Music CD: Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle

Posted on July 8, 2010 by admin

If you have seen the movie Everything is Illuminated which brings to screen Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel you already know Eugene Hutz, the leader of Gogol Bordello. He was Alex, the driver in that strange road movie, which brings the young Jewish-American acted by Elijah Wood back to the Ukraine of his grandfathers and to the secrets of the past that he and his guides share.

source www.amazon.com

The style of the group is defines in lack of another term ‘immigrant punk’. East-European and gypsy influences were very clear in their first albums and in the multitude of public performances. The direct style of their music and message places them closer to punk than to the ethnic music represented by Goran Bregovic or the gypsy bands that became known in Europe and in the US in the last decade.  Gogol Bordello gathers musicians coming from at least eight different countries of origin on all five continents, the majority of them being of mixed ethnicity themselves. Here are a few of the milestones in the history of the band collected from http://www.gogolbordello.com/us/history:

1. Starting members meet at a Russian wedding in Vermont, 1998.

2. FIRST SHOW — No official first show… from party to party, gallery to gallery, GB is a growing snow-ball orchestra of immigrants jamming in A-minor…

3. Banned from CB/GB, Mercury Lounge, Fez and Bowery Ballroom immediately after first performances for being too over the mothefucking top…

…

5. Records first album ‘Voi-la Intruder’ with great help from and produced by Jim Sclavunos of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Grinderman (ex-Sonic Youth, the Cramps, and much more). Maximum respect!

…

9. Changes residence from Art Space PIZDETZ to a newly opened Bulgarian bar, Mehanata… soon to become “The CBGB of Gypsy Punk”! Hutz’s weekly dj party ‘DRINK LOCALLY! FUCK GLOBALLY!’ at MEHANATA goes through the roof. People flying in from Tokyo!!! The purists get upset!

10. Gogol Bordello releases the 2nd Album ‘Multi Kontra Culti vs Irony’ (self-produced) and gets a solid rep as a completely unmarketable band (see #24).

11. In 2001, Hutz and Oren Kaplan develop an electronic sister project JUF (JEWISHE UKRAINISHE FROINDSCHAFT), introducing new genre of transglobal underground with radical juxtaposition of styles: Balkan Brass grooves, dub, flamenco, reaggaton, punk – you get the idea… electronic version of Gypsy boogie-down, custom made for the Bulgarian Bar parties… JUF record finally released in 2004 on Stinky Records.

12. Premiers its program ‘Occurrence on the Border’ at Whitney Museum Biennial 2002, and turns into unstoppable gallery-wrecker touring other galleries of the world.

13. Represents simultaneously NY and Ukraine at Venice Bienalle, Manifesta 5, 2002.

14. Premiers its 2nd program ‘Think Locally, Fuck Globally’ at Tate Modern Gallery in London, 2002 (amongst others).

15. Plays a legendary show in Central Park summer stage with Manu Chao and Radio Bemba Sound System and starts touring Europe and US like fucking crazy. Starts the fires in all the backyards from Moscow to Vancouver with tours such as: 

FUCK THE SOUNDCHECK 2002 
GYPSYFICATION OF AMERICANIZATION 2002 
ALCOHOLYMPICS 2003, 
TZIGANIZATZIA BALKANIZATOROV 2003 
EAST INFECTION 2004 
TOTAL PIZDETZ 2005 
HOW DO WE MARKET SERGEY? TOUR 2006 
EAST INVASION 2006 
KNOW YOUR GYPSY RIGHTS 2006 
ILLUMINATION 2007 
FORCES OF VICTORY 2008 

to mention just a few, and simultaneously releasing its own tourly newspaper ‘GOGOL LIEBESACHTUNG’.

…

17. First concert in HUTZ’s native Kiev, received by Ukrainian press as “UKRAINIAN NIGHTMARE ACCOMPLISHES AMERICAN DREAM.” Thank you!

18. Gogol Bordello, along with Fanfare Ciocarlia, Taraf de Haidouks and other most progressive Gypsy bands of Europe, get exploited by Shantel for corrupted yuppie-catored Bukovina project, but cleverly breaks the ties…

…

21. HUTZ as Alex appears in the LIEV SCHREIBER’S adaptation of ‘EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED’. GB, of course, also appears in the film and is featured on the soundtrack.

…

24. GB Does series of mind-bending tv appearances on the likes of Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Henry Rollins, Jools Holland shows and embarks on the WARPED TOUR. Starting to see record labels and press use embarrassing title “Gypsy punk” as a term for the GB inspired movement… GB makes a stronger point as an ACTIVIST on ROMANY RIGHTS FRONT, playing benefit concerts for various ROMANY RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS – ROMANY JAG (Ukraine), VOICE OF ROMA (KOSOVO-USA).

…

29. GB PERFORMS IN KREMLIN (can you fucking believe that?!), MOSCOW.

…

31. HÜTZ launches a new electronico-primitivo (romantico-paranormale) project MITITIKA (UKRAINE-ROMANIA!), premieres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 2008.

…

Trans-Continental Hustle is their last album, released this spring. If I am to define in a few words the music on this CD, they would be fusion of Latino and gypsy music. There is however much more here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq9nCjYTC2U

(video source wantongibbon)

The album starts in a gypsy atmosphere in ‘Pala Tute’.

(video source honnybonny)

The second song, ‘My Companjera’ continues in the same musical mood, with a pseudo-revolutionary text, enhanced by the exaggerated Russian accent of the vocals.

‘Sun is On My Side’ – astonishing and beautiful ballad, proof that punk music can be romantic sometimes.

To the song of wheels

All demons die

Rays of joy they multiply

Harmony you will be my bride

But when the sun comes up

I’ll let out last breath

And slumber softly

Into the death

The following song ‘Rebellious Love’ has a clear melodic line and beautiful text speaking about the eternal race between love and destiny:

Love is running back to God

God is running after man

Man all run to the unknown

From unknown love comes again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OauoL-z3K5E

(video source wantongibboton)

The immigrant theme present in the first albums of the group comes back here in the striking ‘Immigraniada’ – a poignant cry thrown back by the East-European musicians for the reception they and their kins got from the West:

In corridors full of tear gas

Our destinies jammed every day

Like deleted scenes from Kafka

Flushed down the bureaucratic drain

…

It’s a book of our true stories

True stories that cannot be denied

….

We’re coming rougher every time

‘When Universes Collide’ brings us back into ballad mood, while the Latino influence dominates ‘Uma Menina’ which has Brazilian touch with Ukrainian spices.

I was less thrilled by the combination in ‘Raise The Knowledge’. It starts with Spanish or Portuguese vocals modeled as some kind of a electronic music effects, continues as a ballad, and even when it gets to the repeated principal key melodic line it does not seem to have really decided what the song is musically about. Maybe as the words say ‘Revolution is internal / Evolution isn’t over …’.

‘Last One Goes The Hope’ starts in a similar style, but here the spectacular musical line prevails and the beautiful lines remain imprinted in the memory:

‘Cause I’ve seen ship of fools

Sinking in the dunes

As I dragged my coffin on the rope

…

Last one, last one goes the hope

By that point the material becomes a little bit repetitive. ‘To Rise Above’ is not a bad song, but it already sounds like we heard it before on the same CD. ‘In The Meantime in Pernambuco’ is definitely the song that could have been left out without nobody being to sorry.

(video source entertainmentresearc)

But then come the two last songs:

‘Just because I come from the Roma Camp up the hill

They put me in the school for mentally ill’

This is how ‘Break the Spell’ starts and you can imagine that the theme of the song is protest against persecution. Music is among the best ‘Gogol Bordello’ even did and the words become proud and vindictive:

Average intelligence bureau sends Charlie Chaplin in exile

You always do the best what in your familia runs

And so we are the original globetrotters with no guns

We came from Rajistan as non-militant travelers

The time in Byzantium made us even more advanced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8-3NI7qEjE

(video source jahkinfo)

Best is kept for the final. The song that ends the albums and also gives it its name starts as an elegy that defies death and ends as a call to sweep away borders and prejudices:

When death comes

I won’t be there

In fact I will not be found anywhere

Not in Nevada

Not in Sahara

…

We gonna build new kind of globalizer

Without a pantzer foust or a shmiser

And may the sound of our contaminated beat

Sweep all the nazi purists on their feet


The Web site of the group is http://www.gogolbordello.com/.


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Film: ‘Stare de fapt’ (1996)

Posted on July 7, 2010 by admin

There is very little information available about this film which was recently broadcast by the Romanian satellite TV station TVRi. The director himself had a career marked by big intervals of silence. His first film was a documentary made in 1970 which made him quite popular, but his next film came only eight years later. His most well-known movie is the adaptation to screen of Marin Preda’s Morometii, one of the best novels about the transformation in the life of Romanian farmer’s class in the mid of the last century. After the revolution he returns to documentary again with a film about the protest movements in Piata Universitatii in 1990. This film also talks about the Romanian changes in 1989-1990 and was made in 1996. Then Gulea went silent at least as a director, until last year, and I did not yet see or hear anything about his last film Weekend with My Mother made in 2009.

The facts in Stare de fapt (which roughly translate into ‘state of facts’ or ‘reality’) are brutal. It is the first fiction film that I saw dealing directly with the events of December 1989 and their aftermath. The hero of the film is a young woman, a physician superbly acted by Oana Pellea. In the night between the two worlds, when the Romanian youth take the streets and the Communist regime tries to repress the revolt, she makes love with her colleague (a divorcee), then they drive in the city and collect a young boy with a bullet wound. They take care of him, take him to the hospital, the wound in the stomach is not critical, but in the next morning they find him dead with a bullet hole in his head. The secret police officer forces them to sign a false death certificate. A few days later she finds herself in the national TV station apparently under attack by terrorist. She recognizes the secret police officer, now having crossed the lines on the side of what should be the Revolution. She is marked as a danger to speak the truth, they try to silence her, she does not accept and decides to stand for the truth.

The first third of the film reconstituting the events of December 1989 is in my opinion the best. The low quality of the film combined with the  good camera work by Alexandru Solomon (himself later a well-known documentary director) plays well in this case giving to this whole part an air of authenticity. The TV studios were the center stage of the events which were labeled worldwide as the first revolution broadcast live on TV. In reality there was a lot of confusion, it was not clear who shoot on whom, many victims could have probably been avoided. It was a time when truth and lie, terrorist and revolutionary, patriotism and corruption, good and evil, which should have been departed at a crucial moment in the history of Romania mixed again in the painful start of a new period in the history of the country, maybe not as bad as the previous one, but much more confusing.

Following the destiny of the young woman for the rest of the film, director Stere Gulea makes a bitter and pessimistic commentary not only about the events of 1989 but also about what followed. The woman gets caught into a web of lies and repression that should not have existed after 1989. Her oppressor (also admirably acted by Razvan Vasilescu) becomes part of the new regime apparatus, but he eventually disappears as well, maybe his existence having become too inconvenient for the new bosses. The father of the killed boy whom the woman meets in the cemetery does not know and does not want to know how he died, he is rather angry that such a good boy as he was did such a bad thing getting killed in the streets. The full new society seems to ignore its heroes, seems to refuse to hear the truth.

The film is not perfect. Despite the dramatic events and tragic destiny put on screen the second part of the film has too many holes and inconsistencies in the story building. It’s more a collection of memorable moments that a story well told. The symbolism is poignant but too heavy. Yet it is impressing and the quality resides in the bluntness of the saying.

The last scene of the film is a childbirth – painful and bloody as any childbirth, but also a reason of hope. There is no smile on the face of the mother, just her eyes are open interrogative about the future.

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Documentary – ‘The Queen and I’ (2008)

Posted on July 4, 2010 by admin

Director Nahid Persson is born in Iran, from a family who was actively opposed to the regime of the Shah. As a young Communist she was among the million of youth who cheered in the streets when the revolution broke and the Shah and his wife, empress Farah flew the country. Although they lived in the same country, the two women were separated by huge social and political differences, and for Nahid as for many Iranians the fairy tale lives of the royals had become the symbols of corruption and repression. Yet, soon after the revolution the dreams of democracy and of a better life proved to be illusions and Nahid and her family found themselves again on the side of the opposition, and eventually had to flew Iran.

(video source seventheart)

Thirty years after the revolution the Sweden-settled Persson looks back in this documentary to the time of the revolution, and tries and succeeds to meet the former empress, now living as a refugee, but a different kind of refugee, in order to understand not only what she has become, but also her own feelings towards a woman who decades ago symbolized for her evil, and now is living at least from some aspects a similar life of longing for the lost country. The film includes the interviews with Farah, and these are more or less what you can expect. The former empress is living the life of a high-class, jet-style refugee. Her views did not seem to have changed too much in the decades since the fall from power of the Shah. Neither does the director want to push too hard questions on her. These are asked a few time off-screen, but they seem to have been shared much more with the viewers of the film than with the subject of the interviews. Maybe it’s a sign of respect, or maybe it is the strong and fascinating personality of Farah who wins the heart of the director, or maybe the shared fate of the two women is more important than any other story told in the film. Made and issued to screens around the time when many other documentary films about the fall of the Shah and the Islamic revolution were made 30 years after the events, ‘The Queen and I’ is one of the more interesting, and the human story occupies a better place in this film than the political one.

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Three Art Galleries in Tel Aviv

Posted on July 3, 2010 by admin

One of my preferred ways to spend the beginning of a weekend is to visit the art galleries in Tel Aviv. This is what Liliana and me did last Friday, when three interesting exhibitions brought us to the art galleries located in the block of the Ben Yehuda street between the Ben Gurion boulevard and the Gordon street.

the Gerstein Gallery

The Gerstein Gallery at 99, Ben Yehuda hosts first of all permanently the colorful painted metal sculptures of artist David Gerstein.

inside the Gerstein Gallery

The underground level space hosts temporary exhibitions and last Friday I had a last opportunity to see the works of Romanian-born painter Ioan Iacob. Actually the exhibition had closed two days before and I was concerned to miss it, but calling the gallery I had learned the paintings are still there to be seen by visitors, which proved to be true.

Blue Buckets

I confess to have been slightly disappointed by the works in this exhibition. It may be about the selection of the works, it may be about the stage of the development of the artist born in 1954 who lives in Dusseldorf, Germany since 1975. On a small table I could see some other works of him, like an illustrated book of Petre Ispirescu’s fairy tale ‘Tinerete fara Batranete’ which seemed to me more expressive, with a feeling of expressionist angoisse.

Mount Carmel

Many works of Iacob seem to pass a feeling of uneasiness. It is the case of the wild and sick looking dogs represented a few paintings, of the dead nature diptych on a black background (work I liked most in the Tel Aviv exhibition), or the landscapes of mount Carmel which Iacob painted repeatedly probably following a study journey to Israel a few years ago.

the Gordon Gallery

Two houses away we can find the Gordon Gallery. Founded in 1966, the gallery is one of the oldest in Tel Aviv, considered today as an important institution in the development of the Israeli contemporary art.

inside the Gordon Gallery

Among the house artists of the gallery Ukraine-born Joseph Zaritsky was maybe the most famous, and it’s no surprise that the current exhibition is dedicated to him.

'every inch must be a painting'

‘Every inch (or centimeter) must be a painting’ Zaritsky used to say, and the upper floor of the exhibition in the gallery illustrates this concept with details of his works photographed and enlarged to the dimensions of big paintings to show the richness and power of each piece of his paintings. I was only partially convinced.

from the rooftops of Tel Aviv

I liked more the beautiful selection of Zaritsky’s original watercolors exposed at the underground level, some of the best in the rich collection of works of the painters in the possession of the gallery. The many landscapes painted by Zaritsky from the roof of his house in Tel Aviv, representing a city that had not yet developed on the vertical, neither had expanded to swallow and domesticate all the neighboring nature are among the best works of his I know.

the Minotaure Gallery

Crossing the street to 100, Ben Yehuda street we can find one of my preferred galleries, and art places in Tel Aviv.

inside the Minotaure Gallery

The Minotaure Gallery is specialized in Jewish art and artists from the first half of the 20th century. It describes itself on the Web site as a sibling of the gallery with the same name in Paris. This is the place where I dream to see one day an exhibition of the Romanian avant-garde as the Web site talks in the ‘About Us’ page about displaying ‘East European artworks by painters from Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland’.

Adolf Hoffmeister exhibition at Minotaure

The current exhibition is dedicated to portraits and collages of the Czech-born painter Adolf Hoffmeister, who was once characterized by Louis Aragon as le plus parisien des Pragois et le plus pragois des Parisiens.

Luis Bunuel

Many of the drawings in the exhibition are ink portraits painted starting from the 20s until the 70s by a painter who frequented the most various art circles in Paris and Europe. Many of his portraits are remarkable, as they catch not only the character of the artist but also of his work. For example a portrait of Giacometti has stylization of the works of the sculptor, Vaclav Havel is caught in the key year 1968 with a confident stare in the future that will come decades later, Ray Bradbury’s portrait has the mechanic look of the future in his works, and Luis Bunuel looks like a character of his latest films about the bourgeoisie.

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall’s portrait bridges between the portraits and collages in the exhibition, with some of the animal icons of his works translated in the language of Hoffmeister.

Kafka and the media

The cycle of works that represent Kafka bring the Czech genius in the context of the realities of the second half of the 20th century, as a sign of contemporaneity and actuality of the author of ‘The Trial’ and of ‘The Castle’.

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The Maltese Week / 15 – The National Museum of Archeology in Valletta

Posted on July 1, 2010 by admin

If there is time for just one museum visit in Malta or Valletta I recommend it to be in the National Museum of Archeology.

(video source heartofmalta)

Located on the Republic Street, the 5th Avenue of Valletta which divides the city grid into two almost symmetrical halves, the museum is hosted by one of the beautiful palaces built by the architect of the co-cathedral Gerolama Cassan, the Auberge de Provence which was hosting the Provencal knights when coming into Malta. The palace was renovated by the end of the last century and the entrance hall and its beautiful painted ceiling is a great example of the architecture of the palaces of the first period after the foundation of the city.

auberge de Provence - entry hall

The collection of the museum covers several historical periods, however the megalithic finds section is by far the richest and the most extensive, with both a comprehensive and well documented timeline of the ancient history of the island, as well as a richness of objects and artifacts that document each period, plus a few exceptional top findings, among the most exquisite objects of such kind in the world.

Ghar Dalam animal heads

The first populations in the island were the agricultural and shepherds inhabitants who left the artifacts at Ghar Dalam from the period between 5200 and 4500 BC. They were related to the inhabitants of Sicily from the same Neolithic period, and actually objects found on site show that they were navigating or part of a cross-Mediterranean commerce that put them in contact with other civilizations of the same period.

red Skorba figurine

The immediate next period is well characterized by findings at Skorba. The figurines from the Red Skorba period (4400 – 4100 BC) are the first representations of human bodies found here, they are very similar to the Cyclades figurines again indicating a possible commerce and cultural interference, and were probably religious cult object.

fragment from the Hypogeum

One of the most famous Megalithic objectives to visit on the island of Malta is the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum with its monument and underground cemetery. It accommodates a limited number of visitors each day, and the waiting queue was a few weeks even in the out-of-season period when we visited Malta. Luckily the National Museum of Archeology has documentation and a few artifacts brought from that place that we could see and learn about it.

Hagar Quim Altar

The Hagar Quim Altar is another example of a valuable object, brought in this case from a place that we had already visited. The form and dimensions of the altar are very similar to ones in works by Brancusi, and it left me wondering if the Romanian had maybe seen photos of the monuments and made me see in a different perspective some of his stone works.

animal representation

The period of maximal development of the temples civilizations in Malta bring up some of the most representative objects of artistic expression of the stone and bronze ages. Representations of animals – mostly domestic as there were few wild beasts on the small surface of the island are typical for a culture that made of growing animals one of the principal sources of living.

heads

Back to human representation, some of the heads of the Temples period (4000 – 2500 BC) are superb.

standing statues

Many of the human representations were however having cult destination as are the standing statues from Tarxien and other places which presumably are fertility goddesses.

seated statues

A similar group of seated statues drew my attention as a proof that Botero did not really invent anything.

The Sleeping Lady

The absolute masterpiece of the Maltese Temple period art of The Sleeping Lady, discovered in the Hypogeum. It is interpreted representation of Death, the Eternal Sleep, but can also be viewed as a precursor of the Goya’s Majas and other reclined women portraits in the history of art.

The Venus of Malta

The Venus of Malta discovered at Hagar Quin is another representative piece of work, of an astonishing realism. Well, it may look different than Venus of Milo, or maybe beauty standards changed in the thousands of years in-between.

sarcophagi from Tarxien

The last great period of Megalithic art is the one represented by works from Tarxien, around 2500 BC. After that time the great period of the megalithic temples ends abruptly. The causes are not clear, maybe a natural catastrophe, maybe diseases, maybe over-exploitation of the natural resources. Ancient history of Malta ends here in any case, and so did our visit through the most interesting sections of this beautiful and recommended museum in Valletta.

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Documentary: ‘Carmen Meets Borat’ (2008)

Posted on July 1, 2010 by admin

It’s quite difficult to understand what Mercedes Stalenhoef and the Dutch film team that made this documentary intended to do or say. One year or so after Borat made the big splash and ran for the Oscars they went to the Romanian village of Glod (which means ‘mud’ in Romanian) apparently to make a film about the life of some anonymous girl whose problem in life is that she is 17 and not married (apparently the wedding age for girls in the village is 16 or so they say) and who dreams to run away from the place. The villagers remember well the team of ‘Borat’ and vaguely know that the film made it big (which in their terms means a few hundreds of thousands of dollars or Euros, the currency is unsure and does not really matter). Lawyers show up and a delegation is hathered to go to Hollywood and claim from Sacha Baron Cohen part of the money. Of course, they fail lamentably, they actually do not make it farther than London as nobody cared to get an US entry visa for them.

(video source DOXAFestival)

Several films could have been made based on this idea. One could have been an investigative film about the Hollywood team cheating and showing disrespect and especially underpaying the locals. However, they never get tough on the lawyers (besides having them speak an unspeakable dialog about Jews and Gipsies sharing fate) and they never give a chance to the team or studios who made ‘Borat’ to explain their case. They could have also presented the village in its true light, somehow compensate the damage made to the public image not only of Glod, but of the whole Eastern Europe space villages. They did not follow this track either, and the film is actually as disrespectful to the local culture and human nature of the inhabitants of the village as ‘Borat’ was. “Borat’ was however at least funny, it was satire, it played according to rules of humor and satire, here in the documentary style it just looks in many instances rude. It also could have been the human story of the young girl in a remote corner of unified Europe but far from Europe at the same time, trying to escape her condition. This is the closest thing Stalenhoef’s documentary comes to be, but this thread as well is deformed by flaw story telling with the girl exchanging pretendents and than marriying in some kind of a happy end (?)  in less than ten minutes of screen time. With all these accumulated failures ‘Carmen Meets Borat’ (a.k.a. The Village that did not laugh about Borat) looks like one more tentative to squeeze a few drops from the lucrative ‘Borat’ venue. But ‘Borat’ was at least funny – did I already say it?

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Film – ’12’ (Nikita Mikhalkov, 2007)

Posted on June 29, 2010 by admin

12 is a remake of the classical 12 Angry Men – Sidney Lumet’s ultimate jury drama. What makes Nikita Mikhalkov, a director who never lacked original ideas or Russian scripts take the court drama located in the US of the 5os just out of the McCarthy period era and transplant it with all its 12 characters, with very similar premises and very predictable (at least up to some point) end into the reality of today’s Russia?

source www.imdb.com

I believe that the intent is explicit and declarative. Russia undergoes now a similar process of transition as the USA in the 50s, and the end is still uncertain. The laws may be already written in the books of laws, the jury system is called in theory to allow for fair trials in which the accused is presumed innocent until l proven guilty, but laws are implemented by humans and humans have limitations and prejudices and they are in a hurry to give a verdict and get back to their lives. As in Lumet’s film, it is more the human beings than the system that ensure that justice is eventually done. The responsibility of every man to stand up and express his doubts despite the overwhelming opinion of the other, the right of the minority in a democratic system to have its say despite the apparent rightfulness of the majority are key elements in the Russian film as well as in the original American one,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBq_Y0kgkMY

(video source ErlandJosephson)

And yet at the same time Mikhalkov’s film is very Russian. The mix of characters represents various sectors of today’s Russian society and the acting is without exception splendid. National tensions and antisemitism are still part of the landscape, and so are the cultural and even the language sequels of the Communist period. The jurors, all men (why?) address each other inertially with the denomination ‘comrades’. Each has the opportunity to tell his story, and the stories describe the background of their personalities, and the motivation of their decision to eventually absolve the innocent. it is however the surprise ending that adds a new dimension to the film. The Chechen youngster wrongly accused of killing his Russian stepfather is acquitted. However, his acquittal may mean just a suspension of a death penalty in the hands of the mafia who are the real responsible of the murder. It takes a rather melodramatic ending to solve this problem, and this interesting addition to the original American story is both unconvincing as story flow  but quite eyes-opening. Although the court drama is for almost the whole duration of the film confined inside the walls of the same room it tells a lot about the Russian realities at large.

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Film – ‘District 9’ (2009)

Posted on June 28, 2010 by admin

If there ever will be an Oscar for the best science-fiction idea to be turned into a political film ‘District 9’ is a certain candidate. It takes the theme of the third degree encounter, but reverses the relation between the human and the alien races into a very unexpected manner. The aliens arrive indeed in their gigantic ships, but their place of levitation is neither a coned mountain not the lawn of the White House, but the slums of Johannesburg. Neither do the Aliens look like ethereal blue-men, nor like naughty gremlins, but they are rather a frightened and disoriented crowd which looks in shape as disgusting prawns, who do not seem to enjoy often showers either. Placing them in the slums that South Africa is very familiar with looks like the right thing to do, and nobody is surprised when racial riots break up between the ‘superior’ humans and the new ‘inferior’ race visitors. True, the ‘prawns’ as they are called do have the military technology you would guess, but it’s only some kind of teenager nerd of theirs that holds the secret of saving the oppressed race.

source www.imdb.com

Released in the same year as Avatar, District 9 carries a similar message of intergalactic tolerance pleading for the need for dialog between cultures, for mutual respect despite differences in language and behavior. It probably cost only a few percents of the hundreds of millions Cameron could invest in his blockbuster. However, after putting aside the outstanding visuals of Avatar, District 9 is a much better film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjihaK7HfGs

(video source hollywoodstreams)

Talking about visuals, I liked the atmosphere that first time director Neill Blomkamp  created for the slums. The pseudo-documentary style fits well the story logic, and the use of TV news allows for action to be re-created with an air of authenticity, enhanced by the propagandist media speak coming from the comments. Actor Sharlto Copley is perfect in the role of the inept bureaucrat Van De Merwe put in charge with moving the aliens to a new relocation camp, and plays well the coming back towards humanity of his spirit in parallel with the metamorphosis to alien his body is going through. Overall this film is a good surprise in the genre coming from an unexpected cinematographic territory.

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The Maltese Week / 14 – The National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta

Posted on June 26, 2010 by admin

I love to visit art museums. Big ones and small ones. Famous and anonymous. In the big metropolis of the world or in remote places. Visiting an art museum (at least 0ne) is an almost mandatory part of a trip, of my exploration of a new place. When I am in a lesser known museum I look for the local artists, I try to learn as much as I can about the history of the institution, and about the role of art in the life of the place.

The National Museum of Fine Arts

The National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta is located not far from the gate of the city, in a beautiful baroque palace located on South Street. It is one of the oldest mansions of the city, built in 1571. During the years of the British rule it hosted the Admiralty House and Winston Churchill is said to have been its guest.  It became home of the most important art institution in Malta in 1974.

(video by PhoeniciaHotel)

The Museum of Valletta was founded in 1903, and its fine arts section became the National Museum of Fine Arts and moved in the location on South Street in 1974. It was the dream and deed Vincenzo Bonello who built the collection and led the fine arts section for much of the century. Unfortunately he did not live to see it in the beautiful home today. A short film about the man and the museum he created is available on YouTube.

inside the museum

The collection of the museum is strong in works that are inspired by Caravaggio, although no work of the master who spent two years in Malta (1607 to 1609) can be found here. We can however see works of Guido Reni or Mattia Preti –  the latest with an impressive gathering of Bible inspired art which can be seen at http://www.maltaart.com/pretismall/html/list_of_works.html

Maltese Prie-Dieu

Before getting to the paintings that seemed to be more interesting although out of the beaten path here is a beautiful piece of religious furniture from the 17th century, called a ‘prie-Dieu’ – you can imagine the knight or the noble man or lady kneeling in prayer and keeping his Bible (and maybe other artifacts) in its drawers.

the crystal sword

Two beautiful pieces of arms that could never be used in war are exposed at the first floor of the museum, near the superb spiral staircase. These are a sword and a dagger made of crystal, with exquisite ornaments that were a present by king Philip the 5th of Spain to the Knights of St. John, in sign of the special relation of friendship and protection between the kingdom of Spain and the island of the knights.

Le Valentin - Judith and Holofornes

One of the most caravaggian works in the museum belongs to Valentin de Boulogne (Le Valentin) is ‘Judith and Holofornes’ which matches the painting of Caravaggio which I had seen in Rome a few days earlier at the retrospective at Quirinale.

Jusepe de Ribera - St. Francis of Paola

Jusepe de Ribera also known as Lo Spagnoletto is also considered a disciple of Caravaggio. I like his style sometimes called ‘Tenebrist’ and works who seem to me to be a balancing act between the darkness of the Inquisition-haunted Spain he came from and the ideals of Renaissance of the Italy he lived and created much of his life. The portrait of St. Francis of Paola that can be found in the museum in Valletta is fascinating.

Venetian School - Flowers in a Vase

I am no big fan of floral arrangements paintings, but this painting from a 18th century Venetian school master drew my attention.

Louis Ducros - View of the Great Harbor

Local landscapes take a deserved place in the collection. Above is a painting of the Great Harbour of Valletta as painted by the Swiss Louis Ducros at the beginning of the 20th century.

Eugenio Maccagnani - Leah

Out of the more recent collection of art here is a piece by Italian sculptor Eugenio Maccagnani from the beginning of the 20th century.

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Revazandu-l pe Pintilie / 1 – ‘Reconstituirea’

Posted on June 25, 2010 by admin

Exista un risc in a revedea dupa 40 de ani un film care ti-a ramas in memorie ca o capodopera. Pentru mine si multi dintre cei din generatia mea ‘Reconstituirea’ a fost nu numai cel mai bun film romanesc al tuturor timpurilor, dar si un protest cinematografic unic al anilor firavului dezghet politic din Romania sfarsitului anilor 60 si un film de cult. Am fost printre putinii si inspiratii spectatori care au apucat sa vada filmul in cele cateva saptamani ale proiectarii sale la cinematograful ‘Luceafarul’ din Bucuresti, inainte ca cenzura sa-l confiste si sa-l ingroape in sertare vreme de doua decenii. Il percepusem atunci ca pe un film al generatiei mele, iar eroii sai abia iesiti din adolescenta spre un viitor confuz capatasera in timp dimensiuni de mit si destine paralele cu cele ale eroilor lui Easy Rider, film pe care aveam sa-l vad mult mai tarziu, dupa ce iesisem la libertate, dar despre care ne povestea Cornel Chiriac la microfonul Europei Libere. Dupa trecerea deceniilor si vizionarea ambelor filme aveam sa realizez ca paralela pe care o intuiam nu era gresita. Iesite pe ecrane in acelasi an, 1969, Reconstituirea si Easy Rider au avut destine complet diferite. Ele au fost insa fiecare reprezentative pentru tinerii acelor generatii si pentru destinele lor. Eroii jucati de Hopper si Peter Fonda ar fi putut fi eroii jucati de Gaitan si Mihaita daca s-ar fi nascut intr-o alta constelatie, in Romania.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP0V6hQIWyU

(video source McGuywer)

Sansa face ca adolescentul care eram atunci sa fi citit nuvela care se afla la originea Reconstituirii pe pagina a opta a revistei ‘Luceafarul’ cu vreo doi ani inainte de aparitia filmului.  Un foarte interesant interviu al scenaristului Horia Patrascu http://informatia.dntcj.ro/1999Sep14/mate08.html aduce informatii despre geneza filmului, despre receptarea sa de catre spectatori si autoritati si despre diferitii regizori care nu s-au incumentat sa faca acest film pana cand el a ajuns in mainile lui Lucian Pintile.  Sunt confirmate multe dintre cele pe care atunci poate doar le ghiceam sau intuiam. Dupa parerea mea filmul lui Pintilie capata la revizionare multe alte noi dimensiuni, are o prospetime si o profunzime care il fac sa stea la loc de cinste alaturi de creatiile unui Wajda, Polanski, Szabo sau Forman din aceeasi perioada. Cu un singur film, vai, foarte putin cunoscut in lume, Pintilie punea cinematografia romana a anilor 60 cel putin calitativ pe acelasi plan cu scoli intregi ale cinematografiei est-europeene.

(video source kalberto16)

Nu am gasit in cele citite de mine pana acum nicio referire la cealalta Reconstituire – infamul film al lui Virgil Calotescu, facut la comanda Securitatii in 1960 pentru a reconstitui jaful bancii nationale, caruia Alexandru Solomon i-a dedicat Marele Jaf Comunist. Si totusi mi se pare imposibila coincidenta, nu numai in nume ci si in tema, caci filmul lui Pintilie contine acelasi gen de film in film, aceeasi tema a reconstituirii fortate a unor fapte incriminate de sistem, a deformarii realitatii in scopul propagandei. Aceasta dimensiune a creatiei in conditiile lipsei de libertate si critica implicita dar acerba a irealismului socialist, a artei pusa in slujba minciunii este unul dintre noile aspecte care devin vizibile la revedere. Doar ca in timp ce filmul lui Calotescu era o jalnica producta propagandistica facuta la comanda, Pintilie are curajul sa spuna in filmul sau adevarul. Filmul lui Pintilie ‘de fictiune’ este filmul adevarat, cel al lui Calotescu este facatura ‘educativa’ filmata in teama cu pistolul la tampla. Satira groasa a sistemului gaunos lipsit de adevar si a actorilor sai traindu-si dramele reale sau meschine in spatele miticismului si al vorbelor fara fond pare sa capete mai multa profunzime si in perpectiva filmului mai tarziu al lui Pintilie De ce trag clopotele, Mitica. Minunata combinatie a trei generatii de actori de la dureros de tinerii pe atunci Gaitan, Mihaita si Ileana Popovici, cu George Constantin intr-un rol care pare sa includa in el esenta regimului comunist si a sujbasilor sai si cu Emil Botta intr-unul din cele mai tragice roluri ale carierei sale si ale cinematografiei romane continua sa produca acelasi efect spectatorilor ca si in ziua inexistentei premiere a filmului. Atentia la detaliu, stilul firesc si uman in care Pintilie isi dirijeaza actorii si in care aduce pe ecran dialogurile si situatiile imaginate de scenarist fac din acest film un document unic si o descriere sincera si adevarata a epocii. In cele 100 de minute ale sale Reconstituirea lui Pintilie contine premizele a tot ceea ce generatiile de cineasti nascuti multi dintre ei dupa realizarea acestui film vor reincepe sa construiasca trei decenii mai tarziu, atunci cand cinematografia romana va iesi la lumina.

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