Cinema Jove - Festival Internacional de Cine

Opening Night

Luna de Valencia Award: Matteo Garrone

THAT PRIVATE MAFIA...
About Gomorra - it’s just not true - the idea held by some that it’s a portrait of the Italian Mafia. Matteo Garrone’s screenplay reflects the universal metaphor of bandits.
I remember Roberto Saviano’s happy smiling face as he explored the streets of Seville on foot; 'I didn’t dare venture into the street for months and now you’ve made it possible for me; it’s a wonderful gift indeed'. The gift that Carlos Rosado and Javier Martín Domínguez had offered Saviano was a rare puff of freedom experienced in Seville’s vivacious street life. Matteo Garrone had shown in his Terra di mezo (1997), the kind of film he wanted to create: one that was connected with the exploitation of men and women as reflected in Ospiti (1998). He identifies the subjects who apparently don’t make history but suffer the consequences instead in L`imbalsamatore (2002). Garrone went on to portray men who are also bent on destroying the beauty of women in Primo amore (2004). But it was not until Gomorra that Matteo himself was to receive the unanimous acclaim of La Croisette and the glowing approval of the critics. At that point, the Roman producer was curious to find out if the mafia itself had liked his portrayal of this kind of diary or schedule or indeed an account of the book-keeping practices of the Mafiosi. This stark and hard-hitting filmic rendition pays no lip service to the dictates of the interpretative beauty of Marlon Brando, Morgan Freeman or Al Pacino.
No, no way Matteo! La Camorra was not at all pleased to see on the big screen the ins and outs of their underworld business dealings. The film also revealed some lesser known aspects of the haute couture industry which makes use of workshops, indeed sweatshops, controlled by them (it was not welcome news for those in the professional circles of the actress Scarlett Johansson who had worn outfits made in the said underworld workshops). But what drew the attention of the accredited film writers at that Cannes festival of 2008 were the numerous details appealing to both film buffs and filmmakers present in Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra, e.g. that lateral way of brandishing a gun that reveals how the mafia imitates cinema and not vice-versa; the Italian mafia boss who built a house for himself just like Tony Montana’s (played by Al Pacino) in Scarface (1983); that intimate and very private way of observing relationships within the mafia, an approach rarely seen in film. An attempt has been made to avoid being overly dramatic, to avoid the criminal glamour of the underworld, representing the nude domestic relationships of the bandits; we are reminded of the character in Dear Executioners who in a straight-forward fashion, as if speaking of peeling an apple, affirms the role of those who deliver capital punishment empowered by their monopoly on violence.
It may turn out that Roberto Saviano escapes from the vendetta but if there is one thing that Matteo Garrone shows us, it’s that art, literature and cinema can be used or moulded to tell a good story, to express emotion, indeed, to reveal what we may be deeply ashamed of. This kind of filmic narration becomes a direct ethical and aesthetic, even brutal, discourse that never goes by unnoticed.
We are indebted to Matteo Garrone and let us not forget Roberto Saviano; these two men should not have to risk their lives because of their choice to create, to freely film and write.
Javier Tolentino

Cinema Jove has premiered in Spain 3 films by Matteo Garrone: Ospiti (1999) which won him the La Luna de Valencia for the best feature film; L’imbalsamatore (2003) which was awarded a Special Mention by the jury for best actor and Primo amore which inaugurated the festival in 2004.

Luna de Valencia Award: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau

DUCASTEL & MARTINEAU - AN OPTIMISTIC AND REFRESHING VISION
Born in the French city of Lyon, Olivier Ducastel has always shown a special interest in the seventh art form. He studied at the famous IDHEC film school in Paris and dabbled with short films while acquiring experience in montage and sound editing departments in various productions. Montpellier-born Jacques Martineau was from an early age attracted to the arts and letters. He became a teacher and obtained a PhD in French Literature before publishing some texts and finally venturing into film with his first screenplay Jeanne et le garçon formidable.
The romance shared by Jeanne and ‘that fine lad’ whose days are numbered thanks to AIDS, echoes the meeting of the two filmmakers in the mid-nineties. Jacques did the screenplay and dialogues while Olivier directed and took care of the more technical aspects. The result was a sweet opera prima, risky in its form in that it resuscitated the musical genre that Jacques Demy had made popular. Skilfully however, a sad story, with its inevitable tragic ending was given joyous colour; in short, an invitation to all to enjoy life and to strive to be happy. The happy and optimistic tone of the film marked the later artistic trajectory of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau – an indivisible pair. There have been half a dozen feature films where they have very ably shared the screenplay and directing. In spite of the personal dramas suffered by the characters, courage and positivism combine to confront the adversities portrayed.
To write a brief summary of Ducastel & Martineau’s works is not an easy task as their films do not always follow the same patterns; there are nonetheless interesting links between them. Jeanne et le garçon formidable (the only title with commercial screenings in our country) has no connection with that experiment recorded on a digital camera, a kind of personal diary of an adolescent in Ma vraie vie à Rouen. Similarly, it may seem hard for the viewer to make the connection between the entertaining and vaudeville approach of Crustacés et coquillages, whose characters are overcome with confusing feelings and the austerity and containment of L’Arbre et la forêt which explores the painful secrecy that besets a family.
Lastly, in relation to the presence of homosexual characters (which can be more or less significant) in all of their films, it must be said that they do not take on an activist line as other directors have in their generation. We are perhaps dealing with another kind of militancy here. They do not fight tooth-and-nail for rights which are by all means deserved; instead their stance has to do with ‘normalising’ a situation. In this regard, homosexuality is never treated as something out of this world or exceptional but simply as another way of feeling and loving in absolute freedom. It is quite likely that this vision, like the uninhibited manner in which sexual relations are portrayed, is encouraged by the attitudes of French society, one which has always been a few steps ahead of us...
Jorge Castillejo

Joanna Quinn: An artisan in the age of 3-D

Joanna Quinn: Anima, Animus, Animation
Joanna Quinn is an animation specialist with a vigorous drawing style that reflects a high awareness of the human form and a mastery of graphic techniques in pencil. Her films make skilful use of satire when dealing with the subject of social conditioning and male and female stereotypes. Her evolution in film reflects the author’s enhanced creative maturity. The characters she has created have moved forward: from a position of mere social collocation, they transcend to a state of reflection which questions the very direction and meaning of their lives. We uncover the anima of the feminine and the animus of the masculine, united by animation as if through alchemy.
Beryl has been her greatest creation to date and the Alma Mater of several of her films. Her debut was in 1986 with Girls Night Out where a middle-aged housewife is portrayed on a night out with her friends. In Body Beautiful (1990) Beryl works for a Japanese multinational in Welsh.
There is no idealisation of Beryl and many women will see themselves in this character; she is very much a real woman who acts in ways that are so familiar to so many women. ‘Most middle-aged women will probably be more like Beryl than in any other drawn animation today; women like her are underrepresented in animation’[1]
In Dreams and Desires-Family Ties, the first of a trilogy with Beryl once again playing the key character, we meet her Alter Ego making a presence stronger than ever in that account of a private universe based on everyday things and the development of personal maturity; here we bear witness also to Joanna Quinn’s stylistic, filmic and graphic accomplishments. She is a champion of everybody’s right to dream after the age of 50. Dreams and desires drawn into family ties are concepts reflecting the notions of duality which Beryl explores; her needs, hopes, aspirations, fantasies, and expectations, all enmeshed in the emotional worlds we build from the moment of birth and which are often, if not always, not in consonance with our deepest wishes; nonetheless, Beryl’s anima and animus always come out on top. Standing by her we’ll break loose from our fears and insecurities; this is how Joanna Quinn encourages us to persevere in the attainment of our dreams.
Mª Susana García Rams

[1] From an interview with Joanna Quinn and Les Mills, Desarrollando un estilo NMM, 2009.

Joanna Quinn. Short Films Program. 75'

Un Futuro de Cine Award: Natasha Yarovenko

I have a perfect recollection of the first time I met Natasha. It was quite a few years ago, four to be precise. I was busily preparing the TV movie Omar Martínez. We had done some auditions and had tried out some candidates for the main female character. We had Younes Bachir as the main male character – an illegal immigrant who, under false name, takes part in boxing matches to get by. Alex Brendemühl then appeared to play the part of the other male character. We then needed an actress for the part of Olga, a Ukrainian girl living illegally in our country and with whom our two main characters fall in love. She had to be of the standard of these two great actors. I have to point out that at first I was looking for someone with a different physique, an earthy kind of Olga. And when I say earthy, my immediate impression when I met Natasha is that she struck me as very ethereal indeed, almost divine; such is her beauty. She doesn’t seem to belong to this world. I recall a scene in Omar Martínez which defines, on the one hand, the kind of beauty I’m referring to and, on the other hand, her innate qualities as an actress. In one of the scenes Omar concedes that it is an impossible love and that he has decided to return to his country; he asks her to stay with his best friend even though she is in love with Omar. Natasha was able to work up in that scene the painful containment that was required in a situation of a rejection that is not accepted. The actress conveys her painful respect to the person she loves – because he is asking this of her. Her beautiful eyes betray her utter despair. This kind of emotional rendering can only be achieved by really great actresses.
This is why I was not surprised that Julio Medem signed her up for her last film. Without a shred of doubt, he must have seen the same qualities we had seen beforehand. I’m sure she’ll have ‘a bright future in cinema’.
Pau Martínez

Shooting Notes: Daniel Monzón

Primo Amore: Views by 13 Directors on 25 Years

Light Cone Selection II

Program 1: Film Ist

Gustav Deutsch obtained a degree in architecture but he is also an artist, musician, photographer and filmmaker. His explorations in film centre on the phenomenology of cinema. Since 1986, he has questions the filmed image, its inner nature and history in order to make it the material of his creativity.
Film ist (1-6) is almost exclusively made up of sequences extracted from scientific films and depicts animals, natural phenomena, “shockwaves in the air”, etc. The images which are removed from their scientific context and disconnected from a prior educational perspective; discover their power of fasticination through the poetic montage of Gustave Deutsch.
Following the footsteps of Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi or even Peter Delpeut, the filmmaker makes use of these films to create another while respecting the original format and he doesn’t venture towards other materials. The film can only be generated from itself.

FILM IST.(1-6) - TABLEAUFILM. WORK IN PROGRESS. Gustav Deutsch. 1h

Programa 2

The whole film that we all dream about creating is a visual symphony made up of rhythmic imagery that only an artist can put together and execute onto the screen. A musician doesn’t always compose under the inspiration of a story but, more often than not, under the inspiration of a sensation[1]
Germaine Dulac
The aim of this programme is to demonstrate the relationship between experimental film and music. Preference is given to films that have explored music’s role as the paradigm of filmic composition; indeed musicals are examined from a perspective of synaesthesia (Oskar Fischinger, Jordan Belson, Jules Engel) or from one of transcription; however more traditional approaches are taken for films that use music for their strong poetic or symbolic impact (Bruce Baillie, Thierry Vincens).
Many filmmakers have developed systems that enable synthetic sound to be produced by way of optic sound (Guy Sherwin, Peter Miller) and they have often been drawn closer to the phenomena of sonic perception. At time films are constructed on the premise of a musical score (Yann Beauvais, Kurt Kren). In short, synaesthesia which can be a vehicle of correspondence between image and sound will always be an endless source of fascination as is shown by this limited selection of films.

Programa 3

Experimental film has made great use of colour being the substancial form especially because at the core of the optic media, of the conservation and enhancement of techniques that enable the conversation and enhancement of the material origin of colour: i.e. direct printing on celluloid (Stan Brakhage, Hy Hirsh), the aesthetics of chromatic destruction (Carl Brown, C. Fontaine, Gerdes, Beyer and Weingarten). The spatial and photographic qualities of colour are also explored (Marie Menken, Alexandre Larose).
The most specific quality if color is also its most abstract one. In film, the colour objective does not exist; we are dealing with a combination of the ink inscribed onto the celluloid and its metamorphosis during the screening process. Virtual colours, highlighting of the spatial qualities of the film and luminous impact are some of the phenomena observed in these different works

Cine-concert: The Seashell and the Clergyman

Special Screening: Los materiales

Actors Behind the Camera

La fémis - Cinema Jove: Pathways that Meet

Founded in 1986, La fémis is a national school placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Media. President, Raoul Peck, and director, Marc Nicolas, are in charge of it. La fémis has trained over 700 students in all filmmaking trades: directors, screenwriters, producers, editors, DP, sound engineers, decorators, script supervisors and distribution and exploitation managers.
La fémis is a reference in France and abroad, providing a high quality of training (50 students are selected each year among some 1.200 applicants). The training is based on high standards regarding films, permanent collaborations between the various departments and more generally, courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training.
Over twenty years, La fémis students have made more than 2 000 shorts films, fictions and documentaries. Often more than mere exercises, some of these films are genuine works containing the seeds of new talent, which have been selected and rewarded at many festivals (Cannes, Clermont, Locarno, Palm Springs, etc.).
Graduated students became talented directors such as François Ozon, Noémie Lvovsky, Marina de Van, Solveig Anspach, etc.

La fémis’ curriculum
- Four years of study in seven fields: screenwriting, production, directing, cinematography, sound, editing and set design,
- One year and a half for distribution / exhibition management,
- Two and a half years for continuity studies,
- Training carried out by over 500 professionals who supervise students fulfil practical exercises elaborated under the guidance of department heads.
- Production of over 100 films per year (all formats, from 35 mm to digital) which are screened in over 60 national festivals and over 40 international festivals,
- Admittance by contest for Europeans and specific contest for non-Europeans (3 to 4 non-Europeans out of 50 admitted).

Contact:
La fémis
Festival office
6 rue Francoeur
75018 Paris France
T 33 (01) 53 41 21 16
festival@femis.fr
http://www.lafemis.fr/

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