Archive 2004
NEW INTERNATIONAL CINEMA
New International Cinema: the title of this series is at once our guideline and our obligation when we compile the titles for this year’s Festival. We have Woody Allen’s latest film "Melinda and Melinda"; and master French director Patrice Leconte’s "Confidences trop intimes"; furthermore, the thunderous debut of Zach Braff: "Garden State"; or the winner of the Cannes prize for best script, "Comme une image" by Agnes Jaoui. Sven Pape from Braunschweig will show his first Hollywood production "L.A. Twister".
This year we have star cinema with Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz in the historical drama "Head in the Clouds" or Ewan MacGregor and Tilda Swinton in the British masterpiece "Young Adam". We would like to draw your attention to some cinematic discoveries too: "In the City" by Cesc Gay, a sultry erotic love drama from Spain; or "Buongiorno Notte", contemporary political cinema from Italy by Marco Bellochio.
We hope you enjoy yourself at this year’s Film Festival.
Schau mich an! (Comme une image)
D: Agnès Jaoui, F 2004, 110 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
This brilliant social satire was one of the celebrated high points of this year’s film festival in Cannes. It’s about Lolita Cassard, who is completely frustrated because she does not correspond to the beauty ideals... It’s about her father, a man occupied with a lot of things, most of all himself... And it’s about Lolita’s singing teacher and her huband, who become friends of the Cassards, which results in many surprises... And above all it's about those human needs for which there hardly seems to be no place in this extremely egocentric world.
Garden State
D: Zach Braff, USA 2004, 109 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Andrew Langman is an actor in L.A. and stumbles through life half in a "drug coma". When his mother dies, he drives to his home state of New Jersey, the Garden state, for the funeral. There he meets Sam, who is everything he never was: full of hope, full of joie-de-vivre, but just the tiniest bit nuts...
The directing debut of Zach Braff, the audience's favorite this year at the Sundance Filmfestival, reminds in it's charm of "The Graduate" and with it's black humour of "Harold and Maude".
Young Adam
D: David Mackenzie, GB 2003, 93 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Ewan McGregor is in one of his greatest and most perturbing roles. The unsuccessful writer and loiterer Joe Taylor finds a job on a boat that goes between Glasgow and Edinburgh in the 50s. It belonged to Les and his frustrated wife Ella, with whom he soon began an affair. One day Joe and Les find the dead body of a young woman. Was it an accident? Murder? Suicide?
This masterly film noir based on the story by the beat author Alexander Trocci is considered one of the most outstanding British films in recent years.
Wodka Lemon (Vodka Lemon)
D: Hiner Saleem, F/I/CH 2003, 88 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
A wonderfully wacky tragicomedy full of laconic humour and light melancholy. Life is hard in the small, snowed-in Kurdish village in the Caucasus. This is where Hamo lives, a vigorous widower, who tries, with irrepressible joie-de-vivre and energy, to manage things as best as he can, even when almost all his belongings land in the flea market. One day at the cemetery he meets Nina, who sells vodka lemon in a draughty kiosk. Slowly the two get to know each other better...
A wonderful film about the true heroes of a daily life full of adversity in beautiful, often nearly surrealistic images!
Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte)
D: Marco Bellocchio, I 2003, 105 min, 35 mm, colour & b/w, ES
Left extremist terrorists of the "Brigate Rosse" kidnap Aldo Moro in 1978, the head of the Christian Democrats. Moro is kept in an apartment in Rome for fifty-five days. Twentythree-year-old Chiara together with three male accomplices is staying in the darkened flat. She still tries to pursue her normal life. However, the longer the drama surrounding the kidnapping lasts the more her doubts about her radical views grow.
Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes)
D: Patrice Leconte, F 2003, 104 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
The latest masterpiece by Patrice Leconte begins with a coincidence: Anna takes the wrong door and divulges her marital problems not as intended to an psychoanalyst but to William Faber. William is a financial adviser and cannot bring himself to tell Anna the truth. Spellbound and fascinated, he learns her most intimate secrets week after week and after a time a strange ritual begins between the two. But who is this young woman in reality and does she really not see the game he’s playing? Cinema if the best with Sandrine Bonnaire, again superb.
Nicotina
D: Hugo Rodriguez, MEX 2003, 92 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Lolo is sitting at his computer watching his attractive neighbour. Actually, he is supposed to be preparing a deal with his two colleagues for Russian diamonds. In that night in Mexico City, however, certain things are going to happen. A beauty salon, a drugstore and several corpses are going to be playing a role. And all those involved will keep having to learn how dangerous smoking can be...
L.A. Twister
D: Sven Pape, USA 2004, 92 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Braunschweig goes Hollywood... After Robert Brinkmann, at the Braunschweig Film Festival in 2001 and a recognized cameraman in Hollywood, Sven Pape, also has gone to Hollywood. With a mere 500,000 dollars he realized his dream of shooting an independent film in Hollywood. In June 2004 "L.A. Twister" premiered in famous Graumann’s Chinese Theatre and won since then first prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Two friends, Lenny and Ethan, try to get their own film going in Hollywood – with all the resultant difficulties, possibilities and impossibilities...
In the City (En la ciudad)
D: Cesc Gay, E 2003, 110 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
"The plot takes place in Barcelona. But it could also be in Boston or Baghdad.", announces the press leaflet. That may be; director Cesc Gay, who tells here the story of eight friends and their daily cares, both large and small, deliberately avoids any local colouring. People like Sofia, Sara, Mario, Manu, Irene, and her acquaintances live anywhere in the world. They meet in bars and restaurants, suffer heartsickness, make marriage plans and have hassles at work. Gay’s portrait of these thirty-year-olds has fine nuances, is humorous and sometimes melancholic – but always well observed!
Melinda and Melinda
D: Woody Allen, USA 2004, 100 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Four people are sitting in a coffee shop. A typical discussion à la Woody Allen begins about the difference between comedy and tragedy. Someone tells the story of a woman who arrives at a dinner party unannounced. This theme is then developed in two entirely different ways.
Radha Mitchell plays "Melinda" twice but in completely different roles – depressive, difficult, melancholic and open, beaming and exciting – with completely different partners.
Cachorro
D: Miguel Albaladejo, E 2004, 99 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
In order to do his hippie sister a favour, gay dentist Pedro takes in his eleven-year-old nephew Bernardo. This puts a swift end to Pedro’s lively sex life. But he doesn’t mind because he suffers from his many superficial relations. But then Bernardo’s mother faces a possible sentence in India of up to thirty years. Pedro assumes responsibility for the boy and a close relationship between uncle and nephew develops. Things are fine until the boy’s grandmother one day appears and demands custody.
Head in the Clouds
D: John Duigan, CDN/UK 2004, 120 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
A rainy night in 1933 brings them together for the first time, Guy Malyon, an earnest student from a modest background and Gilda Bessé, an eccentric aristocrat. A passionate love between them begins. In the Paris of the 30s, full of joie de vivre as it is and sparkling with creativity, Guy and Gilda together with Mia form a ménage à trois until the Spanish Civil War puts an abrupt end to these sensual times.
"Head in the Clouds" is an epic melodrama in the tradition of "Doctor Zhivago" and "Gone with the wind".
The Man Who Copied (O homen que copiava)
D: Jorge Furtado, BR 2004, 123 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
André is twenty years old and works in a copy shop in Porto Alegre. He can only get by on his paltry wages because he still lives with his mother. André saved for a whole year so he could buy a telescope, an investment that was worth while because now he can watch his neighbour, the shop assistant Silvia, every evening. In order to get closer to Silvia André decides to buy a dressing-gown from her. But where will he get the money from.