Watershed's very own Head of Programme Mark Cosgrove is currently at the International Film Festival in Berlin seeing the newest films in the competition and in the European Film Market some of which will find their way into Watershed's 2006 film programme. He will be posting his diary and pics here, giving you the must see info and gossip direct from the Potsdamer Platz. If you want to contact Mark with any comments, email mark@watershed.co.uk
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The first big shock, after the cold, is that Syriana, showing out of competition, is a mainstream American film which shows the USA’s foreign policy as at best dubious and at worst implicit in maintaining a world order which breeds terrorism. George Clooney reportedly drastically reduced his fee to star in Syriana and his commitment pays off as his name should attract a wider audience to this complex, densely plotted political thriller which should generate fierce debate about the state of current global politics. And how many Hollywood movies can lay claim to that? Clooney was in fine star form taking a good hour to sign autographs at Friday night's premiere.
On the hardcore art front Derestricted will ignite the hoary debates not only of when does a filmmaker become an artist (and vice versa) but about the limits (or not) of pornography. Six artists and filmmakers including Matthew Barney (The Cremaster Cycle), Sam Taylor Wood, and Gaspar Noé (Irréversible, Seul contre tous) have all made contributions to this film which explores the pornographic image. Barney’s is typically esoteric – to say the least – wherein man and machine come together in sexual union in a bizarre messy combination of the organic and the mechanised. Visual artist Sam Taylor Wood’s piece is a beautifully shot single take of a handsome denim clad dude pleasuring himself in the arid sweltering heat of Death Valley – art or porn? It may well depend on context – as a colleague pointed out you would at very least get an 18R certificate for the film in the UK and it would ipso facto be porn but if it was an installation in a gallery you wouldn’t need the certificate, wouldn’t charge and it would ipso facto be art. Anyway the most memorable image, if one I could be doing without, was a shot looking down on 13 men having sex with a field, yes with a field. It is apparently a Balkan farming ritual!
More satisfactory was visionary pop video director Michel Gondry’s new feature film The Science of Sleep starring Gaël Garcia Bernal (Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries), A delight of visual invention combining good old fashioned stop frame animation with simply executed yet striking action – Bernal in a bear outfit playing drums – trust me it works.
A documentary on a tribute concert to Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man - should hopefully bring more attention to that great writer/poet. Featuring amongst others Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and the Wainright dynasty, the film mixes concert footage with recent interviews with the great man. He has just spent the last ten years as a disciple of Buddhism and the wry witticism of Cohen is finely tuned and frighteningly articulate. However the jewel in the crown is the final song from an immaculately attired Cohen singing/chanting (take your pick) 'Tower of Song' with U2 as backing band. I’m sure this will find its way onto DVD but I would hope that festivals and cinemas in the UK will have an opportunity to screen it.
I’ve just left a meeting with scriptwriter Billy MacKinnon (Hideous Kinky, Small Faces) – who gave a brilliant session at last year’s Brief Encounters Short Film Festival. His view that the scriptwriter needs to be half engineer, half psychiatrist was on the money for me. He is up for coming back to Watershed this November as we expand the scriptwriting focus for Encounters 06. More names to be confirmed, watch this space….
The Brief Encounters link continues in Berlin. Royston Tan who was on the jury at Brief two years ago - remember he presented a programme in a rabbit outfit and was never without his mini dv camera? - has a new feature in Berlin. 4:30 is a wonderfully melancholic film that is surprisingly restrained for the hugely talented and flamboyant Singapore director. It got a great reception at the screening I attended and Royston replied to questions enquiring about its various enigmas with great grace and wit. He is without doubt a rising star of the far east feature film world and a filmmaker to keep an eye on. 4:30 was developed in partnership with the Pusan Film Festival and will close the forthcoming Singapore Film Festival. I will be nudging UK distributors in Tan’s direction, if they do not know already.
Just bumped into David Robinson, patron of Bristol Silents and Creative director of Pordenone Silent Film Festival. He is here moonlighting for the Chicago Film Festival spotting new and interesting talent. He has tipped me off about two Korean films in the Panorama Section which I will try to catch in the market over the next couple of days.
A big disappointment was Container the new film from Swedish director Lukas Moodyson. His films like Fucking Amal and Lilya 4-ever were fresh, distinctive character driven stories of ordinary European youth in extraordinary situations – in particular young women. In Container he seems to be getting into a 60s NY avant garde thing, mixing Warhol-esque decadence with a voice over story of a transsexual dealing with a variety of traumas. It feels too much like a creative dead end – if only for the irritatingly monotone American voice over. However Copenhagen Film Festival director Jacob Niedelman, who I have to add hadn’t seen the film, responded to my criticisms with the view that maybe he has to go there to refresh himself. I hope so.
Stories abound about the amount of journalists accredited for the festival - some say 6000. It’s only because we market pass holders are held back from the morning press shows until all the press, in all their glory, are let in. It makes for a slightly pulse racing start to the 9.00am screening not knowing if you’re going to get in and have to spend the next hour trying to reschedule your day through the 200 odd screenings. Planning is everything but the plans can so easily gang aft agly, as the great man said.
Currently waiting for screening of Oskar Roehler’s adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s celebrated novel The Elementary Particles. I believe it’s from the production team of Downfall. Word varies as to its merits. I get the impression the over 40s are in to it, where the younger – hipper but not hippier - crowd would rather go for the The Science of Sleep. Rumour also has it that it has just been bought for UK distribution and on paper it sounds like an ideal film for Bristol. I will tell you tomorrow my humble professional opinion.
I’m afraid that The Elementary Particles didn’t pass muster with me. It doesn’t seem to want to tackle the depth of the novel and instead, I felt it fell back too easily on caricature – the phrase “carry on up the Commune” came into my mind rather unfortunately at one point. However the hardened industry audience I saw it with were laughing contentedly and this film has more than many supporters. It has a UK distributor and will get a release and you must make up your own mind.
Met German filmmaker Monika Treut and former City Screen head honcho Tony Jones (Festival Director Cambridge Film Festival) in the Hotel Adlon for a late night beer. Monika reminded us that the Hotel Adlon was Hitler’s favourite hotel. A chill went up and down my body and I thought of leaving. The prospect that only a few decades ago the murderous thug and his cronies were probably enjoying a beer in the same lobby whilst plotting the murder of thousands of Jews and other crimes was too much. Just as I was debating the issues in my mind, Monika told us of her Jewish producer who always stays in the Hotel Adlon during the festival for the very reason that it was Hitler’s favourite. Great I thought, why should the little bastard have the last word. The past needs to be remembered and reclaimed and the Jewish producer was in effect sticking two figures up to that past, he was having the final say. Good on him I thought and went back to my beer with renewed vigour.
Recent German cinema such as Downfall and Sophie Scholl are part of Germany re-examining and reclaiming its past. Just down the road from Hotel Adlon is the new memorial to the Jews that were exterminated during the second world war. I wandered around the following day in haunted reverie in this powerful place and thought Berlin is indeed at the heart of both the old and the new Europe. It is coming to terms with the trauma of remembrance and it’s a city where recent history comes very much into focus and meets the brave new multimedia future. The Berlinale is very conscious of its social and cultural responsibilities and squares up to it with a politically thoughtful, socially aware selection of films.
Tony was in both Screen and Variety dailies for his part in the imminent innovative multimedia, multi platform UK release of Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantanamo. Following the film’s premiere in competition here in Berlin it will be broadcast on Channel 4 in early March with a simultaneous theatrical – both celluloid and digital – dvd and online release. The brave new multimedia world indeed. Winterbottom and his producer Andrew Eaton are keen on bringing the same energy to getting their films out as they do to making them. Revolution is the name of the company and the name of the game. Tony is co-ordinating the release, getting cinemas involved. If ever the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network has a raison d’etre this must surely be it. The other trophy is to beat Stephen Soderberg to the wire to be the first film released simultaneously on all media. Off to the premiere tonight and will report tomorrow.
The Road to Guantanamo is extraordinary – it surely must win the Golden Bear – which would be a triumph for Michael Winterbottom given that his other film telling about Afghanistan In This World won top prize a few years back. Road to Guantanamo tells the story of the Tipton Three (between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in UK for those requiring geographical co-ordinates) guys who were in Pakistan for a wedding and found themselves incarcerated and interrogated by American forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for three years. The film gives a terrifying insight into their ordeal, and the cruel irony that it was the fact that one of them was under probation with the Birmingham constabulary for a year and therefore couldn’t have been hanging out with Osama Bin Laden, that sealed their innocence. One great moment is whilst under intense - an understatement - cross examination during which they are shown video footage of a Taliban rally and the woman from Washington says "that’s you in the [hazy] background, you are a member of al-Qaida aren’t you". One of the guys says “is that January 2000?”, "yes" she says, “it can’t be me, I was working in Currys in Birmingham then!”. The mundane meets the globally momentous and you are left bewildered by this chain of events. Winterbottom grips the viewer and doesn’t let them go with the urgency of this story. The screening hit an emotional climax with the film’s director welcoming the Tipton three - Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul - on stage. The audience were on their feet and the applause was thunderous.
Also saw the other film in competition today Invisible Waves by Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Some of you may have seen his previous film Last Life in the Universe. It’s a sleepy dreamy part psychological thriller shot by Wong Kar Wai’s regular cameraman Chris Doyle. I may well have slept and dreamt during it but its langerous mood was seductive and it stays with you.
Ended the day in the convivial company of German Films at their evening meal. German Films export the brand of German cinema. They are very keen on Brief Encounters and it was described enthusiastically as the most important short film forum in the UK. You tend to forget about the perception from outside of Bristol and it was thrilling to hear it discussed with such international importance. As we know there is no such thing as a free meal in this business and I will be heading down to German Films market stand for all the latest info on German short films. My colleague Maddy Probst struck up conversation, en francais, with fellow countryperson Jean Perret director of Visions Du Reel, the documentary festival in Nyon and discussed the merits of life in and out of Switzerland leaving me to the more pressing issue of full bodied Spanish red versus bone dry Italian white.
As I write this my plans for the day are hazy and ill formed. I can’t get a focus on any of the days events and my only confirmed date is former Rotterdam Film Festival Director Simon Field’s 60th birthday - that guy cannot be 60! - in a bar of Karl Marx Allee at 10 this evening. City Screen mover and shaker Claire Binns has just passed by and said there is a screening of Sundance double winner God Grew Tired of Us in a hour - I feel a shape to the day starting to happen!
Footnote to Guantanamo, stories run round Marlene Deitrich Platz of one of the guys being held at Airport for two hours on his departure following premiere to go back home to UK.
God Grew Tired of Us was a truly powerful experience. It’s a documentary on the Lost Boys of the Sudan conflict. It can only hint at the ordeal they have been though, 12 year olds having to watch family members killed, sterilised and some killed themselves. The boys walked for 1000miles to find sanctuary across the border. Some of the early images are harrowing. The film follows them as they establish a community in the refugee camp and some relocate to US of A. The clash of cultures is bewildering if sometimes humourous. “Is everything in the kitchen green?” one asks on being shown some washing up liquid. I was worried the film might become a commercial for the wonderful civilisation of the modernised west but it maintained its line and suggests that the west has a lot to learn about community from this lost generation and it certainly should recognise its responsibilities to the dispossessed. Such was the emotional power of this film that we left the auditorium in subdued silence. I bumped into Felim from the Cork Short Film Symposium. We could only exchange hellos and acknowledge the power of what we had just shared and leave each other with our ruminations.
The shape of the day is getting better. Word has just come through of hot tickets for this evenings competition film Candy. Just been chatting to icon’s Head of Acquisitions Alex Hamilton and Tartan buyer Jane Giles about their recent trip to Sundance. They’ve basically just come straight off of 10 days in Sundance to Berlin. I’m seriously knackered and can only imagine how they are still standing. Anyway I’ve also just discovered that there is screening of Douglas Sirk’s wonderful 1955/56 Written on the Wind in the retrospective and feel I might just persuade myself to go and see it. The retrospective strand provides great opportunities to see films again on the big screen and can often deliver the fresh experience of rediscovering a classic piece of cinema.
I’m getting concerned about the reviews of Royston’s film. Both Screen International and Variety have focussed on the slow pace and to my mind missed the point. Not allowed themselves to get lost in the film. Had a discussion with Screen International scribe Wendy Mitchell and NY producer Madeliene Molyneaux at the British Council party about the impact of the critic. Madeliene suggests they should get a % if their reviews lead to sales. I agree only if they pay a % if they get it wrong. Madeliene is representing her film Cinnamon which is a documentary on drag racing directed by Kevin Jerome Everson and arrives in Berlin hot from Sundance. She’s given me the screening time for tomorrow and I promise to catch it. She then heads off to the Agnes B party to hang out with her friend Gaspar Noé, - just how fashionable is that?! - leaving Wendy and I to discuss further the critical issue of the critic.
Stop press: Candy dir by Neil Armfield should win the Golden Bear, it’s an amazingly powerful film of descent into heroin hell with the most amazing performances from Abby Cornish (Sommersault) and Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) – at the least they must get the acting awards.
Wondering whether I should get Simon a present for his 60th – is there time to get to a shop? Are there shops in Berlin? I don’t remember seeing any! A bottle of red should sort him out, I think. I remember seeing some bottles at the Film Market bar and make a mental note to collect on way out. Simon is working on an amazing project with collaborator, producer Keith Griffiths. They are commissioning new films based on and inspired by the influence of Mozart’s creativity. It’s part of a wider celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday whose artistic director is Opera visionary Peter Sellars and takes place in November/December this year in Vienna. They have an extraordinary range of filmmakers involved and I look forward to it, til then I will drink to his imminent big six oh!
And so, all things must pass, as George Harrison once said. The market is starting to wind down and the focus will shift from the wheeling and dealing to the main event – who will win the prizes? I am still convinced by Candy but confused to discover cool responses from colleagues. Did we all watch the same film? I wonder. Bumped into Michael Wrenn, now working for Celluloid Dreams who was pleased to hear that we – Catharine Des Forges, from the Independent Cinema Office – and I both like Roystan’s film which he worked on for Celluloid. He confirms its been bought for the UK. I look forward to screening it at Watershed and think this will afford me another opportunity to show Roystan’s lovely short film Hock Hiap Leong.
Showroom cinema head honcho Ian Wild and Catharine head off for a documentary on an Iranian woman’s football team. I would like to see it for the football event we are planning on the run up to World Cup fever, but can’t. I will hear their report in due course and then explore the possibilities of getting it for the event.
The myriad movies, meetings and general festival mayhem begin to blur and I know I am long overdue to be heading out of this crazy place. Before I do I must catch one of the retrospective screenings and get myself a ticket to Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns. Surprisingly, they also have a ticket for the late evening competition screening of Sidney Lumet’s Find Me Guilty. It is an odd cast - Vin Diesel, Linus Roach and Peter Dinklage. But its Sidney Lumet for chrisssake. So an invigorating 56th Berlinale will come to my close in the company of two great American directors, then it is hotel, sleep, pack, breakfast, email, train, plane and home. In that order, please. I’ve just remembered it is Becky’s wedding the day after I get back – no clean clothes, no present . My real world starts to seep in! Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin.