| home > festival reports > Berlin 2006 > Talent Press - Friday, February 18 |
|
| coming soon |
Berlin 2006 – Daily Reports
Friday, February 17th: Epilogue
On the Way to Success. Laurence Reymond
writes on three short films created at the Talent Campus and supervised
by Korean director Park Chan-wook. More 
On Leaving. Leo Mirani describes melancholically the
atmosphere of the last meeting at the Talent Press. More
Stephen Warbeck: The Sound of Music. The British composer
Stephen Warbeck delighted the Talent Campus participants with his music
and knowledge. Vera Brozzoni reports. More
From the Berlinale Talent Campus Into the Competition. Tamás
Bella interviews Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic, a former Talent Campus
participant, whose first feature, Grbavica, was shown in this
year's competition. More
V for Asininity. Anne von der Goenne reviews V
for Vendetta, "a bit of Hitler combined with some terror fear
and a few historical reference spiced with Hulk and Zorro". More
The Last Day. Olya Aylarova asked colleagues attending
the Campus what they're taking home from this experience. More
The Fourth Obstruction. "The positive thing about
all this is – now I know where's my goal", writes Oleskiy
Radynski. More
Lost in the 21st Century. Soumaya Beltifa reviews the
first full-length feature film made by the former Japanese critic Toshi
Fujiwara, a film which "offers an in-depth image of Japanese youth
and society in 2006". More
On the Way to Success
The Talent Campus has now come to its end, and it's time for celebrations. As one of the various programmes proposed by the Berlinale Talent Campus, "Talent Movies of the Week" is a great opportunity for a young director to shoot a short film, in Berlin, supported by a professional crew, going all the way from re-writing the script to shooting, editing and post-production. This year's mentor, Korean director Park Chan-wook, joined the Talent organisers in selecting three projects from scores of applicants. A long process has led these fortunate chosen few to the House of World Cultures where today, for the first time, we could see their resulting films.
At 6 O’Clock is a project with a strong personal significance for Paul M. Andia Rojas. He evokes the life of a Colombian woman who works in Germany as a housekeeper in order to send money to her family back home. It's quite a universal social issue treated here in a delicate and sensitive way. By inserting small frames into the main image, this young director tries to find a new way of expressing continuity in a single shot, in order to get closer to the feelings of his characters.
With Cleaner, Korean-American B.J. Soh definitely pleased the audience. Shot in black-and-white, the film succeeds in creating a mood of anxiety and fear, with a man repeatedly entering a clinical bathroom where water is running or dripping. It turns out that he doesn't use his toolbox to repair the plumbing, but instead to cut up a corpse that one can only guess is in the bath. With a great sense of framing and judicious use of metallic sounds, B.J. Soh doesn't so much tell a story, but rather draws us into a sick mind. With influences such as David Lynch and Robert Bresson, Soh's taste for 'minimalism' should provide us with some more nice surprises in the years to come.
The collaboration of Scottish writer Simon Hynd and director Philip Van led to the third selected project, High Maintenance. A first collaboration for both of them, and a very promising one, since for each of them, discussing and exchanging points of view on the script was a major personal achievement. For those three projects, expectations were high, and the performing production team once more succeeded in making those dreams come true. Let's hope we'll meet again these young Talents, possibly in a selection of the Berlinale!
On Leaving
There's a faint glow in the sky as the day fades away. It's six in the evening and there are church bells outside the House of World Cultures. Inside, there is the low buzz of a hundred – two hundred – people chatting. Peter Cowie edits Laurence Reymond's piece next to me while Derek Malcolm paces around the Talent Press office, waiting for the meeting that was supposed to be underway already. Meanwhile, Maria is taking photographs of this motley little group and Soumaya is hugging Dawn.
As everyone else works on their final pieces, a slight hint of gloominess hangs in the room. It's the same sort of feeling you get when you're sitting in an airplane, staring out the window and waiting for the plane to take off after a fabulous holiday. The sort of feeling you get after you've been to see friends and are on your way home again. Except the friends I speak of at the Talent Campus aren't friends I came to see, but friends I made in the last week.
You see, travelling is not just about spaces. You can go back to the same city a dozen times, Berlin in this case, and you can go back at the same time of year, and you can do all the same things and you can try your hardest to live the same week again. But you know you can't.
So as this evening winds down, we're secure in the knowledge
that there is the closing party to look forward to and we're all going
to get thoroughly smashed and say our goodbyes and that tomorrow is another
day. But tomorrow is not going to be today. And tomorrow or day after
or the day after that will never be the last week. And knowing that is
enough. That we had this week is enough.
Because tomorrow is, after all, another day.
Stephen Warbeck: The Sound of Music
Many of us, either film critics or cinema-goers, have shed a tear watching Billy Elliott, Shakespeare in Love or even Captain Corelli's Mandoline; the fault was not only of the story, but also of the highly emotional scores that accompanied the images. The man behind those scores is Stephen Warbeck, an English composer who lives near Brighton, and he is at the Berlinale Talent Campus to delight us with his music and knowledge. The public is excited, and for a good reason: the auditorium has been properly provided with a grand piano for the event, and six string players from the VW Orchestra are going to play Warbeck's themes live (even though the original arrangement requires an entire orchestra). Nevertheless, oddly enough no film scene is screened and the audience has to imagine them while listening; let's say, a good exercise for fantasy.
The pieces, generally considered from a musical point of view, show a big influence of Mahler's style, notably the post-romantic atmosphere of the famous Adagietto from the 5th Symphony is frequently recalled. Warbeck only works with classical instruments, but in the case of Quills, a historical drama about Marquis de Sade's years in the Charenton asylum, he was requested by director Philip Kaufman to add effects: so he distorted the sound of a trombone putting a glass bottle inside it, or filled a piano with pieces of wood. The string sextet plays two themes from Quills: the first one describes a young innocent woman being brought to the guillotine and is a sorrowful, melancholic piece with a traditional harmony; the second one is meant to describe Charenton asylum, therefore it is much more dissonant and the violins are used in a rhythmic, rather than melodic way, while the cello and double bass depict long unsettling lines.
Warbeck likes to be in complete control of his work and of the recording sessions, as he explains; but a good personal relationship with the director and a strong emotional involvement with the plot of the film are also necessary elements to create good compositions. Yet this is not always possible: during the post-production of Charlotte Gray, for instance, director Gillian Armstrong was not satisfied with the theme dedicated to Charlotte; Warbeck had to work hard on it, whereas he had spent only a few days to compose a delicate yet dramatic theme to illustrate the trip of two kids towards death in a concentration camp. Anyway the result for Charlotte's theme is awesome: the bass is hammering and menacing, violin and viola cross their melodies in a fresh, watery way that sometimes reminds of Michael Nyman's masterworks.
Warbeck points out that his way of composing requires the film to be entirely shot before he starts working on it; still he needs to keep a very close collaboration with the director and the editor, of course. Some directors, on the other hand, require their musicians to write a temp track so that the actors can understand better the atmosphere of the scene: this is how Anthony Minghella and Gabriel Yared work as a team, for instance. But Warbeck is more traditional in this sense, and since the results are so elegant and emotional, it can be said that he is right in his very personal way. More and more words could be written about this wonderful event, but there is no space left. Let's keep our ears open!
From the Berlinale Talent Campus Into the Competition
An interview with Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic whose first feature, Grbavica, is in competition for the Golden Bear.
Grbavica seems
to be a women's film: its director, producer and even cinematographer
are females. Is it an advantage or a hindrance to be a woman director?
Is the gender problem an issue for you, or do you simply focus on women
because that is your natural perspective?
When men make a film with a male staff, nobody asks such a question, but in the case of women it suddenly becomes an issue. If you as a woman write a story about women, people keep asking you if you are feminist. For me, it comes naturally that I work with female characters and I do believe that I can empathize with them more than I could with males, but I didn't aim at creating a feminist movie. I sometimes manage to use my female charm to pursue people, though, so it might even be an advantage.
I believe that I've discovered a remarkable tendency in the movie going habits of my fellow Hungarians. Most of the people just won't go to watch a film from another Eastern European country. Is the situation the same in Bosnia?
Before the war, Yugoslavia had a highly developed cinema and distribution network; we could watch movies from all around the world. The theatres were owned by the state, so it was not necessary that films had a commercial potential. Unfortunately, this all has changed after the war. Bosnia being a so-called 'country in transition', Hollywood has taken over completely. So we don't even know if people would want to see those European films, because they simply don't get to see them.
The wider public only knows Emir Kusturica from your country. Could you name a few outstanding directors we should certainly get to know?
Bosnia is a very small country that has just been established. From the past, I could name Shiba Krvavac and Bato Cengic, although they were regarded Yugoslavian back then. There are also some up and coming filmmakers out there, the first features of whom have been acclaimed recently: Srdan Vuletic was awarded in Rotterdam a few years ago and Pjer Zalica won the Silver Leopard in Locarno last year. A generation of new Bosnian filmmakers is yet to come, though.
Having been a former Talent, do you think presenting your project on the Campus here was decisive for your success?
It was very useful anyway. The main advantage of the European Pitch Point was having the opportunity to talk to a lot of people about my script. Filmmaking is storytelling, and when recounting your narrative to someone, you immediately get reactions. You already can judge if you can attract people’s attention. Besides, I met my German producer here, so the Campus was an immensely important step in the development of Grbavica.
V for Asininity
It was supposed to display a manifest; V for Vendetta set in 2040 of totalitarian Britain was meant to be a timeless manifest against terrorism. No matter if the terror would come from a government or an individual fighter. The comic adaptation turned out to be an unauthentic popcorn movie.
Even
though the producer Joel Silver tried very hard to convince the potential
audience that the screenplay of the famous Wachowski brothers will blow
us away in the last few months, the realisation is uninspired. Self-evident
a huge marketing campaign was started. Pages were filled with the news
of the shocking new hair cut of starring starlet Natalie Portman. She
shaved her head, what a sacrifice. What an important movie must that
be she is giving her hair for? Being bold didn't help Natalie Portman
at all to be any convincing in her role of a young working-class woman
named Evey, who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked
man known only as V. Portman seems to have the "Dakota Fanning Syndrome" which
implies to look with innocent wide open eyes always a bit desperately
straight into the camera. That's it. Even after poor Evey got tortured
by her master and should have gotten a glaring change of mind she doesn't
adapt her play at all.
The movie itself is just a big bang. Lot's of throats are cut, a few buildings blasted and we find a slight will to underlay all this with a political message. It's a bit of Hitler combined with some terror fear and a few historical reference spiced with Hulk and Zorro.
The Last Day
At the last day of the Talent Campus, something unusual was going on in the House of World Cultures. The cafe, always crowded with people, was deserted, and the mezzanine area seemed solitary. The last panels and workshops were the ones that enjoyed a 100 % attendance by already nostalgic Talents.
Today for the last time people ask the five days top question - So, what interesting stuff have you seen so far?
Dmitry from Russia assumes that the most important Campus events for him were the Final Cut and Avid Express Studios. He really enjoyed listening to Peter Broderick talking about the new ways of bringing your film to the audience through the Internet. "This is the future of independent cinema", Dmitry says. On the contrary, he was "scared by the presence of Peter Sellars" on the Campus. "This guy might be really smart, but his speech didn't have anything to do with filmmaking".
At a Campus event, Swedish writer and director Carita Boronska was lucky to meet a producer working on a Swedish-Indian film. "I am going to take part in this project", she says. In her opinion, the Campus was also very helpful as a place to test her ideas. "You think of something, and you have no idea whether it's good or bad. Here, you can see what your project is like compared to others".
Lucky Kuswandi, filmmaker from Indonesia, found the pitching seminar essential. "As we are mostly thinking of cinema as an art, it was also very useful to get into the minds of money people". Lucky honoured his name also meeting the right people for his future project. "I came here looking for the crew, and I found it". The idea of working with a multinational crew of course represents a challenge for him. "There is co-production, there are film funds, and we will work it out". His sole disappointment was acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle. "It was fun to see his show, but not very useful".
"What did I enjoy most? People!" Earl Drilon, film composer from the Philippines, claims. "It is the only place other than Olympics that brings so many people with the same passion together".
As the last day of the Campus is almost over, people hastily exchange contacts and plan the night. After the Farewell Ceremony, there are also bars and clubs fortunately open till the last client crawls away. Sleep can wait.
The Fourth Obstruction
The most complicated of the five obstructions given by Lars von Trier to Jorghen Leth in their project The Five Obstructions was lending him the total freedom of expression. Artistic mind really needs to be given limits and restrictions. That's what we've been experiencing during the days of the Talent Press. We were given a path through the festival events which could sometimes seem dull and disappointing but now it's clear that we've got no point for any kind of regret.
I've visited a huge amount of outstanding events each of which could serve as a great material for my Wild Card text. I could write about my numerous attempts to see the only Ukrainian feature film at the Berlinale, Oleksander Shapiro's Happy People. I could retell Dieter Kosslick's speech at the Talent Carpet, an event which was for some unknown reason reminded me of recent Ukrainian revolution. I could also describe the closing party of Berlinale Talent Campus which is about to start in a few minutes but I don't feel like doing this. The main result of my Campus is the conclusion: I'm not still ready to overcome the fourth obstruction. The positive thing about all this is - now I know where's my goal.
Lost in the 21st Century
"We Can't Go Home Again" a Japanese film directed by Fujiwara Toshi, was screened in the Forum section. Almost entirely improvised, Toshi's film offers an in-depth image of Japanese youth and society in 2006. It's a film that lingers in the mind and shows various kinds of lifestyle and relationship.
There are five young people, all struggling to find the meaning of their existence. Mao works as an editor in a publishing house – specialised in books on cinema! – but feels she doesn't have sufficient knowledge and experience for her job. And wherever she goes, she's followed by the same mysterious young man. Mao is jealous of Yushin, a university student who has joined the publishing house as a part-time worker, because he knows more than her about films.
Kurumi works as a "Queen" in an S&M club. Every weekend she goes to a park to meet Masato, a graduate student. And Atsushi always carries a Polaroid camera and takes photos everywhere he goes, not of the places he visits, but of his own face. It seems that these five individuals have nothing in common but, as the film progresses, we discover that all of them are away from home because of studies, work, or simply because they have nothing else to do.
The subtlety of the film emerges in the numerous extended shots, in the course of which one notes the almost subliminal links that bind the characters. In certain long shots, one might glimpse at least four of them in haphazard fashion. They meet each others as strangers in the reality of today's urban world.
It's hard to identify intimately with Mao, Yushin, Kurumi, Masato, and Atsushi because the Japanese way of acting is placid and emotionally restrained. But it's certainly interesting to watch how their lives develop and to gain an insight into the Japanese way of life.
|
| recent festivals |
Berlin 06
Talent Press |
