Issue 6 / Tuesday 21 September
Cambridge Film Festival Daily I nterview
Restructuring memories of Siberia “The world is now experienced through a lens, whether that’s a movie camera or mobile phone technology or whatever... we’re kind of endlessly mediating experience through that” says Sarah Turner, talking to me about her highly acclaimed and experimental film PERESTROIKA. “The film in that way is a big reflection on the role of photography, as a way to process experience. What does it mean? Is it telling us a truth? And within the parameters of that, I started to think maybe photography is creating the experience rather than recording it.” It was a concept, and a film, that resonated with me strongly after a recent trip to Venice, where I spent much of the time capturing my experience on the miniature LCD screen on the back of a low-end digital camera. Ingeniously, the film uses amnesia as a device to
Hot Ticket Tuesday 21 September STEPHEN FREARS: LOOKING BACK - Join the acclaimed British director of My Beautiful Laundrette and THE QUEEN for this on-stage conversation about his career. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: THE ROLLING STONES - Revisit this classic Stones concert movie from their legendary 1972 tour. PERESTROIKA
enable the protagonist – ostensibly Turner herself, though the film is at least part fictionalised – to look back on twenty year old footage she had taken of a Trans-Siberian train journey: the images now literally left to fill in for genuine recollection. Much of the film’s footage was captured on a real journey across Russia, undertaken in late 1987 to early 1988. What intrigued me was why Turner should want to return to these images now, twenty years later (repeating and recording the exact same journey over the same time period of 2007-2008). “It was critical that two decades had passed. When I was on that first trip I was twenty and became twenty-one, and that’s a very particular time in anyone’s life – a sort of coming of age. So it’s about revisiting a time in life, but then obviously there is this enormous canvas of wider significance, this wider political and historical canvas which is within that twenty year ellipsis.” But there is an altogether more difficult and personal reason why it has taken so long for Turner to realise this project, as the memories themselves are stained with tragedy. “Although the film is fiction, there are a lot of facts, and certainly autobiographical facts. My close friend and mentor died in 1993, killed in a cycling accident in Siberia... I think that was one of the reasons why I was never able to think about using that footage at all.” Confronting the past has proven to be an artistically fruitful decision, however, continued on page 2
Jean Becker © TC
from page 1
as the film has earned rave reviews, not least among them being prestigious “Film of the Month” status in a prominent and internationally read journal of record: Sight and Sound magazine. I wondered whether this high praise from a respected magazine could, in effect, be as significant as bagging a prize in a major European film festival. Turner is hopeful, saying the accolade “will mean that the film achieves much, much wider critical recognition and given obviously that it’s an experimental work, there are not many festivals where it could win awards... I’m sure that it will have a really valuable impact on the film’s audiences in the long-term.” PERESTROIKA is playing here as part of the TRANSPORTED strand, which is fitting as Turner suggested the cinematic representation of trains was never far from her mind when making the film: “I had certain key references around train films, the most crucial of all of them is Ulrike Ottinger’s film JOHANNA D’ARC OF MONGOLIA, set on the Trans-Siberian train. So for me it’s great to be placed in that context and in that history.” Providing the printed word can also create, rather than simply record, memory: Turner may have forged her own place in film history. Robert Beames PERESTROIKA is screened on Tuesday 21 September at 8.00pm
INTERVIEW
My afternoon with Jean Becker Interview with Jean Becker, director of My Afternoons with Margueritte
After conquering the hearts of audiences at last year’s Festival with CONVERSATIONS WITH MY GARDENER, 77-year-old French filmmaker Jean Becker comes back into the Festival’s programme this year with his new feature film MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE (LA TÊTE EN FRICHE). Set in rural France, the film tells the story of an unexpected friendship between the village idiot, Germain (played by Gérard Depardieu), and 95-year-old Margueritte (played by Gisèle Casadesus). Becker was completely seduced by the characters from Marie Sabine Roger’s novel and immediately decided to make a film adaptation. “Marie Sabine has a style of writing that is very rural, workingclass, despite the fact that she looks like an academic.” This is not the first time that Becker has adapted a novel to the screen. Indeed, out of the dozen films Becker has directed, ELISA was the only one with an original script. “I use other people’s imagination because I don’t have enough myself.” Quite a hard statement to believe when you know that, for a particular scene, Becker thought of placing a birdcage above Depardieu’s head to keep the attention of the cat on him. With the collaboration of screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, Becker reworked some of the dialogue but he aimed to stay true to Roger’s story and to the way she depicts her characters. “The only
convention I altered was to move away from the first person narration. I could have used a voice-over narration for the film but I preferred materialising Germain’s thoughts into images.” The film thus alternates between slices of Germain’s life in the present, flashbacks of his bullied childhood, and visualisations of his imagination. “Germain is looking to be accepted and, ultimately, to be loved. In Margueritte, he finds an encouraging teacher, a loving mother figure, and a captivating woman. She encapsulates everything he longs for.” Margueritte’s influence will change the course of Germain’s life by passing on to him her love for books, a love that Becker shares as well. “I love reading, and I read a lot. Unfortunately, I am like Margueritte now; I have to ask people to read for me because I can’t see well anymore.” Despite his condition, Becker is determined to continue making films and is currently looking for a new project. “There is a line in the film that says, dans la vie, nous ne sommes que des passeurs (in life, we are only passers-by). It’s true. In life, we pass things on to each other. Today I cross your path and I may tell you something that tomorrow you will repeat to someone else, and you’ll say ‘It’s Jean Becker who told me this’.” The Festival’s spectators certainly won’t forget their encounter with Jean Becker during the afterscreening Q&A. Becker shared many anecdotes about his film, which made the audience burst out with laughter. For those who didn’t get a chance to see the UK premiere of the film, MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE is scheduled for wider distribution in the UK in 2012. Aline Conti MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE was screened on Sunday 19 September
DESTINO: A CONTEMPORARY DANCE STORY
review
review
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould Dir / Michèle Hozer, Peter Raymont 108 mins / Canada 2009
Babies Dir / Thomas Balmes 78 mins / France 2010
From his parents’ first expectations that he would become a singer to the influence his piano teacher had upon him, the directors deliver a poignant account of the extraordinary and iconoclastic figure of musician Glenn Gould. Covering Gould’s artistic genius as well as his fragile and solitary nature, the film is organised around Gould’s own thoughts and friends’ recollections of his professional and private moments. The rarely seen footage of him and his family during his childhood and adolescence wrap his developing genius in a cozy and warm atmosphere. Yet friends’ testimonies uncover aspects of Gould’s personality and artistic philosophy that show a shadowy, though fascinating, quality to his persona. Comments by other musicians offer an enchanting portrayal of the marvel that the first public appearances of Gould’s playing produced. Vladimir Ashkenazy reports of “…a control, a clarity of the structure of Bach’s music” in Gould’s playing as the first time that such a quality was achieved by a pianist; Leonard Bernstein felt compelled to make a speech of disagreement with Gould’s interpretation of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto prior to its execution at the Carnegie Hall in 1962. As if using the many pieces of a puzzle, Hozer and Raymont have worked towards a meaningful rendering of a global vision of Gould’s creative stature, while conveying a very humane and genuine exposition of a man’s inner journey to understand himself.
BABIES is a timely reminder of being a baby when I had grown used to my current age. Whilst David Attenborough inspires us again and again to wonder at life, director Thomas Balmes does not quite have the same power to absorb you in what he is doing. The photography is pristine. National Geographic springs to mind. The babies are Ponijao from Namibia, Bayarjargal from Mongolia, Mari from Tokyo and Hattie from San Francisco. You see each baby grow until about the time they learn to speak. I laughed when they were in a play group in San Francisco singing ‘The earth will take care of us’ and baby Hattie was desperately trying a locked door to escape. Children are wiser than adults and to simply watch children is in some ways enjoyable. This is a fairly happy bunch (although there are one or two tantrums) and there is a sense of wonder universally felt in some of the scenes with mother and babe. The director in showing one life on a Mongolian farm, one on African scrub and two in cities advises us that through it all exists a brotherhood of man. But the film did not move me: partly because of the music (for which I think Benni Hemm Hemm would have been a better choice) and partly because constantly changing country became distracting after a time. It does what it says on the tin. And if you are a mother, it could say more to you maybe, baby. Benedict
Loreta Gandolfi
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould is screened on Tuesday 21 September at 1.30pm
Womack
BABIES is screened on Tuesday 21 September at 6.00pm
review
Unashamedly hopeful Destino: A contemporary Dance Story Dir / Caswell Coggins 56 mins / UK 2010
DESTINO follows two Ethiopian dancers, Junaid and Addisu, as they work on socially collaborative and avant-garde dance pieces, firstly at Sadler’s Wells and then back home in Addis Ababa. The company take a unique approach by fusing professional dancers with the non-professionals. The company they form is inclusive, seeking to provide an experiential physical dancing outlet for a range of performers. At Sadler’s Wells the non-professionals bridge the intergenerational divide, ranging in age from 10 to 89 years old as they perform a piece called ‘The Empire’s Fall’. In Addis, at the Ethiopian National Theatre, they perform a new piece (‘Wekt: The Seasons’) choreographed by Addisu with the Adugna Community Dance Theatre Company and 11 disabled dancers. The film is unashamedly hopeful, the message it conveys relentlessly positive. It verges at times on self-congratulation – but it does so justifiably. The frequent recourse in interviews with the dancers and choreographers to truisms about the communal spirit enacted by such ensemble dance pieces, and the generosity of spirit which enables them, would tip cynics over the edge. But they are rescued from such negative thinking by the stunning photography of the actual performances which is undoubtedly the film’s great success. It seems fitting that the film’s words fail to fully convey the emotion and beauty of the piece – that is left to the dancing itself. For anyone with an interest in dance, or simply the captivating elegance of the human body in motion, DESTINO is right in step. Chris Stefanowicz DESTINO: A CONTEMPORARY DANCE STORY is screened on Tuesday 21 September at 4.00pm
FILMMAKERS ON FILMMAKING We pose the questions plaguing budding filmmakers to the makers of WHITE BUFFALO: Gabriel Pac (director/producer) and Christian Ryden (producer/writer/actor). How did you go about raising the funds for the film? Gabriel (GP): It was mostly raised by myself and Chris and Danny who’s our editor. We pooled together all our own savings, plus whatever family and friends were willing to donate. Christian (CR): We managed to raise twelve hundred quid - a very small amount! Our film works out at about £40 a minute! I wrote it as a feature set in Boston – about a guy back from the army and struggling to settle back into society - but we thought there’s no way we’re going to get 500,000 pounds to make this so we turned it into a short and thought we’ll see how it does on the festival circuit, and if people warm to it and like it then we’ll try to raise the funds to make it into a feature. The
WHITE BUFFALO short is a condensed version of a film – it’s the essence of the feature. What would you say is your greatest challenge as a filmmaker and how did you overcome it? (GP): The greatest challenge for us was just to get it made! We all trained as actors so it was a case of learning where to start, who to speak to – we’re all learning day by day by being at the festivals and talking to people. Trying to get into that world occasionally felt like you were stabbing in the dark, but it’s getting easier. (CR): You’ve got to take your time when making a film – let it come out when it’s ready to come out. Let it be the best it can be. (GP): It was also very challenging trying to condense a feature into a short. We wanted to tell a story. It was very difficult to get in the mindset of doing it as a short because we always have the feature in our heads.
Postgraduate Film Study in Cambridge
AUDIENCE REVIEWS Monsters
What are your favourite films that you feel should be watched by all aspiring filmmakers? (GP): Watch anything and everything because it’s all part of the world that you want to be in. Even drivel can be educational. (CR): And watch as many shorts as you can – you can’t help but learn from them.
MONSTERS is the story of a cynical journalist hired to carry his boss’ daughter across the ‘Infected Zone’ from Mexico to America. This hard hitting and emotional film is set 6 years after Earth suffers an alien invasion and the world is struggling to maintain control over ‘The Creatures.’ The two characters we follow are named Sam and Andrew, portrayed What advice would you give to by Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy, budding filmmakers and script respectively. The person that stood out writers? in terms of acting was Scoot Mcnairy (CR): If I was starting out to make a having only seen him in the the TV short film I wouldn’t go “right it’s got to shows My Name Is Earl and How I Met be 13 pages�. I would just trust in the Your Mother. Mcnairy gives an excellent process and tell my story. Throw your performance which was both moving ego out the door. And have blind faith. and eye opening. The effects in MONSTERS will hold Fiona Scoble up next to the likes of DISTRICT 9 and WHITE BUFFALO is sceened in THE MIST. Both using similar styles to THE ART OF THE MID-LENGTH on perfect the art of creating a creature Tuesday 21 September at 6.30pm which is both horrifying and remarkable in terms of effects and whether with a 60mm flyer:Layout 1 29/07/2010 09:35 P little imagination this sort of thing could happen in reality in the future. Overall MONSTERS holds its own This newsletter is produced and there are some truly groundbreakon re-cycled material & ing performances from both leads. You printed with vegetable based will laugh, cry and jump out of your seat inks under the sponsorship as you follow this emotional journey. of Sam Tomlinson
TOP TEN: THE PEOPLE’S FAVOURITE FILM AWARD
MA Film Studies &XWWLQJ HGJH WKHRU\ LQFOXGLQJ GLJLWDO FXOWXUH WKH WUDQVQDWLRQDO FLQHVH[XDOLW\ WKH SRVWKXPDQ DQG WKH QHZ H[WUHPLVP
MA Film and Television Production
)LOP 6WXGLHV ‡ &RQWHPSRUDU\ 7KHDWUH ‡'UDPDWKHUDS\ 0DVWHU RI )LQH $UW ‡ 3XEOLVKLQJ ‡ 3ULQWPDNLQJ &UHDWLYH 0XVLF 7HFKQRORJ\ IRU 0HGLD DQG PDQ\ PRUH
5HVHDUFK LQWR FRQFHSW DQG GHVLJQ RI IDFWXDO For more information: Call: 0845 196 2981 SURJUDPPLQJ DQG WKH Email: sarah.jones@anglia.ac.uk EXVLQHVV RI SURGXFWLRQ Visit: www.anglia.ac.uk/artspicture DW &DPEULGJH 6FKRRO RI $UW )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ &OLFN ZZZ DQJOLD DF XN II &DOO (PDLO VDUDK MRQHV#DQJOLD DF XN 1RZ UHFUXLWLQJ IRU -DQXDU\ 9LVLW XV DW RXU 2SHQ 'D\ 2FWREHU
limetree offset limited 6 Pilot Close, Fulmar Way, Wickford Business Park, Wickford, Essex, SS11 8YW Tel: 01268-571411 Fax: 01268-571488 E-mail: studio@limetreeoffset.co.uk Website: www.limetreeoffset.co.uk
Contract Proof Creation
22490 | 99999
Cambridge Film Festival Daily Š 2010 Editor David Perilli Sub-editors Robert Beames, Fiona Scoble Design Robin Castle Photographer Tom Catchesides Copy-editor Sara Cathie Print Limetree Offset Limited
1. A TOWN CALLED PANIC 2. TRIDENTFEST 3. Hoi Polloi Present HUGH HUGHES: HOW I GOT HERE 4. BEIJING PUNK 5. MONTY PYTHON: ALMOST THE TRUTH (THE LAWYER’S CUT) 6. MONSTERS 7. BEGGARS OF LIFE WITH THE DODGE BROTHERS 8. A SWEDISH LOVE STORY 9. THE WILDEST DREAM 10. WORLD’S GREATEST DAD