You can call him Max

It's been quite a while since I've seen these amazing illustrations on the net but I couldn't figure out who they were by...until yesterday! So it turns out that they are by Maxim Dalton, a Buenos-Aires-based illustrator. Dalton is very prolific and is part of many projects such as the illustration of the children book "The Lonely Phone Booth" or an art show tribute to Wes Anderson's world at the Spoke Art gallery in San Francisco.

The press is also being more and more interested by his work; he was indeed featured recently in magazines such as QG, La Naciòn or The Sunday Times.

What I really like in his work is the vintage and naive atmosphere coming out of it.

Some of his artwork is for sale on his website. Unfortunatly his "Guitar lessons" and "Ten Great Years" are sold out (and I understand why!!!!) but you can find other sweet stuff.

Check him out!

AC.

in between fiction & doc.

First film I saw out of the EFM screenings. I had read Ronit Elkabetz's name in the Program - she was also in LES MAINS LIBRES at the EFM but I had already seen this film - and wanted to see this feature, without knowing what it was about. It was shown in the Panorama section. The director, Michal Aviad (a woman) was there, and the room was full. She didn't say much before the screening, only "I hope you'll be touched". And I was. It's the story of Lily and Nira, two women who have been raped by the same man, someone called "The Polite Rapist" by the Israeli police - it's not just the two of them: 16 (I think) women in total were raped by this individual. Twenty years later, the two women meet again due to professional reasons: Nira is a film editor working on a piece about Lily and her fight for Palestinians. But if Nira really wants to share memories and suffer, Lily doesn't seem to agree with this and would rather forget the past...

The film is actually based on some real facts and rapes that happened in Tel Aviv in 1978. The director chose to include televisual and also recorded materials, such as testimonies of the real women who were raped, to the film. That's why I say it is in between fiction and documentary. Michal Aviad actually made documentaries before, and that's her first fiction. This mix gives a lot of power, a lot of courage, a lot of feelings to the drama. The two actresses are incredible, and even though it is a tough subject, it never turns into a melodramatic treatment of the story or the characters. It remains humble and touching the whole time.

Dear Ronit Elkabetz: a simple word to say how beautiful, how human, how touching, how impressive this actress is. I first saw her in OR MY TREASURE and then in 7 DAYS - a drama about a family in grief, astonishing - and kept following her work ever since. If you're ever interested, here is a (short) list of her films - en vrac -:

Late marriage

The band's visit

To take a wife

7 days

The girl on the train

Jaffa

Or (my treasure)

In a word: Thank you for your talent.

MJ.

German films were there.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see them all, and I must say that I believe PINA by Wim Wenders - about the deceased incredible and unique choreographer Pina Bausch - was probably the most touching one - the theme, and also the use of 3D. But never mind, I'll write here about the ones I did see and ENJOY!

When we first arrived in Berlin and went to the EFM building, near Potsdamer Platz, I noticed a poster, really light, full of movement and joy. Two people, a guy and a girl, where holding each other and laughing. I immediately knew I wanted to see this one, for no particular reason - I didn't know the story and didn't want to. The film is Wer wenn nicht wir (If not us, who). It's Andres Veiel's first feature - he did some other works before, but no long feature of fiction. And let me tell you, it's a success, a discovery, a shock, a very very very good film. The story is set in West Germany in the early 1960s. Bernward Vesper (August Diehl) studies in Tübingen and wants to be a writer. At the same time, he wants to publish and defend the work of his poet father, who was celebrated by the Nazis as a proponent of their ‘Blood and Soil’ ideology. One day Bernward meets Gudrun Ensslin (Lena Lauzemis). An extreme and passionate relationship starts, in between political fights, personal ones and an adoration for literature. They move to Berlin and decide to join the Extraparliamentary Op position movement. They fight for liberation movements, student protests and the Black Panther. But when another man, Andreas Baader (Alexander Fehling), appears in Gudrun's life, it changes everything...

The actors are profound, sound right every second, the rhythm is exciting and builds slowly but with solid roots the process of fall of the heroes. I've always been fond of historical drama, especially the ones about these times - Italian film The Best Of Youth (2003) is probably one of my favorite films - and this one is great. It's not all about politics, it is about human beings who met each other, grew together, destroyed themselves or each other. Un bonheur absolu.

Another first feature, that was not as brilliant and perfect, but that somehow caught my attention too. I'm guessing the director is young - Andres Veiel isn't a teenager anymore - and made mistakes of youth with this film. SWANS (the film), directed by Hugo Vieira Da Silva, was presented at the Forum in Berlin. It's a pretty weird film in between Portugal and Germany, Berlin to be more specific. A father and his son living in Portugal arrive in Berlin to see the cancer-dying mother of the boy, a woman he doesn't know. She is in the hospital, in a coma. They stay at her apartment, where she lives with a friend of hers, an Asian stewardess. The boy remains distant at first, go skateboarding, whereas the father seems really affected by the situation. But slowly, the boy builds a relationship with his sick mother, and learns to know her despite the situation...

It is a dark, weird, slow moving feature with a very specific mood, that leaves you uncomfortable and disturbed. But the characters are interesting and the rhythm is clever and appreciable. However, for no reason, the director puts some sexual contents - of course unusual - at the end : the boy masturbates, the Asian friend is actually a man as the audience can notice while he is taking a bath, the boy touches the entire body of his mother to discover her. It is useless and pretty silly to have given this dimension to the film, but it's a first feature mistake. Still, it's an original and well made film, and I'm looking forward to his next one.

MJ

Love story for e-lovers & Apple/MacBook fans.

I've seen a lot of films in five days in Berlin, but I must say that I haven't been convinced or touched by many of them. Here is the first article about one of the films I really enjoyed. My "likes" are very diverse - a docu/fiction drama, a crazy comedy, a disturbed and weird first feature - and this one, a love story in modern Buenos Aires, in modern times.

The film is called MEDIANERAS and was actually at first a short film of 27 minutes, released in 2005. The director, Argentinian Gustavo Taretto, decided to do a feature out of it. And here it is, six years later, at the 61st Berlinale - I wish I could do the same.

It's about a city, Buenos Aires, a time, the one of high-tech means of communication, and two people, Martin (Javier Drolas) and Mariana (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), who are both looking for love but don't really know how to get out of their tiny apartments and how to leave their computers. What they don't know either is that they're actually neighbors, and cross each other's way every day without knowing it when they are... made for each other.

The film starts with a voice-over explaining how messy and crowded the city of Buenos Aires. A succession of static shots of buildings, skyscrapers, illustrates the comments. Aesthetically, it is brilliant, and I almost believed I was in front of paintings. The architecture of the city is all over, beautiful and unsuitable, but so likable. However for Martin (it's his voice-over), the fact that the city isn't ventilated and properly put together is the explanation of the depression and of the agoraphobia of people - him included. Mariana, who wanted to become an architect and studied for it, ends up doing the designing shops windows. After a complicated relationship, she wants to find true love but doesn't know where to look for it.

In the end, they find each other - and the last minutes is a YouTube videoclip of the couple singing "Ain't no mountain high enough", which is simply adorable. This love story is a breath of fresh air in this modern world, and even though it is about the fact that people today have difficulties to meet, talk, connect to one another, you stay online, I stayed online, absorbed and touched by some details - the whole "Where is Waldo" part is funny and smart in this crowded set -. It was one of the best discoveries of the festival.

MJ.

BERLINALE - 61st - 10 to 20, February 2011

Reviews, comments, report, photos coming up next. soon! MJ

Southern California - Part 3 - Salvation Mountain

The last stop in our roadtrip before coming back to the coast was the Salvation Moutain, located in the California desert, on the Salton Sea lake.

You might have heard of this place created 24 years ago through the book/movie Into The Wild. Indeed, this surreal place, which is litterally a testament to God, Jesus and the Bible, is part Christopher McCandless' adventure in the early 1990s.

This place in the middle of nowhere is an art installation and the home of its creator, Leonard Knight. I was hoping to meet Leonard who usually welcomes his numerous visitors - I was indeed surprised to see so many people coming to visit the site in the short time we were there - but he was actually sleeping on a couch next to the truck where he lives... Too bad because I feel you can learn a lot from someone who lives happily in the desert with "no electricity, gas, running water, phone, heating, air conditioning, or any of the other things that so many of us take for granted", as a friend of his says on the official website.

Apart the fact that the installation is incredible, what amazed me is that Knight, who is in his early 80s (!) is still keeping on creating and enriching the moutain by adding new spaces. He is actually building a "museum" inside the moutain and intends to build a version of Noah's ark in front the mountain.

For the ones interested, you can help Leonard in his work; if he doesn't accept money, he does accept donations of paint and actual labor...

For more information, I really advise you to visit the official Salvation Mountain website, which is filled with fascinating details on Leonard and his moutain.

A.C.

Southern California - Part 2 - Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree was the second stage in our roadtrip.
The little town is lost in the middle of the desert and is the entry to the Joshua Tree National Park, which is, for someone used to living in big cities, breathtaking.

We stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn, an adorable motel best known for being the place where Gram Parsons died of OD in the early 70s.

The Gram Parsons memorial in front of his room at the Joshua Tree Inn. The same memorial initially was in the national park where Parsons' body was brought to by his friends who wished to scatter his ashes according to the artist's will.

Not far from the hotel were the saloon - where we spent the evening and had the chance to attend the karaoke night (!) - and an artists community called Art Queen. Joshua Tree might be in the desert but it seems to attract many tourists and artists, and I'm not sure it's only because of Bono and Co...! (1)

It's been really hard not to take one...unfortunatlly they were not for sale!

We took advantage of the few sunny hours to a ride in the national park in order to admire the landscape made of gigantic amounts of big rocks and thousands of Yucca/Joshua trees, and to reach a high spot to watch the sunset - we actually haven't been able to stay outside of the car for more than five minutes as a terrible freezing wind was blowing on us.

How not to feel small and vulnerable in front of such a view?

More pictures to come...!

(1) U2's record Joshua Tree, anyone?

A.C.

Southern California - Part 1 - Malibu Beach, Venice Beach, Hollywood

I've had the chance to spend some days in Southern California for a great road trip where I saw some amazing things. I'll be posting pictures regularly this week.
Stay tuned!

A very good traditional Jewish diner in Hollywood

The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, during his soldout show at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Hollywood.

A.C.

I kinda have a thing for Eastern European films lately

Since I arrived here, I've been interested in many different types of film, but recently, I've been watching a lot of Eastern European films - Scandinavian too, but I'll write another article about them - . A year ago, I had to do a presentation in my cinema class about Romanian films. I had only seen a few of them - the famous Palme d'Or at Cannes called "4 months 3 weeks and 2 days" - and I have to say that the films discovered here in Seattle, from Poland, Romania, Czech Republic or Hungary, are quite surprising and interesting, very different from one another, but rich and human. I am not here to tell you everything about them, just to give you a kick overview, and to give you the envy to go see them when they're out, wherever you are.

The Christening (M. Wrona, Poland) : The story of this film is based on the life of a man who, after operating as a criminal in his home town, finds himself in Warsaw. He hopes to change his luck. Unfortunately, there is a mafia sentence against him - he can either pay, or die. The man, Michal, desperately tries to find a way to save his family, his wife and baby, even though he knows he can not save himself. A few days before the christening of his child, his ex- best friend Janek, who was in the army, comes back, and Michal invites him to be the godfather of the baby. But Janek is approached by the mafia, and faces a terrible dilemma...

A incredible thriller, but also a great look at friendship, masculinity and fatherhood. All the actors sound right, and the violence of this film is simply astonishing. The rhythm isn't linear at all, and you end up profoundly disturb but amazed by the power of this film.

Hello, how are you? (A. Maftei, Romania) : Gabriel and Gabriela have been happily married for 20 years, but their sexual desire for each other no longer exists. After having spent a couple of nights chatting with a stranger on the Internet, they both fall in love – not knowing they have actually found each other. The passionate arousal for the unknown complicates with the guilt for cheating on a lifetime partner. Even more confused is their adolescent and sexually very active son Vladimir, when he finds out that his parents also have desires. One day an encounter of the virtual lovers becomes inevitable...

A brilliant direction, some almost perfect shots, a great sense of lights, this romantic comedy has nothing to be jealous about concerning American blockbusters. Sensitive, funny, full of realism, it is a true breath of fresh air and a shot of positivism.

Tuesday, After Christmas (R. Muntean, Romania): Paul Hanganu married Adriana ten years ago, but for the past six months, he has been involved in an extra-marital affair with Raluca, a dentist. A few days before Christmas, Paul decides to take his daughter to the dentist. An unexpected change in his wife's schedule brings the two women to meet, and it forces Paul to face a difficult decision.

I had no idea how good this film would turned out to be. From the opening scene, during which the camera stays still on the two lovers in bed, and until the break-up scene - whose break-up, I shall not say - , it is a sensitive and fine treatment of love affairs and of how complicated life and relationships can be. The break-up scene is entirely shot, and the power and emotion that emanate from it are just... incredible.

Mamas & Papas (A. Nellis, Czech Republic) : Four stories of the possible shades of modern parenthood : adoption, abortion, loss of a child and large families. All the stories touch on the same subject but from different angles. However, they all create a picture of how complicated and strangely unnatural the most natural process in the world has become in our society. Each story and character are entirely explored and developed. Each psychology is precise and profound. There is no superficiality, no short cut, no glitters. It is a film - it could be a documentary - about mamas and papas/ mères et pères/ mothers and fathers, and its humanity is so deep that it rises its quality above its subject. It a moving and highly intelligent film.

*** Things I didn't write about but that are also to see (Eastern European films of course) : If I want to whistle, I whistle (F. Serban, Silver Bear at Berlin 10, Romania) and Bibliothèque Pascal (S. Hajdu, Hungary - short review written about it a few weeks ago, go check it out, Palm Springs article).***

MJ.