ow many movies can you see in one day? This is the month for all cinema freaks. The 6th Athens International Film Festival will be held from Sept.7 to Sept.14 , showing five films at four cinemas a day. Extra specials of the festival: American Non-Commercial Cinema (“The Virgin Suicides” by Sophia Coppola, “Other Voices” by Dan Mc Cormak, “Auteur Theory” by Evan Oppenheimer),  Cinema of the Diaspora –Greeks who live outside of their country (“Wogboy” by Alexis Velis, “Migrating Forms” by Dimitis Fotopoulos, “When she comes back” by Kassandra Nikolaou), New Korean Cinema, An Homage to Michael Powell ( “Peeping Tom’, “Black Narcissus”, “A Matter of Life and Death” ) Underground Cinema and a special Homage to Peter Sellers ( showing the almost lost film by Clive Rees “Blockhouse” and “Appreciation Society”), plus a great number of Avant-Premiers ( “Sweet & Lowdown” ,“High Fidelity”, “Mission Impossible 2”., “Keeping The Faith”, “Woman on the Top” and more..)

A special goody: five hours of short-films the 11th of the month at the underground metro station of Constitution Square.

Andrea Kapsaski – from Athens

 “AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS”:

DEAD DOGS (by CLAY EIDE), JOE THE KING (by FRANK WHALEY), GROOVE (by GREG HARRISON), WHAT'S COOKING? (by GURINDER GHADHA), FREAK TALKS ABOUT SEX (by PAUL TODISCO), BOILER ROOM (by BEN YOUNGER), THE AUTER THEORY (by EVAN OPPENHEIMER), TRANS (by JULIAN GOLDBERGER), OTHER VOICES (by DAN MCCORMACK), SHADOW HOURS (by ISAAC H. EATON),

THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER (by RODRIGO GARCIA)

Son of the writer Gabriel Garcia Marques, Rodrigo Garcia has worked as a cameraman, a director of photography, but also as an actor in films such as Reality Bites, Four Rooms, and Great Expectations. “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” is his first attempt in direction.

THE WOMAN CHASER (by ROBINSON DEVOR)

Richard Hudson is a sadist but does not know it. Egocentric, indifferent, and emotionally inexperienced, he obliges his employees to wear Santa Claus costumes in the summer and succumbs to Oedipal dances with his mother. When he realizes that his life is void, he decides that he is the new Orson Welles and that the film industry urgently needs him. But Hollywood makes no compromises and neither does Richard Hudson. The collision is unavoidable. Based on the pulp novel of the same title by Charles Willford (how many of you remember the absolutely «black» Miami Blues?), The Woman Chaser is not only a psychological portrait of male vanity (an extraordinary Patrick Warburton in the leading role), a critique of the Hollywood system, a post-modern reproduction of the noir myth, an exquisite sample of elliptic narration or black and white photography. The Woman Chaser is the proof that independent cinema maintains its idiosyncratic identity that makes us so happy to watch it.

His first attempt in direction was the television documentary Angelyne. The Woman Chaser impressed public and critics, who, after it’s opening in Sundance, talked about a genuine independent director following the steps of Jarmusch and the Coen brothers. His next movie, Golden, might confirm his reputation.

JESUS' SON (by ALISON MACLEAN)

A series of extremely successful short films, exceptionally elegant video-clips, episodes of television series that struck gold (Sex and the City), as well as an impressive directorial debut with Crush, compose her curriculum vitae.

Realism, lyric intervals of humanity, abundant black humor and sudden surrealistic touches, follow the existential itinerary of a young junkie in an invisible marginal America of everyday madness in the mid 70s. Embracing her fragile heroes with extreme love, obtaining almost extraordinary interpretations from actors of exceptional expressiveness and talent such as Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton and telling an emotional allegory of the human fall and liberation with a disarming straightness and truth, Maclean manages without exaggeration, to make one of the best independent films of recent years. A cinema which is funny and at the same time tragic, cruel and sensitive, full of words and sequences made to stay with you for long and heroes that turn their look towards you asking you to wander with them for a while.

TUMBLEWEEDS (by GAVIN O' CONNOR)

My mother used to stop the car in the middle of the street to pick up tumbleweeds. One day, as she was picking one, she pricked her finger and started yelling». How can a mother who passionately collects cactus flowers and men not captivate the memories of a little girl? Three marriages and many lovers later, twelve-year-old Ava and forty-year-old Mary Jo (Oscar nominee Janet McTeer), remain the protagonists of their own romance, where males pass like comets. They get into their car and on the road looking for better luck, whenever the ideal man turns out wrong. Hoping to be original in emotion rather than in content, Tumbleweeds tells the story of the relationship between a rebellious mother and a wise daughter, looking at the material of so many «women's» films through a different perspective, thanks to the talent of a young director and the authenticity of the experiences he describes.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (by SOFIA COPPOLA)

Everyone relates the decay of our neighborhood to the death of the Lisbon girls», the narrator admits in the beginning of the film. Cecilia, the youngest sister has already committed her first attempt to suicide. The fate of the five girls is already revealed to us. Twenty-five years ago, in a suburb of Michigan, five girls commit suicide, haunting the memories of a group of boys. With the narrator’s voice guiding us, the life of the Lisbon family unfolds before our eyes, through a dream-like flow, until it’s decomposed. And all this encircled by a hauntedly romantic soundtrack by Air. In her first feature film attempt, Sofia Coppola pins us down unexpectedly. Penetrating, mysterious, fleeting, she draws amazing interpretations from Kathleen Turner, James Woods and Kirsten Dunst.

“PANORAMA”:

PRAISE (by JOHN S. CURRAN), BANG BOOM BANG ? EIN TODSICHERES DING (by PETER THORWARTH), BILLY ELLIOT (by STEPHEN DALDRY),  DOPPELPACK (by MATHIAS LEHMAN), HUMAN TRAFFIC (by JUSTIN KERRIGAN), THE WAR ZONE (by TIM ROTH), SOME VOICES (by SIMON CELLAR JONES), TUVALU (by VEIT HELMER), ABSOLUTE GIGANTEN (by SEBASTIAN SCHIPPER)

BACKDOOR (by GIORGOS TSEMPEROPOULOS)

With studies in the States and experience in theatre, photography and television, Tsemberopoulos is well known to abstain from film, if he feels he has nothing to say. Three features in 15 years, with major box office success. Head of the Film Partners, with friend George Panousopoulos.

Under the heavy atmosphere of the electrified 60s, and while Greece is being deprived of the right to free political speech, a young boy faces more important losses: he loses his father and the stability of his familial environment. The need to stand by his spoiled, bourgeois mother urges him to skip childhood and transcend directly to the wondrous world of grown-ups. The experimenting «first times» of adolescence are painted in bright colors and juxtaposed to the stormy political canvas, while purity of heart becomes an armor against the corrupt adult environment. Yorgos Tsemberopoulos opens the back door of his mind and goes through its threshold again, not because he pans his camera to the familiar and, therefore, easy nostalgia of childhood, but for he becomes a child again, not simply filming but recreating the explosions that escort the end of innocence.

CHEEP SMOKES (by RENOS CHARALAMPIDIS)

Born in Athens in 1970. He started his career as an actor before giving in to directing. His directing debut was No Budget Story, which brought a cool breeze to Greek cinema, earned participation and awards in international festivals and placed him among our most promising young directors.

«Idleness bears wickedness», ancient Greeks used to say, but it bears enjoyment as well, we should add. Nikos, a professional «traveler», in his endless free time, walks around his beloved city seeking precious moments for his collection. Like any «traveler» who takes himself seriously, he detests geographical transportation and prefers living in one of those peculiar universes that only the cinema's enlarging power can reveal. An ethereal female figure, a coffee shop owner with an unceasing appetite for philosophical discussions, middle aged men in crisis, pathetic bodyguards falling in love, prostitutes with artistic inclinations, begin their short trip on the screen having as a starting point Renos Charalambidis' imagination. They meet momentarily for a few days in an unrecognizable and magnificently photographed Athens only to return to nowhere as the end credits fall, exactly like the smoke of a cheep but enjoyable cigarette.

GEMINI (by SHINYA TSUKAMOTO)

Japan’s most internationally feted cult director begun making films in super 8, to evolve into a one-man independent film industry: In addition to writing and directing he regularly doubles as designer, cinematographer, editor, even an actor in his films. Gemini is his most recent and at the same time his most mainstream film to date.

In Japan of the early 20th century, a deadly virus and a highly strict social stratum plague society. Yukio is a doctor of high esteem with his life in boundaries set by his class. When night is falling though, the air carries a mysterious heavy threat, much like the air of the poor neighborhoods of the city, reminding his family the unknown past of his amnesiac wife. Shinya Tsukamoto carries the fame of Japan's most renowned cult filmmaker in new heights with this film. He transforms a Japanese legend and a period piece into a film straight from his dark imagination. Tsukamato slips in the threat of the unknown through the barriers of a period film. People without eyebrows, bottomless wells, corridors without an end meet in this art horror film, transforming it into a romance of nightmarish proportions, an exquisite fairytale gone wrong...

BLEEDER (by NICOLAS WINDING REFN)

Born in 1970 in Denmark he lived in New York from age 8 'till 18. The moment he was accepted in the state film school of Denmark, he got sponsoring for his first film. The warm welcome it received has justified him.

Leo loves Louise. He still loves her when she gets pregnant although his behavior seems to indicate the contrary. Violence expands when Louie, Louise's protective brother, decides to take revenge on her account. The result will be bloody as the film's title indicates, but the young director is not interested in violence as a means to impress. His heroes are real people, and so is the cruelty with which they behave. The simple story that leads the film to its peak is one of those that happen near us in the neighborhoods of big cities and finally end up in the back pages of newspapers. Nicolas Winding Refn puts down facts without making moral points and follows human tragedy with directness and sincerity. Impressive wide screen pictures seem contrary to the roughness of his story, but, through blood, violence and death, faith in man unexpectedly manages to survive.

“SPECIAL SCREENINGS”:

 MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE 2, SWEET AND LOWDOWN, CHICKEN RUN, HIGH FIDELITY, WOMAN ON TOP, UNDER SUSPICION, KEEPING THE FAITH, ROAD TRIP, HAMLET, HOLLOW MAN, PANE E TULIPANI

“DOCUMENTARIES”,

“KOREAN CINEMA”:

GHOST IN LOVE, INTERVIEW, MEMENTO MORI, SHIRI, TELL ME SOMETHING

“JULIO MEDEM”:

VACAS, LA ADRILLA ROJA, TIERRA,  LOS AMANTES DEL CIRCULO POLAR

 “ON THE EDGE”:

CURSED BYZANCE (by GANI MUJDE), ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN (by TODD VEROW),

PSYCHO BEACH PARTY (by ROBERT LEE KING), THE ITEM (by DAN CLARK)

THE CONVENT (by MIKE MENDEZ)

Independent cinema opens wide the doors of The Convent - before closing them once and for all, trapping our young heroes inside - and offers us what Hollywood would call an NC -17 (or simply not commercial) film. In the year 2000, the vampire nuns move in the sound of drum ΤnΥ bass and not in the musical pandemonium of Michael Jackson. Teenagers, who return to the place of the crime, because they left their stuff there, haunt them. They keep their virginity for Marilyn Manson and not because that is one of the main conditions for survival in a thriller. The Convent is based on the sound bases of Scream touching the extremities of a modern parody of schlock movies. 

LIES (by JANG SUN WOO)

Born in Seoul in 1952, he built his name as one of the most respected and celebrated directors of his country. He counts eleven highly acclaimed creations, topics that touch a very wide range of emotions and a varying, forever anti conformist style. An 18-year-old student anxious to lose her virginity, a 39-year-old man eager to help her, lots of kinky tools at their disposal, and a tendency to drive the adventure of the flesh beyond limits. Lies is one of the most daring films that the Asian cinema ever produced. The illustration of a mad love affair may touch the borders of hard core at times, but more than an artistic porn movie, the director is interested in creating an absolutely black sadomasochistic odyssey of lust through pain, love through death. Directed with admirable realism, endowed with some of the most extreme sex scenes we have ever seen and unsuitable to the spectators who will hurry to judge the result as immoral, Lies is a film which caused, not without reason, upheaval in last year's Venice Film Festival and in its own country, where it was almost prohibited.

“THE UNKNOWN PETER SELLERS”:

THE BLOCKHOUSE (by CLIVE REES),

A SHOW CALLED FRED (by RICHARD LESTER)

THE UNKNOWN PETER SELLERS (by JOHN SCHEINFELD, DAVID LEAF)

Peter Sellers was the comic genius we all got to know through classic films. In the shadow of the big successes, however, there has been an ambitious course in the cinema, the legend of the Goons in the radio and the contradictory personality of the actor. Recorded material and films that very few ever saw, the unknown ending of Dr. Strangelove, personal short films by Sellers, interviews with associates and co-leads, outtakes, rare photographs and depositions, sketch the portrait of the famous film star.

“TEX AVERY”

“MICHAEL POWELL, EMERIC PRESSBURGER”

“GREEKS OF THE "DIASPORA"

-- Andrea Kapsaski

september 2000

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