Good Mourning

I’d never heard of Naomi Kawase (above) before the Cannes list came out a couple weeks ago. But after reading a bit of her bio, she seems like a cool person – someone we could hang out with and talk. The lead item in her bio on her official website says “Her love for basketball goes back to her junior high days. During her high school days, she became the captain of her school team and led the team to the National Athletic Meet.”

Much of her early acclaim came via documentaries, and she’s been feted by many film festivals around the globe. Her film Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest) was selected for competition at Cannes.

Little has been written about Mogari No Mori. The German Press Agency gives the best synopsis I’ve seen.

“The Forest of Mogari is set in an ancient Japanese capital of Nara and highlights a relationship between 70-year-old Shigeki, who suffers from memory loss and a cognitive disorder caused by senility and a 27-year-old caretaker Machiko.

“His longing for his deceased wife and Machiko's guilt at losing her son take them on a mourning journey through the serene forest of Mogari, where Shigeki's wife is buried. Mogari means the time or act of mourning.

“As the odd couple make their way to the graveyard, they contemplate the meaning of life and death.”

Béla of the Ball

Werckmeister harmóniák (2000), Director Béla Tarr

Hungarian director Béla Tarr (at left) is one of several director’s from our seven Sister City countries who have had works accepted at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Tarr’s works – in an exceeding positive review – were once described by a critic as, “Ponderous musings on misery, doom, and despair, set in apocalyptic Eastern European purgatories of feral dogs, relentless rain, and viscous mud …” He’s best known for his trilogy featuring a seven-hour film, with the bookend films clocking in at another six or so.

His film of the hour at Cannes is The Man From London (Londoni férfi) and is based on the novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon. Tarr adapted the film with László Krasznahorkai. The film production itself seems to fit the above description of agony in the making from threats to shut down the production, lack of financing and finally completion.

The film is about a man who witnesses a mystery, and nothing else is known at the moment. It stars Tilda Swinton opposite Czech actor Miroslav Krobot. The international ensemble cast also features British actress Leah Williams, and Hungarian actors Janos Derzsi and Istvan Lenart. German cinematographer Fred Kelemen is the director of photography.

Tarr has been written about extensively and here are some links to web articles about the artist.
Brightlights Film Journal
Kinoeye
Village Voice

This Just In: New DVD Releases

The Tiger and the Snow (La Tigre e la Neve), 2005, Italy, director Roberto Benigi

Borrowing a bit from the plot of his Oscar-winning film Life Is Beautiful, Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni plays a romantic poet who vows to follow his love (Benigni's real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi ) to the ends of the earth -- even if that means going to Iraq at the dawn of the American invasion. Skirting political bias, Benigni's whimsical comedy presents a world in which all camps are absurd. French actor Jean Reno co-stars.

Cat Girl Kiki, 2007, Japan

Nothing much ever happens to shy Yoshiro, until one day when he brings home a stray kitten. The next morning, Yoshiro awakens to discover that the kitten has become a beautiful woman named Kiki. She may be the girl of Yoshiro's dreams, but how will he deal with her nasty habit of scratching the furniture? This nerd-meets-girl comedy is the second film in the Akihabara Trilogy, following The Legend of the Doll and preceding Pretty Maid Café.

Don't Look for Me (Such Mich Nicht), 2004, Germany, Director: Tilman Zens

Wounded in the line of duty, contract killer Anna (Lea Mornar) has decided it's time to hang it up. Her boss is willing to let her retire, provided she fulfills one last job. But when Anna learns that her final target is someone close to her heart, she finds herself faced with an impossible decision. Directed by Tilman Zens, this stylish German thriller also stars Udo Schenk, Stipe Erceg, Jürgen Lehmann and Mark Zak .

Linda, Linda, Linda, 2005, Japan, Director: James Iha

It's three days before the big school talent show and Kyoto, Kei and Nozumi are in a fix when their lead singer quits over artistic differences. Their only candidate to fill the spot is a Korean foreign exchange student who can barely speak any Japanese. Time for some all-night rehearsals! Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita and featuring a score by former Smashing Pumpkins member James Iha, this lighthearted comedy stars Du-na Bae and Yu Kashii.

Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor, 1969, Japan, Director: Tadashi Sawashima

One of Japan's most revered actors, Toshirô Mifune stars in this historical samurai epic. As the end of the 19th century nears, the balance of power shifts from the shogunate to the emperor. Isami Kondo (Mifune), a farmer turned warrior, leads the fierce Shinsengumi, a small rebel army composed of farmers and peasants. Isami and his men oppose the emperor and band together to wage a battle against the inevitable tide of change.

Silent Light

Here’s the second installment of my profiles of films from our seven Sister City Countries tapped to play at Cannes.

Stellet Licht (Luz silenciosa), directed by Carlos Reygadas

The film was shot in Chihuahua, Mexico, and was funded in June 2006 by the World Cinema Fund.

“Reygadas, who in 2002 received a special mention for the Camera d’Or in Cannes with his debut film Japón and who was selected for the Cannes competition last year with Batallo en el Cielo, is seen as one of the biggest talents of international cinema, according to motelfilms.com.

“Stellet Licht is produced by the Mexican production company Mantarraya Producciones (which also produced Japón, Batalla en el Cielo and Sangre) in co production with BAC Films, Arte France and Motel Films and is also financed by the Netherlands Film Fund.
“Stellet Licht tells the story of the married Johan who, against the laws of God and his people, falls in love with another woman. He is faced a dilemma: will he betray the woman he once loved so much or will he sacrifice his true love?

“The love story of this film plays in a Mexican community of Mennonites. This small community lives according to the laws of their very traditional belief that finds its origin in the Netherlands. Therefore the language spoken in the film is old Dutch.

“Distributor Lumière will release Stellet Licht in the Benelux.”

Gotta Have Faith

Cannes is coming, Cannes is coming. So as part of the lead up to Cannes, I’ll try to give an overview of films from our seven Sister City Countries, starting with ...

Edge of Heaven (Auf der Anderen Seite), Director Faith Akin
Info on some of the Cannes films is limited, so I lifted this from ioncinema.com. Above is a picture of Akin receiving the Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlinale for his film Head On. There’s also a “Making of Auf der Anderen Seite” video, if your German is good enough. Otherwise, it’s interesting visuals (apparently Akin is a big foosball fan, I mean, who’s not?).

“Linked through encounters, relationships and even death, the fragile lives of six people connect on emotional voyages toward forgiveness and reconciliation in Germany and Turkey ... Nejat (Baki DAVRAK) seems disapproving about his widower father Ali's (Tuncel KURTIZ) choice of prostitute Yeter (Nursel KSE) for a live-in girlfriend. But he grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money home to Turkey for her daughter's university studies. Yeter's sudden death distances father and son. Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter Ayten (Nurgl YESILCAY). Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte (Patrycia ZIOLKOWSKA), who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, a gesture not particularly pleasing to her conservative mother Susanne (Hanna SCHYGULLA). When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea is denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey, where she gets caught up in the seemingly hopeless situation of freeing Ayten.”

Director Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg and began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, Sensin - You're The One! (Sensin - Du bist es!), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, followed by Weed (Getuerkt, 1996). His first full length feature film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos, 1998), won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: In July (Im Juli, 2000), Wir haben vergessen zurueckzukehren (2001), Solino (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2003), Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul (2005), and The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, 2007).

Slanted Screens

Jeff Adachi’s documentary Slanted Screen comes to PBS station KERA in Dallas as part of a series on Asian heritage.
“From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, The Slanted Screen explores the portrayals of Asian men in American cinema, chronicling the experiences of actors who have had to struggle against ethnic stereotyping and limiting roles, according to the Slanted Screen website. The film presents a critical examination of Hollywood's image-making machine, through a fascinating parade of 50 film clips spanning a century.
“The Slanted Screen includes interviews with actors Mako (at left), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, James Shigeta, Dustin Nguyen, Phillip Rhee, Will Yun Lee, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, comedian Bobby Lee, producer Terence Chang, casting director Heidi Levitt, writer Frank Chin, and directors Gene Cajayon and Eric Byler.
“The film was written, directed and produced by Adachi, co-produced and edited by Alex Yeung, with the opening music, titles and credits by Sean Dana. Michael Becker composed the musical score and the post-production sound and audio. The film also features a new song performed by the San Francisco rock-punk band Say Bok Gwai.
The documentary aires at 10 p.m., May 10 on KERA-TV Channel 13. Esther Wu, Dallas Morning News columnist, writes an interesting piece on her views on media as an Asian growing up in the United States.

This Movie is Totally “Sick”

The Japanese distributor of the movie Babel has begun warning Japanese audiences that some scenes make cause nausea or headaches.
Some 15 complaints had been filed with the distributor, Gaga Communications, which is investigating which scenes may lead to the nausea. The Academy Award-nominated film hasn’t reported this problem elsewhere in the world.
The film’s opening was highly anticipated, following the Best Supporting Actress nomination of Rinko Kikuchi (above left). The film starred Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (above).
The film, which is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, occurs in multiple countries and focuses on how lives in various cultures are intertwined.