Cambridge Film Festival Review #4

THE 35th CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL

R E V I E W INSIDE:

KYLE “EADWEARD” RIDEOUT Steamboat Bill Star*Men sonja heiss Q&A Street Kids El Cafe De La Marina

TRIDENTFEST 2015 © DAVID RILEY

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MARK LIVERSIDGE GAZES AT

STAR*MEN

The advent of modern technology has seen the pace of scientific discovery quicken over the past hundred years, but as our understanding of the universe widens, our sense of self-importance diminishes in proportion. Astronomers have made huge contributions to that level of discovery, but Alison Rose’s documentary STAR*MEN explores the effect that change in perspective has had on some of the men who’ve been instrumental in making those discoveries.

Donald Lynden-Bell, Nick Woolf, Wal Sargent and Roger Griffin each bring a different skill to the group: theoretician, visionary, observer and instrument maker respectively. They took time away from their world-changing studies and spent summer vacations on road trips, using the opportunity to tour the American southwest and to explore both the skies above them and the rocky landscapes around them.

All later went on to significant achievements in their field; for example, Lynden-Bell became president of the Royal Astronomical Society and became known for his theories around black holes and quasars. Fifty years on, they decided to embark on a return visit to both the observatories that helped them make their discoveries and the long hikes through the wilderness from Utah to California they also undertook.

The documentary has a lot of ground to cover, and while there is a general level of detail around the discoveries that these astronomers made, the focus here is not on in-depth scientific dissections of their achievements, rather than getting a sense of the people involved in achieving them. Instead, the human angle is brought to the forefront as STAR*MEN mixes interviews with footage of Rose on her on the road trip with the scientists as they revisit the summers of their youth.

The message is clear: there’s still enough marvel to be found in nature that generations of future scientists can still potentially be inspired, no surprise given that spectacle will still encourage septuagenarians to trek halfway across the United States to experience it. Alison Rose has turned her gaze predominantly inwards rather than upwards, but in doing so has tapped at the very heart of what inspires us as a species to further our own understanding.

an audience with

sonja heiss Hosted by Verena Von Stackelberg; reported by Mike Levy Following the screening of her German-language HEDI SCHNEIDER IS STUCK, Heiss took questions from attending audience. Somewhere between GO HAPPY and THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, Heiss told of her own experience of panic attacks and consequent treatments. As an audience member noted, the reaction within the film of medical professionals to Hedi – a normally happily married mum – and her breakdown was harsh and unfeeling.

“In Germany there are so few psychiatrists that you have to wait for weeks to see one, then queue for four hours and get about three minutes to explain your issues after which they give you pills,” said the director.

IMAGE © DAVID RILEY

She didn’t want to go down the therapy route on film - that would have been entirely different story. “Essentially this is a story about a happy relationship that is suddenly put under huge pressure.

In Hedi’s breakdown she turns in on herself and takes hardly any interest in her young son or husband Uli. I wanted to explore how the family reacted to that.”

Heiss expressed that she deliberate avoided the filmic stereotypes of depression - no gloomy monochrome or dismal musical score. Instead she sought “the bright colours of every day summer life.”

“That’s what happens when you have a breakdown, you notice that the world looks exactly the same as before.”

Answering a final question about the film’s future, Heiss lamented that being a German film twinning comedy and mental illness, HEDI SCHNEIDER might not be viewed as a commercial proposition. As Sonja Heiss admitted, a movie about panic attacks and mental breakdowns might not seem like fun. Yet somehow a life-affirming and often jaunty thread can weave through a very serious subject. The themes have, however, proved a draw for actors. Laura Tonke, described by Heiss as the “one time Indie star”, was a personal friend of the directors and was apparently delighted to be offered such a challenging and nuanced role.

STEPHEN WATSON INTERVIEWS

KYLE RIDEOUT ABOUT HIS FILM “EADWEARD” We spoke to Canadian actor-director Kyle Rideout about EADWEARD, the story of English-born photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904).

SW: How did you first get involved with Eadweard Muybridge’s story?

KR: I was an actor in a wonderful play about him called Studies in Motion, written by Kevin Kerr and produced by the Electric Company Theatre. I experienced firsthand how so many of the audience had never heard of this eccentric historical figure. I was baffled that no one had told this story before. Both I and my fellow actor Josh Epstein wanted to remedy that.

SW: Did the subject matter make it easier to finance?

KR: No. If anything it probably made it more difficult.

EADWEARD had all the pitfalls that make shooting an indie film very challenging. We had goats, dogs, cats, horses, children, multiple locations, we climbed a mountain for one location, lots of extras, visual effects and the cherry on top was that it was a period film, meaning period costumes, locations, props, everything.

SW: How did you balance your own vision of the film with the usual demands for historical fidelity?

KR: It was surprisingly very balanced. There wasn’t ever an option on the table to spend money so we had to be innovative. With that said, I wanted this film to be as true to his life as possible, to the real Eadweard Muybridge.

Read extended versions of all featured reviews and interviews at www.takeonecff.com

Steamboat bill jr.

Cinemagoers of a certain age seeing silent movies at the National Film Theatre or the Academy in Oxford Street may remember Florence de Jong, the doyenne of accompanists in the 1970s, doing sterling work at the piano during one of Buster Keaton’s periodic revivals. Now here’s Neil Brand to pick up the baton, beginning by introducing scenes from the great comedian’s work and telling his gratifyingly young audience that as Keaton rarely opened his mouth, let alone cracked a smile, ‘My job is to give Buster a voice’.

The set-up is that Keaton’s character Jimmie Shannon needs to get married that day to inherit a fortune. Word gets out and he is besieged by hundreds of women of all shapes and sizes. As hordes of them descend on the church Jimmie jumps out of the window and hightails it for the hills where, still chased by the women, he sets off a landslide of boulders which pursue him towards the massed and waiting would-be brides…

This is the canvas that Brand works with and he doesn’t get in the way, accelerating and building crescendos as needed: some recent DVD issues of Buster Keaton’s work punctuate the action with ‘specially composed’ musical punchlines, whether of the whistles and whoopee cushion variety or unnecessary percussion when Keaton – who performed not only his own stunts but often those of other cast-members in long-shot – falls over or is hit by a tree or (in SEVEN CHANCES) the smallest pebble which rounds off the landslide sequence.

In his accompaniment to the full-length STEAMBOAT BILL JUNIOR Neil Brand again helps the action flow.

But besides the spectacular and famous set-pieces – such as the entire building that falls on Keaton, leaving him standing in the open window - here too are emotional moods to be brought out, in the scenes between a son and his disappointed father, and the wrong-side-of-the-river romance between Keaton and his college sweetheart. Again Brand doesn’t disappoint, giving the spanking new print both a voice and the lie to the New York Times’s 1928 review: ‘A gloomy comedy’.

El Cafe De La Marina

Hear Catalonia and you might think sun, sand and sangria. Sylvia Munt’s drama basks in few such pleasures. There may be plenty of time spent by the bottle but her adaptation of Josep Maria de Sagarra’s classic tale is as sobering as a face full of sea water.

EL CAFÈ DE LA MARINA, in some ways, is a story after the act. Caterina (Marina Salas) has been tarred by small-town gossip for a passing romance outside of wedlock.

The old men of her bar chide from behind their rums, and her father stares above and away from her daily sorrows. All appears to rest on the thin and fading chances of marriage. Or so it initially appears. A travelling French merchant sets his heart on the young barmaid, but the most earnest offer may come from Claudi (Pablo Derqui), the sarcastic fisherman, watching from afar.

Although an of-the-day journalist and translator, as a novelist and playwright Josep Maria de Sagarra is best described as a traditionalist. His 1934 text EL CAFÈ DE LA MARINA aligns much more closely, for British eyes, to the Victorians – Hardy or the

Brontës – than his modernist contemporaries. Caterina is a bold, true-hearted woman to whom misfortune has fallen, and as in all Victorian tales, her labours amid the puritan small town society prove hard and frequently painful. Pleasure, poetically realised, is only briefly glimpsed; calm harbours from the storm found in sisterhood and, eventually, love.

Originally a TV movie, Munt’s direction ploughs with workmanlike furrow – fitting for the subject matter. The camera labours through dust swept visuals, stopping to take in forlorn stares and the sombre earthiness of the scenery. Caterina’s grey overalls sink down into the grey walls, grey tables and the grey sea (and this is summer - winter, as a cafè regular comments, is worse than mundane) and a mournful haze descends on our protagonists’ hopes and dreams.

EL CAFÉ DE LA MARINA’s tired and dolent mood flourishes in these barren surroundings, restrained theatrics creating a heartfelt tale with sturdy emotional pathos.

THE MARINA CAFE screens on 11 September at 20.00 at the Light Cinema.

street kids united 2 IMAGE © DAVID RILEY 2014 may have seen Brazil host the World Cup, with high-paid footballers and glamorous WAGs aplenty, but Brazil was also host to the more humble Street Kids World Cup. Only the second ever, but with nearly three times the number of teams, STREET KIDS UNITED 2: THE GIRLS FROM RIO follows an all-girl Brazilian football team as they prepare for the biggest tournament of their lives.

Directed by Maria Clara Costa, STREET KIDS tells the story of the Favela Street Girls, a team of young girls from the Penha Favela as they train for the Street Kids World Cup tournament. The girls each have their own story to tell - their backgrounds distressingly involve drugs, depravity and abusebut they are united in their aims to win the tournament. Football is a more than a game to these girls. To Ronaldo, Rooney et al the sport may pave the way to glory and riches, but to the Favela Street Girls this is the way they can keep their dreams alive. Their genuine love of the game is clear in their

eyes, a look of spirited determination that is evident whether they cheer themselves on, or argue fiercely mid-session about tactics. Not only is this a way for them to escape the hardships of their worlds, but they become friends, loving and supporting each other while they train ruthlessly.

Their Dutch coach, Phillip Veldhuis helps them every step of the way, becoming not only their trainer but their friend, for whom they all admit the most ardent respect.

You can’t help but escape the feeling that as you watch all these joyous kids from various nations, dancing and playing football as friends, there is a sad story behind why they are there. The need to address the problems of child poverty is just as clear as the simple story of training for a world cup tournament, which is to the film’s credit.

STREET KIDS gives a face and voice to the millions of children worldwide who are sadly being ignored; the film will hopefully provide inspiration to demand action.

Q: Where does Lech Majewski buy his groceries?

A: Moo-risons!