‘Afterimage’ has special relevance to filmmaker’s life
Film
Camerimage pays tribute to Polish auteur Wajda
LOS ANGELES, Nov 13, (RTRS): The passing of one of Poland’s
last great cinema auteurs has cast a shadow over the normally ebullient atmosphere in Bydgoszcz at this time of year — but the life
and work of Andrzej Wajda is also celebrated as Camerimage, a film
festival devoted to cinematographers, pays homage.
His final feature, “Afterimage”, screening as the fest’s opening
night gala, considers conflicts that were deeply personal to the Polish
master.
Fest director Marek Zydowicz says “Afterimage”, focused on
the darkest days for art in recent Polish history, has special relevance to Wajda’s life. Zydowicz calls the film “one of the best
Andrzej Wajda films, a truly independent reflection — both in
spirit and in form — on the nature of being an artist, and on the
horrifying idea that the world of politics can make the art and
culture dependent on it.”
A one-time World War II resistance fighter — and later a dissident forced into exile by the communist regime — Wajda knew too
well the conflicts of his swan song’s subject, the painter Wladyslaw
Strzeminski, a theoretician and mentor who founded the Museum of
Modern Art in Lodz in 1930. Strzeminski ran afoul of the authorities after struggles — both internal and external — to be true to his
art, refusing to conform to party diktats for pictures that “enthuse the
masses.”
Wajda, who initially studied to be a painter, also found himself
dealing with authorities seeking more politically expedient work later
in his career, which finally forced him into exile in Paris for years
until his homecoming after the collapse of the Soviet-backed regime
in 1989.
Although he served as a senator and was awarded an honorary
Oscar in 2000 for contribution to world cinema, critics point to his
early work, created under far less limelight while he was working as
a theater director, as his most seminal.
Formed
Films such as “Ashes Diamonds”, “Kanal” and “Generation”,
which formed his war trilogy, helped established a new vision in European cinema in the late ’50s.
Some of Wajda’s best-known work, focusing on the role of working people under authoritarian rule, includes films such as 1976’s
“Man of Marble” and 1981’s “Man of Iron”, featuring Solidarity
movement leader Lech Walesa portraying himself. Follow-up “Walesa: Man of Hope”, which premiered in Venice in 2013, laid out the
story of Walesa’s life, again considering the costs of speaking out in
dangerous times.
Audiences flocked to see Wajda introduce “Afterimage” in Gdynia
in September at Poland’s largest domestic film fest where artistic director Michal Oleszczyk oversaw the sold out appearance.
“Andrzej Wajda’s body of work is unparalleled”, Oleszczyk says.
“His films have provided a unique mirror to our country’s violent,
convoluted history and have themselves served as means of fighting
for democracy.”
As for Wajda’s final film, Variety critic Dennis Harvey predicted
“Afterimage” may struggle to reach screens in the West, like many of
the director’s other work. But he called the film “a bitter tale of injus-
tice”, noting its all-too-informed account of the risks run by artists in
a state where dissent is criminalized.
Despite his titanic reputation at home, Wajda somehow never
achieved the acclaim abroad of contemporaries such as Krzysztof
Kieslowski and Roman Polanski. But he was feted at Cannes early in
his career for his luminous sketches of life during wartime.
“His place in the world film canon is secure”, says Oleszczyk, “and
we now look to the young generation of Polish filmmakers both to
honor his legacy and — hopefully — challenge us with visions as
intense and heartfelt as those of Wajda himself.”
The Camerimage Film Festival kicked off its 24th edition Saturday, honoring cinematography from around the globe, and honoring
producer Robert Lantos and two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange
in the grand hall of the Opera Nova in the town of Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Lange drew applause as she confessed she was “actually thrilled
to be out of the United States” this week while accepting the Krzysztof Kieslowski award for outstanding performances. An audience
of scores of top DPs and directors, mixed with the cream of Polish
cinema and dozens of local film students, expressed appreciation
for the actress’ four decades of work, ranging from 1976’s “King
Kong” to “Grey Gardens” via “The Postman Always Rings Twice”
and “Frances.”
Lantos, a longtime collaborator with the likes of directors Istvan
Szabo, David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan, also took to the stage
to receive his Golden Frog for producer with unique visual sensitivity.
Features
Variety
This image released by Disney shows Benedict Cumberbatch in a scene from Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’. The film earned $14.9 mn in the US on Friday. (AP)
Film
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2016
An imagination-tickling fantasy adventure
LOS ANGELES: There was plenty
of passion for stand-up comedy
on display at Friday night’s world
premiere of Robert De Niro’s
“The Comedian” at the Egyptian
Theatre in Hollywood as part of
AFI Fest.
More than three decades after
starring in Martin Scorsese’s
“The King of Comedy”, De
Niro returned in another role
as a troubled stand-up with a
supporting cast of Leslie Mann,
Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Patti
Lupone and Cloris Leachman.
“This has been a passion project of
mine for many years”, he said on
the red carpet.
But De Niro — who’s won two
Oscars and been nominated seven
times — admitted after the screening that getting honest laughs was
a serious challenge.
“It was good but it was not
an easy experience” he allowed.
“Sometimes the extras didn’t
realize they were supposed to
laugh.”
De Niro, who was a major
Hillary Clinton supporter, was
asked about “The Comedian”
opening on Jan 13 — just a week
before the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump. “That’s
too big a question”, De Niro said
with a grin. (RTRS)
❑ ❑ ❑
LOS ANGELES: “Doctor Strange”
continues to dominate the the box
office after earning $14.9 million
on Friday at 3,882 locations en
route to $45 million in its second
frame.
The film, from Marvel and
Disney, is only challenged by
Fox’s “Trolls” which earned $12.2
million at 4,066 theaters on track
for a second weekend in the $34
million range.
After finishing in the top two
slots last weekend as well, the two
films greet newcomer “Arrival”,
which is posting numbers that
exceed expectations. The Paramount film scored $9.3 million
on Friday and is looking at a $24
million opening weekend at 2,317
locations.
“Almost Christmas” should fin-
‘Beasts’ designed for Rowling’s fans
By Peter Debruge
ust when you thought the world of Harry Potter
Jspin-off
couldn’t get any darker, along comes a bleak-as-soot
that makes the earlier series look like kids’
stuff. Borrowing its title from one of the textbooks
Potter studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
marks the first screenplay written by J.K. Rowling herself. Though the world-renowned novelist had always
kept a tight rein on how those adapting her Potter stories went about their task, this assignment gives her the
unprecedented ability to address her massive global
fanbase directly, while current events have given her
something more substantive to say.
The first in an ambitious five-film pentaptych, whose
first two installments are being handled by David Yates
(the director responsible for the four ultra-bleak blockbusters that wrapped the Potter franchise), “Fantastic
Beasts” does double-duty as yet another imaginationtickling fantasy adventure and a deeply troubled commentary on tolerance, fear, and bigotry in the world today. Focusing on a scatterbrained magizoologist named
Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), whose personal
crusade for the protection of magical creatures will eventually lead him to publish the aforementioned guide, this
often heavy-handed political allegory trades present-day
England for Prohibition-era New York, at a time when
conflicts between magic folk and No-Majs (American
for “Muggle”) are brewing — when the humans aren’t
fighting world wars among themselves, that is.
It’s 1926, and Scamander arrives at Ellis Island with
a bottomless suitcase full of illegal “livestock,” ranging
from a mischievous Niffler (a naughty duck-billed marsupial with a nose for treasure) to a giant storm-causing
Thunderbird, whose keeper intends to release back into
the wild somewhere far from people in Arizona. But the
United States is notoriously intolerant when it comes to
magic. (Remember the Salem witch trials?) As a precaution, all beasts have been outlawed by MACUSA,
ish fourth with about $16 million
this weekend after a $5.9 million
Friday at 2,376 theaters.
“Arrival” has received strong
critical support with a 93% “fresh”
rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The
film, which centers on a dozen
mysterious alien ships touching
down on Earth, is directed by
Denis Villeneuve and stars Amy
Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest
the Yankee equivalent of the Ministry of Magic, with
stiff penalties for any who disobey.
Dangerous
Scamander means well, but he’s a bit of a klutz — and
not nearly as careful as someone charged with keeping
a menagerie of potentially dangerous creatures really
ought to be. (If he were cleverer, he probably would have
left behind those beasts capable of destroying New York
City, such as the atom-bomb-like Obscurus, before traveling.) In his absent-mindedness, however, Scamander
accidentally swaps suitcases with Jacob Kowalski (Dan
Fogler), a No-Maj factory worker, who swiftly unleashes
half a dozen or so of the animals into the streets — animals that have a nasty habit of leaping directly into the
lenses of Philippe Rousselot’s 3D cameras.
What follows may as well be a high-end, periodthemed upgrade to the popular Pokemon GO iPhone
game, as Scamander plays a freckle-faced, tweedjacketed version of Ash Ketchum, scrambling to track
down and recapture the escaped creatures before things
get really out of hand. Things first spin out of control
in an unusually complicated scene at the bank, where
Rowling and Yates spin so many layers of surveillance
— ex-auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) spies
on Scamander, who is following Kowalski, who in turn
is being watched by a suspicious bank manager — that
it starts to feel like trying to follow a piece of fruit as it
passes through a blender.
Maintaining Yates as director lends a consistency
to the project, and yet, it would have been refreshing
to get a completely new take on Rowling’s world with
this series, especially considering how murky and selfserious they got in the final chapters. Still, Yates knows
this world as well as anyone, and he excels at finding
visual solutions for challenging ideas (whether it’s how
a witch might cook without an oven or a creature who
either grows or shrinks to the available space). With all
its ties to Harry Potter arcana, “Fantastic Beasts” has
clearly been designed for the most devoted of Rowl-
Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg
and Tzi Ma. (RTRS)
❑ ❑ ❑
NEW YORK: J.K. Rowling came
DeVito
Mann
to town for a movie and a cause.
The British author was onstage
at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night
to introduce an advance screening
of “Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them”, a Nov 18 release
ing’s fans, and though it may prove confusing to newcomers, the faithful will appreciate the fact the film
never talks down to its audience.
Oddly, Rowling’s script gives us practically no information about Scamander’s backstory at this point,
whereas Goldstein gets multiple flashbacks over the
course of the film. That’s probably because Rowling,
whose world-building skills are rivaled only by George
Lucas, appears to be primarily concerned with plot at
this point, and Goldstein’s memories serve the story,
while this two-plus-hour-plus pilot evidently doesn’t
leaves much room for the sort of character detail we’d
all like to get about Scamander (whom Redmayne plays
with stooped shoulders and a slightly bow-legged walk,
easily winning sympathy for someone whose every
judgment seems to endanger the fate of his kind).
These are times of intense superstition for No-Majs
and wizards alike, and though the latter are progressive
in their choice of leader, electing a mixed-race female
president named Seraphina Picquery (Carmen Ejogo),
they’re largely intolerant of No-Maj Americans — with
good reason, as it turns out: There’s a new sect of magicfearing protesters on the rise, led by a zealot named Mary
Lou Barebone (played with Puritanical self-righteousness by Samantha Morton). Outfitted like a character out
of “The Crucible,” Barebone steals/adopts children from
the magic families she exposes, but doesn’t keep nearly a
close enough eye on her kids, leaving room for her deeply troubled “son” Credence (Ezra Miller) to hold private
meetings with a powerful — and power-hungry — auror,
Percival Graves (Colin Farrell).
Naturally, Graves is hiding one of those elaborate duplicitous agendas that Rowling loves to invent, raising
the stakes for her protagonists — Scamander, Kowalski,
Goldstein and Tina’s sister, a mind-reading legilimens
named Queenie (Alison Sudol, who looks the part of a
period-appropriate showgirl) — from merely recapturing all of those fantastic beasts on the loose to preventing
Barebone and Graves from exposing America’s magic underworld to the unsuspecting human population. (RTRS)
that she adapted from her “Harry
Potter” spinoff book of the same
name.
The screening was a fundraiser
for Lumos, a nonprofit foundation Rowling started a decade ago
to help institutionalized children
worldwide be reunited with their
families.
Her voice hoarse from days
of promoting “Fantastic Beasts”,
Rowling joked that she was “full
of honey” as she joined the film’s
star, Eddie Redmayne, for a
conversation about her charitable
work and her “Fantastic Beasts”
script.
She has related often her inspiration for Lumos: She was reading
the Sunday Times and spotted, to
her horror, a picture of a child in a
cage. (RTRS)