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DIRK DE BRUYN’S FILMS: PLACES AND IDENTITY

By Tara Judah

I am “waiting” for The Death of Place (2013) to begin. I soon realise, however, that the journey, and the film, has already started. Dirk de Bruyn is taking me with him, to interrogate place. Only it isn’t where I think it is.

The place de Bruyn has in mind is an intersection – and a little less where than when. It is the sum total of sensory affect: visual and aural. But it is also preoccupied with time, specifically the past. As each manic frame dances before my eyes, I try to locate at least the death of such a “place”.

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AN ARCHITECT CALLED CLINT EASTWOOD

By Victor Bruno

A Clint Eastwood film is mainly about love, hate, trust, honesty, justice, violence (and the mean effects it has on humanity), kindness, friendship and work. But these themes, as a good director would do, are not exactly underlined—and when they are, they may be talking about another thing that is hidden under the solid façade the film is trying to make up.

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ERIC ROHMER: A TRAVEL GALLERY

by Claudia Siefen

There is a nice and humourous scene in Cinéma, de notre temps: Eric Rohmer. Preuves à l’appui (1994): Looking for certain compact cassettes in his new office in Paris, Rohmer plucks out some biscuit tins and smiles delightedly to himself that these tins are particularly well suited, after eating the biscuits of course, to storing those cassettes (usually 12 pieces per biscuit tin). And as his interview partner, Jean Douchet, waits for a wordy version of this interesting hypothesis, Rohmer plucks some more good-humored to himself. Nix with biscuit tins thesis!, the teacher of German Literature smiles. The friendly-gangly Rohmer is dressed in a blue shirt; you are right to imagine him as nervous but no less humorous for that.

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RED AND GREEN: A WALK THROUGH PORTUGAL

By Victor Bruno

Through Christopher Columbus – the Enigma we have a character, a mystical presence that appears from time to time. It is a young woman, dressed in the colors of Portugal, red and green, sword in hand. In the final credits she is identified as “The Angel”. To me she is the leading character of the picture.

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PANORAMA: UNDER THE SKIN BY JONATHAN GLAZER

By José Sarmiento Hinojosa

Allegedly three years on the making, Under the Skin marks the return of English Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, better know for his musical videos and the film Sexy Beast (200) with a memorable performance by Ben Kingsley.

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PETER WHITEHEAD: REVOLUTION, REVELATION – PINK FLOYD LONDON 1966-1967

By Lu Juejing

Initially led by guitarist Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd is one of the most popular band of the London underground psychedelic scene. It is famous for being one of the first to use the psychedelic strobe lights screened during their concerts. The dramatization of their performances combine spectacular visual effects and music during the entire performance. They often play live at the UFO Club, which is the most prestigious club of the moment for the musical scene in London. They are also invited to “The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream” in 1967 at the Alexandra Palace of London, with many other artists (such as Yoko Ono, Mick Horovitz, Alex Trocchi, the dancer David Medalla and his band The Exploding Galaxy Dance Troupe, etc…) as well as many other psychedelic shows.

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EMBRACING BY NAOMI KAWASE

By Adrian Martin

The film by Kawase that I saw on that memorable day in 1994 is 40 minutes long. Along with all the ephemeral details of places, of tokens, of captured images and stolen sounds – and of her own shadow – there is a subject, intensely personal and intimate to the filmmaker: it is her search for the father who abandoned her when she was very young.

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SHAKING TRACKS: THE DOCUMENTARY WAYS IN THE WORK OF KORE-EDA HIROKAZU

By Claudia Siefen

From his early works he adopted the aesthetics of the unobserved, the genuine. In these actions that appeared to be natural Kore-eda brought his observations to the boiler, every movement and every word, sharpening the vision of the eye for the film setting at the same time. But he also is constantly questioning everything we are shown on the big screen. Because everything that we see is only “everything“ that the director allows us to see. There is a blankspace between everything that is shown and the observation itself.

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ON Hi-8/DIGITAL AND THE INTIMATE: THE FILM DIARIES OF ALAIN CAVALIER

By José Sarmiento Hinojosa

When we watch the first minutes of La Recontre (1996), it seems that we’re confronted with a revolution: digital cinema has merged with the home movie, and they both have reached a new narrative language in which the immediate recollection of images through the analogue system provides the filmmaker with the immediacy and urgency of what needs to be captured.

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A REAL DEAD RINGER FOR LOVE. VIDEO FOOL FOR LOVE

By Adrian Martin

Video Fool For Love is constructed from a video diary. We are told that, for ten years, Gibson carried around a compact video camera and filmed everything happening to him and around him – conversations, travels, car rides, sex, arguments: a lot of juicy, action-packed stuff. Most of the ten years fly by in a flash at the start, until we settle into the complications of a particularly difficult love triangle, when Robert is in his early 40s. First, there’s Robert and his troubled lover April, who flies off to stay in England. While she’s gone, Robert meets Gianna and they begin a wild relationship.

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