Following the excellent “Company Retreat”, which dealt with sexual harassment in the working place, Atsushi Funahashi implements another based on actual events, documentary-like approach where he also functions as writer, Dp, sound-recorder, and editor, in order to deal this time, with recidivism and the way ex convicts can function within society after they are released.
Burden of the Past is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Japan has a recidivism rate of 50%. The staff at a magazine called Change, which is run by Takashi Nagata, want to lower that by rehabilitating former prisoners, with Funahashi creating a docudrama focusing on both them and the convicts they try to help, though a year of their workshops, therapy, efforts to get them jobs and a stage performance that serves as the second part of the movie. As he delves more into the whole concept, the difficulties both have to face, both internally and externally,...
Burden of the Past is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Japan has a recidivism rate of 50%. The staff at a magazine called Change, which is run by Takashi Nagata, want to lower that by rehabilitating former prisoners, with Funahashi creating a docudrama focusing on both them and the convicts they try to help, though a year of their workshops, therapy, efforts to get them jobs and a stage performance that serves as the second part of the movie. As he delves more into the whole concept, the difficulties both have to face, both internally and externally,...
- 3/14/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Japanese directors call for reform amidst rising allegations of harassment.
Hirokazu Kore-eda, fresh off his Cannes win with Broker, has announced a new group pushing for reforms in the Japanese film industry which is seeing a rise in harassment allegations cases.
Kore-eda and other Japanese directors including Suwa Nobuhiro, Atsushi Funahashi and Sode Yukiko spoke at a press conference yesterday (June 14) in Tokyo, according to local reports.
The group is pushing for the establishment of an industry body modelled on France’s National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (Cnc). The organisation promotes and supports its local industry, funded...
Hirokazu Kore-eda, fresh off his Cannes win with Broker, has announced a new group pushing for reforms in the Japanese film industry which is seeing a rise in harassment allegations cases.
Kore-eda and other Japanese directors including Suwa Nobuhiro, Atsushi Funahashi and Sode Yukiko spoke at a press conference yesterday (June 14) in Tokyo, according to local reports.
The group is pushing for the establishment of an industry body modelled on France’s National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (Cnc). The organisation promotes and supports its local industry, funded...
- 6/15/2022
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: New York’s Japan Society has unveiled the full line-up for the 15th edition of Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film, the largest celebration of Japanese cinema in North America.
Running August 20 – September, the hybrid online and in-theater event will welcome 27 features and 12 short films including 32 films available online throughout the U.S. and 14 screenings of eight films on the big screen in Japan Society’s auditorium.
The fest will kick off with the U.S. Premiere of Soushi Matsumoto’s sci-fi coming-of-age story It’s A Summer Film! The title will be presented online and in person.
Also in person will be the fest’s centrepiece presentation, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Venice Film Festival Silver Lion-winning Wife of a Spy, a thriller tale of suspicion, betrayal and love set during WWII. The film’s star, Yu Aoi, will be the recipient of this year’s Cut Above Award from the Japan Society,...
Running August 20 – September, the hybrid online and in-theater event will welcome 27 features and 12 short films including 32 films available online throughout the U.S. and 14 screenings of eight films on the big screen in Japan Society’s auditorium.
The fest will kick off with the U.S. Premiere of Soushi Matsumoto’s sci-fi coming-of-age story It’s A Summer Film! The title will be presented online and in person.
Also in person will be the fest’s centrepiece presentation, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Venice Film Festival Silver Lion-winning Wife of a Spy, a thriller tale of suspicion, betrayal and love set during WWII. The film’s star, Yu Aoi, will be the recipient of this year’s Cut Above Award from the Japan Society,...
- 7/20/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Instead of simply writing our wishes to all our readers, for 2021 we decided to ask our friends to do so.
Mattie Do, Joko Anwar, Taku Tsuboi, Indrasis Acharya, Leena Alam, Takeshi Kushida, Bront Palarae, Torico, Isabel Sandoval, Ryo Katayama, Anthony Chen, Roya Sadat, Kazutaka Watanabe, Akio Fujimoto, Min Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard, Gerald Chew, Amy Cheng, Ronny Sen, Kenichi Ugana, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Park Jung Bum, Kim Min-jae, Shogen, Atsushi Funahashi, Jero Yun, Shuna Iijima and Khavn responded to our call. Check out their wishes...
Mattie Do, Joko Anwar, Taku Tsuboi, Indrasis Acharya, Leena Alam, Takeshi Kushida, Bront Palarae, Torico, Isabel Sandoval, Ryo Katayama, Anthony Chen, Roya Sadat, Kazutaka Watanabe, Akio Fujimoto, Min Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard, Gerald Chew, Amy Cheng, Ronny Sen, Kenichi Ugana, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Park Jung Bum, Kim Min-jae, Shogen, Atsushi Funahashi, Jero Yun, Shuna Iijima and Khavn responded to our call. Check out their wishes...
- 1/5/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
A graduate of the University of Tokyo’s cinema studies course, Atsushi Funahashi studied directing at the School of Visual Arts in New York and shot his first two films, “Echoes” (2002) and “Big River” (2005), in the United States. The March 11, 2011 triple disaster turned his thoughts decisively toward home. His next films, Nuclear Nation 1 and 2 dealt with the particular issue, while in 2016, he shot the first-ever co-production among Japan, Portugal and USA, “Lovers on Borders”, which has recently been re-cut for an international version released by Raintrail Pictures. His latest film, “Company Retreat” recently had its world premiere in Tokyo International Film Festival.
On both the aforementioned occasions, we speak with him about the new cut of Lovers on Borders, shooting a film in Portugal, Japanese society and particularly the issue of harassment, his unique way of shooting “Company Retreat”, the role of cinema, and many other topics.
Recently, you re-edited...
On both the aforementioned occasions, we speak with him about the new cut of Lovers on Borders, shooting a film in Portugal, Japanese society and particularly the issue of harassment, his unique way of shooting “Company Retreat”, the role of cinema, and many other topics.
Recently, you re-edited...
- 11/24/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Atsushi Funahashi is an ever-changing director, who does not seem to shy away from any challenge, having shot documentaries, TV programs, and a Japanese-Portuguese co-production, among others. Thus, it is no surprise that his latest film, which will have its premiere at this year’s Tokyo International, is a black-and-white, based on actual events, documentary-like production, which seems to share many common elements with Hong Sang-soo’s style and deals with sexual harassment. Not to mention that he also took upon himself the roles of writer, Dp, sound-recorder, and editor.
Company Retreat is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival
The film takes place in 2018, where a group of people working for a big hotel chain, gather at a company retreat building by the sea. The setting is idyllic and everyone seems ready to have a good time and relax, but a rather “dark cloud” is hanging about their heads. Saki,...
Company Retreat is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival
The film takes place in 2018, where a group of people working for a big hotel chain, gather at a company retreat building by the sea. The setting is idyllic and everyone seems ready to have a good time and relax, but a rather “dark cloud” is hanging about their heads. Saki,...
- 11/4/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
“Lovers on Borders” is the first-ever co-production among Japan, Portugal and USA, and its 132-minute version has already screened in Portugal, Japan and Sao Paulo Film Festival in 2018. Atsushi Funahashi recently created an international version trimmed down to 123 minutes, which deals with a number of sociopolitical issues through a story of revenge that takes place in two different periods.
The first axis takes place in Japan in 2021, just after the Olympics and ten years after the after the Fukushima catastrophe. Shiro is a Brazilian-Japanese musician who works in a factory in Japan and dreams of opening his own shop of selling guitars. Along with his girlfriend, Mariana, which he met while in Portugal, they also perform fado songs, live in a club. Shiro is pretty close to securing a loan from a bank to open his shop, right around the time when the financial issues Japan faced after the disaster result in many layoffs,...
The first axis takes place in Japan in 2021, just after the Olympics and ten years after the after the Fukushima catastrophe. Shiro is a Brazilian-Japanese musician who works in a factory in Japan and dreams of opening his own shop of selling guitars. Along with his girlfriend, Mariana, which he met while in Portugal, they also perform fado songs, live in a club. Shiro is pretty close to securing a loan from a bank to open his shop, right around the time when the financial issues Japan faced after the disaster result in many layoffs,...
- 10/3/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Retrospective will focus on Japanese independent cinema from the past 15 years and includes Cannes favourite Naomi Kawase.
The San Sebastian Film Festival is to programme a retrospective for its 63rd edition (Sept 18-26) titles New Japanese independent cinema 2000-2015.
Among the titles making up the retrospective from known directors are:
H Story (2001) by Nobuhiro Suwa;A Snake of June (Rokugatsu no hebi, 2002) by Shin’ya Tsukamoto;Bright Future (Akarui mirai, 2003) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa;Vibrator (2003) by Ryuichi Hiroki;Bashing (2005) by Masahiro Kobayashi;Birth/Mother (Tarachime, 2006) by Naomi Kawase;Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, 2008) by Shion Sono.
The works of several new talents to have made their debut since 2000 include:
Hole in the Sky (Sora no ana, 2001) by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri,Border Line (2002) by Sang-il Lee,No One’s Ark (Baka no hakobune, 2003) by Nobuhiro Yamashita, The Soup, One Morning (Aru asa, soup wa, 2005) by Izumi Takahashi,Fourteen (Ju-yon-sai, 2007) by Hiromasa Hirosue,Sex Is Not Laughing Matter (Hito no sekkuso...
The San Sebastian Film Festival is to programme a retrospective for its 63rd edition (Sept 18-26) titles New Japanese independent cinema 2000-2015.
Among the titles making up the retrospective from known directors are:
H Story (2001) by Nobuhiro Suwa;A Snake of June (Rokugatsu no hebi, 2002) by Shin’ya Tsukamoto;Bright Future (Akarui mirai, 2003) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa;Vibrator (2003) by Ryuichi Hiroki;Bashing (2005) by Masahiro Kobayashi;Birth/Mother (Tarachime, 2006) by Naomi Kawase;Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, 2008) by Shion Sono.
The works of several new talents to have made their debut since 2000 include:
Hole in the Sky (Sora no ana, 2001) by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri,Border Line (2002) by Sang-il Lee,No One’s Ark (Baka no hakobune, 2003) by Nobuhiro Yamashita, The Soup, One Morning (Aru asa, soup wa, 2005) by Izumi Takahashi,Fourteen (Ju-yon-sai, 2007) by Hiromasa Hirosue,Sex Is Not Laughing Matter (Hito no sekkuso...
- 5/7/2015
- ScreenDaily
Berlinale title follows three gay teenagers as they come out in Us Bible Belt.
Paris-based documentary specialist Wide House has taken on sales of Danish Jannick Splidsboel’s coming-of-age study, Misfits, ahead of its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlinale (Feb 5-15).
The documentary follows three teenagers growing up in the Us Bible Belt as they attempt to come out and remain part of communities that traditionally condemn homosexuality.
It is produced by Sara Stockmann at Sonntag Pictures, whose credits include Janus Metz’s Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner Armadillo.
Splidsboel was previously at the Berlinale with his 2009 work How Are You.
Other Berlinale titles on Wide House’s Efm slate Atsushi Funahashi’s Nuclear Nation II, which will receive its world premiere in the Forum strand.
The documentary is a sequel to Funahashi’s Nuclear Nation, which screened at the 2012 Berlinale, about the residents of a small town who were forced to leave...
Paris-based documentary specialist Wide House has taken on sales of Danish Jannick Splidsboel’s coming-of-age study, Misfits, ahead of its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlinale (Feb 5-15).
The documentary follows three teenagers growing up in the Us Bible Belt as they attempt to come out and remain part of communities that traditionally condemn homosexuality.
It is produced by Sara Stockmann at Sonntag Pictures, whose credits include Janus Metz’s Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner Armadillo.
Splidsboel was previously at the Berlinale with his 2009 work How Are You.
Other Berlinale titles on Wide House’s Efm slate Atsushi Funahashi’s Nuclear Nation II, which will receive its world premiere in the Forum strand.
The documentary is a sequel to Funahashi’s Nuclear Nation, which screened at the 2012 Berlinale, about the residents of a small town who were forced to leave...
- 1/21/2015
- ScreenDaily
Experimental strand to open with Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room
The Berlinale (Feb 5-15) has unveiled the line-up for its 45th Forum strand, comprising 43 films in its main programme, of which 31 are world premieres and 10 international premieres.
The programme includes avant garde, experimental works, essays, long-term observations and political reportage.
Canadian director Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room will open this year’s programme. The film’s numerous plotlines are inspired by real, imaginary and photographic memories of films from the silent era, using a half-damaged nitrate print aesthetic in homage.
Films of the 45th Forum
Abaabi ba boda boda (The Boda Boda Thieves) by Yes! That’s Us,
Uganda / South Africa / Kenya / Germany - Wp
Al-wadi (The Valley) by Ghassan Salhab, Lebanon / France / Germany
Balikbayan #1 (Memories of Overdevelopment Redux) by Kidlat Tahimik, The Philippines - Wp
Beira-Mar (Seashore) by Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon, Brazil - Wp
Ben Zaken by Efrat Corem, Israel - IP[p...
The Berlinale (Feb 5-15) has unveiled the line-up for its 45th Forum strand, comprising 43 films in its main programme, of which 31 are world premieres and 10 international premieres.
The programme includes avant garde, experimental works, essays, long-term observations and political reportage.
Canadian director Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room will open this year’s programme. The film’s numerous plotlines are inspired by real, imaginary and photographic memories of films from the silent era, using a half-damaged nitrate print aesthetic in homage.
Films of the 45th Forum
Abaabi ba boda boda (The Boda Boda Thieves) by Yes! That’s Us,
Uganda / South Africa / Kenya / Germany - Wp
Al-wadi (The Valley) by Ghassan Salhab, Lebanon / France / Germany
Balikbayan #1 (Memories of Overdevelopment Redux) by Kidlat Tahimik, The Philippines - Wp
Beira-Mar (Seashore) by Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon, Brazil - Wp
Ben Zaken by Efrat Corem, Israel - IP[p...
- 1/15/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by a tsunami and the worst earthquake in its recorded history.
Filmmaker Atsushi Funahashi soon made two feature-length works dealing with survival and renewal in their wake. The documentary Nuclear Nation offers intimate portraits of residents of an area contaminated by nuclear waste as a result of the disaster. Its follow-up, the fictional Cold Bloom, uses sensitive melodrama to convey the emotional weight of a nationwide rebuilding effort.
Cold Bloom takes place in the Pacific Coast's industrial Hitachi City, where Shiori (played by Asami Usuda) and her husband, Kenji (Yo Takahashi), work together in a small pressing factory. They dream about building a family, a dream disrupted when Shiori receives news of Ke...
Filmmaker Atsushi Funahashi soon made two feature-length works dealing with survival and renewal in their wake. The documentary Nuclear Nation offers intimate portraits of residents of an area contaminated by nuclear waste as a result of the disaster. Its follow-up, the fictional Cold Bloom, uses sensitive melodrama to convey the emotional weight of a nationwide rebuilding effort.
Cold Bloom takes place in the Pacific Coast's industrial Hitachi City, where Shiori (played by Asami Usuda) and her husband, Kenji (Yo Takahashi), work together in a small pressing factory. They dream about building a family, a dream disrupted when Shiori receives news of Ke...
- 5/14/2014
- Village Voice
Nuclear Nation, Atsushi Funahashi’s remarkably touching and informative doc about some of the 1,4000 now-homeless refugees that were forced to abandon their town in the wake of the Fukashima nuclear catastrophe, foregoes the agitprop route, one which given the scale and potential world historical costs of the still unfolding fallout from the disaster seems appropriate, for a more grounded and humanitarian look at the tragedy. Instead the 50-year-old Funahashi, best known in Japan as a narrative filmmaker whose previous credits include 2005′s Big River and 2012′s Cold Bloom, remains focused on a group of refugees who exhibit tremendous poise and […]...
- 12/17/2013
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Nuclear Nation, Atsushi Funahashi’s remarkably touching and informative doc about some of the 1,4000 now-homeless refugees that were forced to abandon their town in the wake of the Fukashima nuclear catastrophe, foregoes the agitprop route, one which given the scale and potential world historical costs of the still unfolding fallout from the disaster seems appropriate, for a more grounded and humanitarian look at the tragedy. Instead the 50-year-old Funahashi, best known in Japan as a narrative filmmaker whose previous credits include 2005′s Big River and 2012′s Cold Bloom, remains focused on a group of refugees who exhibit tremendous poise and […]...
- 12/17/2013
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The Berlinale has come and gone so quickly, so intensely. Everyone was catching the flu or a cold, and I was left with the sniffles. My last two days I was lucky to be able to catch some films. Before that I only saw Don Jon’s Addiction which I was charmed by. Scarlett Johanssen played the best role of her life, she is a great comedienne. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was delightful. Upstream Color bit off more than it could chew. The reviews express my feelings about it better than I can.
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cannes is now over which means it’s time to move to Britain as the Edinburgh Film Festival kicks off!
We’ve just been sent the full line-up for the 2012 Edinburgh Film Festival which is now in it’s 66th year. We have our people (Jamie, Steven and Emma) on the ground at the event right now ready to catch as many films as they possible can throughout the next wee or two as we get to see 121 new features and 19 world premieres.
I’ll let the full press release below do the talking but let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments section below.
World Premieres:
Berberian Sound Studio Borrowed Time Day Of The Flowers Exit Elena Flying Blind Fred Future My Love Guinea Pigs Here, Then Leave It On The Track The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus Life Just Is Mnl...
We’ve just been sent the full line-up for the 2012 Edinburgh Film Festival which is now in it’s 66th year. We have our people (Jamie, Steven and Emma) on the ground at the event right now ready to catch as many films as they possible can throughout the next wee or two as we get to see 121 new features and 19 world premieres.
I’ll let the full press release below do the talking but let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments section below.
World Premieres:
Berberian Sound Studio Borrowed Time Day Of The Flowers Exit Elena Flying Blind Fred Future My Love Guinea Pigs Here, Then Leave It On The Track The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus Life Just Is Mnl...
- 5/30/2012
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The full programme for the 66th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), which runs from 20 June to 1 July, has been officially announced and will feature nineteen World premieres and thirteen International premieres.
The Festival will showcase one hundred and twenty-one new features from fifty-two countries, including eleven European premieres and seventy-six UK premieres in addition to the World and International premieres. Highlights include the World premieres of Richard Ledes’ Fred; Nathan Silver’s Exit Elena and Benjamin Pascoe’s Leave It On The Track and European premieres of Lu Sheng’s Here, There and Yang Jung-ho’s Mirage in the maiden New Perspectives section; and the International premiere of Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio and Laurent Cantet’s 7 Days In Havana and the European premiere of Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America in the Directors’ Showcase. In addition to the new features presented,...
The Festival will showcase one hundred and twenty-one new features from fifty-two countries, including eleven European premieres and seventy-six UK premieres in addition to the World and International premieres. Highlights include the World premieres of Richard Ledes’ Fred; Nathan Silver’s Exit Elena and Benjamin Pascoe’s Leave It On The Track and European premieres of Lu Sheng’s Here, There and Yang Jung-ho’s Mirage in the maiden New Perspectives section; and the International premiere of Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio and Laurent Cantet’s 7 Days In Havana and the European premiere of Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America in the Directors’ Showcase. In addition to the new features presented,...
- 5/30/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
The 16th annual Bradford International Film Festival, which will run March 18-28, is a total celebration of all forms of cinema, from classic films to modern world cinema to a tribute to Cinerama and more. But, most excitingly, is a bombastic collection of some of the best, most exciting underground films being made today.
From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.
Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.
From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.
Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.
- 3/5/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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