Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
WHAT’S ON — Film<br />
Editor’s Choice<br />
Extracting wisdom<br />
from whimsy<br />
Frivolous facades mask earnest intents in<br />
three of this month’s releases. By Paul O’Callaghan<br />
DON’T MISS<br />
Pulp Fiction in the park<br />
Freiluftkino Kreuzberg<br />
launches its<br />
25th season on<br />
<strong>May</strong> 4 with a free<br />
open-air screening<br />
of Tarantino’s 1994<br />
classic. Head to<br />
freiluftkino-berlin.de<br />
to apply for tickets<br />
and to check out<br />
the rest of this<br />
month’s line-up.<br />
The Past in the<br />
Present - New Films<br />
from Algeria<br />
Arsenal Kino offers<br />
a rare opportunity to<br />
catch some of the<br />
best Algerian films<br />
of the past five years<br />
on the big screen,<br />
including Karim<br />
Moussaoui’s Cannes<br />
2017 hit Until<br />
the Birds Return.<br />
<strong>May</strong> 3-6<br />
Anime Berlin Festival<br />
The city’s biggest<br />
anime showcase<br />
returns to Babylon in<br />
Mitte, with highlights<br />
including anarchic<br />
French-Japanese<br />
festival circuit hit<br />
Mutafukaz, and<br />
harrowing postwar<br />
tearjerker Giovanni’s<br />
Island. <strong>May</strong> 10-20<br />
Wes Anderson’s stop-motion<br />
animation Isle of Dogs<br />
envisions a dystopian<br />
Japan in which the canines of fictional<br />
Megasaki City have been banished to<br />
nearby Trash Island by hound-hating<br />
<strong>May</strong>or Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura).<br />
When said mayor’s young ward Atari<br />
(Koyu Rankin) attempts to rescue his<br />
exiled pet, he must rely on the help<br />
of a pack of mangy mutts to navigate<br />
the wasteland. It’s a visually intricate<br />
affair, albeit grungier than you might<br />
expect – diseased animals, rotting<br />
food and even a kidney transplant<br />
are rendered in surprisingly graphic<br />
fashion. And in terms of sound it’s<br />
cacophonous, with a propulsive, Taiko<br />
drum-heavy score, dogs voiced by Hollywood<br />
stars, and Japanese dialogue<br />
either filtered through an interpreter<br />
or left unsubtitled. Consequently, Anderson<br />
stands accused of othering his<br />
Asian characters, but I take the more<br />
generous view that his intent was to<br />
make his own outsider perspective<br />
explicit. Detractors have also been rattled<br />
by the fact that a rebellion against<br />
Kobayashi is led by Greta Gerwig’s<br />
American exchange student, a white<br />
saviour of sorts. But this heroic arc is<br />
undercut by the way in which the plot<br />
uncomfortably recalls the internment<br />
of Japanese Americans in the US<br />
during World War II. And underlying<br />
it all is a surprisingly moving meditation<br />
on self-determination, with alpha<br />
dog Chief (Bryan Cranston) grappling<br />
with his ‘wild’ nature. Certainly,<br />
there’s more going on than it might<br />
appear at first glance.<br />
The same can also be said for<br />
Faces Places (Visages Villages), the<br />
delightful new documentary by and<br />
about legendary French filmmaker<br />
Agnès Varda and enigmatic street<br />
artist JR. Visually, they make for<br />
an unlikely duo – he a lithe, imageconscious<br />
30-something, she a short,<br />
amiable octogenarian – and the film<br />
leans into this incongruity, envisaging<br />
in a deadpan opening sequence what<br />
it might have looked like if the pair<br />
had met in a nightclub. The premise is<br />
straightforward – this newly-formed<br />
odd couple will tour rural France,<br />
photograph regular folk, listen to their<br />
life stories, and plaster their blown-up<br />
visages across the sides of buildings.<br />
Varda is clearly energised by the company<br />
of her youthful partner, but the<br />
nature of their undertaking naturally<br />
encourages reflection and introspection.<br />
Thus, she begins to ruminate on<br />
her life’s work, her failing health and<br />
key figures from her past, in a manner<br />
that’s extremely moving to behold.<br />
Jean-Luc Godard, Varda’s last living<br />
nouvelle vague contemporary, looms<br />
particularly large, with a final-act<br />
visit to his home packing a devastating<br />
emotional punch. Throughout,<br />
the balance between playfulness and<br />
poignancy is handled impeccably.<br />
I Feel Pretty, the latest star vehicle<br />
for controversial comedian Amy<br />
Schumer, reaches for the heartstrings<br />
with rather less elegance. Schumer<br />
plays Renee, a woman held back in<br />
every aspect of her life by deep-seated<br />
insecurities about her appearance,<br />
until a knock to the head convinces<br />
her that she’s been magically granted<br />
the body of her dreams. She’s thus propelled<br />
on a madcap journey that forces<br />
her to confront her obsession with<br />
surface-level beauty. The film’s underlying<br />
message, however, is undermined<br />
by jokes that hinge around the conceit<br />
that Renee’s newfound confidence is<br />
somehow at odds with her (perfectly<br />
healthy) body type. Still, it’s worth a<br />
watch for a sublime supporting turn<br />
by Michelle Williams as a heliumvoiced<br />
beauty mogul. n<br />
Starts <strong>May</strong> 10 Isle of Dogs HHHH D: Wes Anderson (US, Germany<br />
<strong>2018</strong>) with Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin | Starts <strong>May</strong> 10 I Feel Pretty<br />
HH D: Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein (US <strong>2018</strong>) with Amy Schumer,<br />
Michelle Williams | Starts <strong>May</strong> 31 Faces Places (Visages Villages) HHHHH<br />
D: Agnès Varda, JR (France 2017) documentary<br />
26<br />
EXBERLINER <strong>171</strong>
Change language