Film audiences in Berlin have enjoyed two opportunities to see the film H. this year, first at the Berlinale in February and then, more recently, at the Fantasy FilmFest in August. It is a movie that does well with a second viewing as the allusions to the Helen of Troy mythology from the Iliad and The Odyssey can be distracting rather than illuminating the first time around. As the events slowly unfold on screen, filmgoers can feel as if they have wandered into a graduate school literature class without reading the assignment or even having access to the CliffsNotes version. Letting go of these concerns during a subsequent viewing allows audiences to escape a sense of frustration and enjoy the pleasures of understated storytelling within a technically sound framework. Of course, you still need to devote more mental energy than in most films, but here, one feels as if it is worth the effort even if there are elements that must be pushed to the side.
Archive for the ‘2015 Berlinale’ Category
Der letze Sommer der Reichen (The Last Summer of the Rich) Review
Posted: April 8, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, Foreign, ReviewsTags: Amira Casar, Nicole Gerdon, Peter Kern, Shakespeare, Susanna Hohlrieder, Vienna, Winfried Glatzeder
Imagine that Shakespeare wrote one more play in the vein of Titus Andronicus, a story replete with palace intrigue, villainy and violence, and a bit of rough sex. Now, envisage a film based on that play with the screenwriter transposing the action from an incestuous royal court to a contemporary family-owned corporation. Dress the heir apparent in a sheer blouse, black bra, seamed stockings, and peep toe shoes rather than purple robes and a tiara. Substitute conniving bankers for devious cardinals. Keep the castle and the attendant nun, but swap out the throne for a real seat of power – the position of CEO. The end result of such a scenario might look strikingly similar to Der letze Sommer der Reichen (The Last Summer of the Rich), an over-the-top tale of under-the-sheet and behind-the-back maneuverings within the modern monarchy of a Vienna-based corporation. (more…)
Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) Review
Posted: March 29, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Comedy, Drama, Foreign, ReviewsTags: Dagur Kári, Franziska Una Dagsdóttir, Gunnar Jónsson, Iceland, Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir, Marty, Metalhead, Romance
Ironic as it might be, “slight” is the adjective that best describes Virgin Mountain, an Icelandic drama comedy that features an enormous manchild’s first tentative steps into adulthood at the tender age of 43. The 94-minute film, the fourth feature from Dagur Kári, is largely (no pun intended) an exercise (too little of that for the main character), in walking a narrow path between cliche and implausibility. While the sheer likeability of the two leads will have audiences rooting for their, and the film’s success, ultimately director Kári, working from his own screenplay, cannot overcome the limits he imposes on himself in attempting a retelling of a too-familiar tale. (more…)
Homesick Review
Posted: March 28, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Foreign, Horror, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Adam Wingard, Cello, Esther Maria Pietsch, H.L. Mencken, Jakob Erwa, Matthias Lier, Music Competition, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Tatja Seibt
Too often it seems as if the programmers for the Berlinale Film Festival use the H.L. Mencken definition of puritanism as their maxim for selecting films. They display a haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy after seeing one of the movies they choose to showcase at the annual event. Working your way through the Competition or Panorama category can be an eat-your-vegetables exercise. Where then can the intrepid filmgoer go for a nice slice of genre pie after days and nights of sampling overdone highbrow fare? The task is not an easy one. Berlinale has yet to follow the lead offered by the world’s other premier film festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, and London and added a Midnight section for horror, science fiction, fantasy, off-beat comedy, and other films that don’t so much push the envelope as rip it a new one. (more…)
Queen of the Desert Review
Posted: March 27, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Damian Lewis, David Lean, Gertrude Bell, Holly Earl, James Franco, Lawrence of Arabia, Mark Lewis Jones, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Werner Herzog
Remember the great disaster movies of the 1970’s, films like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, and Earthquake? The formula was simple: put as many stars as you could find in the path of a natural disaster and let God and Irwin Allen sort out the winners and losers. Credit Werner Herzog with resurrecting the genre. For his latest film, Queen of the Desert, Herzog collected a handful of household names, put them in a rickety vehicle, and crashed them over and over again. (more…)
Diary of a Chambermaid (2015) Review
Posted: March 14, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, Foreign, ReviewsTags: Benoît Jacquot, Jean Renoir, Léa Seydoux, Luis Buñuel, Octave Mirbeau
If there had been an award for Most Unnecessary Film in the Competition program at the 2015 Berlinale, Diary of a Chambermaid would undoubtedly have won by acclamation. The third time is most certainly not the charm for film adaptations of the 1900 naughty French novel Journal d’une femme de chamber by Octave Mirbeau, which saw prior incarnations in 1946 and in 1964, the former directed by Jean Renoir, the latter by Luis Buñuel. That pedigree is perhaps the only reasonable explanation for why director Benoît Jacquot dusted off a 100-year old novel that long ago lost its power to scandalize. Remaking the past movies of legends does not confer the same status onto those who purvey in the present, however. Jacquot’s effort pales in comparison to both previous efforts and looks even worse when measured by the standards of contemporary cinema. (more…)
Nobody Wants the Night Review
Posted: March 13, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Gabriel Byrne, Isabel Coixet, Josephine Peary, Juliette Binoche, North Pole, Rinko Kikuchi, Robert Peary
One thing can be said for the selection of Nobody Wants the Night as the opening film for the 2015 Berlinale – it established a theme that recurred with regularity throughout the festival, most particularly in the Competition program. Unfortunately, that theme can most charitably be termed “unfulfilled expectations.” (A less diplomatic, but equally accurate description would be “bad movies from good directors.”) Five of the 19 films angling for the Golden Bear for Best Film fell under this description as audiences suffered through subpar products from Werner Herzog, Terrence Malick, Benoit Jacquot, and Peter Greenaway in addition to the disappointing film that kicked off the proceedings. Director Isabel Coixet’s contribution was not the worst (that distinction belongs to Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato), but it may well have been the most amateurish.
Victoria Review
Posted: March 8, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Action, Foreign, Reviews, ThrillerTags: André Hennicke, Franz Rogowski, Frederick Lau, Heist Film, Laia Costa, Mumblecore, Run Lola Run, Sebastian Schipper
Once upon a time there was a German film called Run, Lola, Run that become something of a global sensation for its frenetic pace, its inventive storytelling, and its sheer novelty. Seventeen years later, we have another German film, Victoria, that also deals with a ne’er-do-well in a difficult situation who looks to a woman as the solution to his troubles. What’s more, Victoria boasts its own cinematic gimmicks, as the movie was purportedly filmed in one take and meant to play out in real time. And the writer and director of Victoria, Sebastian Schipper, even appeared in the cast of Run, Lola, Run. (more…)
Mr. Holmes Review
Posted: March 7, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Arthur Conan Doyle, Basil Rathbone, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Condon, Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Nicholas Rowe, Sherlock Holmes, The Shootist
A case could be made for Sherlock Homes as the first modern superhero. It would be as reasonable an explanation as any for the enduring nature of this character. His deductive reasoning is routinely presented as otherworldly. He is generally represented as wearing a costume with his deerstalker hat and Inverness cape. He is as ascetic as Superman and as brooding as Batman. His moral flaws rival those of Iron Man. He has an archenemy in Moriarty and a sense of immortality in that his death could never be confirmed. (more…)
Love & Mercy Review
Posted: February 28, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Bill Pohlad, Brian Wilson, Elizabeth Banks, Jake Abel, John Cusack, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, The Beach Boys
Much has been made of the connection between the sense of smell and memory, but the movie Love & Mercy reminds us of how evocative certain sounds can be. The beautifully remastered soundtrack from this film coming through a Dolby Atmos system in a darkened cinema brings forth a flood of memories: summer heat, sprinklers sending arcs of cool water over the lawn, coconut-scented suntan lotion, riding in your buddy’s car with the windows down, slow dancing on Friday nights in junior high. The Beach Boys provided the soundtrack for Americana for the last 50 years, and it is their music which is this new film’s ace in the hole. (more…)
Meet Mr. Karma 