While the whole world talks about the Oscars, I'm still lagging behind with my report of the past Berlinale. To close this subject Film February once and for all for this year, I selected my highlights of the Berlinale Film Festival 2023 and will try and give a short introduction with my impressions, here and now.
It was a delight to be able to go into movie theatres, stand in line and chat with fellow cinema enthusiasts, listen to directors and contributors talk about their work and lose yourself and forget about the world for a couple of hours. Gosh, I had missed it so during lockdown, even though I tried to do my own festival at home, it is no comparison, really. Here, here and here you can read my lineups for the PD Horror at Home Film Festival and even follow the progress of my sadness and frustration for not being able to go into the movies.
Let's hope those times are over and never come back, and concentrate on now and future, on all the great movies we will yet see.
Here are my top picks, imdb pages are linked to the titles. Enjoy!
Hello Dankness - Dir. Soda Jerk, Australia, 2022
An insanely refreshing movie concept, a highly unusual narration method awaits you in "Hello Dankness": A sort of film collage consisting of various Hollywood movies, with an emphasis on horror or eerie films, thought out, edited and realized by the artist duo Soda Jerk who then re-creates a slice of US history in movie snippets. The timeframe the film encapsulates begins in the run-up to the 2016 elections in which Donald J. Trump won, until roughly today. Having said that it becomes obvious that this is as hilarious a work as it is on-the-point and in-your-face.
The chat with the experimental art collective Soda Jerk following the screening was just as fun, I liked how respectful they were to their audience and took their time to try and answer all questions. If you want to watch Hello Dankness, you can just email them and ask for a copy under emailsodajerk[at]gmail.com.
They also invited the whole audience to have a beer and a chat after the showing, how lovely!
Manodrome - Dir. John Tengrove, USA/UK, 2023
Following a young man stuck between his responsibilities, poverty, lack of support and genuine desires was at times painfully real, almost like watching the reality in many countries, in this case in the present time US.
Ralphie (Jesse Eisenberg) has lost his job and tries hard to survive and take care of his pregnant girlfriend - a situation which he, in fact, caused by insisting on keeping the baby. His only outlet is the gym, which, if we're being honest, isn't even a real outlet but yet another convoluted attempt at fitting in with the société de spectacle.
He then finds a little warmth and closeness in a strangely friendly all-male community/cult who all live together in a big mansion outside the city and have strange rituals which at first glance seem harmless, but are but the tip of the iceberg of a bigger societal problem. Ralphie knows this, yet can't help but being drawn in. His pain is so big, the deeply buried longings so massive that it seems like their rituals only unleash a beast that they are not able to tame.
I did enjoy watching this film in the sense you enjoy, or rather look at but can't look away from a train crash. Ralphie is cursed from the beginning and every way out of the chaotic, cold survival game that is his life leads to a worse path. There are so many points made, so many social ills here, of which especially the lack of adequate psychologic support for everyone involved sticks out.
Ouf, maybe too much reality for a movie, after all.
Infinity Pool - Dir. Brandon Cronenberg, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, 2023
A thing watching Infinity Pool taught me is that I'm fine with Cronenberg, as long as it is not on the silver screen. The cause of this revelation is that I went into this movie with a slight headache and left with a full-blown migraine. I almost felt like watching a Giallo film where I was being attacked with colors, with sound, with psychedelia, wow... So many impressions.
What is it all about? In a nut shell, it's about rich tourists exploiting every weakness they find to bully people they deem less than them. Outside of the nutshell it's Mia Goth giving the performance of her life, she was spectacular and the movie is worth watching if only for her.
Propriedade / Property - Dir. Daniel Bandeira, Brazil, 2022
Another movie that I left with physical ailments, namely stomach pains because this movie is one punch in the gut, there's no other way of saying it.
We're following an upper middle-class couple escaping city life to spend some rest time on their country estate due to the wife, Tereza, feeling progressively unsafe after an attack. Her husband even bought her an SUV with crazy security, a car you couldn't even shoot with a gun or bring to function if your voice isn't recognized by the system. When they arrive, something's amiss, though. The husband is planning on selling the farm and building a hotel instead of it, so he doesn't need the farm workers anymore who have been working here for a very long time. He intends to let them go. The workers can't leave yet, since their papers are in the owners safe at the house and with emotions fuming, things go in directions that none of them would have guessed. Tereza ends up locked in the car she can't drive, the workers squatting the farm but can't reach Tereza.
This movie was so full of suspense it gave me stomach aches - plus the devastating ending, the really hard subject of slavery in Americas, food for thought on what property is and who has more rights on places, the ones who bought it with money or the ones giving it their work, Tereza's fate until the very last minute... It was a good movie to initiate a discussion and after the director's talk, we all went home lost in thoughts.
El rostro de la medusa / The Face of the Jellyfish - Dir. Melisa Liebenthal, Argentina, 2022
It may seem to you that I only watch movies which make me sick, which, I can assure, is not the case at all. Sometimes I even like to have fun and The Face of the Jellyfish was more than just fun - it was delightful.
We follow Marina who one morning wakes up with a different face. The doctors can't do anything about it, the government takes back her ID card, she can't go to work, her mother, grandmother or boyfriend don't recognize her anymore. Once the frustration lessens, she first tentatively and later aggressively starts letting go of her old ways and starts exploring the limits of what she can do with a brand new face.
A sweet and fun reflection on identity and a visual exploration of the weirdness of living creatures of all sorts.
As you can see, despite all the challenges I finished this round in good health and fully rested and relaxed. Films can do that.
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