Nisimazine Cannes

WEDNESDAY 18 MAY 2011

A Magazine by Nisi Masa, European Network Of Young CinemA

Et maintenant on va oú?Cinéfondation

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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NISIMAZINE CANNES

Wednesday 18 May 2011/# 6A magazine published by the NISI MASA in the

framework of a film journalism workshop

for young Europeans

with the support of

the ‘Youth in Action’ programme of the EU EDITORIAL STAFF

Director of Publication Matthieu Darras Editor-in-Chief/Layout Maartje Alders

Editor Jude ListerTutor Paolo Bertolin

Contributors to this issue

Ľuboš Bišto, Levente Czehelszki Eva Kincsei

Anne-Sophie MeusburgerMaria Ulfsak, Miklós Vargha

Patrícia VeszpremiCoordinators Jass Seljamaa, Merli Antsmaa

Eva Ujlakyová, Jana Dandárová

NISI MASA 99 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis,

75010, Paris, France.

Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38

in Cannes: +33 (0) 6 32 61 70 26

europe@nisimasa.com

www.nisimasa.com

Editorial

BY M

ikló

s Va

rgha

(HU

NG

ARY

)

I’m standing in front of the cloakroom before an early screening of Gus Van Sant’s Rest-less, a movie I am really looking forward to. The line is so huge that my fellow journalist has already been left behind, and it’s highly unlikely for her to get in, as the theatre is already filled with the crème de la crème of the penguin imitators.

I’m going into the cinema, where people are desperately fighting for the last seats. The bodyguard kindly sends me to the upper le-vel, but I cannot enter the stairs, as another security guy tells me not to. I’m supposed to find another way, and when I actually do, I realize that the remaining specimens of the penguin population are running to catch the last seats. This is the moment when I rea-lize: I’m not going to see this film now. It just wouldn’t be fair to my colleague who is stuck outside.

So again, I’m standing in front of the cloakroom. The girl behind the desk is shoc-ked, when I tell her that I want my stuff back. “But, you’re not going to return?” “No”, I reply, shortly. “But then, umm, you’re not going to watch the movie?” “Not now”, I say, smiling. “But, really, you’re leaving for good?” Clearly, she has never seen anyone manage to get into a screening, and imme-diately want to leave, while thousands of people outside are fighting in intolerably long queues to get in.

I think that was the moment I actually captu-red the very essence of Cannes, the world’s best place to dress and behave like a Bret Easton Ellis’ side character. The best place to be restless. Oh, and by the way, I never managed to get into any further screening of Gus Van Sant’s movie. The lines were just too long.

by Levente Czehelszki (Hungary)

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picture of the dayBálint Kenyeres - Approaching the end of l’Atelier

Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a shoe shi-ner who lives in the French harbour city of Le Havre, sees his job as a modest and decent way to make a living. One day he meets an African immigrant child, Idrissa. At the same time Marcel’s wife, Arletty (Kati Outinen), gets seriously ill. Marcel decides to rescue the boy, but as he is obviously not a very rich man, the mission isn’t easy.

Can you imagine a poor, white shoe shiner taking care of an African child, and his neighbours helping him? When the doctor tells the sick Arletty that miracles do happen, she answers: “Not in my neighborhood.” Well, she might be wrong.

As usual Kaurismäki tells a deeply hu-

man story, but his approach is so pure and simple that it works ingeniously. Le Havre is the Finnish director’s commen-tary on difficult immigration issues, but shown in a very surprising and unusual way. Not sad at all, the tone is sweet and funny. No doubt that Le Havre is

one of the most optimistic (and one of the best) films of Kaurismäki. He tells us that miracles do happen, if we make them.

by Maria Ulfsak (Estonia)

Et maintenant on va oú?Nadine Labaki (Lebanon) - UCR©

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film of the day

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picture of the day

Aki Kaurismäki (Finland) - Official CompetitionLe Havre

It is in a small, isolated village, so-mewhere in the barren landscape of Le-banon, that the story of Et maintenant on va où? takes place. The villagers are still coping with the aftermath of war, several people having lost their rela-tives. Still, within the community, in which Lebanese director Nadine Labaki plays a role herself, solidarity and lust of life are generally valued high. Muslims and Christians live together peacefully and often meet up for a chat in public spaces.

After the community establishes contact with the outside world by getting a television, they learn that there have been armed conflicts between Muslims and Christians nearby. Mistrust arises

as the cross in the church is destroyed by chance, and a number of comical, staged events make the villagers be-lieve that there is malevolence between the members of different religious affiliations. Destroying the television, carried out by the movie’s charming female inhabitants, does not help. The women’s inventiveness in preventing their men from attacking each other is challenged and finally leads to hiring a group of cheap Ukrainian dancers for distraction.

There are not only moments of happi-ness in Et maintenant on va où?, but the intense moments of pain and suffering are artistically framed by lively and effectively funny dialogues. Et mainte-

nant on va où? is a parable which de-monstrates the senselessness of war and gives an ironic but never banal point of view on quarrels concerning religion. Both female and male characters are well played, but watching the women’s sophisticated mission is a true pleasure. Not many movies manage to deliver a message on a serious issue like violence and war in such a fleet-footed, war-mhearted style. The audience’s laugh-ter, quite rare in Cannes, payed tribute to Labaki’s movie.

By Anne-Sophie Meusburger (Austria)

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Avé is a teenage girl struggling to find her place in the world. She is a runaway with the only goal of escape. Kamen, while hitchhiking to his friend’s funeral, meets Avé and the girl temporarily diverts his route - and his life. Since Konstantin Bojanov is debuting as a director relatively late in life, after a fifteen-year career in fine arts, his first feature presented at the Critics’ Week can be interpreted as an indirect self-portrait. Avé’s story is based on true life experience.

As Avé attaches herself to Kamen, their road movie begins. The usual ways of getting to know another person are confused by foul play, as the girl invents new stories and identities for both of them. This establishes a connection between the two protagonists which never existed. As their relationship evolves they meet a wide range of people across Bulgaria. These road movie conventions, and the two roadrunners themselves, pre-sent us with a kind of hitchhikers’ guide to the country.

Avé is an actress, whose true emotions and genuine identity are veiled. But slowly, both of the youngsters’ pasts reveal their true selves and uncover Avé’s protective mechanisms. Bojanov’s film tells an everyday story of everyday teenage characters who struggle with the inevitable steps of life on the verge of adulthood. Whether they manage to make the transi-tion is left in the dark, yet the film’s realism in itself suggests the answer.

by Patricia Veszprémi (Hungary)

reviews

Konstantin Bojanov (Bulgaria) - SCAvé

Sean Durkin (USA) - Un Certain RegardMartha Marcy May Marlene

Imagine a group of attractive young people who live together as an ascetic community in Connecti-cut’s countryside and share all their belongings with each other. They live in a big house, they do the gar-dening, sometimes they play guitar or swim naked in the nearby lake. They learn from each other and believe in having a special bond between themselves. Martha, pro-tagonist of Sean Durkin´s feature debut Martha Marcy May Mar-lene, becomes part of this cult-like community for two years. What seems to be an idyllic ideal in the beginning reveals itself as an abu-sive and violent trap which is set up by a charismatic leader. Group sex and ritual rapes, as well as rob-beries, soon appear regularly on the agenda. The director manages to depict the psychological mecha-nisms of the group in a subtle yet haunting way.

Martha Marcy May Marlene gains its significant mystery and under-lying tension through the fact that

we come to know Martha’s story via flashbacks and a cleverly de-vised structure. At the beginning of the movie, Martha has been able to escape and is being taken care of in the pretentious house of her sister Lucy and her husband Hugh. Confronted with normal life again, Martha is having difficulties adapting and is tortured by memo-ries and paranoia. Her confusion is masterfully visualized by the editing, as intertwining scenes of the past and the present, as well as tricky illusions, cleverly keep the viewer guessing. In addition, the camerawork of Jody Lee Lipes creates a striking style in terms of colour and depth of focus.

Altogether, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a thrilling and absor-bing movie, and actress Elizabeth Olsen gives an impressive perfor-mance.

by Anne-Sophie Meusburger (Austria)

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GRÖSSLINGOVÁ �� | ��� �� BRATISLAVA | SLOVAK REPUBLICTEL.: +���-�-���� ���� [SECRETARIAT], ���� ���� [OPERATOR] E-MAIL: SFU@SFU.SK | WWW.SFU.SK, WWW.AIC.SK, WWW.FILMSK.SK

This year’s Cinéfondation has selected sixteen shorts from all over the world. Personal tone and risk taking weigh in for the directors competing for the winning title. Nisimazine talked with the artistic direc-tor of the selection, Dimitra Karya, about what makes talent and how young people reflect on the world around them nowadays.What was your main focus when selecting this year’s Cinéfondation shorts?What we are looking for are talented young di-rectors. We were also trying to make the selec-tion as diverse as it can be regarding the pro-duction countries of the films. This year there are six films from America, six from Europe, four from Asia. And of course the male-female ratio was also an important criterion.

What makes talented short film directors?The personal tone, originality, how they dare to take a risk and stray from mainstream ci-nema - even if their films have some technical weaknesses.

What are your personal preferences when selecting films?

A film that convinces me. I have seen all of the 1 600 submitted and the big majority of them are quite disappointing, lacking personality and originality.

Why is the majority disappointing?Because they are often boring and very com-mon. It can be the result of the instructions im-posed upon them by their schools too, setting the criteria or expecting a certain visual style. Or just because not everyone is gifted enough to be in film school. They have a passion for cinema, and it is great if you are trying to make the most out of your skills but it is not always enough to make your way into filmmaking.

Are you recognizing certain trends in shorts this year and in recent years?Well, we have noticed that in recent years these shorts made by young film students are getting more and more pessimistic, comedies are rather rare, and the ones with humour are usually ironic pieces reflecting some disillu-sionment and sadness. They are concerned with existential problems, personal problems and societal ones. In a way it is surprising but on the other hand it is just natural that they are brooding over what is happening around them - which is not necessarily so nice recently.

In what ways does the Cinéfondation help to promote these short movies?The festival press officers are setting up inter-views for these young directors with the in-ternational press, which is a great opportunity

for them to promote themselves. Of course, being selected in the Cinéfondation often means being invited to other festivals too. The First Prize winner of the Cinéfondation is also guaranteed that his or her first feature will be presented at the Festival de Cannes. Is there anything which makes this year’s selection special?No, for us every year is special!

Why are there only two animated movies out of the sixteen shorts selected?I have not found so many interesting ones this year. There are many [which are] perfectly designed technically and well carried out, but that is all. Maybe there will be more next year. It all depends on the singularity I mentioned. The jury often hesitates whether to give a prize to an animated movie even if it is outstanding, because Cannes’ main focus is on fiction.

What are the main criteria according to which the winners will be selected? The same as when selecting them out of the 1600?Those likely to win should have all the cha-racteristics to make the jury expect from them potentially striking future features.

Do you have a favourite one from this year’s selection?No. I love them all. They are all my children.

By Eva Kincsei (Hungary)

Dimitra Karya

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by M

ikló

s Va

rgha

(HU

NG

ARY

)

interview

Artistic Director of the Selection

in focus: Cinéfondation

portrait

AramisovaYoung director Aramisova, who is the sole Slovak competitor at the Cannes festival, is hoping to get lucky with his Cagey Tigers in the Cinéfondation short film selection. However, he is not new to the festival circuit. Last year he won the best international picture award at the short film festival in Rio de Janeiro - Curta Cinema - with his second year student film I like Nora (Nora sa mi paci). This time it is a third year film in competition. We met in a bar in Bratislava. The atmosphere was very noisy.

Aramisova is young

He orders an orange juice and we begin.How old is he? You cannot tell from his looks. Born in 1973, the stu-dent/director is a little too old to be only in the third year of his studies at Prague’s FAMU (Czech Republic), where he works under the su-pervision of Jasmina Blazevic and Vera Chytilova. Yet even though he is one of the older students, his mind is very young, and not only when it comes to making films. On the other hand it seems that his maturity may be responsible for the festival success he has had. Before becoming a director, Aramisova founded and supervised a magazine about art. The magazine has no words, only pictures. When I ask why, he replies: “I think it’s boring for people to read some artistic article and it is only for a little group of people.” That is what he is trying to avoid in his movies as well.

Aramisova is Slovak

Our interview is interrupted by another interview Aramisova has arran-ged. It’s a little surprising. He has another orange juice.Besides his Slovak origin and his studies in the Czech Republic, Ara-misova is an international person. The actors in his movie Cagey Tigers speak partly in Slovak and partly in English. One of the actresses who stars in the role of Elvis is American. “I have a friend from America (Lynne Siefert) and she wanted to be an actress. So I called her, and she came to Prague to shoot. The English language in the movie is unintentional, but she doesn’t speak Slovak, so there was no other way to do it. Otherwise it would be in Slovak. But I love the effect”, he explains. Another actor, who plays the role of Ganz (Marsel Onisko), is Ukrainian. And the last one Alena (Alena Ninajova) is Slovak. None of the people starring in the movie are professional actors. They are all Aramisova’s friends. This has an even bigger effect on the personal view of the director. Aramisova is Cagey Tigers

He runs out of juice.Cagey Tigers was graded with a “C” at FAMU. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is not good. But it can still get better. Relationships in everyday reality are what the young director is interested in. He also explored them in his first and second movies, and plans to do so in the future. As he says: “I am not interested in fantasy movies. I just look at the ordinary”. Realism is very important for him, not only in the script but in the visuals as well. The film was shot with a 16mm hand-held camera. “You always have to adjust to the situation that is there. It is very frequent that I change the shot because of something I could not imagine. I am not stubborn about this. I am just trying to make it work”,

he affirms. Aramisova told me about his film that: “Cagey Tigers is about a friendship between two girls. But there is an anomaly. The girls share their ideas, have the same cultural background and this brings them together. But once they start to like the same person a conflict starts.”

Aramisova is not Aramisova

There is something mysterious about him. Aramisova is not his real name. But everyone calls him this. It was quite hard to find any infor-mation about him on the web before he got nominated for Cannes. “I think it is great that the author is hiding behind his work”, he claims. Despite this, it is not hard to get to know Aramisova - he is one of the people everybody wants to talk to.

After finishing the interview we spend a few more hours together en-joying a talk. After that we have a shot of ‘borovicka’ (a strong Slovak drink) and go for the same night train from Bratislava towards the East of Slovakia.

by Ľuboš Bišto (Slovakia)

Director of Cagey Tigers

Phot

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(SL

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ISTANBUL EXPRESS

This project is funded by the European Union

by Nisi Masa

www.nisimasa.com

Thursday 19.05.2011Critics’ Week - Espace Miramar

Screening @ 11:00 AM