Category: Movies

Welcome to the next part of “About Chocolate Berlinale”, harr harr. You must have been wondering why there were no films yesterday. Well, the truth is, we didn’t get into any. “Mammoth” was obviously sold out, “My Dear Enemy” was sold out, and this left me so depressed that I wasn’t willing to see to late-night movie that went from 10pm to midnight anymore, because it’s another hour getting back home.

Today, we were much luckier! We had to wait for “Mary and Max”, but aside from the fact that there were a lot of annoying young children who obviously were in a group with school, we easily got into the film. Yet again, I have to complain about the organization though. There was quite a little line queued up (and everybody in front of us looked exponentially more pissed the more you moved forward to the line), and they opened the counter about 30 minutes before the scheduled time, although it is written everywhere – ironically even on the closed counter – that they would open one hour before. Oh, the Babylon, there really is nothing you can do against this cinema.

Yet again, we had the director present, but with the audience (at least 70% children, I guess?), there wasn’t much we could expect from the Q&A, especially since the movie itself was pretty straightforward. It was nice to see that the director was there though – how typical of the Berlinale.

Mary and Max
Australia 2008, Adam Elliot, 92′

The film was apparently opening Sundance last year, and I can totally see why. Although this is clearly a story geared towards children, it is so full of sexual jokes and adult wittiness that you can easily say that this is the type of ‘family movie’ that everybody would enjoy. And I did, with a few exceptions.

Story-wise, it had a simple premise. When 8-year-old Mary accidentally opened a phonebook, she decided to write to a random person and by chance stumbled upon Max Horowitz, a 44 year old lonesome Jew who later would be diagnosed with Aspergers. They then exchange letters, and over the years, their friendship grows stronger, but also encounters difficulties: They would get angry at each other, lose touch of each other etc. But in the end, they remained each other’s best and only friends.

In many respects, I have found this film to be really beautiful. What made it so great lied primarily in the way this unusual friendship was told – both of them were depicted in such detail and they really felt ‘alive’. Ironically, the best character descriptions I have found in literature were German and Russian, but the Germans felt so much more dense. It is amazing how such in depth characterization can be made in just 100 – or 92 minutes in the case of this movie.

Aside from the wonderful but perhaps a little kitsch friendship, the film’s biggest strength was its humour. There were comical situations very suitable for children – and others that totally were not. Now, I cannot remember all of them exactly (there were too many anyways), but a lot of them made me laugh out loud. For example, one subtle joke were the signs of the beggar next to Max’ house. First, it said “Hug 50c”, then it said “Financial advice” and finally at some point, it said “Keep your money, I want change.” Or how Mary asked whether in America, children also come out of the bottom of beer glasses. Max then replied: “In America, children come out of eggs hatched by rabbis. Or if you are catholic, by nuns. But if you are atheist, by a prostitute.”

I was also quite impressed and saddened at the same time how the film dealt with Max’ Aspergers syndrome. First of all, it was described in detail (and in this way, was also quite educational, because I am sure that many people do not exactly know what Aspergers is). I too think that one should not “cure” them, but I guess I just found it very depressing when their friendship was on the verge of break up because of this.
What was great, however, was how the film was so full of sexual jokes, but the relationship between Max and Mary stayed very pure. Perhaps I am just too wicked, but normally “OMG lolicon” would be the first thing I would think when I see such a story. But here, we have a deep friendship without any innuendo.

At the end of the film, they quoted “God gave us relatives – luckily we can choose our friends ourselves.” Perhaps that sums up the story the best. And oh by the way, the film made me cry even though one would think that the end was predictable and cheesy. That must mean that I truly liked it.

As the reigning choco parfait has less time than me, I will, being the “other naruhodou person” (search the blogroll), try to blog the movies she didn’t have time or motivation to watch.

This one was shown on a Saturday at 10 pm, so I was shocked to see, that 20 minutes before the screening there was a monstrous queue forming in front of the cinema hall. Being the good “Berliner” I am, I heartily ignored the people queueing up and placed myself somewhere in the front, which really paid off, as the cinema was packed. (In Berlin it really is perfectly alright to have a rather free interpretation on the concept of queueing up.)

The Cubix and especially its hall No. 9 is a great cinema. The screen is huge, there is abundant leg room and the ridiculously comfortable seats recline! You also have a great view from the waiting areas, especially the one in front of No. 9, as it’s on the (very high) 4th(BE) floor and you can see the television tower and the Alexanderplatz station. Too bad it only shows German language versions, I’d really like our original-language-only-multiplex to move there, it even is the same chain of cinemas! Also, they only let us in 10 minutes after the official starting time of projection. Berlin is not a German city, when it comes to organisation…

Seishin (Mental)
Japan 2008, Soda Kazuhiro, 135′

This was a screening with the director present. He was very happy to see so many people so late to watch his movie and wondered how many would stay until the end. Click here for a very interesting interview about him and the movie, it also covers the relevant points asked in the Q&A.

It started on a very dark note, with a heavily crying, suicidal woman visiting Dr. Yamamoto (the one in the picture), who is the founder of Chorale, a mental clinic in Okayama, Japan. The first impression of the doctor is really bad however, as he doesn’t really seem to care about what the woman has to say and at the end there is this great scene where you see him reaching for a tissue. Not to give it to woman, mind you. Just to clean his own nose! The whole cinema was torn between laughter and exasperation. It goes on in a similar tone, presenting 2 other women with depressions and similar problems which makes them unstable to the point of being suicidal. This part was really uncomfortable und depressing, so actually there were many people leaving the cinema, although maybe they just got headaches from the shaky handheld digital camera, although fortunately the director used a tripod wherever possible.

After you made it through this, the movie portrayed the institution’s projects: “Pastel”, a milk delivery service and “Mini-Chora”, a really cute little restaurant, where all the staff are patients from Chorale. Of course, money in the form of government grants and quarreling for payments from public health services is a dominant theme through the whole movie. At one point, a woman you wouldn’t expect to understand or be interested in politics talks about the situation for people with disabilities and says “Thank you, Mr. Koizumi”, which is one of the moments where you see how “normal” the patients actually are.

There are also examples of a more uplifting nature, if you can call it that. There was one person (Sugano, if you read the interview. If not, do it.) who said many intelligent things and was really good at taking photos and writing poems. A really charming fellow, who said “OK, cut!” every time after he delivered one of his speeches, of course the director ignored it. From his history, you could see that his life could have been really good if he didn’t have this one big mental problem: every time he had to work or study for something he put in a ridiculous amount of effort (e.g. spending 18 hours of his high-school days on school or studying) and every time, after a few weeks or months of doing this, he would completely break down and lose everything he worked for.

Through the movie, with every patient, it became more apparent that Dr. Yamamoto, a really silent and inconspicuos person, was actually the very heart of the whole clinic and a very good, dedicated psychologist, who devoted his whole life to these people. For example, until recently he didn’t get any money for his work and even now he gets only 100,000¥ (around 850€ or US$1100 and the costs of living in Japan are roughly twice as much as in the USA and maybe 1.5 times as much as in Western Europe), much less than his (great and also dedicated) assistants, so he also receives some form of social security. He also speaks at events that are so low budget, noone else would accept. Also, one person tells about how the Dr. traveled a few hundred kilometers just to help him, a former patient. You also gradually see, how he really cares for and interacts with his patients.

All in all this documentary is neither beautiful (although the director has a good feel for the camera) nor very funny or classically entertaining, but it really gives a heart-warming portrait of Dr. Yamamoto, his workers and their patients. If you have any interest in the subject, I wholeheartedly recommend it to you. Shame on the rude people who left. You really could have known beforehand, that it woldn’t be “fun”.

While yesterday, I wanted to be somebody from the press so that I don’t have to run into all these people, I now realize that apparently, the Berlinale gets too much press anyways and they seem to treat press people very harshly. You have to pay 60 euro to get your press card, after sending in proof of why you would deserve this card (of course), and in some movies, you are last to enter, oh my.
What is even more depressing is that major newspapers really don’t talk about much else aside from the competition entries. Why can they not write about some less interesting movies from time to time? Hmm.

So, today we were actually first to enter and, yet again, sat at some very good places. The cinema, albeit smaller than yesterday, was packed. I can’t believe so many people would go to a movie that I would have considered not so interesting. What are these people doing there? Why are cinemas typically empty – especially for a documentary like this – and suddenly get incredibly full when it’s the Berlinale? I cannot believe this.

Araya
France/Venezuela 1959, Margot Benacerraf, 82′

It really was no interesting movie. In many respects, this film was like listening to a class at university.

Basically it’s a documentary about the fishermen and salineros, people who work at the salt evaporation sites at Araya, a beautiful, but barren beach in Venezuela. The workers there are obviously very poor and have to spend their whole life working on the same thing. This is accompanied by a calm narrator voice from the off, recounting sentences such as “Nothing grows.” to emphasize on the atmosphere of beauty and repetition.

Of course it is not surprising that I actually took my 5 minute nap in the middle of the movie (just like in class, by the way). The whole thing felt like 3 hours to me (very much unlike Ai no Mukidashi one day before), and even though it made perfect sense and I have found the movie to be very good technically, I could not stand the slow pacing. Sure it’s poetic and sad and beautiful, but it’s also boring.
It’s not that I didn’t care about the lives of the people there, the film even shows a little bit how that life is going to come to an end because machines will be replacing the workers. I have also been wondering whether the fishermen or the salt workers are comparably well off – my theory is that the salt workers always have money, they can get their salt every day while the fishermen have to take a certain risk. Furthermore, the fishermen can never make more than what the salt workers can pay them; on the other hand, the salt workers are dependent on the fishermen to, well, get fish. If the fishermen don’t happen to catch enough fish, they will keep what they have to themselves and the salt workers will have to starve with cornbread for awhile.

All in all, it was very interesting to have seen a movie like this. But since I have nothing more to say, I devised a new poll, hoho. Also, feel free to comment about your experiences with film festivals. I’d love to hear them. :3

The first day started off okayish. First of all, we did not get into the screening of a short film compilation, because it was nowhere written on the internet that it was only for journalists. (Damn, I want to be a journalist.) Then, we easily got tickets for the film we wanted to see, but then, about 40 minutes before the scheduled start of the film, people started lining up for entering. Then, perhaps 10 minutes too late, the screening actually started.

At that point, however, my impression of the Berlinale turned very positive. The movie was totally the kind of action-packed thing you should watch in a cinema (so it was a good choice to see it) and surprisingly, the director and the actress for the main protagonist were present and it was actually very interesting to hear them talking about the movie. It’s too bad that they looked totally jetlagged and utterly not interested in this event at all, but I can’t blame them.

Ai no Mukidashi (Love Exposure)
Japan 2008, Sono Sion, 237′

First of all, I was obviously a little worried about spending 4 hours in a movie theater and already prepared myself to fall asleep. For a few moments around the end, I felt a little tired, and especially so when we left around 11.30pm, but the movie itself actually did not feel long at all.

In a silly way, I find it really difficult to talk about the movie this time, because I seriously want to promote it. It was that that good! Surely it’s a movie for, erm, people who are familiar with Japanese subcultures, but if you are, you will wholeheartedly appreciate it, I am sure. It just has everything: Cute girls, a wicked character, a sympathetic loser who keeps fighting for his love (amazing, isn’t it?) and finally, quite a bit of splatter, action coupled with some witty dead pan comedy. Oh, I forgot to mention that the movie is visually absolutely stunning.

The main story is about this catholic raised boy whose father (a priest) got lovesick and so made him confess his sins everyday. To cope with that, he had to, well, actually commit sins. And so he came into the world of taking panty shots of girls. This is how a seemingly rich girl took an interest on him and devised an evil plan, during which he meets his sister, the girl he comes to love. It turns out that the rich girl is the head of some evil sect, trying to lure his family into it. She begins with hooking up with this sister and making out right next to his room…

I have researched Sono Sion and saw that he directed “Suicide Circle” (the movie to a manga scanlated by Omanga), and that he worked on Beineix’ “Otaku” movie, which already shows how familiar he is with the world of, well, perverts. It is so obvious how the director is not just doing something random with this movie, no, the world of otaku is the main audience of his movies and the movie is a laudatio on the social outcasts. Every single of the characters is perverted in a sense, and it becomes quite clear throughout the movie that

During the interview session, we asked about the end, whether the director intended it to end it as such. Furthermore, another person asked what the director wanted to convey with the movie. Despite his reluctant and somewhat vague replies, we could easily see that the main point about the movie is that it’s a love story, no more and no less. That love is something beautiful, even (or especially?) when it comes from a pervert who takes panty shots, and that a movie mainly has to be a lot of fun. Now, at this point of my life, I must admit that I wholeheartedly agree. If these were his intentions, he absolutely succeeded in my book.

In my opinion, the best character is Koike, the evil rich girl. The main character and his sister/love interest are pretty cute together, but Koike is the one who makes you think. Now here’s my interpretation: She fell in love with the main guy, but since she hates men and how she lusts for him, she feels disgusted with herself and wants to hurt him. This gives her a reason to stick with him and stalk him the whole time, but at the same time feel superior over him. That is why she makes him fall in love with another girl and then takes this girl away from him. Then, in the end, she realizes that she is never going to get him and his love for this girl drove her so crazy that she finally freed herself by, well, killing herself? This still makes her death feel wrong and does not seem to do justice to her rather complex character, but the explanation sounds somewhat consistent, I guess. The best scene is the one in which she sits on this half-dead bodyguard and says “Now go die!” And then she dips her cigarette into his blood.

So yeah, my only irks with this movie is that it lacks a certain depth in its meaning. The only comedy that has made it into my all time top 10 is “To be or not to be”, and that is mainly because most great comedies don’t really have a very great message, and I guess for me, a movie that enters into the top 10 has to have everything: A sophisticated meaning, great execution and a good story. “Love Exposure” only fulfills the latter two, when it comes to the meaning, I guess it would be “Perverts are the greatest and nicest people in the world” and “If you have any serious problem in your life, just take some knives and bombs and go berserk, then everything will turn out fine”? I’m joking, but really, there isn’t much behind this.

But who cares? Perhaps I was just pleasantly surprised by a movie that I didn’t know much about before I watched it, but it was a lot of fun. If you enjoy Japanese movies in general, I think this is a gem that should not be overlooked.

PS. Oh yeah, there are pictures of Sono Sion, but I doubt you can even recognize him on the cellphone pictures. XD It also feels like there were many more things I wanted to say, but I forgot about them. Well, I might consider adding some comments later.