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Star quality at the festival |
An exciting weekend awaits festival guests and viewers, as Harvey Keitel flies into town, the international competition gets into full swing, and the Theo Angelopoulos symposium goes full circle. Of course, dozens of films await.
Star-Crossed Meetings
As the symposium on Theo Angelopoulos enters its second and final day, the award-winning director will be holding a press conference at 10am. At noon his colleague, composer Eleni Karaindrou, will speak about her work.
Cosmic Messages
"I don't want fame or recognition," explained Tony Gatlif, the Roma director whose work is instead fueled by voyages, music and the fight for cultural survival . He explained that he's brought music to the foreground of his films over the past decade. In fact he would've been a musician if it wasn't for his love of moving images. Though Gatlif wasn't able to shoot some part of his film in Thessaloniki, as he'd dreamed of since visiting the festival three years ago, there is a piece of Greece in "Vengo" - a song by musician Dionysus Tsaknis. Only artists are free to be ambassadors and bridges in the 800 year history of rejection and isolation of the Roma, said Gatlif. This is not always an easy position, he explained, as he is required to do things like translate languages intentionally kept secret.
Star Light, Star Bright
The eight-year old star of the film "Tzatziki, Mum and the Policeman", Samuel Haus, modestly shrugging off suggestions that he is a "big star" back in Sweden. "I'm more a little star," he modestly said. He told the press that though the filmmakers had been looking for a child with darker coloring to play the half-Greek part, he somehow made it anyway. "The nicest part was coming to Greece to shoot part of the film here," said the boy. What did he think of the final product? "I felt I was seeing half of myself and half of another person on the screen," Haus told the audience. The film plays in a children's screening today at 11.30am. A New Horizons kids' party will appropriately follow the film.
Age of Aquarius
The current wave of violence in the Middle East informed conversation with actor Liron Levo, as he spoke of "Kippur", the Amos Gitai film in which he plays the lead. The timely film is a story that Gitai has wanted to make for 25 years, Levo explained. In order to play the role of Gitai's father in the film, he ended up selecting certain tendencies from the director's personality.
Lucky Star
Ventura Pons' film "To Die (Or Not)" is about having a second chance, he explained yesterday - an experience he most vividly lived when he was shot while in Mexico 20 years ago. While he survived and the experience ended up becoming a comic anecdote for friends, others were killed and life was forever changed. Pons journeys the line between black and white, life and death, and comedy and drama in the seven-story project. However, his progress as a filmmaker has been one of growing subtlety. In his film he plays with narrative; the tale begins in the middle of the story.
What's Your Sign?
Two completely opposite Greek films premiered at the festival yesterday - Nikos Zapatinas' "In Good Company" (he speaks today at 11am) and Thanassis Antoniou's "Stream". The first is the goofy encounter between a pair of men just released from a prison and insane asylum. Followed by evil, horny forces, they set off on a frantic romp through the Greek countryside. Less happy is "Stream", in which a man in the most isolated mountains (you can't get there from here) is looking to replace his dead Eve. Any woman with the ability to reproduce will do, as he babbles about a failed utopian experiment. Check out the press conference at 1.30 for more details. Introducing one of Greece's most popular actors and social critics - Lakis Lazopoulos. He plays two parts in "Beware of Greeks Bearing Arms," a Greek-Australian comedy shot and released to success in both country's box offices. It's on at 7 at the Vakoura Theatre.
Aligning Planets
See another side of festival head Michel Demopoulos, by watching his documentary, "The Other Scene" at noon. It's a film about the making of Angelopoulos' "The Travelling Players".
Make a Wish
The International Competition began yesterday with screenings of "The State I Am In" by Christian Petzold and " The Confusion of Genders" directed by Ilan Duran Cohen (in Thessaloniki for today's 11.30 press conference). Today the competition for the Golden and Silver Alexander prizes continues with the screenings of two works - Makoto Shinozaki's "Not Forgotten" (3pm), and one of two Greek entries - Stavros Ioannou's "Dead End Streets" about the oft-forgotten Kurdish population (7.30pm).
Shooting Stars
Catch the best Greek shorts, as the Drama Short Film Festival shows off some of this year's winners, with a screening at 1 at the Pavlos Zannas theatre.
Northern Lights
Dejan Acimovic will be talking about the Balkan survey section film "Is it Clear My Friend" this afternoon. The film is set in the former Yugoslavia in the 80s. In it a prison term reveals corruption and shows the destructive influence on his character of a dirty system. It's a true story.
Entering Our Orbit
In the perfect warmup for seeing actor Harvey Keitel later this evening, watch his performance in Abel Ferrara's 1992 film "The Bad Lieutenant". The evening will be capped off with a gala presentation of Angelopoulos' film "Ulysses Gaze" at the Olympion Theatre, starting at 9.30.
Quote/unquote:
"I don't think justice is the answer for everything. I think that most things are taken care of by love." - Liron Levo, actor from Amos Gitai's "Kippur".
"Europe's borders are now opening, but not for everyone." - Tony Gatlif, director of "Vengo".
Angelike Contis
First shot, #76, 12/11/2000
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