“Barbara”, Germany’s 2012 Oscar submission, summons a little seen world of East Germany circa 1980.East German pediatric doctor Barbara Wolff (Nina Hoss) is banished from her prestigious Berlin hospital. Her request for an exit visa to the West has led to a disciplinary transfer to a rural clinic, where, presumably, she will be easier to control. Although the Stasi exert their control with random home and strip searches, Barbara continues to meet with her western lover Jörg (Mark Waschk) as he plans the last stages of her escape over the Baltic Sea to Finland. Rainer Bock (“The White Ribbon”) is…
Author: Robin Menken
Robin Menken
Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.
Hollywood-based Finnish director Jokinen (“The Resident”), adapted Finnish author Sofi Oksanen’s play and best selling novel “Puhdistus”(“Purge”) winner of both the 2008 Finlandia Prize and the 2009 Runeberg Prize. Followed the book’s structure, Jokinen showing the character’s reactions to their questionable actions, then flashbacking in time to see the motives for what they did. Part melodrama, part historical Gothic, part woman’s revenge picture, “Purge” links the abuses wrought by S Tallinn’s legacy; The savage 1940 Soviet occupation of Estonia and the recent Russian Mafia sex trade The harrowing redemptive story follows two women, both battle scarred from terrible abuse, both…
Finally released in the US, Claude Sautet’s 1971 “Max and The Junkmen” has more in common with American anti-hero detective and police procedurals of that era than it’s French counterparts. Early Sautet films, like the Italo-French crime film “Classes tout risques” (available from Criterion), and the hard to find gunrunning adventioner “L’arme au Gauches” had more muscle than his later more bourguois films. The subtle Michel Piccoli plays Max, a willfully independent ex-Judge turned cop, who, as the son of provincial vintners, can afford to go his own way. Max joins a long tradition of independently wealthy, gentleman detectives including:…
David Ondříček’s Noirish political thriller “In The Shadow” (Ve Stínu), the Czech 2012 Oscar submission, takes time to develop mood an character. I was reminded of Cold War Noirs like Wellman’s “The Iron Curtain”, Saville’s “Conspirator”, Hathaway’s “Diplomatic Courier” or Parrish’s “Assignment: Paris”.The crime thriller, set in Stalinist Czechoslovakia of 1953, pits a dogged policeman against the organized machinery of the state. The angst-ridden story is both specific to its time (the Jewish Show Trials in Prague that followed Stalin’s post-war purge of the Jews) and timeless in its study of a man willing to stand up against the system.…
Broadway assistant director- choreographer Coy Middlebrook’s heartfelt short family drama “For Spacious Skies” packs more emotional punch and story telling than many of this year’s feature films. Three brothers take a redemptive car trip played out against the 2008 election.The partially autobiographical story (aptly scripted by Kevin Allen Jackson) is a beautifully mounted portrait of America at a crossroads. Gay novelist Clay (Jonah Blechman- “Another Gay Movie”) and his ex-con white supremacist brother Eli (also a substance abuser) take their addicted brother Kevin (Gabe Fazio, “Kevin” (“The Place Beyond The Pines”) to rehab. Eli’s wife Meg (Amanda Detmer) leaves him,…
Boudewijn Koole’s “Kauwboy”, the Netherland’s Official Oscar submission, is, in it’s gentle way, one of the most memorable of the 2012 submissions. The small-scale film is perfect in tone.”Kauwboy” won the European Film Awards Discovery Fipresci Award and two prizes at Berlinale 2012: Best first Feature and Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfwer” Award and almost 20 awards worldwide.The Dutch have been coming on strong for a while. Martin Koolhoven’s “Winter in Wartime”, the 2010 submission, another solid sender, (distributed by Sony Classics in the US) also featured a boy protagonist.The sensitive tale, akin to Loache’s “Kes” and the youth…
The 15th Annual Arpa International Film Festival, the signature event of Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA), returns to the historic Egyptian Theater with its diverse selection of over 60 feature films, documentaries and short films from 17 countries. A record number of filmmakers and talent are expected to be in attendance. The festival concludes with the Arpa Awards Gala at the Sheraton Universal on Sunday, December 2, 2012. The Festival will also present its prestigious Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award, named after German author and human rights activist Armin Theophil Wegner. Arpa Career and Lifetime Achievement Award…
Ken Burns an co-directors David McMahon and Sarah Burns tell a straight forward story ripped from the headlines of 1989. New York City , under Mayor Ed Koch, was struggling with a major crime situation fueled by crack and an intrenched underclass.Five African American and Latino teenage boys were railroaded by the Justice system, lead by the elite detective section of the Northern WHAT, and convicted of a rape and attempted murder. One served time in an adult prison. Tried in the headlines, the Media frenzy was a lynching in print.Minutes into the film, the filmmakers play the audio confession…
AFI 2012 will present 80 features and 56 shorts, chosen from 3,400 submissions. The World Cinema program will include Oscar foreign-language entries from Denmark “A Royal Affair”, Austria “Amour”, Germany “Barbara”, Romania “Beyond the Hills”, Portugal “Blood of My Blood”, Italy- directors Paolo & Vittorio Taviani’s “Caesar Must Die”, Norway “Kon-Tiki”, Belgium “Our Children”, South Korea Kim Ki-duk’s Venice Golden Lion winner “Pieta” and Canada “War Witch” (“Rebelle”) dir: Kim Nguyen.From Cannes 2012 comes Ken Loach’s “The Angels’ Share,” “Reality” by “Gomorrah” director Matteo Garrone, Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt,” Hong Sang-soo’s “In Another Country,” Abbas Kiarostami’s “Like Someone in Love,”…
Documentarians Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus’s ” Sexy Baby”, takes a tough look at the obsession with sexuality fueled by social media and Internet sites. A flood of sexting, and easy access to porn sites, unimaginable a decade ago creates an uncontrollable arena for parents and children alike.”‘Sexy Baby’” portrays of the 21st century sexualized pop culture, through the eyes of three characters: 12-14 year old Winifred, a child of divorce, lives her life on Facebook. Her parents have deactivated her account repeatedly. The first time we meet her, at 12, she’s savvy about feminists, protesting the age of celebrity…