Widening Your Cinemascope in Thessaloniki
The crisp air in between films is perfect for rethinking all you've ever known about cinema. Into the festival's first weekend, you'll notice a lot of film reviewing. Everyone's a critic, pointing out in a flurry what was good and what stunk. However, without even knowing it, they're also changing a little because of what they've seen, unconsciously shuffling their cinematic opinions and recalibrating measuring sticks, pulling their own focus.

Rethinking Cinema
Bela Tarr made us rethink the word "cinema". He's sick of "stories", but wants to concentrate on images, sounds and emotions. Unfortunately most films are like comic strips, cutting between "information" till all we see is "the same story again and again." Tarr explained in his press conference that he decided to make films because he wasn't seeing the films he wanted to see. With regards to his own films, he doesn't like categorizing his films in "periods". It's like categorizing him - because there is a blurred professional/private line. (Directing one's private life can be problematic, he knows.) Tarr has refused to be aligned with politics his whole life. "I understand you can't change the world with films. I'd be happy, if I could just change the language of cinema." He was simply nterested in showing "what is going on" around him. Real expressions. Details from under the table and in the periphery. With regards to the 7-hour "Satantango", he doesn't see why film must always be restricted. No one tells Tolstoy or Homer to keep it short. He also doesn't want to tell people how to react emotionally - though he could. When asked to describe his latest film ("Werckmeister Harmoniak"), he suggests it's all in the eye of the whale.

Stevenin's POV
Reserve 2.30pm today for Jean-Francois Stevenin. That's when the French actor and director will field questions. Chance encounters are important in his three feature films. First, in 1978 there is "Mountain Passage" (November 12, noon). In that film, a man who is separated from his wife and lives in the mountains, meets an architect with car troubles. In 1986's "Double Gentlemen" (November 12, 5pm) a man finds an old friend's face on the cover of a detective story and arranges a meeting. Finally, in 2002 film "Mischka" (November 17, 8pm), an elderly man abandons his son while they are on the way to summer vacation. He instead agrees to impersonate a male nurse's father.
There will also be press conferences (open to all) in Warehouse C for the Festival's Jury (11am), Hong Sang-Soo (noon) and Aurelio Grimaldi (1pm).

Fire vs Ice
Two more international films debut tonight. Ulrich Kohler's first feature, "Bungalow" (2pm), is about a young man who finds refuge from army life, but is locked into a competition over his brother?s girlfriend. Hidenori Sugimori's "Woman of Rain"(7.30pm) is about Ryo (in Japanese = "cool, clear water"), who loses her father and boyfriend, but meets a pyromaniac.

Running Circles Around Yourself
Every few years, a non-pretentious guy with a sense of humor, who knows how to tell a story, shows up in Thessaloniki with a good film. Nikos Grammatikos returns with fiction film "The King" (10.30pm). It is about a man who tries to start his life again in his Pelopponese village. Trouble is, the locals don't want him back, due to his past. Muddled is the word on
"Merry Go Round" by newcomer Yiannis Drakos. That film shoves a bunch of characters (mostly caricatured) into a mobile home bar, which roams Athens. New "Cuban Neighbour" by Alexis Tsafas is unveiled today at 4.30pm.

Life is a Cabaret
Featured director Pantelis Voulgaris' "Acropole" (a 1950s Athens cabaret hires a man who is expert at female roles) screens at 11.30am, followed by a collection of shorts and "The Great Love Songs" (contemporary poetry set to the music of Manos Hadjidakis) at 2pm. Then at 4.30 pm is his 1972 film "The Engagement of Anna" . In that classic, a woman warms up to her arranged groom. Then her family changes its mind.

Pre-production Notes
Unfortunately, illness will prevent jury president Marco Bellocchio from attending the opening of his drawings exhibition. His pre-production sketches (shown for the first time at the Locarno Film Festival) of ten films and play "Timon of Athens" will be unveiled at 7.30pm at Warehouse B?s State Museum of Contemporary Art. Through a squiggly, expressive hand, Bellocchio's fine-lined sketches contain detailed plans. A tip from down-to-earth actor Lou Castel: check out "Fists in the Pocket", his favorite Bellocchio film. Castel was just 22 when, he ended up in the right time at the right place to star in the film.

From Melina to Iran
Whether the text is in English or French, her hair dyed red or blond, Melina Mercouri catches the spectator's eye. The official opening of a poster exhibition featuring Melina will be at noon at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art. Also launched today, at 6.30pm, will be a display of eighty photographs featuring the Iranian landscape and society. Be the first to experience it at Warehouse A's Thessaloniki Museum of Photography.

Not Just for Kids
New Horizons' children's film this year is recommended for adults too. "Spirited Away", a fabulous Japanese "Alice in Wonderland"-style animation is on at 11am. For grownups, other NH films include: "Bellissima" (12pm, Maria's mother pulls her out of the beauty pageant circuit ), "The Kite" (2.30pm, a pre-Perestroika town is dominated by police), "Pleasant Days" (4.30pm, a baby is secretly born in a laundromat), Shirin Neshat's short films at 8pm, "I'm the Father" (10.30pm, a young German couple's marriage deteriorates, with a six-year-old caught in the middle) and JH Hermosillo's "Exxxorcism" (11pm, a security guard has alarming visions while on guard at a mall).

Realising the Insanity of War
Yesterday, a Russian film, set during World War Two, gave a strong message about the foolishness of fighting. In "The Cuckoo" (also at 7.30 tonight), a Lapp woman suddenly finds a Russian soldier (imprisoned by his own army for "incorrect" thinking) and a Finn soldier (who had been chained in Prometheus-like bonds) on her solid log doorstep. "No man for four years, and now I've got two," the resourceful woman thinks, as she sets about catching fish, preparing magic soups and keeping the two men from killing each other. The threesome evokes meaningful comedy through their non-stop misunderstandings. The theme is echoed in Indonisian film "Whispering Sands" (8pm), where a young girl and her healer mother must flee their Java village when it is attacked.

Breaking the Rules
Night owls can catch an interesting collection of Orgasmic Cinema shorts, with a "Nirvana" theme, at 1.30am. A few more interesting films today include Palestinian director Elia Suleiman's "Divine Intervention" in which two lovers blocked by checkpoints can only meet in a deserted lot. Otar Iosseliani's latest "Monday Morning", is sure to be unusual. In Andreas Dresen's "Halbe Treppe" (8pm) two couples realise the dullness of their marriages.

Quote/Unquote:
"At 22, I decided I needed to make films that were alive, talking about real people, in black and white, with a handheld camera. In other words, we don't just knock on the door, we break it down." - Director Bela Tarr

First shot, #115, 10/11/2002

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