Apocalipse nos Trópicos / Apocalypse in the Tropics (American premiere in the presence of Petra Costa)

 

Petra Costa: Apocalipse nos Trópicos / Apocalypse in the Tropics (BR/US/DK 2024).

Language: Portuguese.

Festival premiere: 29 Aug 2024 Venice.

Viewed at Le Pierre, Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 31 Aug 2024.

In person: Petra Costa interviewed by Mark Danner.

Mark Danner (TFF 2024): "In her extraordinary study of Brazilian politics and religion, director Petra Costa reminds us that “apocalypse” means not the end of the world but “unveiling, uncovering what is covered.” She tells a story of the evangelical forces taking over Brazilian politics, with a focus on the charismatic pastor Silas Malafaia, whom she dubs “The Kingmaker.” In 2019, Malafaia helped bring Jair Bolsonaro, the so-called “Trump of the Tropics,” to power. With unprecedented access, Costa introduces the viewer to Dominionism, the belief that religion should take over the “seven mountains” of the contemporary state. Brazil once proudly modeled progressive ideals; now, it’s torn by spiritual warfare between the moderate left and a reactionary front led by Evangelical pastors, who have already succeeded in putting one of their number on the Supreme Court. Costa, director of Oscar-nominated THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY, has created a film with undeniable resonances of politics in the U.S. and beyond." –Mark Danner (Brazil-U.S.-Denmark, 2024, 110 min)

AA: Petra Costa's magisterial documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics is one of the key films of the year.

In her opening remarks, Petra Costa dedicated this screening to Tom Luddy who inspired her ten years ago, also by sending her photographs of Tarkovsky in Telluride.

Apocalypse in the Tropics is an electrifying epic documentary about Brazil's fateful progress between democracy and autocracy / theocracy, fuelled by the formidable new political force of Evangelicalism.

Costa covers the mighty movements of Brazil in stunning crowd scenes and amazing aerial shots. Even more moving are her candid interviews with the major players. Jair Bolsonaro is open and transparent about his goals and methods. The big revelation of the movie is the astounding influence of the televangelist Silas Malafaia, also jovially on display in in-depth interviews. Lula da Silva cooks some coffee for Petra Costa and lets us witness his human touch at close range.

The film is divided in chapters. In the prologue we learn that the spread of Evangelicanism of the Silas Malafaia school is the fastest religion change of all times.

In Chapter I The King-Maker we get acquainted with the Anti-Feminist Club of Silas Malafaia, on a warpath against "Cultural Marxism and the Frankfurt School". "Brazil above all - God above everything".

In Chapter II God in the Time of Cholera we see shocking epic scenes of the pandemic casualties. Over 700.000 died of Covid in Brazil, the second highest death toll in the world. The footage of the graveyards is stunning. On the soundtrack: J. S. Bach: Violinkonzert E-Dur BWV 1042, Adagio, with the most heartbreaking violin solo ever composed (the long continuous melody line of Trauerarbeit). The theme of the Apocalypse is introduced. A central place in the faith of the Evangelicalists has the final book of the Bible - the book of Revelations (Apocalypse) - the foundation book of the new creed. War leads to peace and freedom as Messiah comes to save us.

In Chapter III Dominion the protagonist is Silas Malafaia whose tv sermons have been dubbed into 120 languages worldwide. The pastor is a media oligarch, influencer and cultural warrior. He stands for Prosperity Gospel, fights for a Christian state / theocracy and against abortion law and queer rights, his net worth is USD 150 million. His popularity is "thanks to the left", "Glory to God". In his mass revivalist meeting people are speaking in tongues, including Michele Bolsonaro.

In Chapter IV Genesis we go to the roots of this movement - Billy Graham's crusade against Communism. His was a manichean battle of Communism vs. Christianity. The original sin of today was Communism - "the Ghost of Communism" according to Petra Costa. The fear of the Ghost gave the excuse to repression in a society designed to keep the people poor. One of the most stunning passages in the movie is an archival clip of a Billy Graham revival meeting at Brazil's largest sport stadium. Against Billy Graham rose Liberation Theology with figures such as Ernesto Cardenal, the compassionate Jesuits. Kissinger warned Nixon that the Catholic Church was no longer a reliable ally. We follow Lula's imprisonment under Bolsonaro's regime and his release when the corruption of justice is exposed. "The first step is to kill democracy" when the military coup is in recent memory. But despite loud "authorize" [military intervention] choruses, Lula leads in all polls and is re-elected.

In Chapter V Holy War Bolsonaro keeps trying to demonize Lula as a "Candomblé Catholic". I missed the end of the movie due to an overlap with the next screening. I need to revisit it at the earliest instance.

As Petra Costa said in her opening remarks, this film about Brazil is equally about the United States. Billy Graham inspired the authoritarian movement of Silas Malafaia / Jair Bolsonaro, which in turn has inspired the Donald Trump / U.S. Evangelicalist union. Last week, Trump declared that he had found a new ally: God.

The "drill, baby, drill" agenda is also consistent with the emphasis on the Book of Revelations. We sin, destroy, burn the rain forest, ignore indigenous rights and splurge on fossil fuels, but Jesus saves us in the end to a better world.

...

Petra Costa interviewed by Mark Danner in Film Watch 2024, the Telluride Film Festival magazine.

Apocalypse in the Tropics: Petra Costa in conversation with Mark Danner (in Film Watch 2024, the Telluride Film Festival magazine)

Petra Costa (born on 8 July 1983 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil) at Venice Film Festival, 30 Aug 2024. Next day we met her in Telluride.

 
From Film Watch 2024, the Telluride Film Festival magazine:

THE REVELATION

DEEP INSIDE BRAZIL'S EVANGELICAL MOVEMENT

How does a democracy end and a theocracy begin? The Oscar-nominated Brazilian director Petra Costa (Edge of Democracy) investigates the growing political power of the evangelical movement of Brazil, one of the world's largest Christian nations. She spoke with Mark Danner about Apocalypse in the Tropics.

MARK DANNER: I'm fascinated by the title of your film, Apocalypse in the Tropics. We think of it as the end of the world, but you point out that the Greek meaning of the word is "unveiling". What does your film unveil about Brazil?

PETRA COSTA: For Brazil, the apocalypse was on our minds during the pandemic. Similar to the United States, we had a president that was going against any norm of sensibility. I started to dig deep to find the essence of why.

    At first, it seemed that [President Jair] Bolsonaro was at the center of our catastrophe, but as we dug deeper, it became clear that there was a religious shift - a tectonic shift - that was even more important than Bolsonaro. Brazil is becoming an evangelical nation, a type of religiosity that is focused on taking over the three branches of power.

MD: Brazil had such faith in modernity. Has the progressive philosophy weakened?

PC: The working class does not identify with the language spoken by progressives. That's one reason for the rise of these movements.

    No one believes the current form of capitalism will improve our lives. It's this kind of savage capitalism, with billionaires who don't pay taxes. Even Adam Smith would be against this form. Everybody feels that. There's a huge crisis of democracy.

    Religion is still one of the strongest mobilizing forces in the world.

MD: You are saying that a collapse in moral structures on the left has allowed evangelism to make great strides among the working class.

PC: Progressives don't look at religion with respect. In the 60s and 70s the civil rights movements were led by religious figures. That's not the case today. The far right has much more energy than the left.

    It's as if the left doesn't know what to propose. They lack, as it's said, the fire of Prometheus. That's with the far right at this moment, and the left has resigned itself to become manager of the crisis of capitalism.

MD: Let me ask you about the televangelist Silas Malafaia, whom you call the kingmaker. How did you begin to document him? Do you think his ambition is distinct from his evangelical beliefs?

PC: We told him that we would love to film with him. He gave us a lot of access during four years. We filmed hours of him giving services. We saw his archival material.

    He thinks that the evangelical religion should take over the seven mountains of influence [family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, buiness and government]. If that's one of his main tenets, there's no contradiction in being ambitious. One of his strengths is that he's transparent about what he wants and how he's going to do it. That's what I find most fascinating - it's rare to find people who explain their methods in politics.

MD: The film is about a spiritual war that's going on. It's not about a single election. That very much reminded me of what's happening in the United States now. What do you think when you compare them?

PC: One is the mirror of the other in a very uncanny way. The number of parallels continues to surprise me every day. What happened to Trump with the attack and the bullet he received in his ear was almost identical to what happened to Bolsonaro in 2018 when Bolsonaro was stabbed.

    The interpretations of their followers were the same: it was a miracle. For Bolsonaro, it was the moment when he became the Messiah, a person anointed by God. Many of his followers believe this to this day.

MD: Do you have words of admonition to progressive forces about what they must do to repair this gap that they let evangelical slow through?

PC: We need to find a common language with people that share similar beliefs. We have to diminish our differences so, at minimum, we can secure our rule of law and our democracy. We have to find what unites us. The most dangerous pandemic of our times is this pandemic of fascism and fundamentalism.

MD: When you say "to find what unites us," what are you talking about?

PC: Jesus is one of the main proponents in the West of a universal human right - the idea that every human being deserves the love of the Lord. The love of God is not just for the chosen ones; it's for everyone.

    It's one of the most revolutionary things about Jesus' thinking. That's the common language. We want every human being to be respected. That's the principle of Christianity and the principle of democracy.

...

Petra Costa in conversation with Mark Danner (Film Watch 2024, Telluride Film Festival magazine)

My blog notes on Apocalypse on the Tropics the movie.

Nickel Boys (world premiere in the presence of RaMell Ross)

RaMell Ross: Nickel Boys (US 2024).

MGM Centenary logo.

Made possible by a donation from Alan & Caroline McConnell.

Viewed at Galaxy, Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 31 Aug 2024.

In person: RaMell Ross, Ethan Herisse, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Brandon Wilson.

Robert Daniels (TFF 2024): "A stirring follow-up to his directorial debut HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING, RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a biting, visually adventurous coming-of-age story set in Jim Crow-era Florida. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is an idealistic Black high schooler whose aims of attending college are upended when racist law officials falsely accuse and then convict him of a crime, pulling him away from the loving arms of his grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). At Nickel Academy, an abusive reformatory school, Elwood befriends a world-weary Turner (Brandon Wilson). Arrestingly gorgeous and daringly immersive, Ross effortlessly switches decades—the story spans the 1960s to the 2010s and changes perspectives. As it swims through memories, traumas, friendships, archival footage, and moments of defiance, Ross’ film offers a radical gaze at the perils of Black boyhood." –Robert Daniels (U.S., 2024, 140 min)

AA: RaMell Ross has created an experimental film based on the Pulitzer-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. "The story takes place in Jim Crow era Tallahassee, Florida. It is about the ordeal of the young African-American Elwood Curtis who is falsely accused by the police of being an accomplice in a car theft. He is sent to a segregated reform school called Nickel Academy. There he forms a close friendship with a boy named Turner as they try to survive the abuse by the school and its corrupt administrators" (from the admirably concise premise in Wikipedia). 

The narration is highly elliptical. More than story-driven, Nickel Boys is image-driven, based on an approach of the immediate experience. It is largely conveyed in a subjective camera point-of-view, made famous in Hollywood by Lady in the Lake but introduced in Somewhere in the Night, also imagined by Orson Welles in his unrealized Heart of Darkness plan, but the first major instance may have been The Man with the Movie Camera.

The unique and striking insight of RaMell Ross in his subjective camera approach is to portray how it is to be looked at as a person of colour. "Race is this really bizarre thing, and it's a dominant, meaning-making social construct. I wanted to cinematically iterate the experience of being a person of colour" (RaMell Ross in conversation with Robert Daniels, in Film Watch 2024, the Telluride Film Festival magazine).

The achievement is extraordinary. Although the duration is 140 minutes, there is a feeling that each shot is special. The ratio is Academy. There are oblique angles, sideways angles, gratuitous angles, ultrasound images, point-of-view shots of a baby, reflections in an iron, flipbooks, archival inserts, vintage television footage. The general experience resembles a fever dream. We approach altered states of consciousness. RaMell Ross enters the cinema as a visual inventor. One of his most memorable compositions is an extreme high angle overhead reversed two-shot of Elwood and Turner.

Ethan Herisse as Elwood and Brandon Wilson as Turner are great, but the heart of the movie belongs to Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hattie, Elwood's grandmother.

The soundscape is as revolutionary as the visual universe. It is an essential element of the stream of consciousness, sometimes alarmistic, sometimes hypersensitive, sometimes evoking ADHD.

From extreme subjectivity the film opens to the big wide world.  The times they are a-changing. We are aware of the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Age. The vision expands to the cosmic in a view of the night sky. The end credits are based on the aesthetics of the flicker film.

The visual world is unusual yet not gratuitous. The experience is so formidable that I need time to digest - and revisit this remarkable movie.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (American premiere in the presence of Mohammed Rasoulof)

 

Mohammad Rasoulof: The Seed of the Sacred Fig (DE/FR/IR 2024).

Made possible by a donation from Keller Doss.

Viewed at Sheridan Opera House, Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 31 Aug 2024.

In person: Mohammad Rasoulof.

Larry Gross (TFF 2024): "Iman (Missagh Zareh) has just been promoted to Investigator, a stepping stone to the prestigious and lucrative position of Judge in Iran. But there’s a catch: He’s now expected to blindly follow the dictates of the authoritarian Iranian government. When his wife (Soheila Golestani) and two daughters (Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki) show some sympathy for protesters demanding human rights on the streets of Tehran, he begins to harden in defense of an unjust system. Writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, himself a former prisoner of conscience, was forced to flee his homeland after authorities learned about the subject matter of his film. With his four brilliant actors, he shows, with meticulous clarity, compassion and poignance, how totalitarian rule can erode even the bonds between parent and child, husband and wife. Agonizingly painful, yet thrilling in its moral clarity, THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (a winner at Cannes) provides one of cinema’s most emphatic statements of the necessity of freedom." –Larry Gross (Germany-France-Iran, 2024, 168 min)

AA: Mohammad Rasoulof's masterpiece The Seed of the Sacred Fig centers around the revolutionary protest movement that rose in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 in Iran. She became a victim of police brutality because she had allegedly not been wearing the hijab correctly. The historical movement is covered in unforgettable epic mobile phone video montages that show the magnitude of the revolt and the violence of the security forces.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a film about contemporary history in the form of a political thriller and a family tragedy. The father, Iman, is a rising figure in the Iranian security forces, eagerly awaiting promotion. In the beginning the film seems to evolve in the direction of The Zone of Interest when the family starts making plans based on a better apartment with private bedrooms for both daughters. 

But things start to slip when Iman's gun goes missing, and like in Madigan, that is a serious matter that can cost him his career. The daughters hide their solidarity with the Mahsa Amini movement. But also Iman has kept his true career a secret from his family. The strict conditions of his new position turn intolerable for the daughters, and the conflict escalates to a boiling point.

The mother Najmeh, absolutely loyal to her husband, now registers with pain that Iman submits them all to the official investigation procedure of the security forces, and begins to distance from him. When the gun is still not found, Iman invites his family to his childhood home area, ostensibly to spend some quality time, but there, in the middle of the desert, he imprisons them.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig turns into a prison escape and chase story. The dénouement has terrific momentum and lifts the fabula to a new level. The Seed of the Sacred Fig grows into a tale of patriarchy and theocracy with leverage comparable with Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.

Let's register the complexity of the tale. Iman himself is a victim as well as an executioner. He experiences tremendous ordeals of conscience when he is required to sign death sentences without access to the evidence. The judge is finally put to trial and convicted by his own family. The Chekhovian gun acquires a new meaning.

Perfection in all departments: magnificent screenplay, complex and passionate performances of the actors, striking cinematography. 

51th Telluride Film Festival (30 Aug - 2 Sep 2024) lineup

51th Telluride Film Festival poster, art by Luke Dorman of Meow Wolf. "Bringing his third straight design to the Festival, Luke explored the theme of regeneration and hope, an ideal concept for this moment in cinema and the world. Luke is Meow Wolf’s Principal Graphic Designer and a fine artist. His work has been recognized by Print Magazine, Communication Arts and The Society of Typographic Arts." (TFF 2024 Catalogue)

Data from the Telluride Film Festival (TFF) website.

The Show:

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (d. Payal Kapadia, France-India-Netherlands-Luxembourg, 2024)

ANORA (d. Sean Baker, U.S., 2024)

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS (d. Petra Costa, Brazil-U.S.-Denmark, 2024)

APPRENTICE, THE (d. Ali Abbasi, Canada-Denmark-Ireland, 2024) tba

BERNESTEIN'S WALL  (d. Douglas Tirola, U.S. 2021) tba

BETTER MAN (d. Michael Gracey, Australia, 2024)

BIRD (d. Andrea Arnold, U.K., 2024)

BLINK (d. Daniel Roher, Edmund Stenson, U.S.-Canada, 2024)

CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID! (d. Matt Tyrnauer, U.S., 2024)

CONCLAVE (d. Edward Berger, U.K., 2024)

DISCLAIMER (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.K.-U.S., 2024)

DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT (d. Embeth Davidtz, South Africa, 2024)

EMILIA PÉREZ (d. Jacques Audiard, France, 2024)

END, THE (d. Joshua Oppenheimer, Ireland-Germany-Italy-Sweden-Denmark-U.K., 2024)

FRIEND, THE (d. David Siegel, Scott McGehee, U.S., 2024)

IN WAVES AND WAR (d. Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, U.S., 2024)

JEAN COCTEAU (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2024)

LEONARDO DA VINCI (d. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, U.S., 2024)

MARIA (d. Pablo Larraín, Germany-Italy-U.S.-Hungary-France-Greece, 2024)

MARTHA (d. R. J. Cutler, U.S., 2024)

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (d. Adam Elliot, Australia, 2024)

MISERICORDIA (d. Alain Guiraudie, France-Spain-Portugal, 2024)

NICKEL BOYS (d. RaMell Ross, U.S., 2024)

NO OTHER LAND (d. Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Palestine-Norway, 2024)

ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO (d. Kevin Macdonald, U.K., 2024)

OUTRUN, THE (d. Nora Fingscheidt, U.K.-Germany, 2024)

PIANO LESSON, THE (d. Malcolm Washington, U.S., 2024)

PIECE BY PIECE (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2024)

REAL PAIN, A (d. Jesse Eisenberg, U.S.-Poland, 2024) tba

SANTOSH (d. Sandhya Suri, U.K.-Germany-France, 2024)

SATURDAY NIGHT (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2024)

SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, THE (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Germany-France-Iran, 2024)

SEPARATED (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2024)

SEPTEMBER 5 (d. Tim Fehlbaum, Germany, 2024)

SOCIAL STUDIES (d. Lauren Greenfield, U.S., 2024)

WHITE HOUSE EFFECT, THE (d. Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, Pedro Kos, U.S., 2024)

WILL & HARPER (d. Josh Greenbaum, U.S., 2024)

ZURAWSKI V TEXAS (d. Maisie Crow, Abbie Perrault, U.S., 2024)

The short films in the main program:

A SWIM LESSON (d. Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, U.S., 2024)

ALOK (d. Alex Hedison, U.S., 2024)

THE TURNAROUND (d. Kyle Thrash, Ben Proudfoot, U.S., 2024)

The 2024 Silver Medallion Awards:

Jacques Audiard (with EMILIA PÉREZ)

Saoirse Ronan (with THE OUTRUN)

Thelma Schoonmaker.

Each tribute program includes a selection of clips, the presentation of the Silver Medallion award, and an on-stage interview.

Special Medallion award:

Les Films du Losange (with MISERICORDIA).

Kenneth Lonergan, this year’s festival Guest Director, presents the following film selections:

ARCH OF TRIUMPH (d. Lewis Milestone, U.S., 1948)

BARRY LYNDON (d. Stanley Kubrick, U.K.-U.S., 1975)

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (d. David Lean, U.K.-Italy-U.S., 1965)

GRAND HOTEL (d. Edmund Goulding, U.S., 1932)

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (d. John Ford, U.S., 1946)

Special Screenings and Festivities include 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (d. Jean Cocteau, France, 1946)

CHARLES, DEAD OR ALIVE (d. Alain Tanner, Switzerland, 1969) presented by Alfonso Cuarón

FLY (d. Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, U.S., 2024)

HINDLE WAKES (d. Maurice Elvey, U.K., 1927) with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin

PRINCE OF BROADWAY (d. Sean Baker, U.S., 2008).

Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers screens the following programs, all free and open to the public:

A SUDDEN GLIMPSE TO DEEPER THINGS (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2024)

¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! (d. Arthur Bradford, U.S., 2024)

CHAIN REACTIONS (d. Alexandre O. Philippe, U.S., 2024)

HER NAME WAS MOVIOLA (d. Howard Berry, U.K., 2024)

MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER (d. David Hinton, U.K., 2024)

NOBU (d. Matt Tyrnauer, U.S., 2024)

RIEFENSTAHL (d. Andres Veiel, Germany, 2024)

THE EASY KIND (d. Katy Chevigny, U.S., 2024)

THE HEXAGONAL HIVE AND A MOUSE IN A MAZE (d. Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz, U.K., 2024)

THE SWALLOW (d. Tadhg O’Sullivan, Ireland, 2024)

The TFF 2024 Program Guide.

Kinds of Kindness

Yorgos Lanthimos: Kinds of Kindness (IE/GB/US/GR 2024) with Margaret Qualley (Vivian), Jesse Plemons (Robert) and Willem Dafoe (Robert) in the first episode: "The Death of R.M.F."

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos promoting Kinds of Kindness (IE/GB/US/GR 2024).

Kinds of Kindness (Finland).

    IE/GB/US/GR © 2024 Searchlight Pictures. Searchlight Pictures presents - in association with Film4 and TSG Entertainment - an Element Pictures Production - a Yorgos Lanthimos film. P: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kasia Malipan.

    D: Yorgos Lanthimos. SC: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. DP: Robbie Ryan - negative: 35 mm - black and white and colour - scope 2.39:1. PD: Anthony Gasparro, Cost: Jennifer Johnson. Make-up: Jessica Needham. Hair: Jennifer Serio. M: Jerskin Fendrix. ED: Yorgos Mavropsaridis. Casting: Dixie Chassay.

    C: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer. The actors play multiple roles.

    Soundtrack: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart) perf. Eurythmics.

    Loc: New Orleans (Louisiana).

    164 min

    Festival premiere: 17 May 2024 Cannes.

    Finnish premiere: 5 July 2024 - distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Hannele Vahtera.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 7, Helsinki, 17 Aug 2024.

Anthology film with three episodes: 1) The Death of R.M.F., 2) R.M.F. Is Flying, 3) R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich. The same actors act in each, playing different characters.

Tagline: "Everybody's looking for something".

Cannes 2024 official: "KINDS OF KINDNESS is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader."

Cannes 2024 official by Tarik Khaldi, published on 17.5.2024: "Only a few months after the release of Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos joins the Competition with Kinds of Kindness. Could this be the film that will earn him the Palme d’or after his Jury Prize for The Lobster in 2015, and his Best Screenplay award for The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017?"

"A new fable by Yorgos Lanthimos, Kinds of Kindness juxtaposes three quests. A man who seeks control of his life, a policeman who finds his wife lost at sea and doesn’t recognize her, and a woman in search of a person with exceptional power."

"Written with his long-time partner Efthimis Filippou, the plot is served by a cast that is, to say the least, prestigious. All three stories are starred by the same actors. Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe are back by the director’s side, along with Jesse Plemons, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer."

"In Kinds of Kindness, the director continues his exploration of free will and conformism: “It’s interesting to observe how humans think they control things or are free to decide on them, while once they have this freedom, they find it difficult to manage.”"

"This latest film marks another milestone in the unstoppable rise of Yorgos Lanthimos.  In 2010, his career changed directions with Canine, which won the Prix Un Certain Regard, and showed the world the quirky aesthetic and gritty tone of the Greek weird wave, the movement of which he was the figurehead."

"In the years that followed, he left Greece to create his own style, sometimes disturbing, always fascinating. There, he attracted the best performers (Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone), and developed every aspect of his art, winning four Oscars for Poor Things last March." (Cannes 2024 official)

AA: Following The Favourite and Poor Things, this is the third feature in the collaboration of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone (there is also a short called Bleat). With superstar Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man, La La Land) Lanthimos has access to lavish budgets, and with Lanthimos, Stone gets to play the wildest roles imaginable.

I am still digesting Poor Things, a "too much" film both in transgression and visual excess. Too much can become boring, but I found Poor Things controlled.

Lanthimos pursues a novel absurdism. Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness are nightmare movies and can be seen as horror movies. Although Poor Things channels Frankenstein, it is not a simple genre movie. In the realm of horror, Lanthimos breaks new ground.

He pursues a new aspect of the macabre. What I have not digested yet is the element of callousness. The most disturbing scenes and schemes are displayed in a matter-of-fact way, without emotion. Like in a weird dream, perhaps. Or is this about trivialization, any shock turning gratuitous, in defense mechanisms against atrocity? Like in The Zone of Interest? (It could equally be called The Zone of Disinterest).

A test pilot project. Pushing the limits. Transcending boundaries. Exploring new transgressions. The acte gratuit: the meaninglessness as the point. There is no incitation, motivation or reason. Absurdity as the test of free will.

In the centenary year of surrealism, let's register Yorgos Lanthimos as a major contemporary surrealist.

Great performances, terrific cinematography by Robbie Ryan (the DCP has been created from a 35 mm negative). Yorgos Lanthimos knows what he is doing, but I need to learn to make sense of it.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

Inside Out 2

Kelsey Mann: Inside Out 2 (US 2024).

Inside Out - mielen sopukoissa 2 / Insidan ut 2.

    CGI animation.

    US © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar. P: Mark Nielsen.

    D: Kelsey Mann. SC: Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein - story: Meg LeFauve. DP: Adam Habib, Jonathan Pytko - digital - scope 2.39:1 - colour - 3D. AN: Dovi Anderson, Evan Bonifacio. Characters: Michael Comet, Ana Gabriela Lacaze. VFX: Sudeep Rangaswamy. M: Andrea Datzman. S: Ren Klyce. ED: Maurissa Horwitz. C:

Joy / Amy Poehler - Ilo / Minka Kuustonen

Anxiety / Maya Hawke - Ahdistus / Hanna Mönkäre

Disgust / Liza Lapira - Inho / Pamela Tola

Fear / Tony Hale - Pelko / Kari Ketonen

Anger / Lewis Black - Kiukku / Turkka Mastomäki

Sadness / Phyllis Smith - Suru / Tiina Weckström

Envy / Ayo Edebiri - Kateus / Heljä Heikkinen

Ennui / Adèle Exarchopoulos - Linnea Leino

Embarrassment / Paul Walter Hauser - nolous / Petrus Kähkönen

Deep Dark Secret / Steve Purcell - Synkkä Salaisuus / Tuukka Haapaniemi

Lance Slashblade / Yong Yea - Martti Manninen

Bloofy / Ron Funches - Lurppanen / Lauri Mikkola

...

Riley / Kensington Tallman - Seera Alexander

Valentina / Lilimar - Antonia Atarah

Grace / Grace Lu - Mirella Roininen

Bree / Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green - Helmi Kapulainen

Mom / Diane Lane - äiti / Rebecca Viitala

Dad / Kyle MacLachlan - isä / Arttu Wiskari

Coach Roberts - koutsi Roberts / Hanna Pakarinen

    97 min

    US premiere: 14 June 2024

    Finnish premiere: 17 July 2024 - distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland, Finnish translation by Aki Heinlahti.

    Viewed in Finnish spoken version in 2D at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 9, 17 Aug 2024

Official synopsis: "Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. Maya Hawke lends her voice to Anxiety, alongside Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust."

AA: I blogged in 2015 about the original Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter. Pixar has always been a pioneer, and Inside Out opened a new universe for animation - the inner world of the mind. 

In the animation I found affinities with classics including Len Lye, Norman McLaren and the UPA School, preceded by a decade of innovation at the Disney studios (particularly in the sometimes weird entries in their anthology movies). 

In 2015, the eleven year old Riley's mind-boggling experience was the family's move from Minnesota to San Francisco. 

I found Inside Out awesome but was puzzled by the psychological reductionism. The concept is limited to behaviourism (Skinner, Watson, Pavlov), a stimulus-response schematism like in Pavlov's dogs. In the cinema, the nearest counterpart is Vsevolod Pudovkin's Kulturfilm The Mechanics of the Brain (SU 1926) - featuring Ivan Pavlov and proceeding from dogs to monkeys to people. Stalin praised Pavlov, while Pavlov condemned Stalin's terror. When Stalin called writers "the engineers of the human soul", he was vulgarizing Pavlov.

In Inside Out 2, directed by Kelsey Mann and written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, based on a story by Meg LeFauve, Riley is thirteen, officially a teenager. Inside Out 2 is a saga of Riley's coming of age, puberty, becoming the hero of her own life.

Watching Inside Out 2 back to back after the Ukrainian animation Mavka: the Forest Song I register similarities. Both are new animations featuring a young girl or woman protagonist. Both create fantastic worlds in 3D and scope. Both are based on the idea of two worlds. In Mavka, they are the village (of human beings) and the forest (of magic spirits). In Inside Out movies, we have the real world and the mind world. The climax in both films is similar: a hurricane / whirlwind / avalanche / revolution - a transvaluation of all values, conveyed in awesame visions only possible for animation.

Riley's mind world has been innovatively visualized. There is the Headquarters with its high-tech console. There is the Imagination Land. There is Riley's Belief System with nine departments. There is the Sense of Self. There is also the Vault and the Back of the Mind. Other creative strokes of genius include a Stream of Consciousness - visualized literally.

Besides five emotions familiar from the original (Joy, Disgust, Fear, Anger, Sadness) we now have four more (Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment). Things are getting more complex. The fireworks of puns and inventions is witty, clever and smart.

But in my humble opinion, the vision of the human mind on display here is so far off the mark that I struggle to find a verdict that would not be a gross understatement. Even in the gaze of a 3 year old child I see a spark infinitely beyond what is being attempted here.

A fundamental failure to grasp the human mind is perhaps a sign of the times, also evident in Christopher Nolan's Inception, with the preposterous premise that dreams are something that can be entered. 

I revere the wonders of modern technology, but the discourses on the so-called AI reveal an abysmal lack of understanding of the psyche. This mystery puzzled already Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of the first chatbot in 1966. He called AI enthusiasts "artificial intelligentsia".

The animation is masterful in the mind world and high quality in the real world. 

Pixar launched its feature-length animation production with Toy Story, a masterpiece of world art. Digital animation is brilliant for toys, but for all animation human beings are a challenge. 

The Emotions are cartoon figures (see poster above); the human beings are like living dolls. There is an interesting philosophical dilemma. In animation, we accept drawn caricatures, puppets and marionettes, matchstick men, creatures of clay, silhouettes and any extremely stylized figures. But the more human the animated figures get, the less engaging they are.

I have mixed feelings about the Inside Out movies. Do they convey teenage agony today or ever? To say nothing of physical transformations, sexual awakening or becoming a woman (only timidly acknowledged here). Body is inseparable from soul.

But the Inside Out movies are full of joy, wit and imagination. To visualize identity crisis, the revolution of the self-image, the abyss of a teenage crisis in terms of an animated catastrophe is exhilarating.

With talent and expertise in all departments it's a joy to behold. I did not realize that the movie is being shown both in 2D and 3D and failed to select 3D. I saw the perfect Finnish-spoken version with Minka Kuustonen (Joy), Linnea Leino (Ennui) etc. Next I need to see the English spoken version in 3D.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT:

Mavka: lisova pisnia / Mavka: the Forest Song (2023)

Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban: Мавка. Лісова пісня / Mavka: lisova pisnia / Mavka: the Forest Song (UA 2023).

Мавка. Лісова пісня / Mavka: metsän laulu / Mavka: skogens väktare / Le Royaume de Naya / Maya: Hüterin des Waldes / Maya e la foresta incantata / Mavka: guardiana del bosque.

    CGI animation.

    UA 2023. PC: Animagrad Animation Studio / FILM.UA Group. P: Iryna Kostiuk, Yehor Olesov, Anna Yelisieieva.

    D: Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban. SC: Yaroslav Voitseshek - based on the play Lisova pisnia (1912) by Lesya Ukrainka. 3D animation - scope 1:2,35 - colour - digital. AN: Nataliia Alekseieva. Character designer. Natalia Doroshenko. Storyboard supervisor: Oleh Malamuzh. AD: Kristian Koskinen. M: Dario Vero, Maksym Berezhnyak, DakhaBrakha. S: Yevhenii Prykashchykov. 

    Original in English.

    The contribution of the Ukrainian voice talent as related in Wikipedia: "The animated film was dubbed to the Ukrainian language by the "#skoroukino" studio. The dubbing team: Laiti Biriukova, Dmytro Myalkovskiy; translation - Anna Pashchenko and Alina Haevska. The dubbing producer is Kateryna Braikovska."

    Natalka Denysenko as Mavka - Kateryna Kukhar and Taisia Khvostova (movements and plastique) , while Khrystyna Soloviy performs two of Mavka's songs.

    Artem Pyvovarov as Lukas

    Olena Kravets as Kylina

    Serhiy Prytula as Frol

    Oleh Mykhailiuta as Leo, Lukas' uncle

    Natalya Sumska as the Healer

    DakhaBrakha as Lucas’ friends, village musicians Nina, Iryna, Olena and Marko

    Mykhailo Khoma as Hush

    Julia Sanina as Ondina, a mermaid

    Nazar Zadniprovskyi as Lesh

    Oleh Skrypka as the One Who Sits in the Rock

    Nina Matviienko as the Narrator

    Andriy Mostrenko as Erick and Dereck

    Kateryna Osadcha as various women

    Natalka Denisenko

    Artem Pyvovarov

    Olena Kravets

    Soundtrack:

"Krokovee Koleso" perf. DakhaBrakha, Maksym Berezniuk 1:22

"Mova Vitru" ("Song of the Wind") comp./lyr./perf. Artem Pyvovarov, Khrystyna Soloviy 3:45

"Harnaya" ("Beautiful") perf. Maria Kvitka 3:31

"Vesnyanka" ("Spring Song") DakhaBrakha, Maksym Berezniuk 0:55

"Pisnia Lisu" ("The Forest Song") comp./lyr./perf. Khrystyna Soloviy 3:35

"Sho z pid Dubu" ("What is Under the Oak") comp./lyr./perf. DakhaBrakha 3:48

    The collection of the orchestra music for the movie was presented by “Animagrad” studio in May, 2023. The soundtrack was created by the Ukrainian-Italian team. The team consisted of: the symphonic orchestra “Kyiv Virtuosos”, Oksana Mukha and Maksym Berezhniuk, and also Italians Dario Vero, Fabio Patriniani, Federico Solacco, Barbad Bayat and Fabricio De Karolis. The album has got 49 instrumental compositions.

    99 min

    Ukrainian premiere: 2 March 2023 - distributed by Film.UA Distribution Kinomania.

    Finnish premiere in four spoken language versions: Ukrainian, English, Finnish and Swedish, alternatively with Finnish or Swedish subtitles - 2 Aug 2024. Finnish release only in 2D.

    Viewed in 2D in the Ukrainian version with Finnish subtitles at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 9, 17 Aug 2024

Previous film adaptations: 

- Lisova pisnia (UA-SU 1961) D: Viktor Ivchenko, live action.

- Lisova pisnia (UA-SU 1976) D: Alla Grachova, short animation.

- Lisova pisnia. Mavka / Metsän laulu (UA-SU 1981), live action, PC: Dovzhenko Film Studios, D: Yuri Ilyenko. Telecast in Finland: 27 Nov 1985 Yle TV1.

- Mavka / वनपरी (IN 2021) in Hindi.

Lesya Ukrainka (b. 1871 in Novohrad-Volonskyi, today's Zviahei, Zhytomir Oblast, d. 1913 Surami, Tiflis Governorate, today's Shida Kartli, Georgia). One of Ukraine's foremost writers, poet, playwright, feminist, bisexual and translator of the Communist Manifesto among other books.

International names of Lisova pisnia include Das Waldlied / Canción del bosque / La Chanson de la Forêt and Il canto della foresta.

Official synopsis: "Mavka - a soul of the Forest - faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as guardian to the Heart of the Forest, when she falls in love with a human - the talented young musician Lukash. Our story is about the magical power of love. That kind of love that enables human nature to find the magic within and reveals abilities and qualities that empower a person to reach beyond possible and to hold against evil and human vice."

AA: Oleh Malamuzh and Oleksandra Ruban's engrossing animation Mavka: the Forest Song is my first encounter with the work of Lesya Ukrainka and her fairy-tale play (1912), a living classic as a play, opera, ballet, live action cinema and animation. This newest animation has become the highest grossing film in independent Ukraine. Ukrainka's play has not been translated or staged in Finland, but it should, because its forest mythology strikes a chord in the land of Kalevala. 

Neoromanticism and symbolism  (Maeterlinck, Debussy) were powerful currents in Ukrainka's days, and nowhere more than in Finland, prominent in the art of Sibelius, Järnefelt, Aho and Linnankoski (The Song of the Scarlet Flower, based on forest mythology). Not forgetting American transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller) or Tolstoyan-Neo-Rousseauan currents, preceding contemporary ecological awareness.

The Forest Song is sometimes viewed as a Romeo and Juliet tale, and if we accept that, the love story of Mavka and Lukas is probably the most cosmic entry in that lineage. It is a love story connecting a human village with forest magic.

The animism of the play feels familiar to a Finnish viewer. It is close to the ancient faiths in the various provinces of what is now Finland such as Karelia, Tavastia and the Sami world of Lapland. The forest and the lake are alive with spirits, usually benevolent. Despite the victory of the Crusades, animism never ended in Finland. The story of Mavka has a spiritual affinity with Katja Gauriloff's Kaisa's Enchanted Forest (2016)

I understand that the adaptation of Oleh Malamuzh and Oleksandra Ruban is different from Lesya Ukrainka's play. But the directors have grasped the connection between animism and animation.

There is a thrilling energy, imagination and drive.

The power of Lukas's flute evokes the ancient Greek myth of Pan, associated with Fauna (divinity of the countryside) and Silvanus (guardian of the forests). He is human, but with access to the spirits of the nature. He is able to inspire Mavka herself. She in turn repairs Lukas's broken flute. Pan of course evokes Pantheism.

There are issues. Animals are ideal for animation, but animating people is a challenge that can hardly ever be perfectly solved. There are moments bordering on kitsch and shades of the saccharine.

But Malamuzh and Ruban have the courage of their convictions. The spell of the nature magic is genuine, the feeling of the fountain of life is compelling, the atavistic powers are formidable, the ecological myth of the destruction of the forest is terrifyingly topical. In the climax, the vision of the burning giant tornado, inside which Mavka faces eternity, has cosmic grandeur, and is expressed in a way only possible for animation.

The music by DrakhaBrakha, who also appear as animated characters, is essential to the experience.

Bravo.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT AND WIKIPEDIA:

Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

Greg Berlanti: Fly Me to the Moon (US/GB 2024) with Scarlett Johansson (Kelly Jones), Channing Tatum (Cole Davis).

Centenary of Columbia Pictures.

Fly Me to the Moon [Finland] / Fly Me to the Moon [Sweden]

    US/GB © 2024 Apple Video Programming. PC: Apple Studios, These Pictures. P: Keenan Flynn, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia, Sarah Schechter. EX: Robert J. Dohrmann.

    D: Greg Berlanti. SC: Rose Gilroy (screenplay) - Keenan Flynn (story) & Bill Kirstein (story). DP: Dariusz Wolski - Arriraw 4.5K - intermediate: 4K - release: 4K DCP - colour - 2.39:1. PD: Shane Valentino. AD: Lauren Rosenbloom. Set dec: Susan Benjamin, Laura Wallgren. Cost: Mary Zophres. Makeup: Deborah La Mia Denaver. Hair: Lawrence Davis. VFX: RISE Visual Effects Studios, Framestore, Nexodus, Zero VFX, Halon Entertainment, Ingenuity Studio, Good Company, Company 3. SFX: Wayne Rowe. M: Daniel Pemberton. S: Laurent Kossayan. ED: Harry Jierjian. Casting: Ellen Lewis. Special thanks to: Buzz Aldrin, John Tynan.

    C: Scarlett Johansson (Kelly Jones), Channing Tatum (Cole Davis), Woody Harrelson (Moe Berkus), Ray Berkus (Woody Harrelson), Ray Romano (Henry Smalls), Jim Rash (Lance Vespertine), Anna Garcia (Ruby Martin).

    Loc: Cape Canaveral (Florida), Savannah (Georgia), Tybee Island (Georgia), Fort Pulaski (Georgia).

    Soundtrack: "These Foolish Things" perf. Sam Cooke ; "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)" perf. Bobby Womack ; "Hold On I'm Coming" perf. Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown ; "Security" perf. Etta James ; "It's Your Thing" perf. Ann Peebles ; "To Love Somebody" perf. The Bee Gees ; "Sweet Soul Music" perf. Arthur Conley; "Nothing Can Change This Love" perf. Sam Cooke ; "Destination Moon" perf. Dinah Washington.

    132 min

    Festival premiere: 3 July 2024 Brussels International Film Festival

    US premiere: 12 July 2024

    Finnish premiere: 12 July 2024, released by SF Studios, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Saliven Gustavson.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 20, 10 Aug 2024.

Tagline: "Will they make history... or fake it?"

Official synopsis: "Starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, FLY ME TO THE MOON is a sharp, stylish romantic comedy set against the high-stakes backdrop of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Brought in to fix NASA’s public image, sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones (Johansson) wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s (Tatum) already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as back-up and the countdown truly begins…"

AA: Fly Me to the Moon is a romantic comedy directed by Greg Berlanti based on a screenplay by Rose Gilroy and a story by Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein. It is a Scarlett Johansson vehicle.

The theatrical distributor is Columbia Pictures in the United States and Sony Pictures Releasing worldwide. Since 1989, Columbia Pictures has belonged to the Japanese electronics giant Sony.

In celebration of the centenary of Columbia Pictures, the film begins with a montage of its logo changing during history: Lady Columbia, the personification of the Americas and the United States, in reference to Christopher Columbus, the -ia ending connecting it with Britannia and Gallia.

During Hollywood's Golden Age, Columbia Pictures was one of the "Little Three" among the eight majors. Now it is one of the Big Five.

During the Great Depression, Columbia was a pioneer of the rapid-fire "screwball comedy". Its main house director was Frank Capra. Also Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey and George Cukor did great work there. Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell were among Columbia's comedy queens in the 1930s. The comedies were not just divertissements. They were also vehices of satire, sometimes of the savage and disturbing kind.

After WWII, another Columbia comedy star was born: Judy Holliday, guided by Cukor. Jean Arthur ended her contract because of sexual harassment by the studio boss Harry Cohn. Marilyn Monroe made a single appearance, her first major role (Ladies of the Chorus), but quit for the same reason.

...

I write the above to make sense of the reasons to be cheerful for Fly Me to the Moon, because I'm all smiles.

To start with the Lady Columbia logo: Fly Me to the Moon is a great satire about America. The one with a healthy identity and self-respect can stand criticism and laugh at oneself.

It is a Cold War and Space Age satire. America is losing the Vietnam War, and the disgrace is for all to see on live tv. Russia is leading the Space Age, and America's Apollo program is in trouble.

The serious and true blue foundation is the commitment, scientific expertise, hard work and team spirit of the Apollo Program. Not forgetting a reverence for three martyrs who died in the fire during the launch pad test of Apollo 1 in 1967.

The embodiment of the Apollo spirit is Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), a responsible leader who earns his authority by inner dignity without needing to assert himself.

The Nixon administration hires a marketing maven, Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), to promote the Apollo Program to the max to ensure a bigger budget and lucrative sponsorship deals. Truth is a flexible concept for Jones, and she is a master of finding an excuse for anything.

Opposites attract - or more accurately: extremes attract. It is love at first sight between Cole and Kelly before they know each other. It is hate at first sight when Cole realizes Kelly's game. They reconcile, but Kelly is hiding from Cole the biggest betrayal. 

The Nixon administration does not believe in the Apollo 11 program, and they hire a film production crew and a soundstage to fake the Moon landing for the live television broadcast. Against direct orders, Kelly arranges the true live broadcast anyway and feeds Neil Armstrong the line "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

Fly Me to the Moon is a Scarlett Johansson vehicle, and she is a perfect Lady Columbia. Running in my mind a montage of classic Columbia comediennes, I recognize that she is as radiant and brilliant as any of them, and a versatile and original genius in her own right.

As a Marilynologist, I sense, like in Asteroid City (another Space Age and Nuclear Age satire), that Johansson is, among other things, channeling Marilyn. There is a link between wit and sex. Sex is beautiful when it is innate and life-affirming. Johansson is wickedly aware of her assets. Like in classic Hollywood, there is no need to be explicit.

There is an extreme contrast between the rock solid Cole and the volatile and mercurial Kelly. Almost cosmic. But perhaps it takes Kelly to pull Cole from his single-minded work orientation. And perhaps it takes Cole to stop Kelly from getting lost in her fabrications.

It is a great screenplay, and the film is well made but not brilliant as a whole. Perhaps marrying serious space drama (worthy of The Right Stuff) and screwball comedy requires so much time that momentum suffers. The soundstage stuff is funny, but I would remove it except for the climax only. Still, the film is better than one could expect from the impossible combination.

Might Fly Me to the Moon be another victim for the Pandemic Lethargic syndrome?

No danger of lethargy on the fantastic compilation soundtrack, with generous helpings of 1960s Atlantic and Motown, and "To Love Somebody" by The Bee Gees in the romantic turning point. Timeless.

I look forward to revisiting Fly Me to the Moon.

Anselm - das Rauschen der Zeit / Anselm (3-D) (revisited, Helsinki, 2024)

 

Wim Wenders: Anselm - das Rauschen der Zeit / Anselm (DE 2023). 

Anselm [Finland] / Anselm [Sweden].

    Master format: 6K - Source format: 6K dual-strip 3-D - colour and black and white - 1.50:1 - release format: 4K DCP.

    Finnish premiere: 28 June 2024, released by ELKE, 3D version with English subtitles, 2D version with Finnish subtitles, 2D version with Swedish subtitles.

    Viewed in the 3D version with English subtitles at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 10, Helsinki, 10 Aug 2024.

I first blogged about Anselm on 1 Sep 2023. While watching I knew I soon want to see it again.

In Anselm, Wim Wenders for the first time takes stock of German history. It is like he has waited all his life for the right approach to do justice to the enormity of the subject.

The approach is art documentary. Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, those friends and lovers long gone, are key witnesses, reading their poems in extenso in archival inserts. They are soulmates and fellow travellers for Anselm Kiefer, the protagonist.

I have returned to Adorno's "poetry after Auschwitz" question on the occasion of my most powerful art experiences this year: a Mark Rothko exhibition and the film noir dimension in an Anthony Mann retrospective.

Anselm the movie is all about it, too: the life's work of Anselm Kiefer, and the fellow poets Celan and Bachmann.

The risk is to be crushed under the heaviness, and there are moments where Wenders's view of the demiurge creator is on the verge of the bombastic.

The suspense stems from our anxiety: will Wenders survive the challenge? Humour and comedy are not his strengths, but a sense of play is, and that is his way of transcendence on this passionate journey into German history and the artists' struggle to make sense of it.

Having overcome my concerns over demiurge poses and bombastic moments I'm thrilled by the grandeur. Wenders is known for intimism, but he excels also in the epic. I belong to the admirers of even Bis ans Ende der Welt, to say nothing about Der Himmel über Berlin and Das Salz der Erde.

Anselm raises a lot of questions, thoughts and associations. One of the most important is the end of art, The Question in art criticism since WWI. Traditional categories of aesthetics, valid since classical antiquity, turned meaningless in 1914-1918. What we have is no longer about the beautiful and the sublime.

In the modern and the post-modern eras it is not wrong to speak about Anti-Art or Negative Aesthetics. Also in the wastelands in Anselm Kiefer's monumental work. Such is his horror mirror.

Wim Wenders is a master of 3-D, and 3-D is essential to the vision of Anselm Kiefer and Wim Wenders. The 3-D projection at Tennispalatsi was brilliant and perfect. Viewing the film today I again felt the urge to revisit it soon.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MY PROGRAM NOTE FOR LOVE AND ANARCHY, THE HELSINKI FILM FESTIVAL: