FILM WISH LIST FOR APRIL 2008

A.FILM WISH LIST FOR APRIL 2008

1.ADRIFT IN TOKYO (2007, Satoshi Miki, Japan)
Satoshi Miki directed TURTLES SWIM FASTER THAN EXPECTED (2005, A+).


2.COUNTERPARTS (2007, Jan Bonny, Germany)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1031932/

Matthias Frey wrote about this film in Senses of Cinema:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/47/berlin-iff-2008.html

“Bonny’s psycho-provocation harks back to John Cassavetes’ taut portraits of hysterical women in Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Opening Night (1977). The consistent colour palette, stylised sound mix, handheld camera and elliptical narrative coalesce into an experience which – if not perfect in itself – leaves one hungry for the filmmaker’s future work.”

Images from COUNTERPARTS:
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2007/Gegenueber/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/2492748042_f6d02c0309_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/2492748038_c9416fab6c_b.jpg


3.GUGARA (2008, Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Naglowski, documentary, Russia/Poland, 69 min)
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936836.html?categoryid=31&cs=1


4.MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY (2008, Barry Jenkins, USA)
I knew about this film from Brian Darr’s blog:
http://hellonfriscobay.blogspot.com/2008/04/linking-feller-april.html
http://www.strikeanywherefilms.com/


5.PLAYING (2007, Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil)
I knew about this film from Filipe’s comment in Girish Shambu’s blog:
http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2008/04/on-blogging.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1165293/

” Following a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.”


6.TEAROOM (2007, William E. Jones, USA, 57 min)
http://www.williamejones.com/

“Tearoom consists of footage shot by the police in the course of a crackdown on public sex in the American Midwest. In the summer of 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio Police Department photographed men in a restroom under the main square of the city. The cameramen hid in a closet and watched the clandestine activities through a two-way mirror. The film they shot was used in court as evidence against the defendants, all of whom were found guilty of sodomy, which at that time carried a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in the state penitentiary. The original surveillance footage shot by the police came into the possession of director William E. Jones while he was researching this case for a documentary project. The unedited scenes of ordinary men of various races and classes meeting to have sex were so powerful that the director decided to present the footage with a minimum of intervention. Tearoom is a radical example of film presented “as found” for the purpose of circulating historical images that have otherwise been suppressed.”

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2194/2492748064_514816b5cb_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/2492748062_a974c17a83_o.jpg


7.TRANS ENTITES: THE NASTY LOVE OF PAPI AND WIL (2008, Morty Diamond)
http://mortydiamond.com/
http://www.bfi.org.uk/llgff/node/5208/more

“The sizzling sex and deep love of polyamorous partners Papi' and Wil lay at the center of this erotic and thought-provoking docu-porn by Trannyfags director, Morty Diamond. Identifying as 'trans entities', a term they have coined to describe their non-surgical fluid gender identities, Wil and Papi' frankly discuss the centrality of polyamory and role playing to their gender, sexuality, and relationship dynamic.


Diamond punctuates brief interviews on various topics such as masculinity, body image, scene negotiation, and their exploration of race play with intense, undirected BDSM sex scenes, including play with a third partner and a hot heart-pounding interrogation scene.


Throughout this uninhibited film, it is Wil and Papi's loving bond and commitment to pushing the limits of gender and their relationship that keeps us tuned in and turned on. We should all be as lucky to have a nasty love like this one.


Kyle Stephan”

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/2492748046_1dc787be3f_o.jpg


8.TRAVELLING WITH PETS (2007, Vera Storozheva, Russia)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1047845/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/47/cottbus-ff-2007.html
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2007/TravellingWithPets/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2492748066_afcc6d1955_b.jpg


9.TRICKS (2007, Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland)
Jakimowski directed SQUINT YOUR EYES (2002, A+).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1094278/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/47/cottbus-ff-2007.html


10.THE YEAR AFTER (2006, Isabelle Czajka, France)
I knew about this film from Jonathan Romney’s article in Sight and Sound magazine.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49451
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2492766162_42be8c1017_o.jpg



B.Retrospective wish list

FILMS STARRING JANE BIRKIN

1.SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT’S EYE (1973, Antonio Margheriti)

2.LOVE AT THE TOP (1974, Michel Deville)

3.CATHERINE AND CO (1975, Michel Boisrond, 100 min)
Written by Catherine Breillat

4.EGON SHIELE—EXCESS AND PUNISHMENT (1981, Herbert Vesely, West Germany, 88 min)
Herbert Vesely directed THE BREAD OF THOSE EARLY YEARS (1961), which is one of my most favorite films of all time.

5.A FRIEND OF VINCENT (1983, Pierre Granier-Deferre, 93 min)
You can read about Pierre Granier-Deferre in Thai in the book BOOKVIRUS 1, under the topic GEORGES SIMENON.

6.THE PIRATE (1984, Jacques Doillon, 88 min)

7.THE FALSE SERVANT (1985, Patrice Chereau, 122 min)

8.DUST (1985, Marion Hansel, Belgium, 88 min)
From a novel by J.M. Coetzee

9.JANE B. BY AGNES V. (1988, Agnes Varda, 97 min)

10.BOXES (2007, Jane Birkin, 95 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901473/
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2007/Boxes/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/2492766158_63cfecd254_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/2492766178_7616e2c250_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2492766168_fdb51626ba_b.jpg



C.ART EXHIBITION WISH LIST

TELEPATHIC PIECE (1969) – Robert Barry

This is an excerpt from an interview with Robert Barry in ubu:
http://www.ubu.com/papers/barry_interview.html

“Robert Barry:Later I got involved with energy without an object-source of energy. I did that using mental energy. I did a “telepathic piece” for Seth Siegelaub’s exhibition [1969] at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In the catalogue it states “During the exhibition I shall try to communicate telepathically a work of art, the nature of which is a series of thoughts; they are not applicable to language or image.” I guess this was the first work I did that really did not have a place to be photographed. There was nothing visual that could be tied to it.

Ursula Meyer:How do you feel about the missing aesthetic aspect? How does it affect you having either transcended or pushed aside the visual experience? Did you feel a sense of loss, as though you gave something up?

RB: No, not at all. I like the word “transcend.” I think you have to see it in those terms. Making art is not really important. Living is. In my mind art and living are so closely interlocked. Trying to be involved in living and in the world around me makes this satisfactory. It seems to me that you have to give up something for an advance you are making. For any new truth that you discover for yourself, you have to discard some favored old belief. I would like to get away from calling things art. Robbe-Grillet has a beautiful line: If art is going to be anything then it has got to be everything. Fortunately – in recent years – the term “art” has lost any solid meaning. I guess if I call something art, I am saying: “Look at this thing, consider it carefully and that is all it means.” Does that mean that the act of perception per se might constitute the art? No, you cannot get away so easily. I am using art to draw attention to something. I much rather use the word “something” or “thing” or “What I do” than the word “art.” If I call something “art,” I am using the expression instead of saying: “Look at this.” Yet, in a certain frame of mind man can perceive anything as art. In the ideal state of mystic perception, Blake described it “Everything is seen for what it really is: infinite.” Then there is no need of drawing attention to art, is there? The mystical experience is closed to us. It is now, anyway. It is probably very close to revelation. Every once in a while the defenses of the mind break down and infinity rushes in. Then it closes up again. Would the intentionality of the artist be necessary when infinity rushes in? Yes, it is very fundamental. We talked about the world, we talked about things, but we avoided talking about people and how we relate to them. We cannot isolate ourselves. Art is an effort to relate to others. And in relation to other people it always has to be that way. To understand my art, you do not have to understand any system that I developed, but you have to understand the category that I selected to call art. I did not really try to change something, I simply selected. . . .I got involved with things intangible and immeasurable, physical, yet metaphysical in their effect. I wrote a letter to Charles Harrison of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London to include in any printed material for his show the idea for my piece: “THERE IS SOMETHING VERY CLOSE IN PLACE AND TIME, BUT NOT YET KNOWN TO ME.” This was not just a title, but a feeling about something. Another piece went to the museum in Leverkusen, Germany, also concerned with something, which was searching for me and which needs me to reveal itself, but is unknown to me. Lucy Lippard’s show in Seattle [1970] consisted of 100 index cards. So it was just on one of the index cards. There were quite a few pieces that tried to get at something. Yet because of the nature of something, it cannot be dealt with directly.

UM:Would you care to tell how critics and collectors deal with your art?

RB:There are no collectors, for there is nothing to collect.

UM:And how does your work relate to the whole spectrum of contemporary art?

RB:I feel it fits quite comfortably. Is there something that is not art? I must admit in my own mind, it’s not really outside the stream, but in the riverbed together with the rest of the water.
UM:What are your plans for your coming exhibition in Amsterdam?

RB:My exhibition at the Art & Project Gallery in Amsterdam in December, ’69, will last two weeks. I asked them to lock the door and nail my announcement to it, reading: “For the exhibition the gallery will be closed.””

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Film wish list for March 2008
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2008/04/film-wish-list-for-march-2008.html

FILM WISH LIST FOR FEB 2008
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2008/03/film-wish-list-for-february-2008.html
FILM WISH LIST FOR JAN 2008
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2008/02/film-wish-list-for-jan-2008.html
FILM WISH LIST IN 2007
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2008/02/film-wish-list-for-jan-2008.html”