Cinema: Berlinale

The Berlin film festival (Berlinale) features a juried international competition, a film market and a very large number of screenings arranged under various categories and is one of the most important film festivals in Europe and the world. The festival also hosts an annual competition of "shooting stars" - 18 filmmakers who have made their names in their respective countries - as well as the increasingly popular Forum of Young Cinema and the children's film festival. The festival was founded in 1951 on an American-led Cold War initiative and has become a leading film event. Well-known world-class filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roman Polanski and Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol (the French Nouvelle Vague) all have enjoyed triumphs in Berlin.

The official programme at this year's festival includes the awaited "Angel" by French director François Ozon, "Bordertown," by Gregory Nava, "El Otro" ("The Other"), by Ariel Rotter, "Goodbye Bafana" by Bille August, "The Good German" by Stephen Soderbergh, "The Good Shepherd" by Robert De Niro and "Les Temoins" ("The Witnesses"), by Andre Techine. Out of competition will be "300" by Zack Snyder, "Letters From Iwo Jima" by Clint Eastwood and "The Walker" by Paul Schrader.

The Berlinale also organizes a Talent Campus. This year's campus will focus on issues such as filmmakers finding their own path through the globalised film industry, and it will discuss more intensive support for young talents, engagement for diversity in international film and the cinema as a place for political discourse, says Dorothee Wenner who is responsible for the Campus 2007. Not so far away... yet no time to go...

Cinema: Festival de Cine de Mexico DF

Later in February, Mexico City will stage its Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival - FICCO (Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México) , between 21 February and 4 March. This festival was launched in February 2004 and has become the most important cinematographic event of the country. It is committed to promoting the best world cinematography and to offering an alternative outlook on present day cinema. "FICCO is an outstanding venue that celebrates creators and spectators, adding itself to the big international festivals, leaving proof that cinematographic art is still alive." It includes the Fiction international competition, with movies from directors from all over the world (that haven´t shot more than three full length films). The Tendencies section will display movies by directors who have opened new paths for the films of the future.

The film that will kick off this edition of FICCO will be "Little Children" by Todd Field, with the excellent Kate Winslet, also featuring Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Connelly. The film was recently nominated for three Oscar prizes in the categories of Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Script. This year 16 films will be participating in the fiction section such as "The Namesake", by Mira Nair, David Lynch's "Inland Empire" with Laura Dern (which will come out in Brussels on 7/02, "Flandres" by Bruno Dumont, "Shortbus" by John Cameron Mitchel (not to be missed!) and the documentary "When the levees broke – a requiemin tour acts" by Spike Lee. Pitty DF is so far away...

Cidadania: aborto - sou do sim mas não do não...

Primeiro, veja o video excelente dos fedorentos...

Parece que cerca de nove mil pessoas se manifestaram em Lisboa no último fim de semana em favor do "não" à despenalização do aborto. Participaram na marcha também dirigentes dos partidos PSD (sem posição oficial) e CDS (oficialmente contra), entre os quais Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, ex-líder do PSD. Segundo o jornal Público, Marcelo teria participado na condição de “observador”, como terá explicado, "porque sou do "não", mas não deste não".

Fico bastante satisfeito por saber que causas sociais tão nobres conseguem mobilizar tanta gente em Portugal a manifestar-se, e que tantos cidadãos se tenham empenhado em lutar e manifestar pelos seus valores. Como também é de louvar todos os muitos “movimentos de cidadãos” que se formaram pelo “não”, como um grupo de jovenzinhos (bem queques diga-se de passagem, desses que frequentam colégios privados “bem”) que vi na televisão. Até parece que neste momento é chique, de bom tom, ser-se a favor do “não”. Mas o espírito de cidadania é bom.
Lamento no entanto que tanto fervor de cidadania e de luta por valores nobres não se manifeste em outras ocasiões, quando toca a manifestar-se ou a defender os direitos cívicos ou sociais de certas minorias, ou em favor de outras causas. Certamente desfilar numa “gay pride” em favor do direito à diferença ou numa manifestação pelos direitos dos emigrantes é menos “bem” do que manifestar contra o aborto. Ou quando deveriam ter-se manifestado contra a invasão dos EUA no Iraque e contra a desastrosa política de George W. Bush no Médio Oriente (ou em qualquer lado diga-se de passagem).

Mas Portugal continua a ser um país de "brandos costumes", de “gente bem”… de moral dupla, um país de hipocrisias. E quem sabe se no próximo dia 11 de Fevereiro não irão ainda uma vez mais comprovar o conservadorismo empedernido e votar contra a despenalização do aborto (como já votaram contra a regionalização)... e voltar a ser a chacota da Europa…

Music: Mexico soundtrack

Forget Mariachis, boleros and all the music clichés about Mexico... Actually the only place I listened to Mariachis while I was in Mexico was in Playa del Carmen and of course, they were playing for tourists… but don't misundertsand me, Maricachis can be cool and quite romantic, at the right moment and mood, of course. However, unless you’ll be going for a marriage or some special party or local festivities, you’re not so likely to come across it.

The contemporary pop and electronic music scene is quite alive and creative in Mexico and is not limited to the well known Murcof, Titan and Nortec Collective (those of Tijuana sessions). Maybe it's the divine support of Macuilxochitl's kiva, Aztec god of music and dance... The soundtrack of my Mexico trip includes groups/singers like Belanova, Moenia, Zoé (ver video aqui), Plastilina Mosh, Sussie4, Fey, La siguiente Pagina, Niño Astronauta, Los Dug Dug’s (el excelente “Brillo de sol”), Los super elegantes y por supuesto mis favoritos Maria Daniela y su sonido Laser! (ver aqui el video de “miedo”). But of course, it also includes the spanish cult-stars Fangoria or the argentinian Miranda or even the mexican singers Gloria Trevi and Paulina Rubio and Pasteles Verdes (a more pop side…) and the soundtrack from the movie Silent Hill.

All contributed to the perfect and unforgettable musical background to the images and urban trips in particular in Mexico D.F. around the “colonias” Condesa, Roma, Centro, Polanco, up and down Reforma, Chapultepec, Insurgentes, Coyacan, Santa Fé, etc. And of course muchisimas gracias a Hector for making me discover most of it.

Listen to some Mexican music with Tunefeed, here on the right column >>>

Against nature?

Last October 12, 2006 The Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, opened the first-ever museum exhibition dedicated to gay animals. Nowadays it is widely known that homosexuality is a common and widespread phenomenon in the animal world. Not only short-lived sexual relationships, but sometimes even long-lasting partnerships; partnerships that may last a lifetime (even longer than with us humans…).

It’s not always easy to know that an animal is homosexual. But the exhibit puts on display models, photos, texts and specimens testifying the fascinating observation of homosexuality among more than 1500 species, from tiny insects to enormous spermwhales. “Sadly, most museums have no traditions for airing difficult, concealed, and possibly controversial questions. Homosexuality is certainly such a question. We feel confident that a greater understanding of how extensive and common this behaviour is among animals, will help to de-mystify homosexuality among people. - At least, we hope to reject the all too well known argument that homosexual behaviour is a crime against nature”.

At the same time, the newspaper New York Times reported on a polemic around a research programme by Dr Charles Roselli, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University in the USA, set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Dr Roselli has searched for the past five years for “physiological” factors that might explain why about 8 percent of male sheep seek sex exclusively with other males instead of females. The goal, according to him, would be to understand the “fundamental mechanisms” (whatever that might mean…) of sexual orientation in sheep. But then the media and the blogosphere got hold of the story and the polemic started. Last Autumn, the organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals started a campaign against this research, and it has since then drawn outrage from animal rights activists, in particular tennis player Martina Navratilova, gay movement activists and ordinary citizens around the world. According to Dr. Roselli, those critics would be based on a misinterpretation of the objectives of his research.

Not quite so, I would argue… firstly, if he reaches some conclusive results, researchers could some day build on his findings to seek ways to determine which sheep are likeliest to breed. Then if any mechanisms underlying sexual orientation are to be discovered and can be manipulated, then the argument that sexual orientation is based in biology and is immutable would not be valid anymore. From there it isn’t difficult to imagine parents eventually willing to choose not to have children who could become gay. And that is a real concern for the future. As the NYT writes, since research and science are hard to stop, it would be more positive to try to change public perception of homosexuality as something wrong or “against nature’.

Cinema: the BEST of 2006

Here is the list (in alphabetical order) of the best films I saw in 2006. I have not chosen ‘one' best, it’s already difficult to select these among so many interesting ones. Curious, when I compared the films I saw with those of the Box office in France and the USA for 2006. Out of the top 30 films in France, I only saw 5 films and only three out of the top US 30… That makes me happy…

Best of 2006

Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu, USA/MEX
Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee, USA
Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón, UK/USA
Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney, USA
Jarhead, Sam Mendes, USA
El Laberinto del Fauno, Guillermo del Toro, MEX/ ES/ USA
Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, USA
Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola, USA
Me and you and everyone we know, Miranda July, USA
Odete, João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal
Renaissance, Christian Volckman, France (animated film)
Sangre, Amat Escalante, México
La science des rêves (the science of dreams), Michel Gondry, France
Shooting dogs, Michael Caton-Jones, UK/Germany
Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchel, USA
The Squid and the whale, Noah Baumbach, USA
V for Vendetta, James McTeigue, UK/ USA/ Germany

Other films worth mentioning:

Adam’s Apples, Anders Thomas Jensen, DK
An inconvenient truth, Davis Guggenheim, USA
The Black Dahlia, Bran de Palma, USA
Bubble, Steven Soderbergh, USA
Chromophobia, Martha Fiennes, UK/ France/ USA
Le clan, Gaël Morel, france
A Costa dos Murmúrios, Margarida Cardoso, Portugal
C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean-Marc Vallée, Canada
Ça rend heureux, Joachim Lafosse, Belgium
Elementarteilchen (Les particules élémentaires), Oskar Roehler, Germany
Los fantasmas de Goya, Milos Forman, España
L’immeuble Yacoubian, Marwan Ahmed, Egypt
Inside Men, Spike Lee, USA
Match Point, Woody Allen, UK/ USA/ Lux
Munich, Steven Spielberg, USA
Paris je t’aime, various, France
Prête moi ta main, Eric Lartigan, France
The road to Guantanamo, Michael Winterbottom & Mat Whitecross, UK
Romance and Cigarettes, John Turturo, USA
Romanzo Criminale, Michele Placido, Italia
Quinceañera (Echo Park L.A.), Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland, USA
Syrianna, Stephen Gaghan, USA
Thank you for smoking, Jason Reitman, USA
Transamerica, Duncan Tucker, USA
13 Tzameti, Gela Babluani, France/ Georgia
Truman Capote, Bennett Miller, USA
Tsotsi, Gavin Hood, South Africa
20 Centímetros, Ramón Salazar, España
Vers le sud, Laurant Cantet, France/ Canada
Volver, Pedro Almodovar, ES
Le voyage en Arménie, Robert Guédiguian, France
Where the truth lies, Atom Egoyan, Canada/ UK

The biggest deceptions of 2006

Borat, Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen, USA
Dans Paris, Christophe Honoré, France
Memoirs of a Geisha, Rob Marshal, USA

Still to be seen…

Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali, USA, France / Lady Chatterly, Pascale Ferran, France / Silent Hill, Christophe Gans / Something Like Happiness, Bodhan Slama, Czech Republic and Germany / A scanner Darlky, Richard Linklater, USA / Water, Deepa Mehta, Canada and India / L’homme de sa vie, Zabou Breitman, France / Elsa y Fred, Marcos Carnevale, Argentina and España / Oublier Cheyenne, Valérie Minetto, France / Brick, Rian Johnson, USA, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Thomas Clay, UK / Moartea domnului Lazarescu (The death of Mister Lazarescu), Cristi Puiu, Romania / The departed, Martin Scorcese, USA / Montag, Ulrich Köhler, Germany / Laitakaupungin valot (Les Lumières du Faubourg), Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, Germany, France.

Some final notes

2006 confirmed the strength and creativity of of north-american independent films, like Little Miss Sunshine, Me and you and everyone we know, The Whale and the squid, Shortbus, among others. It also confirmed the freshness and force of Mexican cinema and directors such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón (see previous post). It was also the year of confirmation and of the spotlight for two of my favourite actresses, Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson. They don’t stop and it will be difficult to catch up with all the films they’re doing… In particular Natalie has come from more independent production to mainstream cinema. As for the guys, the year of Clive Owen, of course, and let’s not forget three other excellent actors, quite present, Zach Braff (pitty we don’t get to see many of his films here…), Gael Gracia Bernal, excellent in Babel and The science of dreams, and finally Greg Kinnear.