AKI KAURISMÄKI LE HAVRE One of Europe’s most distinctive directors, Fin- land’s Aki Kaurismäki has won a devoted fol- lowing with his films that combine off-beat plotting and deadpan humour with an adrena- line shot of human warmth. Le Havre finds the director at the peak of his
powers. It tells the story of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a bohemian former author who has retreated into voluntary exile in the French port city of Le Havre. He lives quietly between his work as a shoe-shiner, his favourite bar and his wife until he meets an underage illegal immi- grant from Africa. With the police closing in on the refugee, Marcel must step up and help him escape. Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Blondin Miguel and Laika the dog — a fifth generation canine actor — also star. The film, which premiered at Cannes and
won the festival’s FIPRESCI prize, is Kauris- mäki’s first French film since 1992’s La Vie De Bohème. Kaurismäki, whose credits include The Match
Factory Girl, Drifting Clouds, The Man Without A Past and Lights In The Dusk was previously nominated for a best director EFA for The Man Without A Past in 2002.
The Turin Horse
LARS VON TRIER MELANCHOLIA After the horror stylings of 2009’s Antichrist, Dan- ish provocateur Lars von Trier tackles nothing less than planetary apocalypse in this meditation on existential emptiness. The Zentropa-produced film, which premiered amid controversy at Cannes this year, follows two sisters facing the end of the world: Justine (played by Kirsten Dunst), a melancholic newlywed who has a hard time finding her place in the world, and her sensi- ble older sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Although she ultimately did not star in the film,
Lars von Trier
the idea for Melancholia was developed during an exchange of letters between von Trier and the actress Penélope Cruz. She wanted to make a film with von Trier and spoke of her interest in the Jean Genet play The Maids. “But I don’t do any- thing that’s not born by me,” explains von Trier. “So I tried to write something for her. The film is
BÉLA TARR THE TURIN HORSE (A Torinói Ló) Hungarian maestro Béla Tarr has reportedly said that The Turin Horse will be his final film and, if that is the case, the film provides a wonderful pinnacle of Tarr’s career. Stark, audacious and sombrely paced, the film
Béla Tarr
takes as its starting point the story of Friedrich Nietzsche losing his mind after flinging his arms around an exhausted carriage horse in Turin in 1889. The film explores what happened to the horse, following Ohlsdorfer, the carter, and his daughter as they live out their lives on their farm- stead. “It’s a very meagre life and infinitely monotonous,” Tarr says. “Their practiced move- ments and the changes in seasons and times of day dictate the rhythm and routine which is cru- elly inflicted on them. The film portrays mortal- ity, with that deep pain which we, who are under sentence of death, all feel.” The Turin Horse, which has three European
Film Awards nominations, has been selected as the Hungarian entry for the best foreign-lan- guage film Oscar, and won the grand jury prix and the FIPRESCI prize at the Berlinale. A Swit- zerland-France-Hungary-Germany co-produc- tion, it stars János Derzsi, Erika Bók and Mihály Kormos.
Melancholia
actually based on the two maids whom I turned into sisters in the film.” Von Trier’s credits include Breaking The Waves,
The Idiots, Dancer In The Dark and Dogville. He has picked up several European Film Awards and nominations including European Director for Dogville in 2003 and the audience award for best director in 2000 for Dancer In The Dark. With the founders of Dogme 95, he won the European Achievement in World Cinema Award in 2008.
European Film Awards 2011 n 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72