de Souffle in particular, and a clear anti-authoritarian streak. It also has same schizophrenic feel of the early work of Yugoslavian Dusan Makavejev (eg The Switchboard Operator) with crazy collages of news, multi-narratives, and manic montage. It also seems natural that a director would attempt to confound potential censors (like Makavejev and his fellow Black Wave filmmakers) with highly symbolic, yet deeply anti-authoritarian films. This film’s huge success in Brazil, suggests in part, that it was successful at capturing this spirit.

The film looks at an infamous criminal – the Red Light Bandit – who breaks into houses and rapes the women. As the police try and track him down, the media hype his story up and he eventually becomes a cult figure used by everyone from corrupt politicians to his girlfriend. The crimes committed by the Red Light Bandit are shocking themselves, but Sganzerla put these crimes within the context of the actions of the politicians and the police, and in the process, shows a highly corrupt and brutal Brazil. This is certainly angry stuff, but this film is also frequently hilarious. The voiceovers argue with each other, and random interludes (such as the UFO sequence) get chucked in. But is the tone of desperation that sticks with you in this film – this is the portrayal of a society that is slowly descending into repression and despair. What’s also disturbing is that this film also seems to tap into a contemporary society – and consequently, extends its reach far beyond the borders of Brazil.

(BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: a girl and a gun.)

Dienstag, 10. September 2013

take 47: 11.9.2013

MASTERS OF CINEMA NR. I

Doors open 20h.

20h15, UDSSR 1968, 79 min, english subs

One of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, Sergei Parajanov's "Color of the Pomegranate," a biography of the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova (King of Song) reveals the poet's life more through his poetry than a conventional narration of important events in Sayat Nova's life. We see the poet grow up, fall in love, enter a monastery and die, but these incidents are depicted in the context of what are images from Sergei Parajanov's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems, poems that are seen and rarely heard. Sofiko Chiaureli plays 6 roles, both male and female, and Sergei Parajanov writes, directs, edits, choreographs, works on costumes, design and decor and virtually every aspect of this revolutionary work void of any dialog or camera movement.

21h45, Italy 1972, 105 min. english subs

This film somehow mixes the red tape nightmares depicted by Kafka with the Catholic church's man made organization and hierarchy in today's corporate world, making vis a vis contact with authorities impossible. Apart from the intrigue, this film has Ferreri directing his most dramatic film since "El Cochecito" (Spain, 1960), where his ability to create emotional conflict intermingles with his more satiric and absurdity touch, A facet that's is very interesting to explore, given that his output post-Grade Bouffe is his body of work that most Ferrei enthusiasts are familiar with. I would argue that this film, along with "Chiedo Asilo" (Italy, 1979) are films that explore Utopian gestures borne of the everyday Utopian man, as it faces the brick wall of bureaucracy and normality and convention. Walking the fine line cinema as "theater of the absurd" of the path explored by Buñuel, Raul Ruiz, Arrabal, Jodorowsky and many others, Ferreri champions (the dadaist-inspired) path less traveled in cinema.

Amedeo, a young man from the provinces, came to Rome to be part of an audience with the Pope. As the group is assembled, an aide goes over how to behave in front of such distinguished individual. Amedeo has another thing in mind, he wants to take the opportunity to ask the Holy Father a few questions he needs to have answered. To his horror, he is taken aside and whisked to a sort of holding area where someone connected with the Vatican security will interview him about his real intentions.

Dienstag, 3. September 2013

take 46: 4.9.2013

PAIN(TING)

A Night with Dario Argento and ?

20h30, Italy 1996, 120 min. english subs

Poster Art by malleus

Anna Manni is a policewoman trying to capture a vicious serial rapist and killer. The problem is that she suffers from "Stendhal's syndrome", a psychosomatic disease that gives her dizziness and hallucinations when she is exposed to the sight of paintings and artistic masterpieces. When the maniac lures her into a trap inside Florence's famous Uffizi museum, her troubles are just beginning...

The plot of this movie is hard to describe and equal parts intriguing and unpleasant. As with all Argento's thrillers, the plot is exciting and fun to guess, but it's more of a psychological drama than a crime story. Anna is almost always changing as the film progresses, both externally and internally; she starts off not knowing who she is, then she discovers who she was, remodels herself into someone else and ends up as confused as we are. Asia Argento (Dario's daughter with actress Daria Nicolodi) is iconic in the role, which is almost impossible to play – extremely physical, enigmatic and chameleon-like. She looks astonishingly like her father and she shares his artistic courage to dive into the darkest and most personal recesses of the psyche. My favourite aspect of this picture is her relationship with the many paintings – to her, they are living canvases, with characters who cry, scream and bleed (realised through excellent visual effects work by Sergio Stivaletti). The wordless opening seven minutes as she wanders through the Uffizi and her vision is assailed by the images, culminating with her literally falling into one of the paintings, is as bewitching an opening as I've ever seen, made all the more unsettling by Ennio Morricone's stunning score, featuring a hair-curling simple melody of eight minor notes. Argento's films are an acquired taste; this one features a lengthy rape and torture sequence in the middle which is hard to sit through (though not as hard as say, Frenzy or Straw Dogs), but as with all his work the film is somehow stunningly beautiful. Violence equals art. In a world of banal formulaic television designed for peons with four-second attention-spans, this is stunning cinema, regardless of moral judgements. The Stendhal Syndrome is a real psychosomatic illness, diagnosed by an Italian psychiatrist, Graziella Magherini, whose book on the subject was the primer for the intriguing script by Argento and Franco Ferrini. Shot in Rome, Florence and Viterbo.

Dienstag, 20. August 2013

take 45: 21.8.2013

Outside of Europe

Door open 20h

20h30, 1988, 60min. english

Popol Vuh, the creation myth of the Maya, animated in 1988 from paintings on pottery. Produced by Patricia Amlin.

21h30, Cameroon 2005, 92min, english subs

Two streetwise women are sent on a strange odyssey through a decaying society in this offbeat sci-fi comedy, set in a fictional African nation in the year 2025. Majolie (Adèle Ado) is an ambitious prostitute whose clients include a handful of prominent politicians, and one evening's assignment with the secretary general of the Civil Cabinet (Balthazar Amadagoleda) becomes problematic when he dies in flagrante delicto. Needing to get rid of the body, and fast, Majolie calls on her best friend, Chouchou (Dorylia Calmel), for help. Disposing of the secretary general's remains sends Majolie and Chouchou on a strange ride through the sordid underbelly of the city as they discover a variety of people looking for a way to turn the streetwalker's poor fortune to their advantage, including a crooked politician, a Machiavellian taxi driver, a handful of street people, and an underground society of covertly powerful women.