Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

I AM A PROBLEM


"I AM A PROBLEM", Will Benenedict, 2016, Berlin Biennale 9
Extract of the music video for the Detroit-based noise band Wolf Eyes:
An alien discusses issues surrounding assimilation in an extra global context with television talk show host Charlie Rose

After having visited this biennale at the different playgrounds for the last weeks, I can hardly tell what I received in daily media or at the exhibition any more. It all became a gross collage of society.
I wish there would be less collage and more fusion in my head.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Friday, October 18, 2013

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Players and Gamblers






















Volksbühne, Dostojewskij/Castorf : "Der Spieler", picture by Thomas Aurin


My last week was packed with Players and Gamblers. First I saw "Gangsterläufer", the fantastic documentary/portrait Christian Stahl made of Berlin Neuköllns little boss Yehya, sun of Palestinian refugees and a selfmade Gangster. He is such a Player. Smart and sporty, living a life made of fragments of videogames including hustle, prison, streetfights and "Call of Duty". Stahl partly uses a musicvideo like cutting served with lovely music to romantify some hoodrunning action. Yehya´s smile is killing it, reflecting about crime he has done, talking to his Therapist or Guardian in prison. He did fail brutally. But somehow you just want to like him, because he is funny, charming and fearless. As you know since you are witness of a scene, where Yehya dominates a confrontation with other prisoners. The big question above his life is: Will he stop betraying while playing? (And does he feel empathy with his victims, I really don´t know!) He seems to like the gambling, the hope of gaining the next level. But he is lacking any perspectives beyond Neukölln. His father, a former succesfully selfmade business man, has not been allowed to work in Germany since he has arrived. For more than fourteen years! A simple but maybe to easy to make guess would be, that his supressed energy and self-confidence seeks its expression through the desparately beautyful body- and fighting-action his suns are so addicted to. As beeing the player and committing crime is easy to Yehya, it became a big part of his identity. He plays, therefore he is. If society was Yehyas playground, maybe he would rule.
Very different to Dostojewskijs "Der Spieler" Alexey Iwanowitsch, whom I had the pleasure to see presented by Castorf, performed by Alexander Scheel at the theatre Volksbühne Berlin. Klamauk at its best, but suiting the topic of fever, that heats up your brain while gambling. Over the top acting, close to falling. Every emotion awakening in the familymembers, all in money-trouble, waiting for the rich aunt to die to let the heritage save them, is turned into gambling. They don´t like each other, they play each other, as a proof of love they try to win.The whole stage circles, all set ups are surrounding the casino in the middle, which we only get to see on videoscreens. The casino as a Heterotopos, where redemption is still possible, no matter what you have done.
And again, the beauty of gambling has become a cultural element, aesthetically idealised by videos and neonlight. Alexey, the Alter Ego of  gambler (Roulette) Fjodor Dostojewskij himself, is excited close to bursting. Not only because of the chance of winning, but because he has to loose something. All his feelings he and society have turned into money into Zero. Does Yehya have to loose something? I hope Yehya grows. And I recommend the documentary.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

sunday soundtrack



Tarantino provides the perfect sunday soundtrack: Django Unchained film score.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

"Paradies: Liebe"



Ulrich Seidls neuer Film "Paradies: Liebe" rückt wie immer in brutaler Zentralperspektive ein Thema in den Mittelpunkt, welches von der Gesellschaft gerne ausgeklammert wird.
In diesem Fall Sex-Tourismus in Afrika, oder besser Liebes-Tourismus? Scheint die österreichische Hausfrau doch ein wenig mehr auf Bestätigung aus zu sein als der Rentner in Thailand.
Die Hauptfigur, Teresa, fragt, ob denn schon viele weiße Frauen hier in diesem Bett... Sie kichert anfangs und illusioniert, kann also nach und nach desillusioniert, seziert, schließlich als Freier emanzipiert und in Ruhe mit Hilfe und Ratschlägen ihrer Freundinnen zum ganz gewöhnlichen Sextouristen werden.
Und der Sextourist, der schätzt das Angebot, welches für wenig Geld reichhaltig vorhanden ist und weiß wie man da ran kommt. Ist also ganz gewöhnlicher "ausbeuterischer" Tourist, der Dinge bekommt, die er sich zu Hause nicht leisten kann. Und Schönheit, die nicht zur eigenen Optik passt. Als wenn es nur daheim  Spiegel gäbe. Die Schieflage der Welt, der Kontinente, wird in diesen Bildern sichtbar.
Natürlich sind wir alle auf Beutezug. Auf jeder Reise in jedes Land, welches im Ungleichgewicht zum eigenen Wohlstand Erholung in Hülle und Fülle bietet. Auch im eigenen Land, beim Konsum von ausbeuterischen Produkten, sind wir dabei.
Es hat mich Nerven gekostet, die langen Kamera-Einstellungen zu ertragen, welche, wie gesagt, noch nicht einmal Flucht in eine Perspektive jenseits der Hauptakteure gewähren. Welche man sich ganz genau anschauen muss, so genau, wie man auch von der anderen Seite, den Einheimischen, angeschaut wird. Jedes Gesicht, jeder Körper.
Das kann nicht gefallen. Wird hier recht deutlich.
Teresa darf wenigstens unglücklich bleiben, was ihr in diesem Fall ein wenig Würde lässt.
Das ist die größte Gnade des Films.
Wenn man möchte, dann gibt es auch noch sehr viel zu lachen. Über Sexualkunde als Völkerverständigung zum Beispiel.

Friday, January 27, 2012

flying robots




by Gramazio & Kohler and Raffaello D’Andrea

Monday, January 09, 2012