Top 8 Picks from the 1st Athens Biennial: Destroy Athens

These are my picks from the 1st Athens Biennial 2007: DESTROY ATHENS

1. Στέφανος Τσιβόπουλος, Untitled (Remake), 2007

2. Στέλιος Φαϊτάκης, Ο Σωκράτης πίνει το κώνιο, 2007

3. Γιάννης Αδαμάκος, Handle with Care, 2003

4. Folkert de Jong, Sacht, der Mensch: The Shooting Lesson, 2007

5. Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2007

6. Γιάννης Σαββίδης, Athenscope, 2007

7. Adbusters

8. Temporary Services & Angelo, Angelo's Cell, 2007

Snapshots from Athens (2): 1st Athens Biennial 2007

Review: Avant que j'oublie (Before I Forget)

The other film I watched at the 13th Athens International Film Festival was Jacques Nolot's Avant que j'oublie - a very personal, subtle, witty and moving film that was screened at the last Cannes Film Festival (Director's Fortnight).

Avant que j'oublie is a sequence of semi-autobiographical vignettes and snapshots of a middle-aged HIV-positive next-door-guy's daily life which is stuck between nostalgia and loneliness. Pierre Pruez, the film's "subject", spends ages sitting at his lounge, chain-smoking, taking notes, engaging in casual sex with escorts, talking to old friends about the old days.

All this doesn't make the film sound really promising, original, interesting or enjoyable. Yet it somehow is all of these things. Nolot manages to strike a really delicate balance between the bitter and the sweet, the serious and the witty. The direction and editing are (probably deliberately) elementary, almost absent. The film includes a small number of cast, most of whom appear only for a few minutes. Yet, somehow, it all comes together and you find yourself emotionally attached to the characters and issues presented. The script is genuinely witty without the film being, in any way, a comedy. Typically French then.

Memorable scene: The finale at the entrance of the drag bar is very powerful and Mahler's 3rd Symphony is a perfect choice. Kind of a quiet, glorious requiem.



Avant que j'oublie is released in France on Wednesday, 17 October 2007.

Snapshots from Athens (1): 13th Athens International Film Festival

The 13th Athens International Film Festival took place a few days ago.

It was great to be back after 7 years of painful absence; while I keenly attended the festival in its first five years (1995-1999), it was difficult to keep up with it since I moved to the UK.

It's also good to see that the festival has managed to keep many of its good elements (experimental edge, great vibe, good selection of films) while developing, growing and becoming more established (brand new site, more volunteers and awards etc). Seeing so many people of my age there (and actually many more who're younger than me) fills me with optimism (and, for some reason, pride) about Athens' cultural life and Cinema's continuing success.

Well done guys and girls - keep up the good work.

Review: Paranoid Park

A couple of weeks ago I watched a special screening of Gus Van Sant's new film, Paranoid Park, at the 13th Athens International Film Festival - one of my favourite events of the year (more on that later).

Gus Van Sant is very good at dissecting the psyche of American youth. In both Elephant and Paranoid Park (two of his more recent, experimental and bold films) Van Sant adopts a very specific technique, which we could call minimalistic naturalism. The main feature of Elephant distinguishing it from Paranoid Park was the lack of a single point of view, or rather the existence of multiple POVs - each one of equal weight to the others. The latter film is based on the main character's (retrospective) POV.

I felt that Paranoid Park was very weak and nowhere near the disturbing, shocking and moving subtlety, novelty and (non-)statement of Elephant [which by the way is one of my favourite films of the last decade]. Van Sant's directing style becomes pompous, repetitive and ultimately boring. While he does manage to build a thought-provoking profile of the skater community, the film feels extremely light-weight and void of meaning. The issue of guilt and responsibility, which is the main theme according to my personal interpretation, has been dealt with much more effectively by artists and film creators in the past. Paranoid Park ultimately falls victim to its own formal structure and does not leave any sort of memorable impact or contribution.

Memorable Scene: In the shower.

Paranoid Park will be released on 7 March 2008.

Snapshots from Aegina

This photo is from ΕΚΠΑΖ (the Hellenic Wildlife Hospital) which I visited while in Aegina. This is a brilliant initiative that has saved literally thousands of animals from certain death or torture. Please visit their website where you can find more info about the centre's activities and achievements as well as ways in which you can help including donations via PayPal, adopting an animal or volunteering - it's hard work but it's definitely worth it and the lady at the Aegina HQ is very friendly, a rare human being who is giving a daily battle and has devoted her life to the protection of wildlife.

Naomi Klein strikes again! The Shock Doctrine

please watch this

Review: Becoming Jane

The first of three films I watched while in Athens was Julian Jarrold's Becoming Jane...

- a watchable but terribly unoriginal costume comedy-drama that emits an amazingly strong sense of considerably inferior deja vu of recent Jane Austen adaptations such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion.

- Leading roles are obscenely miscast: Anne Hathaway tries her best but never takes off while James McAvoy, who appears on every other film being released, would never pass for a heartthrob, let alone a manly and mature 19th century rebel. It's obvious that rising Hollywood stars such as them are not anywhere near the maturity required for roles that take us back to a different era.

+/- Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and the late (and great) Ian Richardson give splendidly enjoyable (but not awfully original) performances.

+ Costumes, set design, music and cinematography are very well designed and executed although do not in any way break the mould of the genre.

+/- Witty exchanges and a good finale do not manage to make up for quite a dull middle part and bad editing.

- Lack of chemistry, extremely familiar narrative structure (albeit with a satisfyingly non-obvious ending) and 1D characters that never come to life.

Overall, this is a fairly lightweight attempt to recreate Jane Austen's life which merely scratches the surface copycatting some of the heroine's own work in terms of dialogue, plot and overall feel. There is no real attempt to dissect the author's inner thoughts and feelings or the backbone of her talent, or to make a contribution to the genre. Still, fairly watchable but probably on DVD or P2P.

Snapshots from Syros

so recent and yet so old

Review: The Bourne Ultimatum

I watched The Bourne Ultimatum on its first day of release (August 18th), yet for some reason I didn't get the chance to write about it. With an obscene bloglag of 40+ days, here is a short review for record's sake.

Awesome. Awe-some. Aw-es-om-e.

A great ending to a brilliant trilogy that took the spy genre forward and introduced it to the 21st century. Intelligent plot, action scenes that push cinema to its limits and amazing production values.

+ Plot / Screenplay. It all ties together: past, present and future; the journey of life and the search for our identity; the ordinary bloke who becomes a cold-blooded (anti)hero. After watching the Ultimatum, you'll want to go back to Identity and Supremacy once again.

+ Direction / Editing. Paul Greengrass chooses the best and makes the most of the material so far (the film - NOT the books); the result is a gripping, breathtaking ride with many, many shocking scenes.

+ Great performances by a solid cast: Damon (obviously), Allen (one of my favourite actresses), Strathairn (what a legend), Stiles (proud to have predicted her rise back in 2001 when I saw her performance in The Business of Strangers at the London Film Festival).

And one last thing. It's been more than a month since I watched the film but I can still recall walking out of the cinema and feeling momentarily that the film had subtly made me cynical in an abstract but also quite specific way. It was as if the system's / characters' ruthless, cold and individualistic calculations rung true. The Bourne trilogy [in its cinematic version - not, it has to be said, Ludlum's books which I found extremely dull] is a profoundly radical work of art - it's a social commentary about the degeneration of state organisations meant to protect the individual, which end up oppressing our memory and identity; it's about an enthusiastic and naive young man's good intentions which turn into carnage. Maybe it's me growing up/old but that sense of cynicism, mistrust or Orwellian pessimism that the film emits struck a chord. And that's something you wouldn't expect from a mere action film.

Memorable scene: on the rooftops of Tangiers.

Outcome: a harsh 4 for now - not far from a 5 and four Merit awards (Film Editing, Location Management, Sound Recording, Sounds Effect Editing - see previous post). Don't miss.