di Marie Elisa SCHEIDT, Aurore MARECHAL

- programma

- PREMI

> howl di Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

> The kids are all right di L. Cholodenko

> the ghostwriter di Roman Polanski

the ghostwriter

di Roman Polanski

Francia 2009, 128’

Orso d'Argento miglior regia

di  Marie Elisa SCHEIDT

30/30

Roman Polanski at his best! – this is how we might sum up his latest movie, The Ghost Writer. Polanski wasn’t awarded the Golden Bear for no reason - his new movie simply confirms that he’s one of the best film directors alive.
In The Ghost Writer the tension and suspense rise with every minute. From the very first moment you sink completely into this particular intrigue that you’re eager to follow. It’s a perfect political thriller that reminds me a bit of  FRANTIC. But this one is much better!
In The Ghost Writer Polanski tells us a story of a writer of the British prime minister’s autobiography. He takes over this particular job after another ghost writer, who died in rather strange circumstances. It’s not clear whether he killed himself, died in an unfortunate accident or simply was killed. Nevertheless, the new ghost writer agrees to take this well-paid opportunity and starts to work on putting into writing the prime minister’s memories.
He moves to an island where Adam Lang (the prime minister played by Pierce Brosnan) and his staff reside. Shortly after he gets there, Lang is accused of having condoned the arrest of some alleged terrorist, who were then handed over to the CIA in secret. Moreover, since the terrorists were tortured, which Lang knew about, he’s now implicated in a war crime. Step by step the new ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) discovers that the prime minister has a lot to hide and that his personal memories may be worth much more that he thought.
The Ghost Writer is clearly a directing masterpiece. For over 90 minutes it keeps our emotions on the highest possible level and offers the best possible entertainment. Personally, I think that with this very movie Polanski deserves another Oscar.

howl

di Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Stati Uniti 2009, 90’

Concorso

di  Aurore MARECHAL

25/30

Seven years ago Gus Van Sant was the executive producer of Jonathan Caoutte's Tarnation, which was nominated five times in several categories and get eight awards at prestigious film festival’s all over the world. At this year’s Berlinale Competition we may see his next production about homo-sexuality and art - Howl directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

Howl - named by the significant Allen Ginsberg’s poem was filmed in 14 shoot days in New York City, based on original court transcripts and print interviews with one of the best know beat generation artist. The author of Howl is telling the story about his life and creative activity. During open suit in court concerned on his poem, which has been accused with incompatibility to social rules, the viewers familiarize themselves with Ginsberg language and cast a glance at his inner world thanks to few animations created in San Francisco and Thailand, based on illustrations from Ginsberg’s collaborator Eric Drooker. The legendary directors in the field of documentary film try to make a multilayered picture about the cult poem of America. So in the three interwoven stories - the unfolding of a landmark 1957 obscenity trial; the revelation of a renegade artist breaking down barriers to find love and an imaginative ride through a prophetic masterpiece that rocked a generation - Ginsberg shows up as a men with many faces. That’s way artist (played by James Franco) who is looking for the entrance into art life is appeared also as a kind of lost boy, who is afraid of his newborn homo-sexuality. Simply it occurred that his art and poetic language is first of all method to find his own identity among people who try to put on his soul into regularities of, so to say - normal behavior. Fortunately his sudden relation with Jack Kerouac made him not only self-confident artist, but firstly a men, who has his own qualities and beliefs strongly enough to set himself of the court and conservative society.

The birth of a men is supported with the birth of the counter-culture in American landscape. That’s way Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman characterizing Ginsberg could not forget about frantic nights in downtown jazz clubs with alcohol, easy sex and literary manifests, like the one in Six Gallery Reading in 1955, when Ginsberg debuted.

Still the images seem to be quite shallow more often than we wanted them to be. The feeling of revolt is displaced by irony and sense of humour which has nothing in common with generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…

Does this lightness of being is a kind of rebellion, which we now do not understand? The directors seem to show the inner history of an artist. Gus Van Sant seems to find successive story (remembering Jon Caoutte’s one) about a lost man, who is finding oneself via art. Surprisingly I do not believe either of them. From their point of view, Allen Ginsberg seems to be superficial and his story trivial. Was that intentional to show the schematic images of the beat generation, which did not bring anything new to our knowledge about that times? Is it possible that legendary poet’s life outgrow the possibilities of nowadays creators? Obviously their portrait of him was not sufficient. There is a lot of things, which are still left to say in time come after death.

The Kids Are All Right
di Lisa Cholodenko
Stati Uniti 2009, 104’

Fuori concorso

di  Marie Elisa SCHEIDT

27/30

About ten years ago Annette Bening as Carolyn Burnham in Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) helped to destroy the classical model of atomic family. Before a year Julianne Moore together with Mark Ruffalo in Blindness (2008) directed by Fernando Meirelles was trying to save family from the apocalyptic end. They finally meet with the latest Lisa Cholodenko’s work – The Kids Are All Right to redid the conception of it. In the movie, screened in Berlin Out of Competition, they was about to recall the family picture from early Hollywood’s dreams about perfect American way of living. The filmmakers had used to picture calm districts on the suburbs, trimmed detached houses, gardens full of children’s joy, wonderful fathers and smiling mothers waiting for them at the front doors.
“Mothers” are without doubt the key issue for Lisa Cholodenko. In her sophisticated comedy, American director is drawing a sketch of the family without father. Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) are two lesbians in long-standing relationship. They are sharing cosy house in the suburbs with their teenage kids – Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Their easy life gave the impression they do not need anything but nice pet to complete the picture of perfect family, that father could be nothing more than an extras.
Seemingly, Lisa Cholodenko finally has reduced masculinity without hesitation. Till now, it had been quite marginal element in her works tough. Men were needed, to let the women betrayed them, when they discovered their erotic fascination with other women. It is sufficient to recall just High Art (1998) as an example of this behavior, the director’s debut, honored on Sundance Film Festival in Utah with Waldo Sreening Award. Parallel situations comes up in her following features - Laurel Canyon (2002) and Cavedveller (2004).
Till now, some kind of fear seems to accompany her. She has never said the last world about homosexual relationships. All lesbian affairs in her movies was about to end at the end of the film. They were marked with failure, understatement or fear. The Kids Are All Right’s script is something completely different if we look at the previous ones. Cholodenko begins her story with the picture of two women fully satisfied with their relationship and despite of many twists, she closes the movie with similar image. In the meantime, she plays with well known subjects, redid some situations and old dilemmas and putting them in front of new characters.
Jules and Nic’s idyll begin to shiver in it basics, when their son decide that he wanted to meet his biological father. The sperm donor, who impregnate both women (as we may think one gave birth to Joni, the other one to Laser), appears as a middle aged Paul – owner of a restaurant and farm with organic food. He beguiled his life with disobliging sex with dark-skinned, beautiful girlfriend. However, it became much more colourful, after Joni’s phone call. Paul decided to meet children, he never heard about before. Surprisingly, he matches with them really good. Jules and Nic appear as a super-tolerant women and invite him to their lives. Ideal picture starts to disappears, when Jules invite him also to her bed… In The Kids Are All Right, it is affair with men, what we may called socially unacceptable thing.
Despite this all, Cholodenko’s world seems to a bit unreal. It is more a vision than representation of reality. Yet, we need to agree that in comedic entourage she makes fun of nonsense and homo-phobia, that are shaping world nowadays.

SITO UFFICIALE