Nisimazine Cannes

TUESDAY 17 MAY 2011

A Magazine by Nisi Masa, European Network Of Young CinemA

Snowtown Take ShelterLars Eidinger

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NISIMAZINE CANNES

Tuesday 17 May 2011/# 5A 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

Merli Antsmaa, Ľuboš BištoLevente Czehelszki

Andris Feldmanis, Eva KincseiMartina Lang, Lukas Traber, Maria 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

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Editorial

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When I was about to attend my first scree-ning here at the Cannes Film Festival, I was understandably quite excited. I got there half an hour early - or at least what I thought was early, because then it turned out that I got the time wrong and the film actually started one hour later. That wasn’t a bad thing though, because I hadn’t yet had a moment to realize that I had finally arrived in Cannes - a place I had wanted to go since my father explained to me what this festival was about and what it means for a cinephile. So, instead of being pissed off, I just put my headphones on, took a deep breath and embraced the atmosphere of the surrounding walkways.

For a big film fan making it to Cannes feels like winning the lottery. At least, in the be-ginning: besides all its attractions, the Croi-sette can be a pretty tough place. Always

crowded with busy people who might bump into you when passing by, the city can re-mind one of an anthill, constantly agitated. It often feels like hell broke loose in heaven. What happens outside in the real world is not important. What is important is to make the best out of the opportunity to be here.

For sure, Cannes isn’t the most relaxing place, especially if you work for a daily magazine. But every time I move through its streets it feels like dreaming. One intense ex-perience is hunting the next: if you are lucky you might have the time of your life here, but it’s also possible to go through hell like seldom before. So take it easy; pick some films you really want to watch, some parties you really want to crash, go some places you simply have to visit. But don’t try to do it all, because that’s impossible.

by Lukas Traber (Austria)

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picture of the dayDoing the wave

Take Shelter is a film that not only mixes Hollywood and independent cinema, but also a personal drama and a super-natural horror film.

It’s a sophisticated story of fear that works on many levels. Not just a fear of one person but a fear that surrounds us in a modern society – the fear of losing your job, money, dignity, love, children. The fear of violence and accidents. The fear of the forces of nature. The fear of losing your mind. This constant state of anxiety, stress and paranoia is brilliantly captured by writer-director Jeff Nichols in his second feature.

The film is about Curtis LaForche (played by the absolutely amazing Mi-chael Shannon) who lives with his lo-ving wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain)

and their deaf young daughter. Curtis starts having hallucinations and night-mares; he feels like he’s losing it and tries to get some professional help. To get over his fears he obsessively builds a tornado shelter with a risky loan. Take Shelter brilliantly portrays a man losing his mind and his close ones trying to handle it. The acting and visuals are

breathtaking and the story delivers a strong allegory of our times. The ending is open to interpretations but it seems that one of the solutions Jeff Nichols of-fers us is not to turn our backs on each other when times are hard.

by Maria Ulfsak (Estonia)

SnowtownJustin Kurzel (Australia) - Critics’ Week

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Jeff Nichols (USA) - Critics’ WeekTake Shelter

Justin Kurzel’s impressive debut feature Snowtown is based on real events and ad-vertised as a film about Australia’s most infamous crime story. The Snowtown murders took place between 1992 and 1999 in South Australia, when eleven people got killed by John Bunting, the country’s most notorious serial killer.

This grim and disturbing film is a very naturalistic dramatization focused on a teenager named Jamie (played by an ex-cellent newcomer, Lucas Pittaway). He lives in a suburban, lower-class family with his brothers and their mother. What the boys need is a father figure, but they seem to be surrounded by violent idiots and sexual predators. Then one day their mother meets a charming bearded guy, John (Daniel Henshall). He is a decent

citizen and a manly man - hugs children, hates homosexuals, cooks vegetables for the boys and is kind to their neurotic mother. Although besides all that, he is a violent serial killer who murders for pleasure. Jamie becomes involved in the killings first by just finding out and not doing anything about it, but later also by reluctantly assisting the murderer. Bunting sees himself as a janitor of so-ciety, killing drug-addicts, child abusers and other people who according to his understanding of the world should not exist. Snowtown (presented in this year’s Cri-tics’ Week programme) is a well-written and directed film. It looks at the events without over-dramatizing, without moral judgment, without stylizing the violence

into a visually enjoyable experience. Kurzel (who grew up close to where the murders took place) has decided to show fully the graphic violence – we see kan-garoos cut into pieces, male rapes, brutal torture and painful murder scenes which can’t be forgotten easily. But the true va-lue of the film is Kurzel’s interpretation of how and why Jamie became involved. The environment, upbringing and cir-cumstances around him are the reasons for his “breaking bad”. Jamie’s choices, shame, fear and vulnerability are por-trayed in a psychologically accurate way. Pittaway is as new to acting as Jamie is to killing, and this is probably the reason why the real fear and excitement in his eyes are so breathtaking and disturbing.

By Maria Ulfsak (Estonia)

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According to the English poet John Donne, no man is an island. In the beginning of the film this doesn’t really stand for Daneel (played by Danish actor Thure Lindhardt), even though he is in a seemingly happy relationship with Sophie (Laetitia Casta). Sophie in-vites her boyfriend on a surprise journey to Bulgaria, without knowing that Daneel was actually born there. On the way to an island, she learns the truth about his past. But just like a house, a relationship needs some foundations - which are clearly missing from The Is-land’s characters - so that it doesn’t collapse

The almost deserted Bulgarian island is the perfect place to remedy the deficiencies. Hell, it even has in-habitants like famous cult Mexican director Alejandro Jodorowski, who appears in a small role. From about halfway through the film, director Kamen Kalev sud-denly starts to outwit the viewer’s expectations, and we find ourselves moving from the remote island to the Bulgarian version of ‘Big Brother’. The Island later reveals that it’s not only Daneel who must change in order to fix the couple. Sophie also has to go through a personal revolution. It always takes two to make a relationship work.

by Levente Czehelszki (Hungary)

reviews

Kamen Kalev (Bulgaria/Sweden) - QRThe Island

Michel Hazanavicius (France) - Official CompetitionThe Artist

The Artist offers a piece of gla-morous Hollywood cake from a simple, old-fashioned recipe with a stylish decoration. Yet a number of witty extra tastes and surprises somehow make it different.

The black and white silent mo-vie seems long forgotten in our 3D/4D film industry world, and this is why the successful attempt by director Michel Hazanavicius to capture the at-mosphere and feeling of 1920s Hollywood style is so much more respectable. Unexpected details are refreshing and add value to the movie as a whole.

George Valentin (Jean Du-jardin) was the red carpet star of silent movies, and the sudden shift to sound leaves him shouting in what he does best - silence. The fear of not

being needed, the inability to adapt to new situations, and being replaced by the youn-ger generation, lead George to a great depression. These topics and fears are far from alien for most people, and this is why the movie is easy to relate to. One great role, both in the writing and the perfor-mance, is the young, beautiful, enthusiastic newcomer Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), whose appearance is uplifting not just for George but also for the audience.

Although the middle section of the movie was slow, and the promising beginning made me hope for more unexpected turns, the ending was the real cherry on this cake.

by Merli Antsmaa

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Follow our coverage online on

www.nisimazine.eu New videoblog of

Crowdsourcing: Iron SkyPhoto Gallery

Contrary to recent editions, Hungarian cinema is not getting the attention of the official selection at this year’s festival, yet this small, Eastern European country occupies a specific corner of Cannes. Nisimazine looked at the country’s achie-vements and mulled over its present and future.Hungarian film has a long and illus-trious history: we were there when the great Hollywood studios were built and our films and filmmakers have had an ongoing influence on world cinema ever since. This year Hungary represents it-self in Cannes in a moderate, yet diverse way. There is no feature film in the offi-cial selections so the main focus of Hun-garian cinema falls on Bálint Kenyeres’ project Hier, and Attila Till’s short film The Beast. The first is reappearing in L’Atelier after numerous instances of festival success with his short film The History of Aviation - shown two years ago at the Directors’ Fortnight. The latter is honoured for the first time with a screening in the same section. Hier promises a noir-style investigation, with the psychological excavation of its middle-aged protagonist. The Beast depicts the mechanism of cruelty on a farm which falls far from present-day reality. Yet on a metaphorical level the film raises issues of slavery and harnes-sing, which on an abstract level are not so discordant with today’s context.

“Hungarian cinema existed in the past and it will go on existing”, says Attila Csáky, producer of Hier. As funding is

in a transient situation in the country at the moment, life in the national film industry is suspended. However blurred and bleak the perspectives might look, Attila Csáky describes the present state as one that resembles “a car running on icy road: you just have to release the steering wheel for it to find its way.” His confident and hopeful prognosis is also supported by the fact that he is selected among the 25 Producers on The Move, an accompanying event of the festival.

Both the independent producer and Éva Vezér, director of Magyar Filmunió - the promotional body for Hungarian films internationally – who is also in the jury for the Camera D’Or, agree on the fact that a new generation of young talents is rising: hopefully the saviours of our cinema. Authors such as György Pálffy (Taxidermia), Kornél Mundru-czó (Tender Son) and Ágnes Kocsis (Adrienn Pál) are recognized not only in domestic festivals but internationally. Their acknowledgement abroad shows well the fact - highlighted by both Éva and Attila - that Hungarian cinema is still significant in inventing new ways of filmmaking, thus rejuvenating art cinema generally. This can be the cause of their success, and it might also open

the road not only for an international Hungarian cinema but for the revival of an industry in ruins.

However, as filmmakers recognise the barriers of language, funding and the understanding of their films in their homeland, many flee to international waters. Bálint Kenyeres’ film project, although with a Hungarian majority in funding, lines up coproducers from France and Germany. Hier will be made in Morocco, and the story is about a Swedish protagonist. Such multinatio-nal projects shot in English are not rare: Kenyeres’ The History of Aviation was a coproduction with France.

These directors represent individualis-tic views on forms and themes, yet it is often stated that the rejuvenation of the Hungarian world view, its adaptation to present day life and issues, is still waiting outside the door. It is knocking, though. An even younger generation of talented filmmakers is making its first steps. Although they seem to be further away from the possibility of realizing their dreams with every political step, they have radically renewed visions of cinema. They are already not burdened by the psychological and physical after-math of the regime change, but they are waiting for a launching pad to interna-tional festivals, and recognition in the domestic film industry. At present one seems more difficult than the other.

By Patrícia Veszprémi (Hungary)

//in focusHungary

Uncertainty and rejuvenation

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What was the original idea of your film?I had an idea of a family which wakes up and is directly confron-ted with violence. It comes unexpectedly, from silence. I took a little bit of the story from my family, or families I know, and then I tried to layer it with ancient history and mythology – The Bible, Shakespeare, etc. The story is like a criminal case - a young man killed his family. It could be as it appears, but it’s not. The origin of the project is the landscape, the forest, my family.

What kind of mythology are you speaking about?I am thinking of a story in which the ideas are subconscious, I mean Abel and Cain, Hamlet, Greek mythology. They all play an important role.

The violence is very important in your movie. It is symbolic in many ways. But it seems the mother is the most violent one in the end. It is her son, and it is because she is fighting with him. This is not a good relationship. But it is the love of a mother and son. A mother can sacrifice anything for her children, whoever they are.

Why is it that you decided to throw the audience into the violence straight away?We begin the movie already in crisis; it is like a sickness which is already done. It is not the beginning of the sickness. I didn’t want to make a standard narrative. I didn’t want to portray the character like that, so you can see how it grows. It’s already in-side. And from this stage you go towards the drama in the end. The fatality. In the beginning there is a normal kind of violence. Like an everyday violence of every family. It may be a little more violent in this movie, but in the beginning they don’t want to kill themselves. It’s like, if you don’t do this you get punished. Between father and son. Brother and brother. Mother and son. And the boy character is a little more extreme. The landscape is

more aggressive as well. That’s very important for the movie.

Can we say that the landscape is a character as well?The landscape is a very old mountain. There is its cry, its voice. The sun is coming up and we hear the sound of the mountain. It’s like in 2001: A Space Odyssey when they find the monolith. For me actually, I didn’t want to make very French film, with a French apartment and French actors. I was looking for foreign actors.

It seems that the mother is the most important character in the movie. I was looking for the voice and the face. And when I was spea-king to the casting director and she showed me the picture and I saw The Passion of the Christ, she had the face I wanted. So we took a plane to Bucharest and we saw her at the theatre there. We decided to do the movie with her. After the journey in Bucharest I sent her a letter and told her about the face that was essential for me. She has the courage and grit of the mother. She has a power, she’s strong and also she can kill.

There are a few hints which imply that she is actually playing the role of the father.It is because she is the working one in the family. The father is staying at home. It’s ok, it’s normal that the rules change now.

Was there anything unusual connected to the creation of the mother character?Actually, yes. We recorded the post-synchronous sound online. I was directing Maia by Skype. I was in France and she was in Romania. But it was really good to do it this way.

By Ľuboš Bišto

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Director of La Fin du Silence - Directors’ Fortnight

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Lars Eidinger

Incredible honesty combined with fierce consciousness. Open yet mo-destly withdrawn. A strange but warm face with a slight femininity, a lean but muscular body moving in an almost feline way. “I am the most narcissistic character ever”, Lars Eidinger confes-ses, laughing. He is making his debut in Cannes with his second feature film appearance, Code Blue by Urszula An-toniak, when asked whether being in need of constant feedback is a sign of extreme narcissism and insecurity. “If you do not get enough attention from your parents when you are a kid, you are in constant need for feedback to learn from yourself. That is what I want as an actor. To provoke reactions. Not to provoke for the sake of provoking be-cause that is dumb. But to make an im-pact on people to [make them] move out of their comfort zone and think a little differently and learn from their reac-tions. I myself love going to extremes when I act. Extending your boundaries helps you to learn a lot about yourself. I feel uncomfortable floating mildly in the middle. And yes, seeking constant feedback is a sure sign of insecurity”, he admits.

Edna is the first word that comes into his mind if he hears the name Lars Eidinger. Then comes the explanation: whenever he goes to fetch his five-year-old dau-ghter, Edna, from the kindergarten and she runs over him to finally go home together, she greets her father with the exclamation “Lars Eidinger” instead of “Daddy”- which an average five-year-old would be expected to say. She is already aware that nowadays everyone is talking about her father as a shooting star in Germany when it comes to stage and film acting. Lars made his feature film debut in 2009 with Maren Ade’s Everyone Else, but by then he was already an acclaimed stage actor at the renowned Schaubühne theatre in Berlin.

“Edna is only five but unusually smart and has a great sense of humour”, adds Lars, aged 35, who has been with his opera singer wife for 11 years.

After experiencing the extremes on stage, his “need for being watched”, for the sake of self-exploration, goes into reverse at home. “After getting all these reactions, I just have to withdraw into myself. I love being lonely in a room. I really have to go through all these reactions and synthesize them. You can-not always be in the state of expressing yourself because after a while you will have nothing to express. Acting is a kind of therapy for me”, he explains. When confronted with the question of whether going to a shrink to get his narcissism cured would annihilate his acting gift, he agrees.

His acting gifts lie in the ability to make a character evolve from a single situation into a complete, subtly moul-ded form, instead of creating the si-tuations from a previously worked-out character. “This will prevent me from slipping into mannerisms and acting out what people already like in me.” He has just finished three German movies to be released later this year. He shot a film with Christophe Stark, another with Hendrik Handloegten, and he will

also be in the debut movie of a young German director.

Lars would also like to make his way into the U.S. film industry. Not into the mainstream, of course. “I do not think that I would be asked by anybody to play a mainstream role”, he says. To il-lustrate, he mentions his face: “Even my wife says that sometimes it is not nice to see what is going on in my face at all. I know that my face just does not fit the average taste like all the mainstream faces.” When asked what he thinks about his femininity, he confidently leans forward: “I like it when they say that I am the typical, modern German male, not hiding his emotions. If a male is only a male, he is just an animal. I am also not really into this fertility symbol type of body. I prefer narrow hips, women with a slight masculinity. I like androgyny.”

After talking for over one-and-a-half hours, we could still continue. He speaks about himself with the disarming fran-kness of someone who has been going through a lot. But he is still to explore and to be explored. We should keep on watching him.

by Eva Kincsei

Actor in Code Blue - Directors’ Fortnight

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S H OEUROPEAN T I T C H

Developing european coproDuction of shorts

www.nisimasa.com

Session 1: scriptwriting workshopLuxembourg 02-08 January 2012

session 2: pitching & coproduction forumMaribor 02-04 March 2012

Call for Short Film Projects!Deadline for application:

30 SEPTEMBER 2011