FLYER

20th century European expressionism enters BLACK&WHITE with the striking war silent film Arsenal, by the Ukranian filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko (add him in Facebook - yes, Facebook - here). This 'vintage' movie is a must-see of all times and momentarily breaks the Mundus Film Club trend of portraying contemporary society by taking us back to its roots. Power to the people!

ARSENAL, by Oleksandr Dovzhenko (1923)

September 30, 5pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism

AND last but not least, BLACK&WHITE would like to make a call for arms to everyone wanting to contribute with a film for the next cycle we have in mind, 'Cities'. Start thinking! More about the subject VERY VERY soon...

'DOVZHENKO'S 'ARSENAL': AN ULTIMATE WAR MOVIE', by Roman Horbyk

Just for change after all complicated contemporary movies, let’s take a turn to the past when people did not pretend they were living, but truly lived, when everything – love, hate, life, death – was a bit more real. Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you next time on our Mundus movies list we have Arsenal (1928) by Oleksandr Dovzhenko, one of the most powerful examples of absolute cinema ever – and an absolute must-see for all interested in war and conflict. This visually rich, striking and often shocking masterpiece influenced by German expressionism of the 1920s (Dovzhenko studied and worked in Berlin for several years) and preceeding later French existentialism, unfolds a grotesque and laughably tragic story of the Ukrainian revolution and civil war of 1917 – 1921.

Shortsighted Ukrainian officer in funny early 20th century glasses, apparently a recent bookworm, points out to a Bolshevist rebel with a gun barrel and says, “Turn yourself face to wall, so that I can execute you”. The Bolshevik in a stylish scarf obeys at first, but in a moment turns back and slowly, step by step comes closer, extends his hand and takes the pistol away. “Why can’t you do it looking into my face, bastard, but I can do this with you?”, he says a second before a shot.

This memorable scene is a perfect answer to questions about Ukrainian nationalism ninety years ago and its incapacity of gaining the upper hand in a struggle for independence. It’s simply 'if you’re too weak to kill, it’s you who’ll get killed'. And this is also a universal truth about any clash in a globalised world almost a century later, for the nature of conflict remains (and most probably will remain) unchanged despite all up-to-date trends.

Some history to quickly look through

After last Russian tsar abdicated in February 1917, Ukrainian community which was oppressed for centuries formed a national assembly and a government that first claimed autonomy and then complete independence. However, Lenin and his Bolshevist party considered even devastated by the WWI Ukraine to be an important human, agricultural and industrial base for future Soviet empire, and the war broke out again.

As a result, in 1918 – 1921 several armies fought on Ukrainian land committing extensive war crimes. However, despite massive initial support from rural population (90 per cent of overall population), Ukrainian government lost due to bad organization, lack of political experience and initiative, poor army supplies and, last but not least, indifference from the international community. Arsenal uprising was a minor episode of war when workers on military plant instigated by the Bolshevist propaganda revolted against Ukrainian government. The uprising was suppressed, but it forced the Ukrainian military to draw the best units back from the front; road to Kyiv was left defended by just 300 schoolboy volunteers and, finally, Ukrainian capital surrendered.

What makes it more difficult is the recently discovered fact that Dovzhenko himself enlisted for the army of Ukrainian liberal-nationalist government and served in the units which oppressed the pro-Bolshevist workers uprising on the Arsenal plant in Kyiv. Eleven years later, a well-established film-maker did a movie about those developments from politically relevant, that is now Bolshevist, point of view. Although it does not affect artistic and aesthetic brilliancy of this classical piece of leftist avant-garde cinema, we should keep in mind while watching the famous final scene of the execution that in real life Dovzhenko was probably one of the firing squad that executed rebellious workers. This adds another layer on the complicated and extravagant text of the film, where officially acclaimed pro-Communist appearance meets a bitter epilogue to Ukrainian national revolution and sarcastic anger towards national leaders who failed to win a war for freedom.

Soldier corpses with smiling faces, horses that can speak and bullet-proof naked bodies, nervous and disturbing macabre music which accompanies this silent movie… For those who watch Dovzhenko’s works for the first time they often become once-in-a-lifetime experience. His distinguishable, fractured story-telling manner when you see One Big Story in a dozen of small and non-repeating ones is something you’ll never forget. So, if you want to enjoy some vintage and still actual classical motion picture, if you are interested in war at a broad philosophic angle or you just want to discover Ukrainian culture, please do come at 5pm on Wednesday, September 30 to Lille Auditorium at the Danish School of Journalism. See you there!

+ Info about Dovzhenko

+ Info on Arsenal (or here)

+ Info on the war in Ukraine

MAKING OF TE DOY MIS OJOS. Icíar Bollaín's comments

"After Flores de otro mundo, I wanted to make a more concentrated movie, less choral, and probably because of it more straightforward and intense. The co-scriptwriter, Alicia Luna, and I had been thinking over the topic of domestic violence for a long time and saw that, though it is a constant theme in mass media, there were many questions that we could not answer.

Why a woman endures an average of ten years together with a man she's being thrashed by? Why doesn't she go away? Why not only she doesn't go away but even assure she is still in love as some of them do? Economic dependence reasons do not explain the fact that one of every four women in Europe and the United States affirm they have gone through some violent relationship in their life.

As we were doing research, we discovered that one of the basic reasons was that they keep hoping the man will change. So our character is a woman who keeps waiting at the door every day for the man with whom she fell in love... But who is this man? Why a profile of the batterer hardly exists? And why these men ill-treat for years who they claim to love with all their heart?

There are physically violent men, there are others that are violent also psychologically and these are probably the ones who cause more damage. Some are really cruel and there are some others who are also victims of themselves, cannot solve their conflicts if it is not by means of violence, need to control the person they love and are very scared... And that is the man in our film, someone who has the chance of seeing himself and change.

Te Doy Mis Ojos tells Pilar and Antonio's story but also that of whom surround them: a mother who consents, a sister who does not understand, a son who looks and keeps quiet, a few friends, a society and a city as Toledo, which, with its artistic brilliance and its historical and religious weight, adds one more dimension to this story of love, fear, control and power.

The actors

For the character of Pilar we tested many marvellous actresses. It was a long process. This character possesses the enormous difficulty of not knowing who she is. Pilar neither says what she thinks nor what she feels because she doesn't know it. She is a woman who is not herself. How do you tell an actress to play that? In addition, she is a woman who evolves, because she begins completely lost and ends re-composed and blooming.

Laia Marull can seem to be very fragile and be strong at the same time, can appear shattered or utmost beautiful, as if lightened from within, and is a very solid actress who can combine experience with emotion constantly on the surface.

Luis Tosar's character is also very difficult. He has given him many things. He goes from being very brutish and not understanding anything to establishing himself in another level. He can be tender and change in a second, growing dark and becoming unpredictable... Luis gives Antonio's character an infinity of shades. I believe that they are two very brave actors who really dove into the scenes.

Candela Peña brings her intensity and a great tenderness to a character that represents those who want to help but do not to know how, because deep down we don't understand. With all her good faith, Ana doesn't manage to help her sister because she doesn't understand her, because she tries to simplify something very complex. We are all a bit like Candela.

Rosa Maria Sardá carries out with generosity the ungrateful labour of giving life to a character who silences the problem and who therefore consents, as it has been done for so many years."

AFTERMATH

Reactions so far after La Haine...

-"It's like Guy Ritchie's films but more socially concerned", says Roman.

If you were there, post your own comments down below!!


If not, tick your reason for not coming:

1. "I have already seen it!".
2. "I have to cook/attend a dinner with friends/flatmates".
3. "The day has been very long and I'm too tired".
4. "I need to go home now but I'll be right there!".


Well, before Te Doy Mis Ojos (Take My Eyes) screening next week, a few possible solutions:

1. See it again!
2. Bring them along! Eating in front of the screen is totally OK.
3. Don't forget your pillow and you'll be ready for a real relaxing evening...
4. Hmmm, there's nothing we can say to beat that except for... Move your bum from the sofa to the seats!

Te Doy Mis Ojos, by Icíar Bollaín (2003)

September 23, 5pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism

Stay tuned for more info on this striking Spanish drama...

'LA HAINE*, A POWERFUL PUNCH IN THE STOMACH', a review by Naouel Abbadi

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So far, everything's fine... We are in the Cité, a HLM in the suburbs of Paris, France. It's just morning, but there's tension in the air already. The youngsters of the hood have spent all night rioting in the streets, burning down buildings and wrecking everything.

Set in 24 hours, La Haine follows three mates as they wander aimlessly through the city. Vinz (Cassel) is a Jewish Travis Bickle, boiling with anger. North African Saïd (Taghmaoui) is a personable loudmouth, keen to get himself laid. Black boxer Hubert (Koundé) is a more thoughtful presence and his frustration, the most deeply buried. During the course of a day and night, they meditate on the death of an Arabic friend at the hands of the police, and stumble across a cop's lost pistol.

Mathieu Kassovitz dissects a crisis situation of racism and social exclusion in modern Paris, with lucidity but also anger and brutality. Released to both controversy and acclaim in 1995, La Haine ranks among the most incendiary European films of the decade. Furious, funny, intelligent and tense, its treatment of racial violence, issues of the French-style system of integration, disenfranchisement and suburban poverty, introduced audiences to aspects of French life rarely seen on film - specifically police brutality and Le Pen's National Front.

In style and intent, the film occupies a position somewhere between Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing.

Atmospherically shot in black and white and infused with the sounds and style of French hip-hop, Kassovitz's direction has the urgent authenticity of documentary footage. He's also an effective stylist and uses Paris as a striking backdrop. With nowhere to go, the boys slope through deserted public spaces - empty streets, vacant trains, a shopping mall at four in the morning - locations that echo their own sense of estrangement. 'The world is yours' runs the slogan on an advertising billboard. Saïd gets his pen out and alters it to the bitterly ironic - or is it desperately hopeful? - 'The world is ours'.

Powerfully but naturally acted, La Haine's great strength is that it's so fully engaged with the world it depicts. Vital and visceral yet sympathetic to its flawed protagonists, it's Kassovitz's own writing from the start of the film that best conveys his characters' rage at their impotence and isolation, and La Haine's own grimly fatalistic tone. "Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper?" asks Hubert. "On his way down past each floor, he kept saying, to reassure himself, 'so far so good... so far so good... so far so good'. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land."

Writer-director Kassovitz's great triumph is the way he allies outright polemic with intensely powerful drama. In fact, so effective is his handling of the issues that the French Cabinet were reported to have watched the film in the hope that it would help their understanding of the country's ethnically diverse young poor.

*The Hate

INTRO

Ok, guys, this is moving forward!

Welcome to BLACK&WHITE, the Mundus Film Club.

We have an exquisite appetizer to start our four dish cycle titled 'Inequality in society', the raw French movie La Haine, by Mathieu Kassovitz (1995).

This amazing masterpiece will make up our first screening in history and stands as a great opportunity to get deeper into French postmodern culture, so don't miss it out!!!

LA HAINE, by Mathieu Kassovitz

September 16, 5pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism


If I didn't convince you, let Vinz have a try...