Delphine Kreuter
Wow: this is a film that I will never forget. The plot is convoluted but by the end this dysfunctional family and the dysfunctional film come together in a moving last few scenes that turn my smiles and laughter into a flow of genuine tears.
Nat, a fourteen year old girl, devotes her spare time to being on the internet situated in a bedroom which is stimulus plus where she connects with people she has never seen and never intends to make human contact with. Two men dominate her internet life, Adrian, a teenager who lives in seclusion in a hospital and a man who satisfies his desire to be a baby through his internet connection to Nat.
Nat's non internet life resembles her internet life: bizarre, unfeeling, unconnected to real people. Her step father,simon, who is obsessed with photographing the family that he thinks is "perfect" in all their moments, unposed and yet posed for the sake of his endeavor, puts the camera between himself and his immediate world to disallow any real human contact.
Margot the houseewife/mother of Nat and new wife to Simon is so devoted to her husband that her daughter is rarely part of her conscious mind and Nat's real father Nicole is a transexual living a life that does not allow for an emotionally fulfilling relationship with his daughter.
Through these strange people and relationships a girl emerges,Nat floats with the motion of the video game transport and physicality into and out of one scene and then another.
This film will delight and sadden even the most hard hearted to the trials and tribulations of today's world. It is a true masterpiece in its attention to relevant detail, its extraordiary acting and the power it holds to bring us to our senses, to connect to the bizarre world in which we now live.
This film exemplifies the best of a film festival. Without Tribeca I would never be exposed to such a rich and beautiful and emotionally full experience that 57,000 KM Between Us afforded me.
Go see it before it disappears forever and ever.
Linda Zises
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Viva: a film by Anna Biller: Tibeca film festival
Plot:
Two housewives and their husbands go outside of the marriage dictates to find swingers, orgies and the world of “Sin” that typified the public image of the 1970’s sexual revolution. Brought on by the proliferation of the Pill and the woman’s freedom from that constant worry about “getting pregnant,” this film tries to bring humor and deliberate vacuous intellectual substance into a world full of unrestrained life and imagination, and change; the very qualities Anna Biller attempts to capture in her own artistic endeavor.
Trivia from IMDB
“The Japanese Mae West in the orgy scene who says, "Murray, peel me a grape" is Anna Biller's mother, dubbed by Bridget Brno. The guy at the bar in the brown plaid suit behind Rick is Anna's father. He originally had one line as a drunk”.
:
This is a family driven film that has outstanding use of color and scene and costume design but for me it was empty, almost stupid and certainly did not reflect the world of the sexual revolution it attempted to expose and make fun of.
What happened to the little girls who fell in love with their Barbie dolls and devoted entire toddler plus free time to holding, talking, being with their dolls? Part of the answer is contained in Anna Biller’s recent film Viva.
Anna Biller is the writer, director, film editer, costume designer, set maker, film producer and most importantly, she is the led actor in her own film
This film shows more bosom than any film I have seen outside of the porn industry, and more unattractive body parts in general than I ever want to see. They are the human equipment of these flat one-dimensional actors who are put into a flat, non arched plot with disturbingly simple dialogue and plot
But what stands out is the quality of the Barbie doll, of Anna Biller desire to present herself as a fat Barbie doll with the men faring no better as the Peewee Hermann or the Superman doll type actors. Although she might think this is a funny satire on a life style and time she knows practically nothing about, she is wrong. This movie is, on the surface dull, (except for the colorful imaginative costumes and scene designs) apparently unedited and the subject matter is an insult both to Anna Biller the film maker and to the audience who is not too old to forget what life was like then, even in Hollywood
I am grateful for the American Doll, for allowing girls to play with dolls who look like them and not like the stick figure, boob protruding Barbie dolls that dominated the doll world and unfortunately often still do.
Linda Zises
Two housewives and their husbands go outside of the marriage dictates to find swingers, orgies and the world of “Sin” that typified the public image of the 1970’s sexual revolution. Brought on by the proliferation of the Pill and the woman’s freedom from that constant worry about “getting pregnant,” this film tries to bring humor and deliberate vacuous intellectual substance into a world full of unrestrained life and imagination, and change; the very qualities Anna Biller attempts to capture in her own artistic endeavor.
Trivia from IMDB
“The Japanese Mae West in the orgy scene who says, "Murray, peel me a grape" is Anna Biller's mother, dubbed by Bridget Brno. The guy at the bar in the brown plaid suit behind Rick is Anna's father. He originally had one line as a drunk”.
:
This is a family driven film that has outstanding use of color and scene and costume design but for me it was empty, almost stupid and certainly did not reflect the world of the sexual revolution it attempted to expose and make fun of.
What happened to the little girls who fell in love with their Barbie dolls and devoted entire toddler plus free time to holding, talking, being with their dolls? Part of the answer is contained in Anna Biller’s recent film Viva.
Anna Biller is the writer, director, film editer, costume designer, set maker, film producer and most importantly, she is the led actor in her own film
This film shows more bosom than any film I have seen outside of the porn industry, and more unattractive body parts in general than I ever want to see. They are the human equipment of these flat one-dimensional actors who are put into a flat, non arched plot with disturbingly simple dialogue and plot
But what stands out is the quality of the Barbie doll, of Anna Biller desire to present herself as a fat Barbie doll with the men faring no better as the Peewee Hermann or the Superman doll type actors. Although she might think this is a funny satire on a life style and time she knows practically nothing about, she is wrong. This movie is, on the surface dull, (except for the colorful imaginative costumes and scene designs) apparently unedited and the subject matter is an insult both to Anna Biller the film maker and to the audience who is not too old to forget what life was like then, even in Hollywood
I am grateful for the American Doll, for allowing girls to play with dolls who look like them and not like the stick figure, boob protruding Barbie dolls that dominated the doll world and unfortunately often still do.
Linda Zises
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tribeca film Festival: WORLDS APART: DIRECTOR: NIELS ARDEN OPLEV
2008 New York Tribeca Film Festival:
| 2008 | 108 min | Feature Narrative
Plot
Seventeen year old Sara (Rosalinde Mynster) is, together with her family, a member of Jehovas Witnesses. After falling in love with "non-member" Teis (Johan Philip Asbæk)
Sara is torn between staying with her family or going off to establish a life outside of her religious roots.
Based on a true story. Denmark with English Subtitles
This is a coming of age film that has a delicate touch of subtlety in content when it relates to the interpersonal relationships of the family members. But when it comes to depiction of the religious “sect” the Jehovah Witnesses, the film maker is anything but subtle.
There are no lies in this film but there is an insidious rage at the tenacity of the “elders” to hold onto their own. Sara undertakes a coming of age struggle for independence with the high price of forfeiting all whom she has ever known and loved for the sake of her maturity outside of the religious fold. Sara is strong, knowledgeable about the ways of her church and seems impervious to the sexist irony of her father’s adultery that earned him only a demotion from the status of elder to ordinary member, whereas her sexual strivings bring her face to face with expulsion.
People are by nature seekers of human comradely. To move away from a cult which has been a part of one’s life since birth is perhaps the most difficult of human endeavors.
Worlds Apart confronts this struggle by using the strength of love as a vehicle, to bring emotional strength to those who undertake the task of leaving, moving on in life.
A timely film given the exposure of the Mormon ill treatment of girls and the overall policy of the federal government support for organized religion through tax breaks and faith based what-evers.
I recommend this film for the experience of breaking with our past while coming of age, and for the acting. Johan Philip Asbæk is an intense performers, an actor to watch for in future efforts.
This isn’t a great film but it is so ripe for today and the struggles we all see or are involved in.
Worlds Apart is an educational film with emotional impact.
Linda Zises
| 2008 | 108 min | Feature Narrative
Plot
Seventeen year old Sara (Rosalinde Mynster) is, together with her family, a member of Jehovas Witnesses. After falling in love with "non-member" Teis (Johan Philip Asbæk)
Sara is torn between staying with her family or going off to establish a life outside of her religious roots.
Based on a true story. Denmark with English Subtitles
This is a coming of age film that has a delicate touch of subtlety in content when it relates to the interpersonal relationships of the family members. But when it comes to depiction of the religious “sect” the Jehovah Witnesses, the film maker is anything but subtle.
There are no lies in this film but there is an insidious rage at the tenacity of the “elders” to hold onto their own. Sara undertakes a coming of age struggle for independence with the high price of forfeiting all whom she has ever known and loved for the sake of her maturity outside of the religious fold. Sara is strong, knowledgeable about the ways of her church and seems impervious to the sexist irony of her father’s adultery that earned him only a demotion from the status of elder to ordinary member, whereas her sexual strivings bring her face to face with expulsion.
People are by nature seekers of human comradely. To move away from a cult which has been a part of one’s life since birth is perhaps the most difficult of human endeavors.
Worlds Apart confronts this struggle by using the strength of love as a vehicle, to bring emotional strength to those who undertake the task of leaving, moving on in life.
A timely film given the exposure of the Mormon ill treatment of girls and the overall policy of the federal government support for organized religion through tax breaks and faith based what-evers.
I recommend this film for the experience of breaking with our past while coming of age, and for the acting. Johan Philip Asbæk is an intense performers, an actor to watch for in future efforts.
This isn’t a great film but it is so ripe for today and the struggles we all see or are involved in.
Worlds Apart is an educational film with emotional impact.
Linda Zises
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