Tuesday, March 28, 2017

FIFA 2017: Agatha Christie Contre Hercule Poirot

AGATHA CHRISTIE CONTRE HERCULE POIROT:
QUI A TUÉ ROGER ACKROYD?
Who Killed Roger AckroyD?

FRANCE | 2016 | 57 MIN | French

This film clearly illustrates how little, until now, have we understood the real genius of Agatha Christie, at least vis-a-vis her novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It is only when Pierre Bayard undertakes to stage the novel as a play that he ends up discovering an amazing, original concept of this novel.

At first the film takes us through Agatha Christie's early biography and what motivated her to write. Then it focuses on Pierre Bayard's staging of the play, his need to minutely analyse Christie's writing, the novel's characters and scenes, and even to look into the police investigative tools that he himself then applies to understand better the novel's action and timing. This leads him to discover that the way the novel and its plot have been understood until now is not exactly what the novel insinuates. Unfortunately, if I say anything more, I would give out too many clues and spoil the film, which in itself becomes an investigative narrative, a search for the clues of Who's Done It?

The film elucidates Agatha Christie's technique and intent, and lets the viewer to discovers how much she was in the forefront of the crime novel genre, how avant-garde for her times, to the extend that it is only now this aspect of her writing is becoming finally understood. 

I had a problem with only one aspect of this film: the way the interviews with English researchers were audibly translated into French, both English and French simultaneous narrations heard at the same volume. Since neither of the languages is my mother tongue, and I acquired them both later in life, I had a hard time, actually had failed to pick up any of them clearly enough to understand what was being said. When previously presented with a similar situation in a film where one of the languages was my mother tongue, I had no problem to hear my native tongue clearly. I additionally suspect that people with some hearing problems, even slight ones like tinnitus, would also have  problems to pick up one of the languages more clearly, even a mother tongue. I therefore recommend that the film has a written translation s.- t.  to facilitate the understanding of what is being said.

Agatha Chritie as a child
Agatha Christie

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) is one of Agatha Christie’s most celebrated novels. Its renown stems from a plot twist that was highly original for its time: the killer is hidden behind the mask of the narrator himself. This earned Christie the wrath of some critics, who considered the artifice dishonest, a violation of the conventions of the genre. Eighty years later, Pierre Bayard, a professor of literature and psychoanalyst, revisits the book in order to deconstruct it. His textual analysis leads to an exploration of the context of the work’s publication and the private life of the mysterious novelist. Bayard finally arrives at a stunning conclusion.”
DIRECTOR
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE KLOTZ

Born in Washington, Jean-Christophe Klotz is a graduate of the Centre de formation des journalistes in Paris and of Paris II (Economics, Information and Communication). He wrote the documentary Kigali, des images contre un massacre(2006), presented at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 2006. In 2009, he directed his first feature-length film, Lignes de front.
Filmography | Lignes de Front (2010) ; L'Argent, le sang et la démocratie - A propos de l'affaire Karachi (2013); Kigali, des images contre un massacre (2006).

Cinematography: Alberto Marquardt
Distribution: Arte Distribution
Editing: Pascal Ariel
Music: Jean-Christophe Klotz
Producer: Estelle Fialon
Sound: Marc Soupa
Production: Les Films Du Poisson

FILM TRAILER



For more information and FIFA film festival and scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

FIFA 2017: Zhu Xiao-Mei

 Zhu Xiao-Mei: How Bach Defeated Mao


Germany / 2016 . 58 min / Chinese, French, English s.-t.
Category : FIFA Competition

This is another excellent film on a classical music piano virtuoso in FIFA competition category this year. You can read about FIFA documentary on French pianist Alain Planès here. It is interesting to compare those two musicians because each creates from a very different private perspective and each has achieved great success. With Planès, it is the integration of all his aesthetic, artistic senses into a unified expressive wholeness. With Xiao-Mei, it is finding the balance within herself, the unity of music and her emotions, and anchoring her being and her music in the timeless ancient philosophies of Lao Tzu and Buddha. 

Zhu Xiao-Mei's favourt composer is Bach. She is best known for playing Bach. She loves interpreting his music and claims that Back was a Buddha disciple, though he did not know it. It is the focus and unity in Bach's music that are Buddha-like, and with which Xiao-Mei strongly identifies. Her second favourite composer is Schubert, she also plays Chopin. She appears to limit her repertoire to those scores that resonate within her, that she strongly identifies with emotionally and philosophically since they correspond to her personal integrity, her sense of centring within and finding the all embracing wholeness. 


After being in exile first in the USA for 8 years and then in France where she still lives, she was finally persuaded to go back to China and face her fears and memories of repression and persecution. What surprised her the most, despite years of cultural banishment and even the outlawing of instruments like piano, she encounters a terrific interest in her concerts mostly from China's young generation. She is stunned because her western audiences are mostly in their sixties, and the demand for classical music is nothing so intense as what she encounters in China.

When Zhu Xiao-Mei was asked how could she play and understand Bach so well although she was Chinese, she replied that Bach music transcended cultural barriers and was a heritage of the entire humanity. She also stated that Chinese people might understand Bach better than westerners because of their attunement to such Chinese philosophers as Lao Tzu.

This film makes a viewer to ask a question why in the west the interest in the great classical composers and their music is waning, why it does not find much resonance with the younger generations? Why do rock concerts get so much funding and promotion and classical music concerts are being neglected? Could the old music masters come back to the forefront in our western society soon, as they did in China after years of political rejection and neglect?


OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS
Presented in partnership with ICI ARTV
“The music of Bach enabled pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei to cope with the worst challenges of her life. After experiencing all of the consequences of the Mao regime and the Cultural Revolution, she emigrated to Paris in 1980. She was deeply marked by the great cultural darkness that came over her country under Mao. She was publicly humiliated, her teachers were intimidated and her musical scores were burned. In this personal and touching documentary about the immense power of music, Paul Smaczny tells Zhu Xiao-Mei’s story as she agrees to return to China for the first time and discovers a country transformed.”
DIRECTOR
Paul Smaczny

Emmy Award-winner Paul Smaczny is a German-based documentary filmmaker and producer of music films and concert, ballet and opera recordings. His latest works include the award-winning documentaries Die Thomaner – A Year in the Life of St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig (2012), John Cage – Journeys in Sound (2012) and Music – A Journey for Life (2013), about conductor Riccardo Chailly. In 2010, he founded his own production company, Accentus Music, which quickly became one of the most distinguished production companies in the classical music sphere.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Cinematography: Michael Boomers, Nyika Jancsó
Distribution: Accentus Music
Sound mixing: Karl Atteln, Markus Krohn
Editing: Dirk Seliger
Producer: Anca-Monica Pandelea, Paul Smaczny
Sound: Sebastian Braun, Toine Mertens, Robert Sandow, Christoph Wonneberger
Production: Accentus Music


FILM TRAILER


Two years ago, Art FIFA festival presented another excellent film about pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei. You can read about it here.

FIFA 2015: LE RETOUR EST LE MOUVEMENT DU TAO


For more information and FIFA film festival and scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Monday, March 20, 2017

FIFA 2017: Alain Planès, l'infini turbulent


Alain Planès, l'infini turbulent
Alain Planès, the Turbulent Infinity


France  / 2016  / 55 min. / French,  English s.-t.

Category : FIFA Competition

We all tend to put various art forms into their respective categories. This film brakes such barriers. A music interpreter can actually hear colours or see music in a poem's turn of a phrase. This film, more than any other film about a concert music performer, makes one to understand that all the forms of art stem from the same creative source and have no boundaries separating them. One can put into music the colours one sees, or paint the musical notes one hears. This is how a genius of an artist or musician is revealed in how sensitive he or she is to the variations of the shades, shapes, tonalities, and sounds in any visual, auditory or tactile domain, and how the ability to interconnect all these aspects so the music which is being interpreted acquires a spacial volume of a sculpture, the colour of a painting, and the expressive meaning of a poem. This is what is unique about this film - it makes us understand that music is multidimensional and not simply auditory. It also reveals that the true virtuosos have understood this intuitively and it is what separates them from other music and concert performers who have not grasped this fact.

The film plunges a spectator into music and colours through which the life and career of Alain Planès is presented. It reveals his many connections with the people at the artistic and music avant-guard at his times, and how these relationships and his personal need for art and poetry shaped not only his understanding of music scores, but helped him to find the correct keys to unlock the composers' intent and to interpret it. The film is concise and well put together to reveal to the audience a pianist many of whom might not have known, or have not known him well enough, or might not have understood the source of his artistry. 


OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
Presented in partnership with ICI ARTV
“Alain Planès is a virtuoso performer of both classical and contemporary music, a versatile and demanding musician and ardent enthusiast of painting and poetry. From his relationship with the visual arts and words, he derives the meaning and power of his creativity. Although he has always avoided the glare of the media, he agreed here to reveal his sources of inspiration and musical choices. Looking back at his artistic path, from his very early days on the piano, his conservatory studies in Paris and the United States, and the launch of his career in the 1970s, this profile by Dominique Lemonnier immerses us in the world of the artist. In her directorial debut, the violinist offers a candid and intimate portrait of the pianist, shedding light on his influences and pivotal encounters.”
DIRECTOR
Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier

Dominique “Solrey” Lemonnier is a violinist who has performed in concerts and theatrical works, in addition to recording numerous film soundtracks. In 2005, in an effort to combine video, visual arts, texts and music, she formed the Traffic Quintet. Following her last concert at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2015, she decided to set her violin aside and devote herself to directing musical films.
Filmography | First film.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Cinematography:  Justine Emard, Xavier Forcioli, Edward Japp, Gerard Quiles, Ange Leccia
Distribution:  Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier
Editing:  Idit Bloch, Cyril Polinacci
Narration:  Alain Planes
Producer:  Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier
Sound:  Romain Allender, Xavier Forcioli, Alexandre Tanguy
Production:  Galilea Music 


For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

FILM TRAILER

Sunday, March 12, 2017

The Gardener

The Gardener
Le Jardinier
First feature by Sébastien Chabot

Quebec, Canada / 2016 / 87 min. / English, French s.-t. 

The film was premiered at the Québec City Film Festival 2016 where it won the CANADIAN BEST FILM AWARD from the public. It was also highlighted at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival 2016.



This is a wonderful film and the most visually attractive narrative. The viewer is bound to feel nostalgic for the beauty and harmony that could be created everywhere on our planet Earth, instead of proliferating the massive pollution and myriads of waste dumps that encircle our habitats. A comparison to the Garden of Eden is heard in the film, making one to wish the humanity was able to work collectively to create a paradise-like places to inhabit rather than pursuing the current general destruction of our Earth environments.


Frank Cabot, gardener, horticulturist, and influential philanthropist narrates his personal quest for perfection through the creation of his gardens Les Quatre Vents. Sprawled on more than 8 hectares, his English-style gardens open their doors to a film crew for the very first time. Knowing he has a degenerative pulmonary disease with little time to live, Cabot confides about his ambitious aesthetic and visionary mission on camera. Nestled at the top of Mount Murray in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, Les Quatre Vents, under the guidance of Frank Cabot, has become one of the most beautiful private gardens in the world. It was created over three generations of Cabot family, and became a true horticultural masterpiece, an enchanting place of beauty with many hidden surprises.



Through his interviews with Frank Cabot, his family, authors and experts in English gardening, the film recounts the personal history of Frank Cabot and his artistic philosophy that led to the creation of one of the greatest Private gardens of the world.


Film’s Official Synopsis:
"The Gardener is a documentary reflecting on the meaning of gardening and its impact on our lives. Shortly before his passing at the age of 86, influential gardener and horticulturist Frank Cabot recounts his personal quest for perfection at Les Quatre Vents , his twenty-acre English style garden and summer estate that was opened to a film crew for the first time in 2009. Nestled amongst the rolling hills of the Charlevoix County in Quebec, Les Quatre Vents has become one of the world’s foremost private gardens. Created over three generations, it is an enchanted place of beauty and surprise, a horticultural masterpiece of the 21st century. Through the words of Cabot and his family, and with the participation of gardening experts and writers, the film looks back at this remarkable  man’s personal story and the artistic philosophy that gave birth to one of the greatest gardens in the world."

The Gardener was written and directed by Sébastien Chabot with the participation of Raynald Bergeron, Francis H. Cabot, Anne Cabot, Colin Cabot, the Right Honorable Adrienne Clarkson, Jean Des Gagniers, Father Louis Genest CSV, Penelope Hobhouse, and Tim Richardson.

PRODUCTION TEAM 

CAMERA:  Geneviève Ringuet
MUSIC: Luc Saint-Pierre
EDITING: Aurélie Govaere
SOUND MIXING: Jean-Philippe Goyette
SOUND DESIGNER: Jean-François Turcotte
PRODUCER: Sébastien Chabot, Julie Dalbec, Michael Slack
DISTRIBUTOR: Lizanne Rouillard, distributed in Canada by Les Films d'aujourd'hui



Click on images to enlarge them.

Trailer on VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/206253368

The film will be screened on March 17, 2017 in four Quebec cinemas: the Beaubien and the Cinéma du Parc in Montreal, the Cartier in Québec City, and will have a Red Carpet reception at Trois-Rivières.

The film will be shown in preview and in the presence of the director on Monday, March 13, 2017, at 6:30 pm as part of Cinémagique at the Cinéma du Parc, Montreal.