Storytelling

Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983) - Ruiz







A sailor (Jean-Bernard Guillard) promises his job to a fresh faced student who just murdered his employer for no good reason and needs to escape. All he wants in return is three Dutch crowns (croners?) and have his story listened to. Ruiz's take on Ship of the Dead is a nasty riddle. His play on the nature of narrative 'storytelling' is not meant to be satisfying- episodic stories within stories within stories never pan out. Rather, they go around in circles then change directions at a moment's notice. His typical visual style- wide lens, no depth of field trickery adds to our confusion and its dreamlike imagery and colors are constantly dazzling (Shot by Sacha Vierny of The Last Year at Marienbad and many of Peter Greenaway films). After a while you give in, and have his symbolic images wash over you, wondering how it will all end. Not as mesmerizing as City of Pirates, but Ruiz's filmography is definitely something I can see myself getting into.

Lunacy

In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) - Fassbinder




It's Fassbinder's version of Will O' the Wisp. Only in his version, the alchoholic protagonist is a fat, pathetic tranny Erwin/Elvira (Volker Spengler). She is first seen being verbally abused by her not around much anymore live-in boyfriend Christophe. It is apparent that his love for her is long gone and the same scene has played out many times before. We follow her for the final few days of her life as she encounters the assortment of people from her past and strangers whom she engages in philosophical conversations about life and death. Elvira's back story (all told breathlessly by others) is as dramatic as it gets - a boy who was abandoned at an early age and grew up in an orphanage ran by nuns where he learned to lie to please affection-hungry nuns. After he learned that there was no chance for him to get adapted, he became a sullen young man. While working for a butcher, he married a butcher's daughter and had a daughter with her. But after an offhand remark of a handsome meat market runner (now a ruthless industrialist Anton Saitz, played by young Gottfried John), that he would love Erwin back if he were a woman, Erwin flew to Casablanca and had a sex change operation and became Elvira.

In a Year of 13 Moons is filled with long monologue, absurd humor, spurts of raw emotions, many elegant visuals and lots of nutty characters. Spengler shines as a tragic heroine who made some grave mistakes in search of love and forced to live with the consequences. Not sure I want to try any more Fassbinder, but 13 Moons is an interesting, if not exhausting experience.

Love in the Time of Hope, Love in the Time of Fear

Beloved/Les Bien-Aimes (2011) - Honoré

After 2007's Love Songs, writer/director Christophe Honoré tackles musical comedy genre again, with a deeply personal film, Beloved. This time it's a period piece with the legendary Catherine Deneuve and the famed Czech director Milos Forman, along with his regular set of collaborators- Louis Garrel, Chiara Mastroianni and Ludivine Sagnier. Mastroianni, last seen in the title role of Lena in Honoré's 2009 non-musical, Making Plans for Lena, takes another leading role here, as a woman slogging through a messy love life in a sinister decade we call the 90s. As in Lena, she is mesmerizing in this.

The film also reunites real life mother-daughter team playing mother-daughter -Deneuve and Mastroianni appeared together in two films- André Téchiné's My Favorite Season and Arnaud Desplechin's Christmas Tale, but never in forefront and intimate way as their relationship is portrayed here.

The sprawling film examines loves in two different eras: Madeleine (portrayed by Sagnier and later by Deneuve) goes through somewhat naive yet free-love decade of the 60s and and Vera (Mastroianni), the AIDS and terror stricken 90s - 2000s, the time of fear in many ways. Honoré does a good job in conveying the former decade very economically and effectively, referencing his hero Jacques Demy's pastel color palette (shoes and raincoats) for Paris and a lone Soviet tank in the street for Prague (The Russian Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968).

So it's the 90s. Things are more complicated, if not emotionally but in being intimate with someone. After aggressively pursuing a handsome American musician Henderson (Paul Schneider), Vera finds out that he is gay. That doesn't stop them from having a meaningful, long distance relationship. But for Vera, it means a lot of fear, uncertainty and unhappiness.

Milos Forman, the esteemed Czech New Waver, known mostly for his award winning American films (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, People vs. Larry Flynt) turns up as Jaromil, Madeleine's old flame. Gregarious and uninhibited, Forman's performance gives an unexpected jolt to the film.

Beloved is a dense, literary film that could've been a novel (a sizable 500 pager at least). Honore manages it in 135 minutes, still, the longest in his filmography. Not everything works perfectly- the period settings make the film less fluid and inhibited in terms of character dynamics compared to the present setting and immediacy of Love Songs.

At the end, despite the unconditional support and love from her parents, Vera, fraught with unrequited love, self destructs. Both of Honoré musicals turn out to be about grieving, not the happiest subject in musical comedy genre. But Alex Beaupain's music continues to be lovely and light and catchy lyrics reflect the feelings of these lovelorn characters very well.

Beloved is an ambitious film and has a lot to admire, especially for its emotional resonance and unconventional playfulness. It's one of the more memorable French films I've seen in a long while.



Beloved opens Friday Aug 17 at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema in NY. Director Christophe Honoré will be on hand for 6:55pm screenings on Aug 17- 18 at IFC Center. For more information and tickets, please visit IFC Center website.

Christophe Honoré Interview

With his sprawling new musical Beloved, starring Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Milos Forman(!) getting a limited release in North America, I sat down with writer/director Christophe Honoré, a former columnist of Les Cahiers du Cinema and the French New Waver's heir apparent.


I went to the screening of Beloved with my mother-in-law, who is 70 years old and a big fan of musicals, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Catherine Deneuve and all that. The film takes place in the 1960s and the 1990s spanning two generations. It's very literary, dense and much longer than your previous films. How did it all come about?

Before I answer that, what did your mother-in-law think about it?

She loved it.

Good. It's important for me to know because first and foremost, the film is from a first person's point of view. It concerns my parents' generation and mine. I can imagine what it was like but I can't be one hundred percent sure when it comes to portraying their perspective. So it is interesting for me to know how it rings for somebody who is actually from that generation.

She was saddened by the later part of the story. But we agreed after the film that there isn't really a difference in how we experience love no matter what decades we were in. She really loved it.

It was a project for me of course. In my parents' generation, there were the pills, the sexual liberation, etc., that the feeling of love was linked to hope. Where as for me whose sex life took off in the late 80s, it was a lot different. With AIDS, love was not associated with hope but with fear. We had to be watchful.

Now that I'm a father, I realize how nerve wracking it must've been to be a parent of an adolescent in that time period. Me as a gay person, starting to go out into the world, I can only imagine how my parents felt.

Even though we have this grand ideal that love is eternal and everything, but our intimate lives are shaped by our surroundings in that particular time. And that's why I was interested in this block of time to see how the characters were coping with their intimate lives.

This was the first time you were doing a period piece, correct?

Yes, but I'm not really sure there will be a next time.

Oh?

For me, it is very difficult to reconstruct a certain period. It is difficult for me because I realize that I like working in the present. Doing a period piece means that I have to artificially reconstruct whatever the time periods, and it's not something I really like to do.

Was choosing these two decades any way influenced by you being a father?

Of course, it's drawn from my life and anything I write is influenced by it. Though I guess what's missing from this film is the ensuing (younger) generation. I did have characters Justin in Montreal and Omar in London who are younger and have their particular relationships in regard to their homosexuality but a lot of their scenes are cut in the editing process.

The problem is that you still don't want to have that reflexive censoring of yourself when you have children and family. Before shooting Beloved I shot a short film called Man at Bath. It was shot during the course of a week and it's very sexual and absolutely not for children. I hope I'll never make something that is 'parent of a student' film, something that my daughter will be proud of me later on when she sees it. I'd prefer to make something that she'd feel a little ashamed of me. (laughs)

Nice!

It was good to see all the actors you worked with before again in Beloved- Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Chiara Mastroianni of course. But I didn't expect to see Milos Forman there and singing! How did that come about?

Well I wanted a Czech actor who is Catherine Deneuve's generation. Unfortunately, there aren't many Czech actors from that generation still working. I kept saying, to casting directors that I needed someone like Milos Forman. Then I thought, 'Hey, I should just write to him and ask him'. And I think he was really happy to come back to France and to see Catherine again. Because when the (Soviet) tanks came into Prague, it was two French directors- François Truffaut and Claude Berri who drove up to Prague and rescued Milos and his family and brought them to France. So he has that relationship with French cinema. It was also the time when Truffaut was very close to Catherine. So I think all that played a role in him accepting my proposal.

What about the singing part? How did he react to the suggestion?

I had sent him my previous film Love Songs and he was gracious enough to tell me that he liked it. And I think he likes Beloved. He told me that I take a lot of risks in making films. I think he is someone who is very joyous in relationship to cinema. At no point on the set he made any comments that put pressure on me. I mean, he's done some amazing films and I was very self-conscious about him being there. But he is very much like Catherine- they both have a genuine respect for cinema and at the same time, they don't take it too seriously.

Once they realize that you hold the bar high and have high expectations, they jump right in and are very easy to work with. Because at the end of the day, you don't really know how exactly things will turn out in films.

How is the collaboration process with Alex Beaupain?

Alex is someone I've known since we were kids. He wanted to be a singer and I wanted to be a filmmaker and we feel very lucky that we've become what we wanted to be. So it's always fun to blend our stuff together and what better than a musical comedy.

I work in parallel with him from the beginning of the script and when I see a dialog that would work better as a song, I send it to him with general melodies I'm looking for. Since he is really fast, he sends me songs with some skeletal piano accompaniment within few days. And as I work on the script, I just integrate the songs into it, so when the script is finished, it's all there, ready to go.

I spent my twenties in the 90s. Everyone tells me that the 90s were the modern Dark Age for culture. I want to know what your take on that decade is.

I don't really agree with that sentiment. Certainly not in America since there were many great filmmakers in the 90s there. On the other hand in France, it's clear we were on the decline. Obviously French cinema is no longer a leader aesthetically or from an industrial standpoint. I would say Asian cinema was the leader in the late 90s and early 2000s.

When I started making films, there was a general reactionary movement harkening back to the old times. The values that are put on cinema today in France are the same as, I would say, during the war (WWII) and just after the war. What it means is that the filmmaking today is at odds with the spirit of the New Wave. So what I'm trying to say through my films is that the golden age of French cinema was the New Wave and I want to keep that spirit alive. But I realize that's a very minority viewpoint.

It is 2012 already and I wonder if there will be any difference in the post-Sarkozy era in French cinema?

In any case, French cinema that works abroad now is very Sarkozian cinema- like the Artist. If you look at the Artist, it corresponds with the idea of cinema that is really to the right of Sarkozy. I'd say right now the filmmakers who are revered, like Jacques Audiard, do very bling-bling kind of cinema. And that's not really what I strive for as an artist. But I have to say those kind of cinema works- it gets prizes and do well abroad, etc. So from the outside perspective they are what the best of French cinema can offer. I don't know if the change of political scenery will bring change in the value of cinema. But I don't think it's an accident that that kind of cinema is lauded when Sarkozy took over.

Let's hope it does.

Dying of a Broken Heart

Stellet Licht/Silent Light (2007) - Reygadas





I’m still not convinced Carlos Reygadas is a great director. Yes, I get his Bressonian use of non-actors to convey real truth in human interactions. Yes, he is arguably one of the most technically daring contemporary directors that got me excited about current Latin American filmmakers. In Reygadas universe, those exchanges with true human feelings seem to be existing in extremes (and therefore everywhere?) – in Japon, it is in improbable September-December romance, in Battle in Heaven, it’s in btwn rich/beauty and poor/ugly. In Stellet Licht, it’s in an isolated Mennonite community in Mexico.

Johan, a Mennonite farmer, father of six, is having an affair with Marianne. He told his quietly suffering wife Esther when the affair began. He tells his father and best friend that he made a mistake marrying Esther because Marianne is a better match for him. Even though it's wrong, he just can’t end the relationship. It's been two years like that.

For Reygadas film, Stellet Licht is a surprisingly subtle one. It starts out with five minute long take of dawn breaking. The camera slowly rotates from the star studded sky down to the horizon then dollies slowly forward with the sound of barnyard beasts breaking its morning orchestra of insects: the scene is truly a virtuosic filmmaking. There are many measured, beautiful sequences throughout the film. His non-actors bring out some genuinely moving moments also.

Then the magic realism ending comes around and Reygadas leaves everything up to the audience to decide what to make of it. There are some indications to this conclusion- when Johan and Marianne were having one of their last rendez-vous in a small room, a leaf falls from the ceiling. Surely without that ending, the Stellet Licht is nothing but some technical brilliance and turgid melodrama. I haven't seen Carl Theodore Dreyer's Ordet which Reygadas pays an homage to. Maybe it's my cynicism that got a better of me. I just can't easily buy into films that someone dying of a broken heart anymore. I can see the beauty in the modern fairytale, but it's very hard to swallow.

Sing Your Sorrows Away!

Les chansons d'amour/Love Songs (2007) - Honoré


So this is my second Honoré musical I saw about grieving. Unlike Beloved which was a time specific, period piece if you will (unless you count large plastered Sarkozy poster on the street), Love Songs feels more fluid and less cluttered (maybe not emotionally). Ismael (Louis Garrel) and Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) are involved in menáge a trois with Ismael's co-worker Alice (Clotilde Hesme). Julie's family with three grown up daughters likes goofy Ismael but can't really understand the relationship. One night at a club, Julie suffers a cardiac arrest and dies. Julie's family wants Isamael's help to cope with grief, especially the older sister Jeanne (Chiara Mastroianni), but he is having a hard time his own, trying to fill the vacuum with a young waitress or a smitten High School boy.

As usual, Honoré's strength is in the well developed, evenly important characters. No one seems out of place or two dimensional. Alex Beaupain's light music is quite beautiful and matches well with the poignancy of dialog- "I'm the bridge between your banks/Your quarrels leave me cold/Trample me and rub my flanks/I'll stay here and grow old," "Love me less/But love me a long time." The musical comedy genre makes things lighter and keeps the movie afloat from becoming too schmaltzy, but I love the idea of singing your sorrows away. A good one.

Black/White

Eat, for This Is My Body/Mange, Ceci est Mon Coup (2007) - Quay






It starts with an aerial shot of Haiti- swooping over the coastal area, shanty towns, finally reaching at arid mountain range. A singer's falsetto turns into moans of a very pregnant woman in labor. Then it is documentary style Haitian life in the gutter- the water bubbles with trash and sewage, mix of exquisitely composed and handheld scene of voodoo dancing. Then we move to a grand mansion. There lies an ancient, white woman who doubles as mother nature/white colonialism. Her daughter, played by Silvie Testud, is the matron of the house. A gaggle of black boys visit the house, get haircuts, bathed and dressed. They learn to say "Merci" over and over and over again by Mme. In the hands of Michelange Quay, a Haitian director, Mange, Ceci est Mon Coup is often visually stunning but too on the nose on Haiti's tumultuous colonial history. Lots of milk drinking & bathing, black bodies against white fingers, lots of nudity, etc, hints at Black/White relationship, visually contrasted here with very white Testud entertaining a group of young boys- both suggestively sexual and demeaning. Slow panning shots and visual associations have hypnotic power but not so subtle symbolism gets in the way. Still, interesting mix of techniques makes the film worth the trip.

Brothers Quay at MoMA

Starting August 12, 2012 through January 7, 2013, The Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA) is presenting a comprehensive look at the work of the renowned moving-image artists and designers the Quay Brothers. Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets features over 300 pieces including never-before-seen cross-disciplinary works and a complete film and video retrospective.

From MoMA's press release:

The Museum of Modern Art presents Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets, the first major retrospective encompassing the full range of work by the Quay Brothers, August 12, 2012 - January 7, 2013. The identical twin brothers have labored together in their London studio, Atelier Koninck, for over 30 years, creating avant-garde stop-motion puppet animation, live-action films, and graphic design that challenge easy categorization. Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets presents full scope of their achievements: animated and live-action films (including never-before-seen early work), puppets, décor, drawings, paintings, graphic projects, calligraphic works, and installations. The exhibition is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Early years: The twins with their mother

This massive exhibition tells an improbable narrative of aspiring illustrator twins from Philadelphia ending up in the stop-motion animation field- all because on their way to Amsterdam, their final destination, they were sidetracked in London by getting a grant for an animation project from the British Film Institute. Lucky for us fans of their amazing stop-motion work, they basically fell into it.


This Unnamable Little Broom, Little Songs of the Chief Officer of Hunar Louse, décor

Not only their work, but the exhibition devotes a large portions to their early influences- the works of naturalist painter Rudolf Freund, Polish surrealist posters, the Polish film director/animator Walerian Borowczyk and of course, the Czech master Jan Svankmajer.


Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? puppets


Duet Emmo, Or So It Seems


The Calligrapher

Occupying MoMA's two floors, On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets' labyrinthine set up is filled with their paintings, drawings, book and record covers, puppets, scale set designs and a great number of cabinets of curiosities- seen through magnifying holes, and projections of their short film and video work, add to that the screenings of their entire filmography- shorts, two feature length live-action films, commercials, dance films, music videos, documentaries; one should prepare spending a whole day in the museum.


Doll Funiture, from The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, décor


Black Drawings


O Inevitable Fatum, Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies, décor

At the brief Q & A session with the press, the Quay Brothers appear reserved and thoughtful in their measured responses. With their long and lean figures, the twins possess a distinct other-worldliness. When asked if they ever argued while working on a project, they said they never disagree. Often finishing each others sentences, they always seem to be in perfect sync.


Stephen and Timothy Quay

Bradley Rust Gray's film Jack and Diane (which will be released in the fall) features new stop-motion animation sequences by the Quays.

Prior to the exhibition's opening on Aug 12, there will be a screening of the new 35mm print of the Quay Brothers' luminous first feature (and one of my all time favorites), Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream Which People Call Human Life, on Aug 9, 7pm.

For more information and tickets, please visit MoMA website

People are People

The Red Chapel (2009) - Brüger


A very promising premise: 3 Danish comedians travel to North Korea to pull a Borat style stunt in front of stunned, humorless audience. Mads Brügger doesn't come close to achieving that goal. It's not even that funny. But instead, The Red Chapel becomes something else entirely.

The Red Chapel, comprised of two Korean-Danes- brawny Simon Jul Jørgensen and spastic Jacob Nossell who's bound to a wheelchair most of the time and managed by Brügger, arrives in North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange act and set to perform a traditional Danish comedy act (whatever that means) that's all fart gags and involves singing Wonder Wall. The idea gets shot down by NK Cultural Ministry bigwigs. Brügger, deathly afraid of blowing the cover, compromises on everything with authorities despite Simon & Jacob's protests. It becomes something else when Nossell has a breakdown and refuses to comply with Brüger's deception. For Brüger, there are no moral scruples- North Korean regime kills its own citizens and they are thoroughly brainwashed and pretending to live in worker's paradise. And we see the evidences of that time and time again: adorable but robotic little children can't seem to stop waving at the camera. Mrs. Pak, assigned to be the translator and the shadow of the crew, breaks down in tears whenever the late Great Leader is mentioned.

Young Nossell (18 at the time) realizes Pyungyang's two faced niciety and is horrified by it. There is a scene where Brüger and the crew is pressured to march with the huge military march commemorating Korean War (for them, instigated by the imperialist US). Brüger has no problem shouting slogans with his fist in the air- it's gonna look great in the film. However, Nossell can't bring himself to be part of it. Obviously both Mads and North Koreans try to manipulate him for their own benefit. The whole footage of them marching is on the State owned TV that night.

What Brüger doesn't realize is that for N Koreans, the nationalistic fervor overcomes everything, including famine, personal freedom, even their own death. Pak's maternalistic, genuine niciety toward invalid Nossell is touching too. Nossell tries to put Pak in the corner when he says that everyone he meets is beautiful, asks her to meet other invalids in his slurred English (North Koreans kill off their invalids at birth to show their purity and strength as people) but decides to save face at the end, saying, "maybe next time." Only part that made me smile was a group of pretty teen girl performers playing with Nossell and Jørgensen. It shows that their ideology maybe different, but young people behave the same way everywhere. Even though he failed to capture what he set out to do, Brüger reveals a lot about the hermit kingdom in The Red Chapel: people are people.

Genre Twist

La France (2007) - Bozon




The setting is WWI France. Camille (always adorable Silvie Testud), a young wife of a soldler, receives a letter from her husband informing her that he never wants to see her again. Very much in love and determined to find him, she sets out to the frontline disguised as a young man. Soon she tags along with a band of soldiers. The lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) is at first, very suspicious of the whiskerless young lad who might be a war spy. Soon it is revealed that the brut soldiers are nothing but brutish: they break out into 60s sounding pop songs with improvised instruments (all songs start out with "I, a blind girl...") and talk incessantly about mythical land, Atlantis, to keep their spirits up.

La France is a delicious genre deviation. It's a deadpan war time comedy. Editing and photography are very cleverly done, but not in a showy way. Shot by Céline Bozon, director Serge's sister, the film boasts some very striking nighttime images. They obviously understand less is better. Guillaume Depardieu shows up late in the game too. A great find.

Signs

There is a McDonald's right across from my job. As I was passing by to get a coffee, I noticed the sign. It was done by a homeless guy sitting right outside McDonald's. I couldn't help myself but talking to the guy. I asked him if this was his opinion. He said, "No man, you can ask any homeless person, black or white, they will tell you the same thing, Asians are the least compassionate people in the world. Do you have a dollar?" I gave him some change. We got into a deep discussion. Richard, a nice, young black guy. Not crazy at all. He also said women are less compassionate than men. I mentioned it might be because homeless men are usually fucking scary. As if to prove his point, and maybe encouraged by me taking pictures of the sign, an Asian woman shop keeper next door came out and took a picture of the sign with her iphone while talking loudly on the phone, "I'm going to call the police, this is really unacceptable..."

Only in New York. I love it.

The Art of Remembering

Sans Soleil/Sunless (1983) - Marker





Sublime. Marker's musings on impermanence of human existence and memories narrated by a female narrator are both poetic and thoughtful. The 80s Japan takes the center stage as an alien world where a thousand years of time criss-crossing in every street corner, Kilgore Trout style. While Godard tries to cram a lot of the same ideas in his films but never manages successfully to fully articulate them, Marker does it so effortlessly here. Beautiful and wise beyond anything I've seen or read. Easily one of my new favorites of all time if not the favorite. Perhaps I should check out some Jonas Mekas?


*Chris Marker passed on at age 91, July 30th, 2012. R.I.P.

Foreign Lands

Lonely Swallows (2011) - Tsumura, Nakamura
 
I always gravitate toward documentaries that feature young people regardless of how they are made (in this case, poorly from a technical standpoint). With Gu Su-yeon's Hard Romanticker, this year's Japan Cuts highlights some of the trials and tribulations of the ethnic minorities in a very homogenous society. Lonely Swallows, made by Kimihiro Tsumura, a college professor with the help of Mayu Nakamura, chronicles 5 young Brazilian-Japanese who are the children of migrant workers, living in the city of Hamamatsu, from 2007 to 2010. Their parents came to Japan in the 90s for the prospects of jobs, mostly working in factories. These children are born in Japan, but they are foreigners, they are not subjected to Japanese compulsory education system. They don't continue their study after Junior High and start working in factories. Some resent their parents and join the gang, some form a b-boy group and others try very hard to do right under very difficult circumstances. Then the recession hits Japan in 2008. Foreign workers were the first to be laid off. Many families had no choice but to leave Japan to go back to Brazil. For the children who are teens now and was born and grew up in Japan, this is an earth-shattering, life changing experience.

The filmmakers unevenly follow their journey, some turn out good, some don't. It's heartbreaking, devastating and hopeful. The doc doesn't concentrate on the unfairness of the system. Rather it concentrates on these individuals and it's a welcoming move. It shows the resilience of these young people. One can immediately think of Michael Apted's Up Series. I really hope the filmmakers revisit these young people periodically and see how they are doing. Lonely Swallows is a small film that will probably never see the light other than in some festivals. But I'm very glad I got to see it at this year's Japan Cuts.

Lonely Swallows plays on July 28th, 5pm at Japan Society. For tickets and more information, please visit Japan Cuts website.

Alison Klayman Interview

With her documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry getting a limited release in North America on Friday July 27th, I sat down with Alison Klayman, the first time director and the winner of Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
 

First of all, congratulations on winning the Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance.

Yeah, it was so exciting and I feel like with this movie, it's just a constant state of arrival because everything since has continued to be exciting and that next week (the week of the film's release) is the real thing, you know? I keep telling myself, hasn't it already happened with Sundance? Human Rights Watch (Film Festival) also was a big deal, but next week is I guess the real thing, as everyone says.

So what's the situation right now with Ai Weiwei? The last time I checked his twitter, there were some phony tax evasion charges and his team suing the Beijing tax authority and there was finally a court date. Then there are the pornography and bigamy charges?

He did have a hearing in the tax court. He had paid the half of the total fines plus back taxes in order to bring this challenge (against tax evasion charges). But it was rejected. Then he filed a lawsuit against Beijing Tax authority. That was a pretty ballsy move! The amazing thing was couple of month ago, the court decided to hear the case, which was already much more than anybody expected. But it also means that we already know that the outcome will be, which is of course, what the authorities would desire. The hearing in court was in the same week as June 22nd (the anniversary of his release from solitary confinement in 2011). But Weiwei and many others were not allowed to go and were prevented from congregating outside the court, in fact many bus routes were rerouted to not to go near the court house.

According to his lawyer and people who were present said that the court wasn't even listening to any of their concerns and hurriedly marching toward the inevitable conclusion. The court has some time until August to render the decision on the case. As far as I know, I checked the tweets this morning, there were no decisions made.

When June 22nd came, they gave him a piece of paper that said, "Your bail conditions are lifted," but they did not give him his passport back and they said, "we'd like you not to travel because there are many ongoing investigations that you are subjected to including pornography and bigamy." I think what's sad about all this is that essentially it's a confirmation that his situation has not improved from the day he was released to now.

We were hoping that maybe on June 22nd, something would be different but I think it's even worse to be on the other side of that date because there is no more solid date to pin hope on or to say that after that day, something might be different. His conditions has been a stasis for over a year now.

I heard that his lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan is missing?

He was missing at one point. He was held essentially. He is still tweeting about it now. What happened was they (the public security officials) went and questioned him the entire day of that tax hearing where the lawsuit was heard in court and the next morning they put him on a plane back to his home town. Actually Lu is not his lawyer representing his tax case. His license was revoked around the time they demolished Weiwei's studio. Weiwei tweeted and corrected all journalist that Lu is not his lawyer representing his case but a legal consultant. Pu Zhiquiang, who represented Tan Zuoren (Chengdu earthquake activist), is the lawyer of the current case.

How did the project start? How did you get involved with it?

I always end up telling this story for the questions regarding how it all started because the answers boil down to this one lucky happenstance. I went to China in 2006 and didn't know who I really was. I wish could say I knew who I wanted to be but I didn't. There was always a vague notion that I wanted to do documentary work and do journalism. So 2008, I was still there, about to get an accreditation for journalism and bought my first camera during my Olympics job during the summer. My roommate was working on an exhibition of Ai Weiwei's photographs from the 80s when he lived in New York. So my first exposure to Ai Weiwei was through these amazing photographs. There were thousands and thousands of them. I wouldn't claim to know his work back then. I knew that he was pretty outspoken about the Olympics. Then my roommate mentioned that they would love to have videos to go with the exhibition and asked me to do it. Of course, I said yes. So I went in and Ai Weiwei came in to his office and I started filming him right away. Everything was sort of set up for me already. So thankfully, it was kind of a normal routine for everyone that 'Alison is going to be there, filming Ai Weiwei' all the time.

Things you see about his personal life in the film is something that I had to push for, but there were so much going on with his work life, so I just felt like it was more important to be 'that fly on the wall', capturing his art being made, his activism, him corresponding with his tweeter fans and dealing with curators. This kind of documentary was what I aspired to do but since I've never done it before, I just learned by doing it as I went along.

Even before doing this documentary, working on a short for the gallery, within a couple of weeks following Ai Weiwei, I realized that people can just watch him for 90 minutes easily. And there were still so much I wanted to know.

How much footage are we talking about?

200- 300 hours worth is what I brought back. Definitely brought back at least 200 tapes and had fair amount of additional footage over the years that I got from Weiwei including his films, texts and not to mention photos. He puts everything online, so I dedicated a lot of post production time on getting his blog photos, back searching his tweeter (which doesn't go back too far). There was a photo site he was using for his tweeter, so we were able to find some tweeter photos from 2009 when he was setting up the Munich show. There was a whole segment on tweeter photos that didn't end up in the film but the hospital photos did end up going in. The thing is, that there are so much materials that you can cull from, but I thought it would be better to have the timeline of his activities and his persona on tweeter intersecting with what was shown in the film, since he uses social media to communicate with outside world.

There are some hairy situations in the film. What was your working condition like being close to Ai Weiwei? Did you ever feel that you were in physical danger?

The only times that I actually ran into problems were on those trips to Chengdu. When we were going through the process- him going to the police stations, courthouses and we were following him with the cameras and you see the camera cutting out. It was because someone pulled me aside. When fights broke out, it was a little more intense. The cop with the bright green shirt you see in the film came to the van I was in and that's why you see some shots are from the van and the other one is from Zhao Zhao (Ai's personal videographer)'s camera as he was being attacked. The cop came to the van and grab the camera and was yelling at me and that time I pretended I didn't speak Chinese. Eventually he took the tape and closed the door on me. The main tactic that Weiwei and his team taught me in filming those scenarios was to constantly change the tapes, so that I did get the tapes confiscated or I was forced to delete something, they were usually fresh tapes. Obviously I had enough tapes so that's why it's in the film. Those moments are nerve-wracking in general. But I wasn't particularly scared that something was going to happen to me. I was definitely scared that something would happen to the people I was with who were Chinese citizens, because they ran much greater risks than an American accredited journalist.

But then again, I hear situation isn't that great right now for journalists. It had a better atmosphere in 2010 than it does now.

Ai Weiwei is getting a lot of support from public for his fight for the freedom of expression. He is very popular among young people. And I can't think of any subversive artist in the US who gets that kind of popularity and support. Why do you think that is?

Weiwei is an international figure but he is also very much a Chinese figure whose work is connected to Chinese context politically, which is very different than the US. But we are not immune to these problems either- we too always have to be aware of the freedom of expression being trampled on, of the rule of law or transparency. They are important in both places but the contexts are very different. I'm pretty sure that there are many people who are fighting the good fight in the US. But when I was thinking about who our Ai Weiwei would be, I actually thought about Stephen Colbert. Everything he does with super PAC is brilliant because I think what that's doing is a very humorous and loud way to put a spotlight on transparency or the lack thereof. People are more aware of the super PAC than before because of him. He has a lot of audiences and most of them are young people. He even got people to give him money for this! Part of that is because it's fun and part of it is that it's a vote for the voice that's basically saying 'I'm tired of this bullshit!' Colbert is not an artist but in our context, I thought about comedians rather than someone from the fine art world.

But I didn't make the film just to point out the large differences between China and the US. When making the film, my point was not to say, 'look at the problems over there', but 'look at someone using courage and creativity to deal with these problems'. And I really think that's how the audience has been taking it.

What's next for you? Are you going to continue documenting this ongoing saga of Ai Weiwei?

I can't imagine my life not keeping up to speed with what's going on with him. Next few months I'll definitely try hard to bring the movie out, because we've been getting so much interests in so many different places around the world and I think it is really important. But I have been thinking very much about doing other things. In the vein of Ai Weiwei, I want to do something new and I do want to do more documentaries and keep myself busy creatively. But since I have a lot to live up to, I would be choosing the subject very cautiously. (laughs) I'm also thinking about shorts and series and screenplays but I don't think I'll have time to start anything new for another few months.

And what a way to start a career!

I guess, yeah. All by the dumb luck and crazy set of circumstances.

And hard work, I'm sure.

I feel very fortunate to be able to tell his story and to have that time with him for sure. My current dream right now is the day when the movie screens somewhere and afterward, Weiwei comes out to do the Q & A. We were hoping that it would have been possible after June 22nd. But everything is up in the air right now.

At least a video chat with him would be great.

We are looking into what would be possible right now. It should be really cool!

*Update: As expected, Chinese court rejected Ai Weiwei's tax evasion countersuit on July 20th. Ai and his supporters were barred from attending the hearing.


Ai Weiwei is being released by IFC Films and opens on July 27th. Klayman will be on hand to introduce the film this weekend at IFC Center in NYC. For tickets and more information, please visit IFC CENTER website

Hip-hop Therapy

Roadside Fugitive SR (2012) - Irie

Yu Irie (8000 Miles, 8000 Miles 2 and Ringing in Their Ears) returns to this year's Japan Cuts with Roadside Fugitive SR, the third installment of his sleeper hit debut, 8000 Miles. The lovable losers from Saitama- Ikku (Ryusuke Komakine) and Tom (Shingo Mizusawa), are back, still dreaming of that big break at hip-hop stardom.

But the film starts with Mighty, aka Bro(ccoli) (Eita Okuno), the third member of Shogung last seen in the first film, leaving for Tokyo with a more promising rap group, Gokuakucho. Now it's been two years, with a chubby, nagging girlfriend Kazumi in tow, his stint as a construction worker by day and an errand boy for Gokuakucho by night ain't exactly a career he had in mind.

He gets a chance to prove himself at a local freestyle MC battle and is promised a spot on stage with the rest of the group if he made to the finals. Mighty proves his dexterity in rhyming and destroys his opponents with his rapid verbal assault one by one. But to his dismay, when he actually makes it to the final, he is told to take a dive, because his opponent is a wealthy friend of Gokuakucho. Humiliated by the defeat and non-stop abuse, Mighty reaches the boiling point and beats up one of the group members and runs away to Tochi-Gi, a suburb of Tokyo. There he gets involved with a seedy local gang of car thieves and human traffickers.

Ikku and Tom's path crosses with Mighty's in Tochi-Gi, as Shogung auditions for the outdoor festival, arranged by Mighty's boss Norio. After the near disastrous audition, Shogung and the local band Supreme Shogun (members consists of Three Monkeys and Sleepy Cat) decides to combine their talents and perform together after finding out Norio is charging 50 thousand yen for the entering fee per each group and with their shared admiration for the legendary Saitama DJ, TKD (Takeda-sama).

Mighty just can't get a break though. Flat broke, Kazumi opts for turning tricks at the urging of a local club owner. He goes ballistic after he finds it out and knocks the club owner cold with an ashtray. Furthermore, Gokuakucho is in town, invited by Norio to perform at the festival.

It's really fantastic to see Irie mature as a filmmaker with each of his new films. But Roadside Fugitive is a truly giant leap forward. His preferred long takes are well served in two pivotal, dynamic handheld tracking scenes to its thrilling height : one is where Mighty is being chased by angry Gokuakucho gang at night in the rain. You can feel the urgency and desperation of Mighty as he sprints for his life. Then there is the film's climax where Mighty tries to flee his predicament one more time while trying to settle the score with Norio, the gang, the world and himself, rampaging through the outdoor concert venue at night. These prolonged scenes are just as good as any Michael Mann's expensive elaborate getaway set pieces.
But it's Irie's passion for music (in this case, hip-hop) that I'm most impressed with. While skillfully contrasting Ikku and Tom's innocent dreamers with Mighty's desperado, by the end, Irie manages to elevate the film above its seemingly silly material. As with his previous films, music works as a therapy that transcends all the world's problems. Roadside Fugitive SR is a great crowd pleaser that has a lot of heart and passion. Definitely one of the my favorites so far this year.


Yu Irie Interview

Ringing in Their Ears Review

8000 Miles Review

8000 Miles 2 Review

We Need to Talk about Kevin's Mom

We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011) - Ramsay
At first it's jarring and even puzzling. But then you see the similar themes coursing through Lynn Ramsay's previous films. Death, guilt and how to deal with it. Then you see that over-stylization of Kevin becomes far less of a hindrance. Actually you get to marvel at how amazing the film is put together. Here, Ramsay is definitely working on another level.

The film is obviously not about Kevin, nor the state of High School kids today, nor our society, nor the nature of evil. The film unspools all out of order as Eva (Tilda Swinton), examines her life as mom, as if she is searching for something she's done wrong to have a child like Kevin. How did she end up with an ogre of a man (John C. Riley) in the first place, let alone have sex with him and marries him? Obviously she is not a mom type. And young Kevin is an unresponsive bundle of creep. Then he grows up to be just a creep. He only leaves Eva alone to live through the massacre he commits. Is this her punishment? Does she deserve all the suffering? Of course not. It's a very hard film to like. But at the end she is the one waiting for his release. The film really affected me. Evil exists in this world as naturally as ice cream. No one is at fault for that.

One of the criticisms of the movie is that it is shallow in that 'free spirited woman trapped in the role of a housewife' way. I would've called it little more than trite, only if Eva was played by someone other than Swinton. It's her otherworldly quality that was just about perfect for the movie I thought.