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Berlinale 2017, Day 3 (Himmelskibet)

Day 3 marks an amusing shift in this year’s Berlinale. It was one of the most interesting days which I have been looking forward to (I saw 3 films in the CinemaxX 8 almost in a row), but spending the entire day with the Berlinale (starting with buying tickets in the morning) and having failed to get into one film (Droles d’oiseaux) actually dampened my enjoyment of the Berlinale overall. Every year something frustrating will happen at the Berlinale, but typically this lasts only a day or so. In this case, a fantastic film the next day (Upp i det bla) made me all but forget the frustrations of the day before.

Actually buying tickets was fun on that day, because I met up with the old man from two years ago who got there earlier than me, so being 5th in line, we were easily able to get all the films we wanted. The other fun occurrence of the day was that I got into a conversation with the person standing in line after me when we waited to be let into the movie theater for “Himmelskibet”, and we ended up chatting and meeting up several more times over the course of the Berlinale. Seems like the Berlinale is really turning into an event during which I randomly meet people!

Yet again, the cinema was packed for this screening. I asked aforementioned person why he chose to attend the screening and he said he was Danish and wanted to see the Danish offerings at the Berlinale (so he shall be referred to as Danish dude from now on). As for me, I chose the film because it’s a silent film with Stephen Horne’s live accompaniment, of course.

drrt

Himmelskibet (A Trip to Mars)
Denmark 1918, Holger-Madsen, 90′

I can see why the person introducing the film seemed so proud of their restorative work on the film, and why he felt compelled to excuse the film’s absurd airplane-rocket (this is probably because neither he nor the audience have ever heard of the term “steampunk”). On the one hand, “Himmelskibet” looks outdated and comes with an absurdly one-dimensional story and even more cookie-cutter characters than “Algol”. On the other hand, it’s actually a surprisingly well-made film for being one of the first of its kind, and there are many grand scenes and aereal shots suggesting that there was incredible monetary support for the film. For being so outdated looking, the Martians actually look awfully much like the hippies that came almost 50 years later.

The other thing “Himmelskibet” has going for it is that it’s a pacifist WWI film without being so obnoxiously nationalistic and misguided as “J’accuse”. This film is a straight-forward utopia fantasy where the aliens are portrayed as 100% wonderful and ready to come save the Earthian world from all its perversions. It’s only when keeping in mind that WWI was still raging when the film was made that the over the top simplicity of the film’s story makes sense. This is perhaps a film that must be viewed from its history more than most other films, but within its context, it actually conveys a sweet message that we simply have trouble accepting nowadays, maybe because we now have lost that innocence and hopefulness. History may repeat itself, but utopic ideologies probably don’t.

On a side note, I realize I haven’t seen a Danish film in forever. Back in the day, I was really into the Emolars movies, I loved “Festen” and “Adam’s Apples”, and then Gorp got me into seeing some Dreyer films, but I still have not seen “Häxan” nor “Babette’s Feast” which I had been planning to forever, and none of the Dogme 95 directors seem to be doing anything interesting anymore.

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Berlinale 2014, Day 10 (Nymphomaniac, Vol. 1)

A month after the Berlinale started, I am finally blogging about the last film. I had a feeling this would happen and I was a little afraid about it. Luckily I have a very vivid memory of “Nymphomaniac, Vol. 1” which ended up making quite an impact on me, I think.

Fittingly for the Berlinale, we were in the Berlinale Palast for the last film, sitting upstairs in the first row in the very middle. Lucky! As you can imagine, it actually provided a great view onto the screen and considering that the film was almost 2 1/2 hours long, this definitely helped.

drrt

Nymphomaniac, Vol. 1 (long version)
Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium/Sweden 2013, Lars von Trier, 145’

On his way home, the old bachelor Seligman finds a woman beaten up and brings her to his home. When she gets better, she tells him the story of her life and how she became a nymphomaniac, as she diagnoses herself. Volume 1 covers the first five chapters, which detail her youth in which she competes with her best friend about who can get the most men to sleep with them; her first meeting with Jerome, the love of her life, an incident; her father’s death and finally how she meets Jerome again.
Death count: 1.

I read up on what happens in part 2, and I’m not liking it, especially the parts concerning Seligman. However, I haven’t seen it and if I see it I may change my mind, we’ll see. Here, we only saw the first part, and I have to say, I liked it. If you look beyond those explicit sex scenes (yeah yeah, they’re provocative etc., get over it, there’s not even that many of them), the characters in the story make a lot of sense. I don’t think Joe’s character is very common or typical or even “human”, if you want, but she must be seen as an individual. Most people in this world are not nymphomaniacs or anything like her, but her character is well-fleshed out, and so it is possible to relate to her. As somebody who is almost uncontrollably obsessed with sex and who seems to have an incredibly built-in desire for it, she is quite aware of what she is doing and what it means. The story is detailed as one in which she made her own choices – she may not have been very good at controlling her desires, but she had full control of her actions. My favorite part was the one with the crazy wife who intrudes into her life with her children and goes on a crying rampage. It was so damn realistic and I loved how Joe ends the story with the fact that it did not faze her emotionally at all. That part was just so fascinatingly realistic, and shows in a striking fashion what consequences her actions have on other people. The matter-of-fact way she talks about her “sins” is nice because honestly, if there is something people are usually absolutely cold about, it’s what happens to other people who sleep with the same person as you, most often those husbands or wives. It’s not even that psychopathic of her, it’s perfectly normal if we were honest about it. I think I am usually a rather compassionate person, but if some guy’s wife did that in my apartment, the only thing I would want to say to that would be “Get out.”
The realism and the subtle feminism (quite typical for Lars von Trier) are this film’s best aspects really. People are getting it wrong, he doesn’t hate women, he loves them.

My second favorite part of the story was the last one, in which she compares her lovers to different voices of an organ. One of them is Jerome, the love of her life. The film’s main quote is probably “The secret ingredient to sex is love”, but even though Jerome may be the only man amongst whom she loves, he is still only one of them, only a part of the “big picture”. It reminded me of analyses of the Don Juan character who I was extremely fascinated with when I was younger, and she is something like a reverse Don Juan with a psychology just as complex.

I really enjoyed seeing Stellan Skarsgard after “Kraftidioten”, especially since he is in such a different role here. Charlotte Gainsbourg not so much, but I don’t think there is any film in this world which could make me feel better about her. Her adoration of Lars von Trier’s dark side also creeps me out.

After disliking “Antichrist” and dropping “Melancholia” like 10 minutes into the film, I had surprisingly high expectations for “Nymphomaniac”, perhaps because of its premise and because I enjoy Lars von Trier’s provocations. I enjoyed the film and thought that it was rather interesting in the way it handled its heroine. At least in parts, Lars von Trier is in parts regaining the depths he has shown in his older films, like “Dogville” and “Idioterne”, and I am glad that he finally did after almost 10 years of dabbling when only his comedies (“Occupations” and “The boss of it all”) were good.

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Berlinale 2014, Day 10 (Kraftidioten)

Pixelmatsch is a huge fan of Hans Petter Moland ever since he saw “En ganske snill man” at the Berlinale. I always thought that his Tarantino-like qualities were enticing, so “Kraftidioten” was a must for us to see, hence we got the Sunday tickets just to make sure.

I was already in the Friedrichstadtpalast for “La belle et la bete” right before, so I had the opportunity to secure pretty ideal seats for us. Yay!

drrt

Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance)
Norway/Sweden/Denmark 2013, Hans Petter Moland, 115’

When Nils hears that his son supposedly died of a drug overdose, he doesn’t believe in it and vows to get behind what happened and take revenge. Behind everybody’s backs, he finds out about the mafia deals his son got into, and starts killing the people involved one by one until he finds Greven, the boss of the organization, a megalomaniac, organic-food-and-pink-cupcakes-obsessed eccentric who is not afraid of random killing. Greven mistakenly thinks the Serbian mafia are responsible for the murders of his men, who are now plotting his son’s kidnapping.
Death count: Hehe, if I could remember. If I had to guess, 15.

I recently read a comment from somebody saying that the Scandinavian culture is rooted in violence and sadism, as can be seen in films like Lars von Trier’s. If you add in all the death metal scene, I can easily why someone would think that way. But then again, by that logic all of Japan is made up of pedophiles and Koreans are just as into violence too. I would be careful making such assumptions, even if they seem to make sense at first glance. But the truth is that the majority of Japanese people probably has nothing to do with pedophilia, as manga and anime give a skewed view of the country. I suspect this is the same thing for Scandinavia’s supposed propensity for violence. It just so happens that the kinds of Lars von Trier and Hans Petter Moland make it to the Berlinale, and perhaps they do make better films than their colleagues, but more than anything they just make for better headlines. It’s just like what Park Chan-wook’s films do for Korean cinema, even though many others (Bong Joon-ho, Hong Sang-soo, Lee Chang-dong) are at least just as great.

Actually “Kraftidioten” is not even that violent. Sure there is a lot of death, and it’s part of the film’s title. But it’s a black comedy, and as such, “Kraftidioten” is even funnier than “The Midnight After”. The violence comes from the amount of people dying (a lot) and the circumstances they die in (pretty random), but it’s not like you see a lot of blood or anything. “Kraftidioten” draws a thin line between film noir, Scandinavian deadpan comedy and revenge film, so death is almost inevitable. On top of that, almost every death case is important to the plot or at least has been foreshadowed. It’s a very well-crafted, stringent plot in which nothing happens just randomly, even though I just said that people die in random fashion. I blame the English language – people die in this film almost without any reason (which makes it a little shocking and perhaps hard to watch), but within this story everything has its place and every single “disappearance” advances the plot. (Except at the end where I am glad that they all got wiped out.)

One of my favorite aspects of the film is its use of snow and the stunning Norwegian landscapes. There is so incredibly much of it, and Nils’s profession (plowing the snow to clear the streets) has something very fitting for the film. It’s like the snow is another comedic character in this film’s ensemble.

I want to see “En Ganske Snill Mann”, and my high expectations for “Kraftidioten” were fully met. I don’t think I have laughed this much in awhile.