Big Night for Austria in Cannes

Michael Haneke, Austrian director, won the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at the Cannes Film Festival with his film, The White Ribbon, a drama about a children's choir in a village in northern Germany just before World War I.

According to Haneke, the film is about "the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature."

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz received the Best Actor Award for portraying Colonel Hans Landa, the "Jew Hunter" in Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic "Inglourious Basterds."

Here's a list of all the awards.

Scots of Note - Tilda Swinton

Tilda SWINTON
Originally uploaded by VEGAFI

When I started this little sequence of posts on Scots of note, I already knew: Tilda Swinton is a must!

I was prepared to do the Swinton post today. And guess what I came across in my favourite German newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, this morning? A feature on Tilda Swinton on occasion of her nomination as President of the International Jury at the Berlinale 2009.

Tilda Swinton was born in Durnfermline in Scotland. She has taken part in more than 40 films, and acted in a wide range of roles, female as well as male, in arthouse productions as well as blockbusters.

She has received numerous awards for her work, including an Oscar for Best Supporting Acress in „Michael Clayton“. Swinton started out in 1986 in Derek Jarman’s „Caravaggio“. The real breakthrough came with „Orlando“, where she played an Elizabethan courtier who lives for 400 years while changing sex from man to woman.

I’m fascinated by her versatileness, her radical and quick change of expression and looks, her androgyny and her overall intensity.

I've only seen Orlando, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Broken Flowers. Her latest appearance is in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I hope to see this week.

There’s an Interview with Tilda Swinton where she talks about her films and about her unusual private relationships.

Here’s a star interview on Youtube with Swinton.

Excerpt from Orlando



Trailer of Michael Clayton

Departed

I really fail to follow the enthusiasm of the critics about Martin Scorsese's new film "The Departed", a remake of the Hongkong Crime Thriller "Internal Affairs". It's the story of two cops and the attempts of the police force to get control over the powerful Irish Mafia.

One of the two cops works as an undercover agent in a Mafia organization (Costigan - Leonardo DiCaprio), the other (Sullivan - Matt Damon) as a policeman who informs to the Mafia. For some time they know about each other without meeting. Head of the "organization" is Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costigan works his way into Costello's inner circle, Sullivan has to find the informer before things get out of hand. Each man has to work feverishly to reveal his counterpart.

Ekkehard Knoerer in Sign and Sight speaks of mirror-image doppelgangers, with two father figures on both sides, Costello and the head of the police department. Also, communication methods are similar - a lot of crucial information is transferred via cellphones. Additionally, they love the same woman, the police psychologist.

I cannot see a quality connection to - in the meantime almost legendary and intriguing - films like "Godfellas", "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull", "Gangs of New York", or the Dylan film "No Direction Home". It's quick, brutal, violent, to some extent entertaining, certainly a thriller - but what happened to aesthetics, to the psychological and fascinating camera work you could almost always take for granted with Scorsese? I heard the f-word about 150 times. Maybe that's why I couldn't find the humour and wit some of the critics praise.

Depressing.


For those who speak German:

There's now a digitalized edition of "Die Fackel", satirical magazine, edited and authored by the famous Austrian writer, playright, satirist, aphorist and journalist Karl Kraus ("The Last Days of Mankind"),from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. See also my blog in German, Junctions.

Books, films, games, music

A very good site is Metacritic. It`s about music, DVDs, games, books and film. What I like best: it's not only about rankings and lists - there are links to reviews in newspapers and magazines as well and lots of info, such as new DVD releases and short summaries for books, films and games. Very helpful if you're looking for gifts.

The US vs John Lennon

Open Democracy`s Richard Young talks to David Leaf, writer and director of "The US vs John Lennon", a film about the Nixon administration's attempts to silence Lennon's anti-war message.

"You say you'll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead"

(The Beatles - Revolution).

Here's a link to the "US vs John Lennon" official site.

Night on Earth

night over muenster
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

During the weekend we saw "Night on Earth", directed by Jim Jarmusch (1991), soundtrack Tom Waits. These are five stories involving taxi journeys in different cities around the world: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The taxi journeys focus on the relationship between cab driver and passengers.
My favourite is the second story, set in New York, where an East German refugee who is barely able to drive his car and doesn't know his way around town picks up a hysterical passenger. Because of the German's poor driving, the passenger takes over and drives instead. There's a lot of fun in this story too, although the overall tone of all these episodes is rather melancholy.


Now online as videostream, alternatively as textfile:
Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance speech

Only in the movies

autumninmuenster
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

These things happen only in the movies

I'd love to see a film where everything happens the way things usually happen: searching for a parking spot for about 23 minutes, starting to dance in the street and everybody's crying for help and so on ....

The Soul of a Man

The Soul of a Man
is the title of another wonderful film of Wim Wenders, which explores the blues and some of its most famous artists: J.B. Lenoir, Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson.

But - above all - this film's title reminds me of one of my favourite books "The Heart of Darkness".

Today in Literature has it that "On this day in 1890, thirty-two year-old Joseph Conrad took command of a small stern-wheeler for the trip down the Congo river from Stanley Falls (now Boyoma Falls) to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). Though Conrad was not exposed to the full horror that Marlow witnessed and felt beckon, these experiences were the genesis of Heart of Darkness, published twelve years later...." Full story, see the link above.

Sax and Violins

summer clouds in carinthia
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

Last week I saw two films (thank you, Stevie, for telling!) by the German director and film-maker Wim Wenders (there was a series on tv to mark his 60th birthday): His road movie“Alice in den Städten” (Alice in the Cities) and “Der Himmel über Berlin”(Wings of Desire). Imagine Nick Cave and Peter Falk in one film!

Marvellous! I’ve enjoyed them tremendously! So far, I had only seen Buena Vista Social Club which received an Oscar nomination and “The Lisbon Story”.

I’m really not much into films, and it takes a lot of persuasion to get me into cinemas or in front of tvs – but for such films any time! Wenders, of course, cannot be explained here: it’s the mixture of plot, settings, movements, music, shadow, light and his obsession with America, or, as he once said the “Americanization of Germany” and communication, or sometimes, failure of communication between “normal” people - who, actually, often turn out to be outstanding and special.


Maybe it’s also Wenders’ ability to create always some joyfulness, some delight, even in the saddest moments... Or perhaps his attitude, quote: "Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins."
More of Wenders at "Senses of Cinema" and New German Cinema".