A boy, a cat, summer music and cigarettes from the kiosk in Felini’s Amarcord

The new waves of American independent film are ridden by the disciples of Cassavetes, David Lynch, Jarmusch, Linklater, who, albeit a little late, define their (our) generation from the end of the XX century. They know the core of genres, which is why they play two genres in one film, yes, two genres, like two guns, are taken out by a dreamer from Hammer to Nail in a melodrama+comedy Ping Pong Summer. Onur Turkel wrote, directed and played the immature, rugged and bitterly skeptical Turk from Brooklyn in the one-man comedy with a vampire finale and soft-pornographic background which is SUMMER OF BLOOD. 

A similar (independent) budget surrounding is where Denis Côté  from Montreal dwells, a passionate filmmaker who followed his Golden Bear for direction in 2003 for suspence+drama VIC+FLO SAW A BEAR with a return to Berlinare this year with a documentary about a loud and clear roar of a man stuck in flywheels of ruthless capitalism. In this way Côté expresses his understanding of the modern times, not just through a story of two felon lesbian, but also through the voice of a man who finds it harder and harder to see joy in his work. Look, a cat! Off! So, when this third of planetary selection (360 degrees) from American continent is enriched with the memory of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s childhood, spent in a Chilean village with a Stalinist father and a mother with an uncanny resemblance of Felini’s tobacco woman in Amarcord, then we realize that it is the story, the narration, complex and unpredictable, where all the flavor and the essence of independent filmmaking lies, whether old or new. Therefore Jodorowsky’s DANCE OF REALITY is one more chosen story in the ocean of the untold ones, and Alejandro is yet another never-grown boy. And again this cat. She will knock something down! and another boy stands with his little friend on a balcony in Caracas , talking about junior prom, while he secretly thinks about his mother, single, unemployed and sad in the Venezuela film Pelo Malo (BAD HAIR). This film is not only independent and freely-made, but also mostly created by women (production, screenplay, direction), and women are the most capable of being independent creatures in the world, at least they say s… Off! This cat is getting boring. Off!

I don’t know where I was, it’s the cat. Oh, well, let’s do it this way:

STRANGE LITTLE CAT, a debut film by Ramon Zürcher is one that encourages (above all youthful and full of ideas) us to be independent and free in everything. Just like… OFF… yes, just like a cute little kitten. Now go away. Yes. The best film in the selection is… a film that is called cat, but is not about cats, but about us, inactive, nervous and rushed cats’ pet. Yes yes, about us, who need nothing except SEX, DRUGS, AND TAXATION! We don’t need to eat, or breathe, we only care about sex, drugs and bills. We don’t need more. Not even a mat, mat (not a cat). But if you take a close look at a film of this title, Sex, Drugs & Taxation, made in abundance of detail and with different stories poured into one about two great friends, very close but very different, then you will come to the conclusion that the young Danish director Christoffer Boe, just like Ramon Zürcher, is the new hope of European drama, and thus film, independent of course, and quite Chekhovian. Translated into film language, Checkovian would be – Fassbinderovian!

The only documentary in this year’s 360 degrees selection is ALBHABET by Austian documentary filmmaker and explorer Erwin Wagenhofer, about how many talented children suffer in inactive educational systems, everywhere in the world, and is another necessary dilemma we need to deal with, if we want more freedom and independent spirit to grow in our children that it ever grew in us.

However, not it’s time for me to wrap up this story into a conclusion which would be dry, but magnificent – everyone will make films. Everyone!

Anyone who can persuade  Michel Houellebecq, the most sold French writer to be kidnapped and have a good time at it – FILM IT; anyone who can imitate a little kitten and has a new idea – FILM IT; anyone who knows more than twenty people who will immediately come when they call them – FILM IT; anyone who likes pictures flying under their nose, constantly in a rhythm – FILM IT; tireless, curious, agile – FILM IT, FILM IT!

(Translated by Dženana Huseinović)

Trailers' Playlist here
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1ggSuC5RTERis3GBuZDSkbWjP45JCPzZ

When you're acting life, as you're living in a movie

Film Essay on ACTRESS by Robert Greene (USA, 2014)

Two years ago, at various world documentary festivals from Sundance to CPH:DOX and ZagrebDox, "The Queen of Versailles" by Laureen Greenfield was screened. It was a documentary about a wealthy couple who in their hedonistic delight started to build a grand castle just like the royal one near Paris, at a site in Florida.

Greenfield's persistent film crew followed the pair for a whole year, documenting their rise and tumble, the complete ruin of the entire Empire, as well as the replica of Versailles, until the final scene (priceless and unforgettable) which is centered on one outraged housewife wandering through the big house full of dog's shit and the stench of leftovers.

Eventually everybody left her, servants and friends, same as they came – in a herd, hungry for prey, which wasn't even there any more.

Well, let's leave the queen of Versailles to suffer glorious days by herself and take a look at another persistent film crew of one recently-made documentary.

The crew are, again, individuals with clear sight, strong nerves, and unbreakable temperament, following some other people's story. They document (witness) facts imposed by reality, as lived by the majority of us.

This characteristic is usually used as a guarantee for success in the artistic world, in the film industry and in life as well.  But, that's not the subject here. The subject is Brandy Burre!

Have you heard of Brandy Burre? She's an actress. Actually, she was known by roles in the TV series "The Wire" and in minor episodes in Hollywood productions.  Then, she got pregnant and finished her career at HBO Television, gave birth to one child, then another, and became lonely, a bit like a desperate housewife.

But, that's not certain at all.  Is she really an actress, or is she just acting as one?  For sure – she's wandering through life, having her private life in one hand and her business life in the other. She's rumbling, tottering into drunkeness, always followed by a persistent and steady camera man, director and editor Robert Greene, just like her third kid – the quiet one, who is always there, close to mother's skirt.

But later, in the editing room, he will wisely and patiently put together the whole story about one tired woman in her late 30's who is acting in front of every camera, his and even the hidden, imagined one. Does she really act or...?

No, she doesn't. She lives her life, or? It's maybe one big melodrama of permanent falling down and arising, the short moment of happiness after a long period of fallacy. Or it's not even that, but if it's not, then what is it? Then, maybe she's an accidental passer-by at the local railway station.

Yes, that's who she is. And when you look at Brandy Burre, it's as if you are looking at a passer-by.  She's lost in her worries and thoughts and you see her staring through the window of a train wagon. You feel sorry for her, then talk to her, and get another sad story through short laughs, a few hidden tears in her beautiful eyes, as she turns to the window, to that dark mirror and the night. 

What's done is done, when all your friends leave you, there's always an accidental passer-by waiting for you to help, who knows...

A well-known film critic wrote for "Indiwire" after TRUE/FALSE (Festival in Missouri) premiere that this film is "Sunset Boulevard" of modern time, thinking about Billy Wilder's glorious 1950 film and the magnificent tragedy of the silent film diva Norma Desmond.

And he was right, because there's the fact that in the last six decades one needs less talent, as well as money, for making a film.  It's just that the sunset on the boulevard of life stays the same - sad and foggy.

So, remember, when you're stepping into the fast train that stops briefly at the station, you're carrying all that foggy sunset with you. And then you'll rush into the night together, with the passer-by, the sunset, Brandy and you, when the audience sighs quietly and the lights in the theater come on slowly.

About the author

First feature film by Robert Greene "Owning the Weather" from 2009 was presented at UN Conference. Two years later he shot "Kathi..." and later, "Fake It So Real", a documentary about a local wrestling club. This one was listed by Robert Brody from the New Yorker among the 15 best films of 2012.

His last feature film "Actress" will be premiered in Europe this autumn. Robert writes film essays about documentaries for Sight & Sound, Filmmaker Magazine, Hammer to Nail, and Nonfics. His book Present Tense will be published in 2015.

More about the film at www.actressfilm.com