Berry Movies New Poster is Here

Design by Florent Choffel as usual.

For those of you intrested in competing with the short films you've directed, this competition is open for everyone all around the world!!!
It's held in La Châtre in the central parts of France but everyone is welcome to participate, no matter if you come from Greenland, Chile, Australia, Japan, Uganda or any other country in the world!
Look at this page: Berry Movies for further information or Facebook and Berry Movies.
The last day for sending your films to the jury is the 23 of September this year!
If you have any questions not answered by the sites above, you can always write to me or my wife Aurore, through this blog. We were members of the jury last year and will probably participate this year too.
Good Luck!

La conquête/The Conquest

La conquête is telling the story or stories about Nicolas Sarkozy's 'gateway to success' - if that's what one should call it.

First of all one can establish that Denis Podalydès in the role as Sarkozy is very lifelike and this goes for Bernard Le Coq as Jacques Chirac, Samuel Labarthe as Dominique de Villepin and many others. This is however not the primary quality of the film.

What we get to see is the game behind the curtains and all the different intrigues being such a inseparable part of politics - for better and for worse, often for worse.
As we now can see this film with much more knowledge about the events during Sarkozy's term in office ('National identity', transparance, "work more to gain more" etc.), the autobiography of Chirac published a year ago, the animosity between Sarkozy and de Villepin etc. we are perhaps able to understand or interpret the film in another way than if not having this understanding.
On the other hand, the director and the actors know as much as we know - or perhaps more - and it's actually first and foremost the director, Xavier Durringer, who displays his understanding of Nicolas Sarkozy and hist political opponents and followers.

The film is however a good piece of work even if these type of films seldom gives us more information than we already had. We are at least not able to know if the story told on screen is nearer to the truth than the things we read in newspapers and hear on TV and in radio.
The same goes for films like JFK, Oliver Stone's film about the murder of John F. Kennedy. Did he reveal something we hadn't heard or read about? I'm not sure.

One thing we know is that reality is always much more dirty and horrible than fiction is able to display.

Bilen Bill Buljo

Antichrist

Antichrist about The Evil Nature/The Evil Woman/Women, Mother Earth taking revenge on her male antagonists, bringing out the evil within both man and woman in a paradisiacal environment?

'He' (Adam?) - a therapist - and 'She' (Eve?) (they have no names) lose their son when making love in the apartment, not observing that the boy is climbing a chair, falling out of a window.
'She' is taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment but 'He' takes her out of their, as he thinks she will heal better in their cabin in the woods.
The cabin holds some secrets from last summer, secrets that might have and do have consequences for the (un)blessed couple.
Violence, emotional eruptions, nightmares, paranoia, fear, love and hatred are some of the ingredients in this final 'showdown' between the two and nature is, as often, both the refuge and something horror-filled, framing the two lovers/combattants.
Past summer 'She' studied the nature of female evilness as depicted in historical material, a work intended to display how patriarchal structures always have tried to degrade and diminish the influence of female power. Gradually 'She' seems to be convinced of the fact that women are evil and that nature and women stand in a cooperative relationship spreading this evil over the world or should one understand her in another way?
Was the son a result of a reciprocal amorous relationship and what really happened that day when the boy fell out of the window? Were they really unaware of his doings - both of them?

If von Trier's film is misogynistic or not was a question hotly debated when it was released but as all kind of artistery, an œuvre can be interpreted in many ways and we are not going to discuss that issue here.

The film was made in honor of Andrey (Andrei) Tarkovskiy (Tarkovskij) and the (two?) first of the different episodes in the film (a prologue, four chapters and an epilogue) are strongly imitating the water filled world of the gret Russian director.
The more we got into the 'wooden parts', the less interesting became the film and the different allusions to mythical, historical and filmic material tended to lose its contures as if von Trier lost the narrational thread somwhere on the road to Hell.
The result was mediocre.
Charlotte Gainsbourg did her best to get rid of herself in this role and to some degree she succeeded. Willem Dafoe's acting was quite good and I most often like the roles he creates, even if I can't say that von Trier helped his actors in the last scenes, more and more becoming a pure and simple violent horror film without any refinement.

Død Snø/Dead Snow

Død Snø, the zoombie film we saw at the Norwegian Film Festival in Stockholm in 2009 and a film I think we've written about before wherefore I only write that we found this edition on DVD at Carrefour Market in La Châtre and saw (not the film 'Saw') it again.

This time we found it even more entertaining than the first time. Bonus material about the shooting of the film and the problems connected to the weather conditions in the northern parts of Norway.

Plus sombre que l'ombre de tes ailes...

...is the title of a book written by the French journalist and nowadays writer Sébastien Acker, having lived and worked in Berry/Le centre for ten years.
He has always been a bibliophile and as young he read around 4-5 books per week.
When working as a journalist he became fascinated by Swedish and Scandinavian literature and specifically the crime fiction ('polar'), beginning with Sjöwall & Wahlöö.
Later on he continued to interest himself in other authors and more or less incidentally he came to write this book with the above name that - with a rough translation - means: "Much somber/darker than the shadow of your wings".

Acker today (Saturday) visited La Châtre and La Maison de la Presse in order to sign his book. The photo below (published some days later in the newspaper 'La Nouvelle République') shows Acker in the middle - of course - and my wife Aurore to the right, carrying a box of cinnamon buns, something Acker had asked for and through a 'cooperation' between Aurore and me, he was able to enjoy these Swedish delicacies. Part of the deal with the cinnamon buns was that he promised to carry the yellow shirt of the Swedish football team and below you can see that Acker also kept his part of the deal. (The text in French under the photo)

(DÉDICACE. Sébastien Acker était à la Maison de la presse, samedi matin, pour dédicacer son premier ouvrage Plus sombre que l'ombre de tes ailes aux éditions La Bouinotte. Sébastien avait tenu son pari en revêtant le maillot de foot de l'équipe suédoise ; Aurore, une Castraise, mariée à un Suédois, venue faire dédicacer son livre, avait apporté des kanelbullars, brioches suédoises à la cannelle.)

The events in the book take place both in Berry/Le Centre and Stockholm wherefore Aurore contacted Acker through Facebook, in order to talk about Swedish and Scandinavian literature and parenthetically the links between me and the implicit main character in the book - not mentioned by name - Stieg Larsson, among other things.

The book circles around Léonard, a Parisian postman (always ringing twice?) who is a huge fan of Scandinavian crime novels but also a (very) private investigator, working for noone and nothing.
When having finished the reading of a world famous Swedish crime novel (guess which one), he becomes convinced of one thing: To him it's clear that the author of this crime novel, dying before he get to see the success of his books, as a journalist threatened by the extreme right wing groups in Sweden, was murdered!
Léonard plonges into this certitude. How can it be that everyone believes that the author of this blockbuster actually died from a heart attack?
Our postman starts his first own major private investigation, flanked by Léon a disabled colleague.
To the Stockholm of Mysteries from Berry, the two men experience a surprising adventure, taking them from places like The Old Town in Stockholm to the province of George Sand, from The Blue Tower in Stockholm, where August Strindberg lived to Sainte-Sévère and Jacques Tati's 'Jour de Fête'.

Below an interview in French by Bip tv, (Berry Issoudun Première Télévision), where Acker explains a little about himself, his passion for Scandinavia and his own book.

Sebastien ACKER

(Photo cover copied from: http://livreaucentre.fr/files/2011/03/plus-sombre.jpg)
(Photo Acker and Aurore at La Maison de La Press in La Châtre copied from: http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre/LOISIRS/Livres-cd-dvd/D-233-clic19)

Minuit à Paris/Midnight in Paris

Minuit à Paris/Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen circles around a couple - Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) coming to Paris, searching their 'perfect life' and not least creativity, both in the relationship and concerning the husband, an author-to-be.
The latter wants to become a 'real' writer, not only writing for Hollywood, as is the case.

The parents of Inez is also in Paris and soon Gil and Inez meets another couple - Paul (Michael Sheen) and Carol (Nina Arianda) - people Inez has known since years. Paul and Inez had a crush when at high school and Paul is a real besserwisser, making everyone around him disgusted, not least Gil. Inez and Carol are however impressed.
In order to escape Paul and Carol, Gil goes on a stroll at night, when Paris is as most magic and magic it's going to be, not least when Gil is picked up by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) and
Zelda (Alison Pill) with the same surname.
They take Gil to a party where all the great artists during the 1920's are gathered and through them Gil gets to meet a young, beautiful woman with whom he starts talking and later on meet again.
She - on the other hand - is yearning back to the Paris of the 1890's but that's another story.

As always there are many different references to other films and literary works, being interesting for a cine- and bibliophile.

Unfortunately Owen Wilson is to much 'copying' the acting of Woody Allen but this has been the case the last years when Allen himself has not acted in his films. Either this is due to the actors wish to become as neurotic as Allen himself or the latters directing or both.
On the whole a rather lovable film about our yearning for Paradise Lost and - as in this case - the ideal Paris, if it has existed.
The grass always seems greener on the other side, both in a landscape or a town and in a relationship but is it really?

Among the two (or three) options of Paris, Aurore preferred the 1890's and I the 1920's.

Où va la nuit (The Long Falling)

OÙ VA LA NUIT : BANDE-ANNONCE de Martin Provost... par baryla

A film that in some way reminds me of the Swedish films/drama's made the last few years, depicting people not taking responsibility for their lives leading them to act in a most desperate way in the end.

In this case we see Yolande Moreau as Rose Mayer, married to an asshole (excuse me the bad language), Thomas (Pierre Moure) who beats her up after drinking and without any other reason than the pleasure of doing it, as it seems.
However there are secrets within the family and those secrets will be revealed.
Thomas has killed a young woman when driving drunk and at the same spot, Rose kills him with their car.
During the funeral she looks more like the Merry Widow than a woman in mourning.
After this she take her suitcase and moves in with her son in Brussels, in order to think things over.
Her son is of course, at first, unaware of the circumstances around his fathers death, a father he always despised because of his way of treating both him and his mother.
Rose finds another widow in charge of a hotel and she becomes her soulmate, sharing experiences and secrets.
Will Rose be able to escape the murdering of her husband, her past, all the decisions and deeds haunting her and the rest of the family, including her son.
What are they hiding and what will become of them?

The story per se is not particularly original but thanks to the acting - not least from Yolande Moreau - the film develops into something worth watching and the different moral questions are highly visible and how to handle them becomes the key issue.
To flee from the past can sometimes be difficult and other times totally impossible.
We feared a 'Thelma & Louise'-ending but fortunately this didn't happen.

TomBoy

Tomboy is a film with a not so unusual theme, namely the question of sex and gender, androgyny, whether or not we are born in the 'right bodies' and what happens if we asume another gender than that our body and social upbringing has decided for us.

A Tomboy is a girl who - as in this film - behaves according to the gender role of a boy.

Laure/Michaël decides to dress and act like a boy when moving into a new neighborhood, this as she thinks it will be easier to become accepted, not least since she has seen that there are much more boys than girls around.
Partly this might be due to the fact that she is a 'boy-girl', and at this young age the differences between boys and girls are few and mostly created by the social upbringing and training, partly because she is in need of friends.
She is accepted by the boys and she also engage herself in a relationship with a girl.
Her parents doesn't know about all this and she initiates her little sister in her plot, promising her to participate in her games with the other children, if she doesn't tell the parents.
The little sister have already guessed - or this is the impression one gets from the film - that her older sister isn't living the way she is used to and this before she is told about her little 'game'.
Different clues lead up to the revelation of her acting and this leads to harsh treatment from the environment - parents, friends and their families - who can't accept that she has undertaken this staging, all this in a way stigmatizing her.
Will her friends and not least 'girlfriend' leave her or will she be accepted as Laure?
Why can't she continue to act like a boy, whatever this is and might she be accepted as a boygirl by her friends at school, even when knowing she is a girl?

One can say that this is a nice version of 'Boys Don't Cry' and as such a charming little story without any deeper complications, psychologically or intellectually.