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With all the excitement surrounding Argentine director Lisandro Alonso’s visit to Northwest Film Forum, it might be easy to forget that another film from Latin America is also playing this week. Araya is a documentary/tone poem about Venezuelan fishermen and salt workers in 1959. From the description:

The restoration of Margot Benacerraf’s brilliant films Reveron and Araya will be a landmark in cinema history. Acclaimed as a forerunner of feminist Latina cinema, Araya was never released theatrically in the United States and has all but been forgotten since the initial acclaim it garnered when it shared the Cannes International Critics Prize with Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

Araya, a peninsula in northeastern Venezuela, is one of the most arid places on earth. For five hundred years, since its discovery by the Spanish, the region’s salt has been exploited manually. A 17th-century fortress built to protect against pirate raids stands as a reminder of the days when salt was worth almost as much as gold and great fortunes were made. Benacerraf captures the life of the salineros and their back-breaking work in breathtaking images. The Peredas family works at night in the salt marshes, the Ortiz are fishermen and the Salaz collect salt. The three stories underline the harsh life of this region — all of which vanished with the arrival of industrial exploitation.

Araya was originally compared to Flaherty’s Man of Aran, Visconti’s La Terra Trema (1947) and Rossellini’s India (1957). Margot Benacerraf has described the film as “ a cinematic narration based on script writing rather than a spontaneous action, a feature documentary, the opposite of Italian neorealism” A film of such lasting beauty that Jean Renoir told Benacerraf after seeing the film: “Above all … don’t cut a single image!”

Araya plays Northwest Film Forum November 13-19 at 7 and 9pm daily.

For those of you coming this week to Lisandro Alonso’s films, therre are two interesting youtube clips showing some moments from the set of LIVERPOOL that might interest you. I’ve posted both above.

(Again!)

“The Northwest Film Forum has the best program director in Seattle.” Heck, yeah!

The following interview with Claire Denis was conducted at BAFICI in April. A festival report by the author, as well as comments on the Denis film, can be found at the link provided below.

Gratitude goes to the Northwest Film Forum, presently screening 35 Rhums.

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/bien-sur-the-11th-buenos-aires-festival-internacional-de-cine-independiente/

Claire Denis and 35 Rhums: On the Tracks, In a House Full of Love

A recollection from Beau Travail: the soon-to-be-disgraced Legionnaire intones that “something vague and menacing came over me”, describing a fit of jealous rage toward a younger charge. Could this feeling not describe the tone of all of your films? Is it another name for sexuality in general?

In a way it could be true of my films. We build our lives on hope and fear; we are hoping for things to happen and fearing them too. These intrusions of hope and fear are menacing in a way, but vague too because we don’t know the future. It’s about feelings of mortality and the instability of our emotions: we always expect something from the future, but in the end what is certain is that we are dying. We always expect a better life, even when things are at their worst. And this longing for sex, well, it is certainly true..

35 Rhums has been described by you and others as an homage to Ozu. It’s certainly more delicate and tender than your previous film L’Intrus, for instance, yet much more erotic than Ozu, and more portentous.

Actually the film is inspired by the story of my own mother and grandfather. But when I saw Late Spring (Ozu Yasujiro), I realized it would be great to do my own version of it.

There are small signs of danger in the film, which could relate to the sense of mortality you speak of. When she is cleaning her balcony window, for example, there’s a sense of trepidation…

The father, he’s been looking after her since she was a baby. He has to let go of that protective nature, but he’s still afraid.

And then, as they are traveling to Germany by car, the highway seems fraught, there’s an image of a blue truck. There’s a feeling of…

Danger. In the script we had written a scene of them preparing to go. In another version, we removed it. I like the idea of them arriving at dawn, they have been driving all night, and I wanted to convey this not with a particular shot but through a feeling of ellipse. When you drive all night and suddenly in the morning you’re in another country.

So it’s more of a sensation than information?

Yes.

During a post-screening Q&A with Kent Jones, you spoke of how a fictional character becomes part of your life, how a film too becomes part of your life. How do you find that these insinuate themselves? Is it through the script, in characterization, or in something more ambient? I’m thinking of the café scene at closing time, they’ve missed the concert, it’s raining, suddenly the Commodores are playing and it’s as if you could really luxuriate inside that scene, that moment.

I enjoyed writing that so much. The concert, this bar, these sorts of things. Those who are in love they want to go out and be and feel together – that moment of sharing something. Of course for Lionel that’s why it’s a bit boring to go there, he would prefer to stay home. But suddenly the fact that they are missing the concert, it’s the moment where Lionel uses the occasion for something else. Noe can move forward a little bit. It’s as if Lionel was at that moment deciding: Let’s do something for the benefit of others. Of course he finds the woman in the café beautiful, and he wants to have sex with her (laughs). But he doesn’t want to ask that everyone stick together for the sake of it, an artificial togetherness.

That comes from what exactly?

He wants his daughter to realize…that they are both adults, he can do what he wants, so that she can do what she wants. The time has passed for her to go back home with him. On the other hand, he’s completely contradictory because any time she’s working late he hates that. But he regrets that too.

It’s ambiguous, their relationship. It’s not clear at first that they are father and daughter.

It’s intentional in the script. We thought, it’s easy for a good-looking man to have a younger woman. And in the film they essentially live like a couple, although he respects her privacy very much. He would never walk around naked in that apartment! That long corridor is very necessary, a means of separating their private lives.

One can get used to shocks of sex and violence – not only in your work but in cinema in general – so it comes as a surprise that this is in essence a very universal story, about familial intimacy. There’s a reversal of expectation. But then, your films have always been about family in some way.

It’s the film I wanted to make! Yes, some of my films have been violent, but I would never show a father/daughter relationship that is sordid, you know? I’m not into that.

There’s such a stark contrast in your work, often within the film, of cruelty and tenderness. I’m thinking of the dead cat in the garbage bag. A certain sadness to the practical?

It’s something that I experienced. I knew a woman and she had a very strong relationship with her cat – it was 18 years old, very old for a cat. We were having dinner, and as the cat was going to the sink for a drink of water, it simply fell dead. I hoped she didn’t see it, but she did, and she took a shoebox and put the cat in it, and she came back to eat dinner. I said “You have no heart, it is your cat who just died.” And she said “He was the center of my life when he was alive, but now he is dead, and I must finish my dinner.” I like that very much, it makes sense.

For Noe, it means the time has come to know: does she want me or not? The cat is dead, the calendar is turning. Time, it passes. Grab me now, he is thinking.

Noe, we don’t know much about him, he’s obscure.

We know enough. His parents are dead. He kept the apartment with the old cat. He’s working – we knew what kind of job but we decided to keep that out. He’s in love, that’s all.

But we are sympathetic toward him, even though he’s an enigma. The initial looks he gives Lionel can be seen as less than friendly.

No. He simply wants his daughter. Maybe because Gregoire Colin is such a complex guy he brings a look of the unknown, a naivete. But that’s the kind of actor I like.

At one point Lionel says: “We have everything we need here.” I read this as a comment on extended family, on émigré community.

It’s about love. He is mentioning to Noe: There is my daughter, and there is no other place to look for love. Is there a more beautiful woman? No.

And what about Lionel’s relationship to Rene? Rene is suffering, unhappy.

All the characters are attracted to Lionel and his daughter because their house is full of love. They want to be part of this. When you are lonely and you go to a friend’s place and drink some wine, it feels warm to you. I think Lionel knows that whatever happens he has preserved a precious thing, which is the quality of love for his daughter. In the end it is no good for him because it hurts, but still…

He drives the train. Maybe it is lonely but he looks and listens. Like watching a film…

It’s a beautiful job I guess. And trains are beautiful. It is work where companionship is very important.

The comraderie born of loneliness.

Yes, it’s always about the comraderie.

Speaking with you I realize that the film is principally about their relationship, a father and daughter, more so than as I was watching it.

Actually the film is inspired by the story of my own mother and grandfather. But when I saw Late Spring (Ozu Yasujiro), I realized it would be great to do my own version of it.

Tomorrow one of cinema’s recent poets Lisandro Alonso arrives in our city for a complete retrospective of his work. While the film forum is responsible for touring Alonso latest film LIVERPOOL throughout the US and Canada, we’ll also be engaging him in several Seattle based cinematic activities; introductions, Q & A’s, a master class, but perhaps most interesting amongst them we’re commissioning a short film as part of our one-shot film commission series. The first international filmmaker and the only one who is a sort of master of the one-shot , we’re giddy with excitement as Alonso takes the helm.

In the meantime I thought I’d provide you with a comprehensive primer on Alonso and his films. Below you’ll find a series of links to various articles, essays and interviews. These links, arranged according to film title, date of production, articles, etc, can also serve as a kind guide into the directors unique aesthetic approach.Hope to see you at his films this week!

S/T sin titulo (2009) Short – BAFICI 2009

• “Days in Buenos Aires: Lisandro Alonso” By: Robert Koehler (Film Journey, 13 April 2009)

Liverpool (2008) IMDb link – Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Cannes 2008

• “Liverpool, Patagonie” By: Jean-Philippe Tessé (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 634; May 2008) [FRENCH]
• “Liverpool (Argentina)” By: Robert Koehler (Variety; 19 May 2008)
• “Liverpool Sud” By: Olivier Séguret (Libération, 20 May 2008) [FRENCH]
• “Regarder le monde et les hommes avec un regard neuf, presque vierge” By: Jacques Mandelbaum (Le Monde; 21 May 2008) [FRENCH]
• Cannes Film Festival, 2008: “Liverpool” (Alonso, Argentina) By: Daniel Kasman (The Auteurs; 21 May 2008)
• “Cannes 2008. Don’t Be So Naïve!” By: Kent Jones (Film Comment; Jul-Aug 2008)
• TIFF08 – Liverpool By: Michael Guillen (The Evening Class, 4 Sept 2008)
• “Toronto Dispatch. 2” By: Michael Sicinski (Green Cine Daily; 7 Sept 2008)
• The London Film Festival: Liverpool – A trilogy of closely observed characters By: Quintín (Sight & Sound; Nov 2008)
• Liverpool Making of By: diasestranhos (YouTube; 29 Nov 2008) part 1 – 2
• “Deep and Wide” By: Megan Ratner (Bright Lights Film Journal; #63; Feb 2009)
• “Liverpool” By: Serge Kaganski (Les Inrockuptibles; 28 Jul 2009) [FRENCH]
• “L’errance fantomatique d’un marin descendu à terre” By: Isabelle Régnier (Le Monde; 5 Aug 2009) [FRENCH]
• “Liverpool” By: Jacques Morice (Télérama, 8 Aug 2009) [FRENCH]
• “Liverpool” By: Fernando F. Croce (Slant; 31 Aug 2009)
• “Being There” By: Ed Halter (Artforum, 31 Aug 2009)
• “Jobber Adrift at Sea Takes Leave in Liverpool” By: J. Hoberman (The Village Voice; 1 Sept 2009)
• Links By: David Hudson (The Auteurs Daily; 1 Sept 2009)
• Liverpool By: Andrew Schenker (The House Next Door; 1 Sept 2009)
• A Bleak Journey Through the Snowy Terra del Fuego By: Manohla Dargis (NYT; 2 Sept 2009)
• “Argentine Winter” By: Benjamin Mercer (The L Magazine; 2 Sept 2009)
• Now in Theaters: “Liverpool” (Alonso, Argentina) By: Daniel Kasman (The Auteurs; 6 Sept 2009)
• New Film: Liverpool & Extract By: Michael J. Anderson (Tativille; 8 Sept 2009)
• Liverpool By: artversussport (via the frog, 1 Nov 2009)

Fantasma (2006) IMDb link – Cannes 2006

• “Fantasma de Lisandro Alonso” By: Jean-Philippe Tessé (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 612; May 2006) [FRENCH]
• “Cannes 2006. Alonso Ascends the Staircase” By: Robert Koehler (FIPRESCI; 2006)
• Fantasma (2006/Alonso) By: HarryTuttle (Screenville; 4 June 2006)
• Haunted Cinema (Fantasma) By: Matt Riviera (Last Night with Riviera; 13 Aug 2006)
• “The Phantom of Liberty : Lisandro Alonso’s ‘Fantasma’” By: Neil Young (Neil Young’s Film Lounge; 15 Jan 2007)

Los Muertos (2004) IMDb link – Cannes 2004

• “Le deuxième souffle” By: Jean-Philippe Tessé (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 590; May 2004) [FRENCH]
• “L’épopée stupéfiante d’un solitaire” By: Jacques Mandelbaum (Le Monde; 15 May 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Des acteurs vierge de cinéma” By: Thomas Sotinel (Le Monde; 15 May 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Lisandro Alonso : géométrie variable” By: Emmanuèle Frois (Le Figaro, 15 May 2004) [FRENCH]
• “That’s How a Man Lives” By: Andy Rector (FIPRESCI; 2004)
• “L’ oubli et l’oubli” By: Sylvain Coumoul (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 595, Nov 2004) [FRENCH]
• “L’enfer vert” By: Vincent Ostria (Les Inrocks; 3 Nov 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Bouffée d’anxiogène” By: Didier Péron (Libération; 3 Nov 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Los Muertos” By: Jacques Morice (Télérama; 3 Nov 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Lisandro Alonso filme son tropisme pour la vie sauvage” By: Thomas Sotinel (Le Monde; 6 Nov 2004) [FRENCH]
• “Los Muertos end credits” By: Zach Campbell (a_film_by, 23 Feb 2005)
• “Los Muertos, 2004” By: acquarello (Strictly Film School, 19 Feb 2005)
• “Los Muertos, 2004” By: Mohit Sabharwal (The New Delhi Biscuit Company, 24 Apr 2005)
• “Lisandro Alonso. Bevrijd in de jungle” By: Gabe Klinger (Filmkrant, #270, Oct 2005) [DUTCH]
• “Films That Got Away” By: Andy Rector (KINO SLANG; 1 Jul 2006)
• “Got Your Goat” By: Nathan Lee (The Village Voice; 27 March 2007)
• “Los Muertos” By: Matt Zoller Seitz (NYT; 5 Apr 2007)
• “Los Muertos”, “Quiet City” By: Michael Atkinson (IFC; 28 Jan 2008)
• “Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, 2004)” By: grunes (Dennis Grunes, 23 Jul 2008)
• “Lisandro Alonso『Los Muertos』” By: maplecat-eve (maplecat-eve Diary; 5 Oct 2009) [JAPANESE]

La Libertad (2001) IMDb link – NYFF 2001

• “Conquista argentina” By: Michel Eltchaninoff (Synopsis; May 2001) [FRENCH]
• “La Libertad” By: Vincent Ostria (Les Inrocks; 9 May 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Eloge du dénuement” By: Thomas Sotinel (Le Monde; 12 May 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Un jour sans fin” By: Michel Eltchaninoff (Synopsis; 5 June 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Le dernier des hommes” By: Serge Kaganski (Les Inrockuptibles; 30 Oct 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Les petits riens de la journée d’un bûcheron de la Pampa. Authentique” By: Aurélien Ferenczi (Télérama #2703; 31 Oct 2001) [FRENCH]
• “La libertad” By: Nicolas Azalbert (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 562; Nov 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Au fond de la forêt, l’épopée du quotidien” By: Jean-Michel Frodon (Le Monde; 2 Nov 2001) [FRENCH]
• “La Libertad. Film argentin de Lisandro Alonso” By: Aurélien Ferenczi (Télérama, 3 Nov 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Festival de Gijón 2006. Entrevista con Lisandro Alonso” (tren de sombras; 29 Nov 2006) [SPANISH]
• “Guadalajara Film Fest, Entry 1” By: Robert Koehler (Film Journey; 9 March 2008)
• “Brief thoughts on La libertad” By: Zach Campbell (Elusive Lucidity; ?)

Dos en la vereda (1995) short

• “Ride Lonesome” By: James Quandt (Artforum; Nov 2008) at Highbeam Research Library

GENERAL ONLINE ARTICLES

• “el tiempo de lisandro alonso” By: Enrique Vidal (cinerastas; 17 Jan 2009) [SPANISH]
• “Days in Buenos Aires: Lisandro Alonso” By: Robert Koehler (Film Journey, 13 Apr 2009)
• “At The End Of The World: The Cinema Of Lisandro Alonso” By: Bill White (Seattle Post Globe, 8, Nov 2009)

• “Je voulais faire un film sans savoir lequel” By: Laure Charcossey (Cahiers du cinéma, n° 558; Jun 2001) [FRENCH]
• “Give them ‘Liberty’; Give them ‘The Dead’: Lisandro Speaks” By: Neil Young (Neil Young’s Film Lounge; 17 May 2005)
• “Lisandro Alonso tambien habla, parle” interview By: Hector Bujia (Cinémas d’Amérique Latine, #13, 2005) [French-Spanish]
• “Où va le cinéma?” (Centre Pompidou, 2008) video 48″ (translation at Unspoken Cinema)
• “The London Film Festival: Liverpool – Interview” By: Maria Delgado (Sight&Sound, Nov 2008)
• “The Rumpus Interview with Lisandro Alonso” By: R. Emmet Sweeney (The Rumpus; 9 Feb 2009) on Liverpool
• “Who’s John Ford?”: An Interview with Lisandro Alonso By: Darren Hughes (Senses of Cinema; 2009) on Liverpool
• Shore Leave: Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool By: Violeta Kovacsics & Adam Nayman (cinemascope #36; 2009) on Liverpool
• “Lisandro Alonso over Liverpool. Wreed landschap” Interview By: Ronald Rovers (Filmkrant #311, Jun 2009) [Dutch]
• Aregentine Cinema: Liverpool — The Evening Class Interview With Lisandro Alonso By: Michael Guillen (The Evening Class, 27 Aug 2009) on Liverpool

• “En la cama de una pension, Calle Juana Fadul, Ushuaia, enero de 2007” By: Lisandro Alonso (Ekran Untranslated, Nov/Dec 2007) [SPANISH] (translation below provided by Jessie Calhoun)

I came back from walking for two or three hours along the uninhabited streets in the outskirts of town.  The truth is I don’t know what I was looking for.  I was thinking about other places and trying to find some common characteristics and attitudes of the people that live there.  I arrived ten or fifteen days ago and feel that I know the main streets of town as if I had been raised there since I was a little boy.

In reality I was tired of searching for something without knowing where my search would lead me to.  I was unable to speak and converse with the people, so I planned where I was going to eat but moreover what I was going to drink.  If I start with wine, beer, whisky,
Everything depended upon the hour of the day and how I wanted to arrive at the end of the evening that in reality was short because in that time night fall came late and cleared up early, but the thing I cared about were those hours of the night and who walked the streets because I was looking for a man from a bar, a drunk that for certain would drink at whatever hour without a care.

Now I was in bed in a small family run inn staring at the ceiling about to take a nap.  I had already made a few calls to Buenos Aires and everything was normal, those unforeseen expenses came a little bit later.  I remember the voices in the house, more than other those of the boys running through the kitchen and fighting for the TV, the wals were very thin and you could hear everything so clearly, also the boys’ Grandfather was always there telling stupid stories.  They also heard me come in at whatever hour of the day or night but since I traveled alone it didn’t cause any major problems between us.

I decided to film a film en southern Argentina, some call it the end of the world but in reality its not although one does feel very far removed, lost…I decided to I wanted to film something that had to do with the sea, with being faraway from everything, someone that came back with out know why, maybe to see if their mother was still living in the same place where they had been born, maybe to see if their mother was still alive, but moreover this was just an excuse to get off the boat and dedicate oneself to emptying glasses and filling them up again and emptying them anew.

I didn’t know really know what I was searching for and so it was difficult to find something, of course there are times that at first glance one perceives of something as strange, people that seem to be out of place, and to find them you just have to be there and wait for them to appear.  Days before I spent a few hours in a school for the disabled, spending a few hours with them and talking with the teachers who would put music on in order to allow the kids to leave their own little world or share their world for a moment, a world that always gave me so much curiousity to learn more about, to enter into the mystery, but not to stay only to see what they feel.  There were all kinds there, but in general they were sweet, I took some photos of the girls with the least degree of  disability because I was also looking for a disabled girl for the film, one that could use the bathroom herself and walk without problems.

To be in the school was a relief because I didn’t feel the pressure of walking the streets searching for something, being with the kids and taking them around in their wheel chairs from one side of the room to the other made me feel useful and furthermore it made me laugh so much.  I felt like I could say anything that came to my mind without having to have a dialogue or wait for a response that had meaning.  What’s your name? I asked one of them, they told me Mountain.  After four or five hours in the school I hadn’t really spoken much, just to ask for food and a few beers.  Afterwards I returned home to read for a bit and stare at the ceiling.  The film will be called Liverpool and I hope they like it.

Published in Ekran, 2007 (November/December)

• IMDb
• cine nacional

Northwest Film Forum’s Winter quarterly calendar is now online, and you can taking a longing look at the movies, classes, and special events coming your way Dec-Feb by visiting our website or downloading a PDF copy of it.

Film Forum members, take note: the printed calendar returns this quarter, so check your mailbox soon. This season’s edition has been streamlined to allow us to keep saving cash and trees while still providing the information you need to not miss exciting events in our cinemas.

And winter program highlights? A visit from one of the infamous Yes Men; a timely look at German cinema on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; a new wave of classes about film history that we are calling Required Viewing; the premiere of Frederick Wiseman’s La Danse; the annual Children’s Film Festival Seattle and — if you can believe it — even more.

And more yet: stay tuned for our announcement of the winter workshop offerings coming soon.

This week we open Ulrich Seidl’s IMPORT EXPORT, a film that appeared on my top ten list for 2008.  Both confrontational and compassionate, Seidl’s tale of migration and social borders weaves its way through contemporary Europe as it interrogates the political, cultural and economic forces which shape life here. It’s the type of film you’ll never forget, I hope to see you here.

If it is indeed true that Bailey/Coy Books will be closing by the end of this month, it will be a sad day for the Film Forum indeed. Over the years Bailey/Coy has been an important community partner to this organization, offering up their lobby as an extension of what is going on in our cinemas, providing context, and making generous in-kind donations year after year to help support our programs.

Best of luck to the entire staff with whatever is next for you! The neighborhood will not be the same.

Mumblecore haters beware!  Don’t write Beeswax off as just another post-post-modern, vapid hipster flick.  Andrew Bujalski’s third feature is a quiet, mature and humorous work of art, and the critics agree:

“A remarkably subtle, even elegant movie.” -Seattle Times

“A symphony of the ordinary…If Beeswax is part of the mumblecore movement, then it is one of its highest achievements.” -The Stranger

“a near-perfect little film” -Jew-ish.com

“Beeswax is pushing the little movement that could into the Amerindie mainstream.” -Seattle Weekly

“It is time the world stood up and took notice [of director Bujalski” -Seattle PostGlobe

Read more about Beeswax and watch the trailer here.

Also playing this week – and at risk of getting buried – is another little gem called Guy & Madeline on a Park Bench.  I think our synopsis is a pretty good sum-up:

Godard meets Cassavetes with a little Miles Davis thrown in for good measure in a fresh take on the musical by first time director Damien Chazelle. Within the first ten minutes, we meet Guy (Jason Palmer) and Madeline (Desiree Garcia) as they meet each other, embark on a brief romance and part ways. The rest of the film focuses on the mellifluous voice of Guy’s trumpet and Madeline’s charming tap dancing, creating an ode to Boston’s eclectic jazz scene. Shot in black and white on 16mm, grainy shadows and striking lighting combine with gorgeous music and heartfelt romance in this stunning debut.

“A surprise, a delight and a whimsical experiment, it could, despite its rigorous efforts to be noncommercial, end up a bona-fide cult hit.” —John Anderson, Variety

Read more & watch the trailer here.
(Guy & Madeline is playing as part of our annual Earshot Jazz film series)