Cambridge Film Festival Review 2015 #1

THE 35th CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL

R E V I E W previewed New German Cinema

crime and punishment INSIDE: Pretend We’re Kissing Wanja Born mamils Cover pic from DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

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unofficial film festival THEMES #1:

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

with deputy edd

Is it wrong to indulge in financial corruption? Is it really wrong to kill someone? Yes, yes it is.

In fact, if you were questioning these statements in any way you should probably re-evaluate your morality system. CFF delves into justice with a series of films about moral and immoral acts, and those who deal with the consequences.

Two financial thrillers observe the entangled mess of the corporate world.

THE CLEARSTREAM AFFAIR recreates the French financial crisis of 2001, with journalist Denis Robert on the track of some dodgy upperclass investors; and Tudor Giurgiu’s WHY ME? looks at legal corruption with the reconstruction of one of Romania’s most infamous trials.

Sjöström’s THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE holds a more personal court.

The great director stars as a double-dealing farmer barred from his rural society. Joined in the wilderness by his love, the pair retreat from the concerns of day to day life. But without community’s protection, even worse felons come calling. An emotional outlaw is observed in ALL THE WAYS OF GOD. A contemporary Judas deals with his conscience amid a surreal encounter, in one of the highlights from the Catalan Strand.

Identical themes – friendship, guilt and repentance – reappear in documentary form. The touching 16 YEARS TILL SUMMER, the tale of a recent ex-convict aiding his ailing father, is set to be one of the best of the home-grown features. And let’s not forget Sundance patron Robert Redford, who directs THE COMPANY YOU KEEP: the tale of a lawyer who’s forced to face the consequences of his criminal activist past.

Finally, THE LAST EXECUTIONER looks at Chavoret Jaruboon, the last man paid to execute in Thailand. Fans of Joshua Oppenheimer may see similarities to the spectacular THE ACT OF KILLING and THE LOOK OF SILENCE. Moral quandaries ahoy – don’t miss any of them!

FAUST LERNER LOOKS AT

NEW GERMAN CINEMA This year’s New German Cinema strand represents a new mood of confidence in German cinema, and traces its evolution from the early days of the Oberhausen group to welcome and embrace contemporary film-makers such as DOWNFALL director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who is known for elevating well-trodden historical drama into works of high art. On the first day of the Festival we speed back into the 90s with Andreas Dresen’s AS WE WERE DREAMING. Fans of Irvine Welsh will particularly enjoy this febrile coming-of-age tale set in a Leipzig suburb, following a gang of delinquents as they pitch headlong into a reunified Germany. Towards the end of the festival we foray further back, when the German programme offers previously unseen footage of the hellion Fassbinder in his friend Christian Braad Thomsen’s TO LOVE WITHOUT DEMANDS. For those who prefer a more naturalistic cinematic style, on Friday 4th you can see newcomer Juan Schnitman’s dramatic handheld character study THE FIRE, in which a young couple’s relationship echoes the societal turmoil of the State of Argentina; and on the evening of Saturday 5th CFF will screen Sonja Heiss’ drama HEDI SCHNEIDER IS STUCK, whose astute and sensitive treatment of mental illness and drug dependency is offset by a mercurial sense of humour. This is balanced neatly by a feature debut from filmmaker Janina Herhoffer, who fixes a keen eye on the human craving for balance and individuation amidst the maelstrom of modern life. Herhoffer follows the example of Wim Wenders, who for the past ten years concentrated largely on documentary and essay films before his recent diversion into 3D drama. If you’ve ever trained for a half-marathon, counted your five a day or studied NLP, you’ll glimpse yourself in her documentary AFTER WORK on the 10th September. Herhoffer’s careful compositions present a variety of afterwork classes as microcosms of social dynamics – from the awkwardness of the ballet straggler to the triumph of the middle-aged gymnast and the solipsism of the teenage wannabe rockstar.

If you enjoyed HEMEL at the 2012 Cambridge Film Festival, don’t miss Sacha Polak’s new feature ZURICH, with which she begins to make her mark as a true auteur. This portrait of a woman in torment screens on the penultimate day of the festival, and reunites Polak with writer Helena van der Muelin. ZURICH paves the way to Polak’s next project: a dramatisation of the romance between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.

Not sure where to start with German cinema? Just take a gamble on any of these great titles - der Hunger kommt beim Essen!

FAYE GENTILE REVIEWS

RIDING with mamils Firstly, let me explain what a mamil is: it’s actually an acronym for ‘middle aged men in lycra’. Secondly, let me also state that boys will be boys. Always.

These two statements set the foundations for the hearty documentary by John Scrivener.

RIPCOR: RIDING WITH MAMILS is a modest, funny and inspiring film about the cycling collective Ripcor: a group of guys banding together, getting on their bikes and riding. They ride for the fun of it, for the love of it and for an all important cause: raising money for the PACE centre in Buckinghamshire - a specialist school for children with motor disorders, such as cerebral palsy. The riders derive from very different backgrounds, each with different traits setting them sometimes far apart. But when they ride, the two wheels they each mount bind them together as a brotherhood.

To join Ripcor you must have a passion for cake, beer and cycling - in that order. We follow the band of brothers in this wonderfully epic journey where they face their toughest ride to date; tackling L’Alpe d’Huez, a mountain that peaks at 3,330 metres. It’s a mecca for any serious rider. But will the beer and cake catch up with them? No sir! They might be a little disorganised, but they’re determined to make it to the top and enjoy the mind blowing ride down. But determination and grit aside, will they make it? Now, that would be telling. They intend to stop at nothing, if they’re knocked down - they’ll get back up again.

In many ways, this high spirited ride for the Ripcor team reflects the uphill struggle that the charity must face - whether it is intentional or not - it’s a wonderful metaphorical slant to the documentary. Not only this, but from a cinematic point of view, RIPCOR: RIDING WITH MAMILS is a highly polished piece of film. This is not your run of the mill footage of talking heads and pan shots. It excellently blends clean and crisp shots of our riders being interviewed, with beautifully captured scenery. It’s delightful, it’s riveting and the cinematography is beautiful. You might laugh, you might shed a tear, but either way you’ll leave the cinema feeling inspired.

RIDING WITH MAMILS screens on 9 September at 14.00 as part of FILM HUB: DOCS.

born

The money shot stains the screen. Drains the screen of light, in fact. Sure, a couple are rutting in an artfully arranged Late

Baroque

styled

room,

complete with a handy dresser mirror to help the viewer fill in all a few angles. But ignore that. Director Claudio Zulian dares show something of the nature of real light. It ebbs. It flows. It flits behind a cloud.

Zulian and his cinematographer, the

Albert

Serra

collaborator

Jimmy Gimferrer, play with the light throughout BORN to splash on the otherness of early 18th century Barcelona. Family meetings take place in dingy parlours; sunshine streams through open windows; tight streets offer the hope of greater illumination. It’s all to no avail, of course. These characters never quite emerge into direct exposure. This may be deliberate, given that the film takes its inspiration from the parts of the Born district of Barcelona that were demolished following the Spanish Wars of Succession. The light may aspire to BARRY LYNDON levels of naturalism, yet the architecture underpins it all both then and now. Today, the ruins may be viewed under cover in the El Born Centre Cultural. Something of this lingers here.

That link to modernity crops up with the main issue ruining the character’s lives: cash.

All of them are skint. Based upon a historical work on the suburb from Albert García Espuche, BORN pulls together a trio of interlinked characters wandering around the doomed cobblestones. Each receives their moment in the candlelight before popping up in each other’s stories. Bonaventura’s sister Marianna opts for prostitution when the funds evaporate, and local businessman Vicenç sees opportunity in cornering the tobacco market provided he can bet on the next monarch correctly. Using what seem to be real historic locations grounds the characters in their setting. Yet the backdrops often seem overly worn for such human concerns as living. These people seem like vagrants, lost in time in their own city. One can almost smell the mopped floors of museums. You get a similar effect in other films that use real historical buildings earlier in their timeline. Just look at the knackered Italian castles, old before their supposed time, in the medieval-set LADYHAWKE. Yet Zulian’s architectural ploy serves its purpose, as the sounds of contemporary urban life surging over the ruins at the end of BORN testify.

Review by David Perilli

BORN screens on 6 September at 22.30 at APH

PRETEND WE’RE KISSING reviewed by Emma Wilkinson

PRETEND WE’RE KISSING is a rom-com that sidelines princesses and happy endings in favour of awkward flirting, beanie hats and poor social awareness. Matt Sadowski’s film is a charming and very frank portrayal of the relationship between Benny (Dov Tiefenbach) and Jordan (Tommie-Amber Pirie) as they attempt to navigate their way through their respective character flaws, and past Benny’s self-diagnosed agoraphobic housemate, Autumn (Zoë Kravitz). The result is a beautifully shot film which is determined to be a misfit.

There is a social and sexual frankness to PRETEND WE’RE KISSING, where Hollywood sheen is worn off in favour of conversational Freudian slips and lacklustre sexual experience. This “realness” continues outside of Benny and Jordan’s relationship, and provides some of the most enchanting sequences in the film. In aiming to create the most honest world of Benny, his down-time and personal-time are also accounted for — from the low-level flirtation with his local deli clerk to an interrupted masturbation scene. It also necessitates a host of sequences around Toronto which add visual depth and poise. The graceful framing of the autumnal backdrop of Toronto allows fairly unexciting activities (e.g. the many sequences of Benny putting up posters) to be beguiling in their stillness.

Care and attention to detail in this way continues throughout the film — while perhaps the only non-domestic or non-ordinary shooting location is the majestic Toronto Islands, the overall aesthetic power of the film tricks the audience into believing each of these very commonplace settings (a bar, a diner, an interior) has a certain magic about it, even while the characters themselves struggle to assemble anything magical out of their everyday lives.

PRETEND

WE’RE

KISSING

swerves

mainstream

ideas

unremittingly of

romance,

which seems by turns refreshing and slightly pedantic. While we long for Benny and Jordan to manage to salvage some kind of relationship, they begin to test our patience.

And yet patience is never quite lost: with KISSING Sadowski has created a perpetually unusual and captivating aesthetic world.

See PRETEND WE’RE KISSING on 3 Sep @ 23.30 @ APH

WANJA screens on 9 September at 22.00 at the APH. Wanja is a middle-aged woman on parole for bank robbery, looking around the most basic of flats in Sulingen, Germany. She’s given help by the government to find a job and to begin rebuilding her life.

She finds employment at a racehorse stables, where she is the oldest person by a furlong and struggles to bond with the other stable hands; preferring to keep quiet and get on with learning the job. Wanja finally makes a friend, teen Emma (Nele Trebs) and develops an odd mother/sister/only friend relationship with her. The story questions whether Wanja can start again, or whether her life of stealing and drug taking will drag her back down.

Cinematographer and producer Kathrin Krottenthaler creates a gritty realism of Germany, showing us grimy buildings, tired streets, shady pubs and diarrhoea inducing takeaway restaurants, but the heartbeat is in writer/director Carolina Hellsgård’s script.

The creation of Wanja is excellent, a blend of strength and uncertainty. Almost all the male characters try to exploit her, and it is refreshing to see a female character hold no punches and never let them win. In many scenes she is either in direct contact with an animal or has one nearby. Even in connecting scenes where she walks down a street, there will be a cat skulking by or birds chattering in the trees. Wanja seems better suited to interacting with animals; it’s with human contact that the black cloud of loneliness surrounds her.

The way Ratte-Polle struts, hands stuffed in her jacket pockets, has the hallmark of a young Robert De Niro. She is able to switch from vulnerable loner to attacking snake with lightning speed. Yet there is still raw emotion under that tough outsider’s skin, like when she talks to her daughter on the telephone for the first time in a long while.

This is a great film, with a protagonist not yet ready to give in, a masterly shot urban landscape and an eye on keeping the viewer engaged throughout. Hellsgård is a skilled filmmaker who understands story and keeps it at the forefront of her film.

Full length versions of all articles @ takeonecff.com

Review by Garry Pope

Arts, Law & Social Sciences

Anglia Law School

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