versiunea 1.3. redux (incl. ROCKLAND & alinland)
In cadrul Interviews for Hope la Televiziunea M9TV Romania din Tg. Mures m-a invitat prietenul Corneliu Tepelus sa vorbim despre film si muzica, film romanesc, Cannes, Brasov, Transilvania Blues si Bluesferatu.
Intreg interviul este acum pe youtube aici. Mersi, Corneliu, Let There B. Light :D
"Now is Now and Then is Then."
Perfect Days is a masterpiece, a Japanese film made in Tokyo in Japanese by a German filmmaker. Wim Wenders, made at 77 years of age. Like Wenders' Tokyo Story.
But Yasujiro Ozu is Wenders' master. And Ozu being a poet, this homage to him (Wenders did also a documentary, Tokyo-Ga, about his trip to Ozu's Tokyo, back in 1985), is also a Poem. A poem in the rhyme of Rock 'n Roll.
Do yourself a Favor and do go to the cinema. It's in limited release and it will vanish shortly. Kudos again Bad Unicorn for bringing it on the big screen ! Click on the link , scroll down and you'll see where it screens in Romania. ! And if you go, stay 'til the end of the credits !!!
It's slow, it's dreamlike, it's funny and tender, it's beautiful and sad, it's heartfelt. About the meaning of life (really!). Not in the Monty Pythonesque sense. More like budhism.
Absolutely gorgeous soundtrack, Lou Reed (the title comes from Lou's "Perfect Day" song) , Patti Smith, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Van Morrison, Ottis Redding, Nina Simone, The Animals & House of the Rising Sun (in Japanese even), Sachiko Kanenobu, and all with a purpose. Like a shiver in the trees leaves.
One of last year's best, should've been in my 2023 Top Films but I saw it in january 2024 ! It is nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film. Won best actor in Cannes and Koji Yakusho's performance is one of the best there is. Also won the Ecumenical Jury in Cannes.
Also it's one of Wenders' best, up there (for me) with Paris Texas, Das Himmel uber Berlin, Der Amerikanische Freund, Der Stand der Dinge. Shot beautifully by Wenders' collaborator since Land of Plenty (204), Franz Lustig, in the academical format of 1.33.1 (4:3), sharply edited and with a subtle sound design (re: the leaves, the dreams).
great interview with Wenders on Eye for Film here.
Wenders' favorite films on Kombini Video here. A lot on Ozu at the beginning of the video.
Komorebi...
Herbert Grönemeyer 's Alkohol is a song from 1984, from his album 4360 Bochum. I heard it in the 80's then, with Falco and Trio, they sound alike. Great B & W video. But yesterday I heard again this song after 30 odd years in a very cool scene from the new Calin Peter Netzer film, Familiar (that came out yesterday in Romanian cinemas).
Grönemeyer was/is a West Germany superstar, known also as an actor (he was in Wolfgang Pedersen's megahit Das Boot-1981) and I saw it in Romanian cinemas as Robert Schumann in Spring Symphony (1983), next to Nastassja Kinski as Clara Wiek and Rolf Hoppe. Saw that with my mom as she was the biggest fan of classical and Opera music. But his name came back again as the composer of the Anton Corbjin's films The American (my review here) and A Most Wanted Man, very good imersive scores He's still a superstar in Deutschland. Weirdly, my friends at the film premiere didn't know about him. So, I had to write a few lines about Herr Herbert G.
Great song tho. Was and is. And cool lyrics ;)
Alkohol ist das Dressing für deinen Kopfsalat
Alkohol ist dein Sanitäter in der Not Alkohol ist dein Fallschirm und dein Rettungsboot Alkohol ist das Drahtseil auf dem du stehst Alkohol ist das Schiff mit dem du untergehst
Psychotronic* film of the Year (on my Top Films of 2023): Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii/Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World by Radu Jude.
Just saw this mid Jan. in a theater (Reduta, Brasov), with people, and so I had to change /add this item to the Top. It's at once Bravura filmmaking, Saboteur cinema, punkish anarchistic/nihilistic deconstruction of the language (Godard-like), subversive Meta meta cinema, a pamphlet and a satire, filled with insider jokes that my guess is don't translate, even though the film, premiering in Locarno Film Fest last summer and awarded there the Jury's Special Prize, is on the most highbrow lists, from Cahiers du Cinema, to Sight and Sound and a great Arthouse hit in the US (it will be distributed there in March by MUBI). It was Romania's entry for the Oscars, as surreal as it sounds, not that the film isn't good enough but because it's so experimental and off mainstream someone should be crazy to really think it'll be qualified for an Oscar nod.
Psychotronic* =from Un Chien Andalou to Doogtooth or Mandy, or Perrot Le Fou and Jodorowski, this is the cinema of a FreakOut mind and stream of it. Dada and beyond. A genre of Subversive cinema.
Plot (or should I say Com-plot;):
It's about a day in the life of a production assistant (Angela -a brilliant Ilinca Manolache, chosen as Top Actresses of the year by ICS-International Cinephile Society, see here- and my bet on the Gopo award for lead actress this year), as she drives around Bucharest doing various chores and prepping (preparing) a corporate work safety commercial. She also tick tocks obscenities (funny and absurd ones) under a male avatar and the name Bobiță, as a commentary of the crazy hellish life around her.
This apocaly-pic (in the cinema sense film), is imo Jude's Le Mepris, but as Godard had Fritz Lang, Radu Jude has Uwe Boll -ouch, and I know Uwe well, did a q and a with him at Grossmann years ago, was on the Bucharest set of Bloodrayne, met him as he was self-promoting his films in Marche in Cannes, hiked with him on the hills of Ljutomer and had schpritzer which he hated ;) Uwe is shown filming in a Bucharest studio a sort of Z like Men in Black -and he tick toks freely the F * off and F* all of you-and this for me is the major stunt of the film ;), also it might say something about the state of cinema and the world now, yep. Had a blast watching it, but it's not funny, more like a tragic journey into a hellish Bucharest. Plus auto-referential Jude on his PPM's, commercials background and cameos by him (Glovo man) and Marius Panduru, the DOP, as a hotel doorman, loved them both. Excruciating longeur (willingly, but hardcore, Cristi Puiu's style)-144 min, bravura one-shot sequence of 40 mins, grainy B & W, as Jarmusch's first fares (but JJ had no money, man), a take on Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues famous cue cards through Vali Sterian's Exercitiu, into the green screen of 'woke" cancel culture of a politically correct message in a work safety corporate video. The film audio track is a world of its own, with the songs played (SPP included;), a copious manea from Tranylvania, the radio comments plus the phone conversations and the interjections from the real people in traffic. Cleo from 5 to 7 in a sordid world with overtime galore (from six am til afterdark, but with time for even a quickie and a shaorma ;)
