Songs from the Nickel+Holy Rollers+Das letzte Schweigen

'Songs from the Nickel':
'The Nickel' is a not so fashionable - to say the least - street in downtown Los Angeles, far from the more famous districts in town.
In this neighbourhood one however find a lot of interesting people, having lived a rather rough life but on the same time, in many cases, gained a life wisdom they like to share with others.
Alina Akrezeszewska has made a documetary about these different personalities and it's a very charming story about people, sometimes being multi-talented and perhaps to sensitive to live in the ever spinning world going round and round.
As I've met people being more or less 'outcast' in Stockholm when working with my social aid work many years ago, I know that the encounters with people that the 'ordinary' society looks down on, can be much more interesting than the meeting with 'the ordinary in the ordinary'.
The director stayed afterwards answering questions from the audience and she told us that it took some time to gain the confidence of the residents before being able to interview them in order to realize this film.
She lived in one of the hotels in this area and got herself some 'mentors' and 'guardians' introducing her to the other inhabitants and this facilitated her work.
Was she scared when living in this suburb among people more or less regarded as outcast?
No not to much, not least after the above mentioned 'guardians' kept an eye on her.
On the other hand, most people living in this area are people having been hurt by society and one shouldn't generalize, saying that people leading this kind of life are dangerous in general.
I would say, form my own experience, that among people with drug problems or social problems, having confronted many difficulties in life, one often find the most intelligent and interesting individuals, not among the 'ordinary' persons on the street, living a socially more acceptable life with a work, a house, a car and loans!
The most dangerous people we find among those having most economical or political power but they are dressed well and respected because they are rich and succesful, not at all a reliable criteria, as we know.
Many of the persons depicted in this documentary were really interesting characters, having thought and reflected a lot but unfortunately not being able to transform their thoughts into a succesful or prosperous life.

'Holy Rollers' is the story about a group of Hasidic Jews who are smuggling ecstacy for a Israeli drug dealer in Brooklyn.
The story is built on a real event.
Sam Gold (Jessie Eisenberg) is a young man faced with an arranged marriage and it's nothing he appreciates. To this comes that his father and the local rabbi has decided that he should become a rabbi. One could of course commit suicide for less than that!
Fortunately(?) his neighbour Yosef (Justin Bartha) introduces him to the local drug dealer Jackie (Danny A. Abackaser) and henceforth his life will not become the same again, not for long.
This is a story about how easy it can bee getting in to a business being very profitable but more or less immoral, not least when one are raised in a very restricted moralizing way, as is the case with Sam.
He was for the first time in life experiencing freedom and a life in luxuary but also a very dangerous life, of course.
The film also displays how superficially we judge people, in this case the personel employed at the customs who to a large extent let them pass because they wear the traditional orthodox jewish clothes, something one take advantage of from the drug dealers side.
In the end the saga ends a bit like the sagas of the Grimm Brothers but the film as such does not leave any lasting memories.

Das letzte Schweigen:

This film deals with many different issues not least moral ones.
It starts of with two men seeing a young girl on her bike following her on a small road in the forest. One of the men attacks her, rapes her and kills her.
The other man stays in the car, being frightened by the action of his friend or acquaintance or maybe living out his fantasies from within.
We jump ahead in the story, more than twenty years later, meeting the two men again but this time during other circumstances.
Again a young woman disappears and different people having been involved in the former disappearance, directly or indirectly become involved in this process too.
The questions posed are many and some of them could be:
What responsibility does the perpetrator have for acknowledging the fact that he or she has a desire for children and is prepared to abuse and even kill them to satisfy him- or herself?
What responsibility does parents have in order to avoid a development like this?
What responsibility has the therapeutic society for an event of this kind?
What responsibility has - in this case - the friend who stays in the car, not intervening in what's happening to the young defensless woman/girl?
How does the police act and do they prioritize this kind of matters etc etc?
Even if the film does not present any definitive answers - as their are no such answers - it tries to depict the fact that an act like this affects a lot more people than just those directly involved and that it createas wounds so deep that they never seem to heal, neither on a individual level nor on a societal.

Director: Baran bo Odar.

Dining at Sjätte tunnan (The Sixth Barrel)

After the film 'Bi, don't be afraid', we went on strolling around Stockholm but at 8 pm we had decided to meet a couple of friends at the medieval restaurant 'Sjätte tunnan' in The Old Town of Stockholm.

Unfortunately they had misunderstood us wherefore we found ourselves two at a table for four.
Evidently this did not cause the restaurant any problems wherefore we started eating in a totally packed restaurant.

At earlier visits we often heard the vielle- or lira player Johannes Hellman or his teacher perform but this evening it was jesters entertaining us, spitting fire, singing different traditional, medieval songs, playing instruments and more.
This was very nice even though a group of fairly young Swedes at the table next to us, were somewhat to loud, after having drunk to much.
The proprietor however told them to be more quiet.
Swedes can't have fun without disturbing others but this is a phenomena caused by the fact that they can't handle alcohol.
Besides these representatives for the populace it was - as always when we've visited this restaurant - a very nice evening.
Below a few of the plates they served during this 'Christmas table' as one call it in Sweden.

This is a photo taken on my (Gunnar's) first plate and I took two.
Aurore didn't eat as much as I but her plate was full, that I can assure!

(Photo 'Sjätten tunnan' exteriorally taken from: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/99/302727097_4c0ea76933.jpg?v=0)

Bi, don't be afraid

Bi is a young boy living with his mother (Thi Kieu Trinh Nguyen), father (Ha Phong Nguyen) and aunt (Thuy Hoa) in Hanoi.
One day Bi's grandfather (Tran Tien) - absent for many years - returns to their home, badly ill in need of care and treatment.
This could have been a chance for the family to reunite and discuss the fact behind the disapperance of the grandfather but it has a reverse effect, at least on Bi's father.
The latter stays out late, not wanting to return to the apartment and finally he doesn't come home at all. In this way he's a copy of his father who, without we knowing why, left him as a young boy. This time Bi is the one who experiences the same.
Bi continues to play at the factory - though his mother doesn't want him to - but on the samtime connect more to his grandfather than anyone else of the family members.
His grandfather becomes a sort of mentor and teacher to Bi, as his own father is absent and his mother engages herself in the care taking of her father and tries to 'act naturally'.
Noone seems to be able to connect emotionally, except Bi. On the same time Bi is a rather frightened child, being scared of a lot in life but this changes over time.

However intresting the theme and the idea of seeing everything from the childs perspective, this film lacks something that moves it forward, emotionally, aesthetically and dramaturgically, wherefore the final verdict is good but not excellent.

Staging Power. Napoléon, Karl Johan, Alexander

As we have a good friend working at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm - The Museum of Fine Arts - we were given the opportunity not only to meet her but also having her as a guide on the above mentioned exhibition.

This exhibiton wants to convey an insight in to the fashion the above rulers wanted to be and were depicted in art and how this aimed at strengthen their power and make their compatriotes fear or respect them.
It also gave them an aura of being appointed by God, as was the common thoughts and terminology at the time.
What one display is the art of "governing through art" and how this also strenghtened the despots and their position among other rulers.
The ruler who could afford the greatest artistst to immortalize them, using the most expensive materials, was of course in a way the most powerful.
The interesting thing about this exhibition and the guiding by our friend was in part to see all the magnificent pieces of art, the room of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (Karl Johan) and others but also some of the stories behind the 'staging' of the exhibition.

Three countries with different administrative cultures were to cooperate around this exhibition and it wasn't always they succeeded in doing so in a smooth way.
One of the items displayed was three busts representing Napoléon, Alexander I and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte.
Napoléon had been placed above the two others and this was not to the liking of the Russians who complained about this arrangement.
The museum answered that first of all one have to admit that Napoléon was the most powerful leader of the three at the time and secondly that this is the way "we do it in Sweden".
The Russians had to accept it!

Another issue was the questions about insurances for all the different works of art and some wanted very precise assertions about how this was going to be handled, while not always being as rigourous the other way around.

It was however a very interesting exhibition with a lot of extremely fine art and artistic work and when our friend had left us, to continue to work, we took a second look at the 'Staging Power'.

(Picture of Napoléon I taken from: http://blog.goldini.com/images/45737-41649/Napoleon.jpg)
(Picture of Alexander I taken from: http://www.svenskhistoria.se/nyhetsbrev/userfiles/image/1809b.jpg)
(Picture of Karl Johan/Jean Baptiste Bernadotte taken from: http://nationalmuseum.se/Global/utst%C3%A4llningar/H%C3%A4rskarkonst/bernadotte_282xxx.jpg)

Electro Wars+Welcome to the Reileys+Submarino

In his documentary - The Electro Wars - the young film maker (he looks even younger than he is, born in 1984) Stephen Alex Vasquez tries to depict the historical as well as the recent developments when it comes to the electronic dance music.

From a short historical backdrop with the development of the Moog synthesizer, the work by Kraftwerk and other 'pioneers' within electronical music, he moves on to the American dance scene in all its diverisification.

We get to see how different genres and musical influences has created a mix, leading up to different kinds of subgenres of the overall defined musical category called electro(nical), subgenres not so easily defined and separated from each other, as with a lot of musical styles.

When a certain kind of style appears, other - very quickly - pop up and create a not so easily penetrated jungle of musical varieties and it's this development we are introduced to in this ambitious documentary.

One of the interesting things is that it seems as if it's hard to keep up with the development, even during the filming but for those of you - including myself - who are not extremely initiated and possess a lot of knowledge about this musical scene, this is a very interesting and illuminating documentary with a lot of interviews with elder and more recent icons within the constantly ongoing 'electro war-scene'.

Afterwards we had the pleasure talking to mister Vasquez and asking him some questions around this film and the making of it.

We were invited to a party that very night but unfortunately our film watching schedule was to tight for this. Next time in the United States perhaps?

Stephen Alex Vasquez (left) and the very same and me (with a ridiculous smile, right)

The couple in the film 'Welcome to the Reileys' - Doug (James Gandolfini) and Lois (Melissa Leo) - lost their daughter many years ago. She was killed.
Ever since they have struggled with their relationship, their inability to have another child and Lois panic attacks, making her constantly stay inside the house in a self-imposed house-arrest.
During a business trip to Louisiana Doug meets a 16-year-old woman - Mallory (Kristen Stewart) - employed at a strip club.
After a while he decides to take care of her, as he can't bear seeing her live the way she does and this of course against the background of the tragic story of their daughter with whom he partly identify Mallory.
When Doug confide her the story about their daughter, she reacts by accusing him only wanting to replace his daughter with her, without a profound interest in her as a person.
This is both right and wrong, as we will see.

On the whole this film is a bit to conventional för my (Gunnar's) taste. We've seen these kind of stories before, where people being well off economically, for this or that reason, engage themselves in a person living under more severe circumstances.
I don't think this film added anything unique to this genre.
Kristen Stewart reminded us - when it comes to her role character and the way she characterize her - of a young Jodie Foster or Juliette Lewis and the name Mallory 'of course' evoke the latter.

Submarino:
Another Danish story about people living on the knife edge between life and death, maltreated as children, having problems coming over this as adults.
One of our friends - the producer Olivier Guerpillon - said: "Well, I felt like seing a Danish depressing story - once again".

Two brothers grow up with a alcoholized mother who totally neglect them leaving them alone in the appartment, having to take responsibility for their baby sibling.
When this baby dies, the two boys accuse themselves for his death.
When the older brother - as a grown-up - leaves prison, after having served some years, he incidentally meets his younger brother, the latter having a son but not a job, being a drug addict and selling drugs in order bieng able to support himself and hi son.
Even though the older brother is no great role model, he's more eager trying to live a life keeping him away from crime and therefore tries to help his younger brother as well as he can.
In spite of the seriousness of the subject matter, the good acting and some rather violent episodes, this film does not affect me in any profound way.

Irresponsible people blaming everyone else, or their upbringing, for their own mistakes, is something so common, in reality as in fiction, that it feels to much of a déja vu to impress on me, not least as the this film lacks the originality and surprising ingredients of Thomas Vinterberg's most famous film(?) 'Festen' ('The Celebration'/'Fête de famille').

Cemetery Junction+Rare Exports

Ricky Gervais’ and Stephen Merchant have collaborated on this feature film (to some degree made in the kitchen-sink tradition), telling the story about three young men who are boored with their work, their town and probably themselves.
They try to flee within by doing a lot of stupid things, pranks they, themselves, find 'entertaining' but nothing the inhabitants of the town appreciate.
One of them - Freddie - Christian Cooke - the more handsome and ambitious among the three, starts to sell insurances in order to 'become something' or 'someone', working for the cynical Mr Kendricks - Ralph Fiennes - falling in love with his daughter.
After this his decision, life wanders up and down, not least since he's in the middle of an argument between father and daughter concerning her role as a woman: Career woman or housewife.
The other two friends continue to do the same thing they've always done and even though they are given chances they spoil everything, or almost everything.
The ending is a bit too foreseeable and 'happy' for my taste but....
It's a feel good film not plunging too deep into the mysteries of human existence and psyche but, in spite of this, a habile piece of work.
I would like to emphasize the acting by Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson - as his wife - and Tom Hughes as Freddies friend Bruce.

'Rare Exports':
A team of American scientists are drilling for gas in the northern parts of Finland and its mountains and this at the exact spot where - according to the myth - the real and 'evil' Santa Claus is said to be burried - the Santa who eats children!

These are well known 'facts', if you ask the young boy Pietari (Onni Tommila) who has read a book telling the 'true story' about Santa Claus and his malignancy. Now he's afraid that they will unleash a veritable 'Child Harmageddon' - and of course he's right!
From this point on, his father and his friends - all being reindeer keepers - become involved in a nightmarish hunt after and defense against both the awful Santa and his half human helpers ('nissar'), a horde of naked ugly men with beards!
Not revealing to much I can say that in Finnish the word for Santa Claus is Joulupukki wich means Christmas goat.

This is an amazing and imaginative story by director Jalmari Helander (photo below), blending myth and suspense, action and passion and a fantastic scenery. In the center of the story we have the clear-sighted child and 'hero' who see things grown-ups don't because the latter are to rational.

We were also given the possibility listening to the director himself talking about the film after the screening, interviewed by a member of the Stockholm Film Festival. The audience were also given the chance asking questions.
Helander is a low-voiced man with a quiet humour.
As one of the few countries in Europe this film is not scheduled to be shown on movie theaters in Sweden. The film will however be released on DVD and it's not impossible that it will reach the cinemas anyway.
When Swedish movie theaters and distributors realize that this film will become a success - of this I'm sure - they will be forced releasing it.

Jalmari Helander:

Haircut

Today Aurore has a rendez-vous with the hairdresser at the so called Hårakademien (Hair Academy) in Stockholm. It's a school and therefore the prices are much more attractive but at the same time the result is as good as any other hairdresser.

I didn't know what kind of hairstyle she should decide on but generally she lets the hairdresser decide for him- or herself. Below some suggestions:

(Photos taken from: http://www.futurecuts.com/supercuts.jpg+ http://www.stellure.com/new/images/stylepics/punk.jpg+ http://www.rtvchannel.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/extreme-celebrity-hairstyles-1.jpg+ https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1oBumKTGKS1XqxpLpil0RrYETqVg0Zwg_GOE9rjqs7DHaAx5UMqIAYfDwrWrnyXasDMYMDPpDoSo_umTCUkxcagf-JJ0yot_Z-lDhLZvN4bM9BO6fhU0tCFw54yZIDdCowsm/s400/ice_broch_definer01B.jpg)
(Photo djurhåruppsättning kopierad från: http://www.houseofkicks.se/image.axd?picture=djurfrisyr.jpg

Putty Hill+Life 2.0

'Putty Hill' is a semi documentary film made by Matthew Porterfield, about a young man - Cory - who dies from an overdose in a poor suburban community.
As spectators we don't know much about Cory but by depicting the everyday life in this community and by using a form of documentary interview technic, one of the ideas is - I suppose - that we should get to know him and the community better.
Unfortunately - though the people depicted in this film mostly are themselves in this fictional narrative - we don't seem to get to know neither Cory nor the inhabitants better as they in a way disappear in a form of verfremdung-effect.
The idea of a voice over or a interviewer also seems very obsolet, used at least since the 1960's and doesn't bring us nearer the subject(s) or contribute to something new or innovative in the way it's used.

This is a film I felt should have been made many years ago when one first started talking about the cyber world, Second Life-communities and avatars. Why?
Well in a way the subject feels somewhat obsolet and I must say that the grafics and the world within wich the people in the film live their 'second' - or 'first' life (in some cases) - does not impress on me.

For some it seems as a way to get connected to others and - as one couple in the film - try to find out if one are meant for each other or not. On the same time this is a more 'innocent' way of committing adultery, as is also the case with this very couple.
For others this world has become the important world where they can create a life and a 'meaning' of their own, reaching a level of societal status and income, impossible to reach for them in 'real' life.
This is obvious in one of the cases, where a woman creates her own business and becomes succesful as an entrepreneur but only in cyber world.

Another way of using this world is to create an avatar that in a way resembles who you really want to be in real life or how you perceive yourself in the innermost of your psyche.
In this film this part is represented by a man who in the cyber world is a young girl in her teens. It's being depicted as his way of sublimating and realizing his subcounscious traumas.
The problem with this is that it seems as if one have to choose between this or that life and that living in both isn't possible, at least if you get possessed by your avatar.

When meeting in real(?) life the couple mentioned above confront the same problems as every other couple, meaning that when the 'honeymoon' is over, the everyday life and it's different conflicts come to the surface and the questions of whether or not it was easier to live together in the cyber world is raised. Did they make a good choice in leaving their families or not?

For the entrepreneur-woman, the life in cyber world confronts problems when someone steals her ideas and dump her prices, as can happen in 'real' life.
Besides this, everything around her in 'real' life falls apart. It's dirty in her room, she stays with her parents and brothers, not liberating herself from the family bonds, she becomes more and more gross, eating fast food and drinking coke.
Maybe she'll die premature caused by this living but if she's happy, that's her problem.
Furthermore, the family is happy as she earns more than them, up til the economic problems in her second - or first - life arise.

For the man who hides himself under the disguise of a young girl, this game serves the purpose working through his fathers molestations when he was a kid, at least according to him.
During this process he looses the greatest love of his life, with whom he has lived for some time.
He decides to destroy his avatar but when his daily life with his woman no longer functions and they go separate ways, he returns to the Second Life, thus becoming his 'first'.

Director: Jason Springarn-Koff.

Culture within the development policy

Thanks to Mahla, with whom we stayed, we got an invitation to SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) for a seminar concerning the above subject.
As being a medical student she sometimes get invitations to different arrangements like this and this time she was prevented participating.
Invited to this seminar were representatives from the government - two different governmental depatments - SIDA and other organizations and institutions.
As so often the political representatives were as exciting as a piece of paper with statistic staples but luckily enough there were members from other interest groups as SELAM - an organisation inviting artists from all over the world, both within the musical sphere but also theater and other disciplines - who were more enthusiastic and enthused over the subject.
Another structure was Kulturrådet or The Swedish Art Council.

From the political point of view - as Aurore established - the discussion focused more on quantitative aspects than qualitative ones, meaning that culture in the broadest sense of the word, serve as a mean for another goal - aid policy or investments in infrastructure in a country - where the cultural element serve as a door opener.
The representatives for SELAM or The Swedish Art Council, talked more about culture as a goal in itself, as the mastic for understanding between different countries and cultural contexts.

We came there at 9 am and left at 12 am.

Hjem till jul (Home for Christmas)+Another Year

'Hjem till jul' or 'Home for Christmas' is directed by Bent Hamer, the Norwegian director who became known not least for 'Salmer fra kjøkkenet' ('Kitchen Stories/chroniques de cuisine'), the somewhat absurd story about how to transmute everything into statistics in order to create the 'perfect society', the aim of not least the Swedish post war-government.

This 'Christmas'-film is made in accordance with a - I'm sorry to use this cliché again but everyone understands what it's all about - 'Short Cuts'-thematic structure.
We get to follow different characters in their struggle to reach home - in any sense of the word - before Christmas.
Some make it, others don't and among those who make it one can wonder if they really made it after all and among those who does not make it in this world, might have reached the final destination beyond.
The idea to this story is far rom as original as Kitchen Stories and it tends to become a bitter-sweet blend, combined with a Hollywood-adapted dramatics, not to excessive, not to distorted.
This film could have been told in another more dramatic and interesting way, this is quite obvious but on the other hand, the ambition was to take the film to Hollywood and the Oscars.....
The photo is partly extremely beautiful, reminding of Tarkovskij, Angelopoulos and some 19th Century paintings.

'Another Year' is a very talked about film made by Mike Leigh and as I wrote about 'Kitchen Stories' above, one can connect to that film by establishing that Mike Leigh creates his films in a 'kitchen sink-tradition'.

What is most interesting about his films, is his ability to find and create interesting characters, not least by using his improvisional method, leading the actors to construct their own 'figure' within the all-embracing framework of Leighs original idea.
In this film we meet a happy couple and their not so happy friends and once again we get to meet a group of rather touching, pathetic and tragicomic characters and life-stories.

I add the text I wrote for the catalogue at the Stockholm Film Festival:

"In this film, Mike Leigh uses seasonal changes as the backdrop for life's external and internal changes, ‘rite de passages’ and repetitive patterns. We meet a happy, soon to be retired, couple, Tom and Gerri.

Approaching the autumn of their life, living in the summer of their relationship, they are surrounded by a family and friends experiencing depressions, emotional storms and relational lull. Among them we meet Gerri’s colleague Mary who, let down by men, flirts desperately, drinks heavily and tries to seduce Tom and Gerri’s son Joe. When Joe shows up with a girlfriend his own age, the nuclear warheads are charged and we enter a cold war-situation. Leigh uses his improvisational method, gradually revealing to the actors their different role characters, relational statues and interactions, constantly forcing them – and us - to reflect over and re-think the personality of each individual.

The camera is a ‘pen’, the actors the ink, writing and re-writing the loosely built scenario, creating a realistic and moving depiction of human existence."

Lunch with our friend Styrbjörn

Today we started with a lunch together with an old friend of mine, later becoming a friend of Aurore - Styrbjörn - working within the Swedish Government Department.

He is responsible for the purchasing process within the ministry, meaning everything from limousines to psychologists. He's been working with these issues for more than ten years and is also responsible for the educational part of this work, implying learning new employees and others how to go about with these processes.

Styrbjörn and I met at high school and we became good friends thanks to, among other things, our interest in music and singing. I was trained opera singing by our music teacher and he played the piano and sang. At the time I was a tenor and he a bariton. He has continued to sing as a member of the Swedish Government Departments choir, where he also helps out playing the piano.

The interesting thing about a visit like this is to see how relatively easy it is to get into the governmental buildings in Sweden, if one know someone who works there. We compared with Aurore's cousin Hervé who has worked within the French Parliament and the complicated procedure if we would like to visit him and be guided by him inside this institution. But again: I guess that one have to trust the employees and if they say they have a visit from a friend...?

Styrbjörn showed us around the building where he works - the former Central Post Office Building in Stockholm at Vasagatan (photo above) - and we could establish that the premises where he works are indeed light and airy. 

The external part looks a bit impressing with its thick walls in the so called Gustav Vasa- style.

Aurore became somewhat jealous as she is working within a building not at all light or airy but rather gloomy and claustrophobic.

Below some pictures from the restaurant where we ate.

(Photo Central Post Office Building taken from: http://byggnadsvard.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/posthuset_stockholm.jpg)

Koresht bamieh

When coming back from our three films, we were served a Persian speciality by our friend Mahla:

Koresht bamieh, a delicious dish she had made herself. She likes cooking.

Machete Maidens Unleashed+Film Socialisme+Douchebag

This is our second film at the Stockholm Film Festival, a documentary about the film making in the Philippines during the 1970's. We both found this film rather interesting as none of us are able to claim that we know very much about the Philippine film industry and its historical development (with or without foreign influences).

One of the most famous films being shot on this island is probably 'Apocalypse Now' by Francis Ford Coppola.

This documentary displays both the most dirty aspects of film making but also how the Philippine film industry came about and the first pioneers. The film uses clips from different movies and include commentaries from directors and producers like Roger Corman, John Landis, Eddie Romero, Cirio H. Santiago and many more.

Movies being made during this period are indeed rightly called "exploitation movies" because everone and everything was exploited when shooting these films: People, nature, animals, taking advantage of the fact that everyone and everything were exchangeable. If one needed corpses one bought them from the military or other groups in society and if someone died on the set, he or she quickly was replaced in order not to delay the shooting. Using security measures for the stuntmen and -women was of course out of the question and paying people more for taking risks, was'nt at all on the agenda.

We also got to see how one used the dictatorship under the cruel leader Ferdinand Marcos in order to obtain different kinds of favours, all this repayed with positive commercial for the dictator and his excessive and cruel wife.

This documentary display the most disgusting parts of the film industry or maybe just the film industry as it actually always have functioned and functions? This is in part consumed in what John Landis says about Roger Corman - a statement valid for many contributers to the film indstry: "He is full of shit!" adding that Corman only wants to earn money, in whatever way he can, using every possible means to succeed in this his aim.

We appreciated 'Machete Maidens Unleashed' (director Mark Hartley) - if one can put it that way - because, in spite of the seriousness of the matter, it contains a lot of dark humour and interesting stories about people inside and outside the film industry, introducing to us Philippine actors and directors not so known outside the Philippines.

Jean-Luc Godard's latest film - and the third we watch at the Stockholm Film Festival - is, among other things, his latest way of displaying that cinema does no longer exist but only film. Furthermore his aim is to state that Europe does no longer exist in the way we conceive it and that France does no longer exist the way many French conceive it and want it to be. Full of references to literary works, masterpieces within film and music, Godard has created a mind wrestling piece of work.

I chose to insert the text my wife Aurore wrote for the Stockholm Film Festival's catalogue - though somewhat modified - explaining some traits in this film:

"As in Jean-Daniel Pollet's masterpiece Méditerranée, from which Jean-Luc Godard uses some shots in Film Socialism, a boat trip allows a mythological journey.

For Godard who once was the lynchpin of the French New Wave, the purpose of cinema has switched from presenting events to making time come back in a new form. Characters have become mediums facing opposite shores, between memory and oblivion, light and darkness. Communication is impaired and obstructs stories.

There are indeed three levels of history in Godard's work: one about mankind, one about movies and one about his childhood during the war. These strata of times are compressed in melancholy and funeral aesthetics, which are stressed by the use of the HD camera work.

Godard’s first feature film to be fully shot in video seals his idea that there is no longer cinema but only films.

We are reminded that if the concept of socialism exists, it is not a militant one but a state of equality experiencing the void as an assemblage of simulacra. "

'Douchebag' is a rather conventional road movie about two brothers - Sam and Tom - meeting for the first time in two years. Sam is getting married and his future wife - Steph (Marguerite Moreau) - insists on inviting Tom to the wedding, a decision having consequences not only for Sam and Tom but for Steph and many others around them. Sam takes his brother on a road trip around the USA in order to find an old love of Toms, just in order to invite her too, making Tom feeling less lonely. This is the 'official' explanation from his brother but are there other motives behind this journey? Of course.

The script is weak but it's compensated by the acting of Andrew Dickler (Sam) and Ben York Jones (Tom), both being disgustingly charming in all their repulsiveness.

PUB Anchor

After the first film we continued to one of the restaurants or pubs we had decided visiting, namely PUB Anchor.

We just took two big baskets with french fries (chips)- in themselves almost a dinner - and two beers.
We were greated by one of our 'regular waitresses' a nice young woman having worked there for some time.
She noted that it was 'long time no seen' at PUB Anchor and this is of course correct as we have lived in France the last one and a half year.
We told her a bit about our lives in France and she told us about hers and then we concentrated on the french fries, the beer and the music videos.
This night they played music videos with the group 'Disturbed' (if I remember correctly).

Stockholm International Film Festival. Our first film: Fyra år till (Four More Years)

Trailer for the Stockholm International Film Festival 2010:

'Fyra år till' ('Four More Years') by Tova Magnusson:

We have now seen this film and it was a rather harmless homoerotic story about a succesful liberal Swedish politician, who is on the verge of becoming the next prime minister of Sweden. Unfortunately it almost ends with him being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Being brought up in a religious, baptist home, he is rather conservative when it comes to some issues concerning sex and not least concerning his own sexual preferences.

He meets a social democratic politician and falls in love with him, this causing him moral problems and not least problems connected to his political career. Firstly, having an affair with a man and secondly, this man being a political opponent.

To get out of the closet or not get out of the closet, that is the question.

In general one can say that it's a film with a theme being somewhat obsolete with a harmless mise-en-scène and impossible to export to other countries as the story to a great extent is based in a very 'Swedish' context, if I may put it that way.

One can note that the leading actor - Björn Kjellman - has a hair cut reminding us of former prime minister Olof Palme and a style in his acting somewhat reminding of the Swedish foreign minister (and former prime minister) Carl Bildt.

Arrival at Stockholm from Skavsta

We came to Stockholm with bus from Skavsta airport at 2:25 pm and we went directly to the Stockholm Film Festival's office, in order to get our free passports.

There we met Sebastian Lindvall, a former fellow-student at the Department of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University. He has been working with the film festival not only this year but the previous two years also, if I remember correctly.

When we arrived Aurore's passport hadn't arrived from the 'printing' yet but it should arrive the day after, according to Sebastian.
As we had calculated looking at a film the very same evening I asked Sebastian if this could constitute a problem but it wouldn't he assured us. "You refer to me..." and SESAM!

We didn't stay long as Sebastian had a lot of work to do and we had to hurry to our friend Mahla's apartment where we were going to stay during our visit, as she had to leave for her studies a certain time.
Our friend is a former nurse with whom I worked at a couple of hospitals when working as an assistant nurse in Stockholm some years ago.
Now she has started medicinal/health studies in order to become a doctor.
When moving from Sweden to France we sold a great deal of our furniture and other possessions in the apartment and some of it were sold to Mahla, wherefore I found an office chair, a lamp, a clock, a bureau and many other items earlier belonging to me or us now being a part of her apartment! We felt at home.

Next stop was the film 'Fyra år till' ('Four More Years').
Read more about it in the next blog.
Meanwhile you can take a look at the first small short film Sebastian Lindvall directed when studying at 'Kulturamas film linje' 2006. It's called 'Ling':

(Photo logotype Stockholm Film Festival taken from: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_laucebxuca1qzvxlto1_250.jpg)
(Photo Bronze Horse taken from: http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/fileadmin/images/festival08/mingel/prisutdelning/lasse_0.jpg)

Our Paris hotel

La Châtre-Châteauroux-Paris-Beauvais-Skavsta-Stockholm

This afternoon we'll take the bus from La Châtre - our hometown - to Châteauroux where we take the train to Paris at 6.30 pm.



We will arrive in Paris two hours later and then stay overnight at a hotel in order to leave for Stockholm Saturday from Beauvais airport.

The flight leaves at 9.55 am and arrives Skavsta at 12.05 am. After that we will probably be in Stockholm by 2-2:30 pm.

On our first day in Stockholm we will get our 'passports' for the Stockholm Film Festival, giving us free entrances to the films during the festival.
This a small recompense for the work we've done, writing - for the catalogue and newspaper - about some of the films screened during the festival.

We will live with one of our friends in her apartment and at 6 pm Saturday our first screening will take place.

Rupture & Tant qu'on a la santé. Pierre Etaix

Two more films by Pierre Etaix, the first a short feature and the second a film made in honour of George Méliès.
The latter contains a theatrical mise-en-scène with four acts and constitutes and exposé over the French life and the way people enjoy themselves and others, to put it short.

I advice you to buy this box containing not only films but interviews with Etaix and his friend and collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, a book with drawings and paintings by Etaix and so forth.

He was and is a very versatile person.

Yoyo. Pierre Etaix

This is the second feature film we see by Pierre Etaix and it's quite a charming history, with an intelligent mise-en-scène by Etaix.

In this the circus - who always was a part of Etaix' life - is more predominant.

We meet the rich and spoiled millionaire (Pierre Etaix) who has everything he could ever ask for - accept love.
With servants, musicians, dancers and all the facilities around him, he spends his days hunting, taking rides in his car and doing... nothing!
When the day has passed he spends the hours before bed looking at a photograph of a woman he once has loved and still loves.
When the circus pass his palace-like house, he hires them to amuse him.
As he is extremely blassé he doesn't find anything of what is shown to him, particularly exciting.
Not until he sees the woman he has yearned for - Isolina (Claudine Auger).
She has a son - Yoyo (Philippe Dionnet) - who is a copy of himself.
When the stock exchange crash in 1929 makes the millionaire poor and he have to leave his house, he joins the circus and he, Isolina and Yoyo goes on a journey around France, entertaining people until one day Yoyo is on his own.
Now Yoyo (Pierre Etaix) seeks to regain the palace- like house of his father and from this point we follow Yoyo's adventures through war and crisis.

Enjoy!

L'Intégrale de Pierre Etaix

For the first time I (Gunnar) get a chance to watch the films made by Pierre Etaix.
Pierre Etaix is a clown, comedian, drawer, magician/prestidigitator, billboard- maker and director, born in 1928 in Roanne, in the Loire Department in France.

Unfortunately I don't think his is so well known among the ordinary cinema goers and this is a pitty because he is a truely original film maker and on the same time influenced by Jacques Tati whom he met for the first time in 1954.
At that time he worked as a drawer and 'gagsman' for Tati but became assistant director when Tati shot his film 'Mon Oncle' in 1958.

Read more under the link to his name or this link: Les films d'etaix (in French).

The only thing I want to add is that these films are extremely funny and intelligently construed and even though the corner stone of his film making is the slap-stick, it's realized with talent and refinement.
One can, without exaggeration, equal him with film makers like Tati, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Linder and Laurel & Hardy.

I warmly advise you to discover the newly restored works by Etaix, earlier not available because of copyright problems and due to the fact that the films were in a poor state.

Aurore and I have bought a box with five feature films, three shorts, an interview made this year, a book (112 pages) and more.
Next year he will probably visit La Châtre and if so we will hopefully be there.

On Thursday evening we started with these two films:

Heureux Anniversaire:

Le Soupirant:

(Picture of DVD box with films by Etaix taken from: http://www.barkalshop.com/product_thumb.php?img=images/cofret-yoyo.gif&w=286&h=290)