Shimazu Yasujiro (1897–1945, not to be mistaken for Shimizu Hiroshi) belongs to the directors who in the 1920s and 30s worked for the Shochiku company (but also for TOHO) and developed a realistic style often characterized by socially critical commitment, which became known as !Japanese classicism" of the pre-war period. The directors of the Nikkatsu company (to whom Mizoguchi belonged) pursued a different style that adhered more to theater. In the case of Shochiku, the influence of U.S. cinema was already dominant, along with the American editing technique introduced by cameraman Kotani, who had previously worked in Hollywood. Shimazu, who remained in Tokyo after the earthquake in 1923 and worked in Shochiku's Kamata Studio, initially shot melodramas, but then turned to modern dramas set in everyday life, discovering new actors and actresses and turning them into stars them stars. Many Japanese directors of the next generations were inspired by the work of Shimazu, including Gosho Heinosuke and Kinoshita Keisuke, who worked as assistant directors for Shimazu. The Tokyo FilmEx Festival stated in its catalog: "Shimazu Yasujiro’s influence on Japanese cinema cannot be overestimated." In November 2009, Tokyo FilmEx contributed to the rediscovery of Shimazu with its retrospective “Nippon Modern: 1930s”.
Magical History Tour – Light in Cinema
Light is nothing less than the foundation of cinema. Lighting and the distribution of light in filmmaking possesses far more than just a technical aspect. Light is a basic theme in cinema in regard to dramaturgy, narration and staging. Bright lights and minimal lighting, the casting of shadows, the interplay between lightness and darkness tell stories without words.
Carl Theodor Dreyer Retrospective
Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968) wrote film history with a comparatively small body of work, to which following generations of directors refer to until today. The Danish director of Swedish descent, whose birth name was "Karl Nilsson", remained an outsider in the film business throughout his life, despite the worldwide recognition he received since his great artistic success, LA PASSION DE JEANNE D'ARC (1928), at the latest. His films are characterized by simplicity and stylistic purity lacking any kind of embellishment. Reduced to what is essential, his artistic means aim at "recording not only exterior life but interior life as well" (Carl Th. Dreyer), at visualizing man's innermost and unutterable traits. Dreyer's dispensing with showiness and his uncompromising manner when realizing his intentions led to many film projects never going beyond the project stage. Dreyer realized a total of 14 films, with the intervals between them increasing. His five sound films were produced in a period of 34 years.
Forum Expanded
Forum Expanded enters the stage in its fifth year with a new focus on the relation of performance and film. With more than 40 film, installation and performance projects from 20 countries, the program offers new perspectives not only in artistic but also geopolitical terms.
40th Forum
The Forum of the Berlinale, now in its 40th year, brings together films that sensitively respond to the mood of the times and in a variety of ways artistically deal with existential issues. Rarely in feature and documentary films has one encountered so many people in irresolvable conflicts, faced with vitally important decisions and confronted with abysses, as in the cinematic harvest of the past months.
Brillante Mendoza as our Guest
Brillante Mendoza, who was born in 1960, is one of the most interesting and internationally most successful protagonists of the extremely lively contemporary cinema scene in the Philippines. To a large extent, Mendoza's films are made outside of the commercial film industry and feel obliged to an unvarnished and realistic portrayal of present-day Philippine society. He is always interested in a clearly defined space from which he provides dense descriptions of everyday life – spaces that not only form the background of his stories but are themselves autonomous protagonists, be it the porn cinema in SERBIS, the cramped apartments and alleyways of Manila's slums in TIRADOR or the massage salon in MASAHISTA. The spatial limitation is compounded by a temporal one. Most of his films take place on a single day, penetrating the lives of their protagonists with great precision. Mendoza is just as attentive toward the most banal daily actions as he his toward the dramatic and tragic situations that emerge quite unspectacularly in everyday life. Mendoza's cinema is highly physical and characterized by a proximity and permeability regarding all facets of life.
Classics Not Only For Children
This program series focuses on the documentary view of children's surroundings. The central event is the presentation of STADT LAND FLUSS (D 2009, Jan. 10) – schoolchildren from four schools in Berlin watched and made short documentaries in six one-week seminars (led by: Anna Faroqhi, Stefanie Schlüter, Haim Peretz, Darja Preuß). They came upon situations and small stories in their surroundings that were edited to a city film in a final workshop by pupils of the Evangelische Schule (Berlin-Mitte). The result is a portrait of Berlin from the perspective of children. A project supported by funds of the Berliner Projektfond Kulturelle Bildung.
Vaginal Davis presents Rising Stars, Falling Stars
artforum declared it the favorite event of 2009: the silent movie series "Rising Stars, Falling Stars" presented by Vaginal Davis! In 2010 it continues with ERDGEIST (Earth Spirit, Leopold Jessner, D 1923), a film adaptation of Wedekind's "Lulu" subject, six years before Pabst's Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box). Béla Balázs on the content: "The play? There is no play. The only content of the film is that Asta Nielsen flirts with six men and seduces them. The content of the film is the erotic aura of this woman who presents us with the great, complete lexicon of gestures of sensual love." Silent film expert Ms. Davis presents the film with Eunice Martins on the piano and invites the audience to a reception afterwards. (Jan. 23)
L'ENFER D'HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot began shooting L'enfer, his until then most ambitious film. The screen tests with then 24-year-old Romy Schneider are already breathtaking – staged by Clouzot as a projection surface for the delusions of her pathologically jealous husband. But not only the subject matter is nightmarish, the entire project was ill-fated and came to an end after Clouzot suffered a heart attack. What remained were 185 film reels with 15 hours of material that disappeared in various archives. Now, film historians Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea retrieved this material and edited it to a combination of contemporary eyewitness report, a making-of and restaged scenes resulting in the film L'ENFER D'HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT (F 2009).
Bauhaus & Film
The film program "Bauhaus & Film: Richter, Kranz, Brocksieper" is presented within the frame of the seminar "Theater, Film and Photography at the Bauhaus", being held this semester at the Europe University in Frankfurt/Oder. As a course dedicated to the Bauhaus Year, the seminar examines the relations between experiments in technical art work and scenography, forming an important part of the work at the Bauhaus, even if it was only conditionally integrated in the teachings of the Bauhaus.