The 15th edition of
Berlin and Beyond, the Goethe-Institute’s annual celebration of German language
films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Castro Theatre October 22nd
through 28th with a San Jose Encore Day October 30 at the Camera 12
Cinemas) comes at a new season and features a German co-produced candid
portrait of the late Rock Hudson featuring our own Armistead Maupin, filmmaker
guest appearances, Germany’s first 3D animated feature in English (Animals
United 3D, Castro/ 10-24), a major historical fiction on the possibility of
there having once been a female Pope, Pope Joan(Festival
Spotlight/Castro 10-23), special book-tie-ins at San Francisco’s Books , Inc.)
and lavish opening and closing night parties. Info: www.berlinbeyond.com
Rock Hudson: Dark &
Handsome Stranger:
This
intimate film biography of fifties Hollywood’s most masculine appearing leading
man jumps right into bed with Tales of the City creator Armistead Maupin
sharing a special memory that would later be fictionalized as belonging to
Maupin’s literary alter ego, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver.
“I was so
proud that I was climbing Nob Hill with Rock Hudson, and we went back to his
suite at the Fairmont Hotel and had our little adventure. I wish I could report
it was full of fireworks but I was simply not able to perform very well because
I was with Rock Hudson. And it was very clear he’d been through this before…
And he sat on the edge of the sofa with me and said, ‘You know, I’m just a
regular guy like anybody else.’ And I said, ‘No, no you’re not and I’m Doris
Day!’”
Andrew
Davies and Andre Schafer’s intimate portrait of Roy Fitzgerald, a.k.a. Rock
Hudson is chock-full of the kind of revelations a small army of press agents
was once employed to suppress or deflect. Hudson, who answered to Roy with
close friends, got his big break hooking up with an agent who maintained one of
Tinseltown’s most notorious same sex casting couches; the consensus of the
interviewees is that Hudson’s trade mark rugged man persona was no put on and
that not just any Mid-Western small town lad could have been recruited to fill
those boots. Hudson’s friendship with Elizabeth Taylor was heartfelt (they both
couldn’t abide their Giant co-star James Dean) and at the height of his
studio fame Hudson had a two-year “cover” marriage with a lesbian, who then
became overly fond of being Mrs. Rock Hudson. Hudson’s favorite of his films
was John Frankenheimer’s experimental drama, Seconds, that bombed here
and proved popular only with Rock and the French. Don’t miss this lovely bio
about the matinee idol whose AIDS diagnosis and death was a wake up call for
Reagan America. (Castro/10-25 & San Jose 10-30)
|
|
Julia’s Disappearance: “Imagine fifty years from now a dinner like this will
feature some old hags with piercings and tattoos.” A group of old friends,
accent on the old, gather at a swank Swiss restaurant to bitch and moan about
how annoying it is not to be thirty-five forever. Seriously, Christoph Schaub’s
ensemble – featuring a witty coupling between Bruno Ganz and Corinna Harfouch –
covers the waterfront with mostly witty age-hating one-liners that encompass
the fears and phobias of Julia’s friends including an really grumpy male
couple. My highlight is a senior food fight and the lovely evening Julia
(Harfouch) has with a gracious older stranger (Ganz) in lieu of what she
correctly guesses will be a downer of a fiftieth birthday party. A how-to-do-it
segment features a shoplifting spree by a pair of German teen girls.
(Castro/Closing Night & San Jose 10-30)
|
|
Vincent Wants to Sea: Tourette syndrome, anorexia and obsessive-compulsive
desires drive this surprisingly tender romantic comedy from Ralf Huettner –
screenplay by co-star Florian David Fitz. Fitz plays title character Vincent
who Tourettes’ driven barking drove his late mom to drink and has him trading
insults with his uber-ambitious politician dad. Vincent’s commitment to a
clinic provides him with oddball new pals – the refusing to eat Marie and the
too tidy Alexander. The candid language – Vincent’s frequent outburst are
peppered with the “F” and “C” words – and good cast chemistry raise this festival
opener above the average run of too sensitive for their own good young folks
road caper films. Florian David Fitz, cover boy for the Festival guide, will
appear for this gala opening.
(Castro 10-22) Fitz will also
appear at the Castro screening of SimonVerhoeven’s Men in the City about
five guys who bond at a Berlin fitness center. (Castro 10-23 & San Jose
10-30)
Draft Dodgers: In case you thought the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (a
landlocked European monarchy slightly smaller than Rhode Island) was just a
real life model for the Peter Sellers fantasy country in The Mouse that
Roared, think again. As demonstrated in Nicolas Steil’s taut, erotically
charged account of its anti-Nazi resistance movement, this tiny country has a
history as dark as any other.
It’s 1944
and our hero, Francois (the very hunky Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) faces cruel,
impossible choices: either follow his Nazi collaborating father and attend a
Reich sponsored engineering school, enlist in the Wehrmacht and die on the
Russian front or disappear down a proverbial rabbit hole: in an abandoned
section of a local coal mine where a rag-tag army of draft resisters is hiding
out. All choices are equally bad since as Francois quickly discovers virtually
no one can be trusted and all roads lead to a probable early grave.
Filmed in
a style that is both lushly naturalistic and at times strikingly
impressionistic – there’s a haunting scene in the woods where Francois is
symbolically sheltered in a grove of trees which resembles a panel from
Disney’s Fantasia, plus there’s the tension of a brutal Nazi
interrogation scene being filmed with the highly charged imagery of art house
torture porn, all in a good cause, of course.
With a
ferociously eager young cast playing every kind of war misfit, The Draft
Dodgers is a timely lesson in resisting myths of mankind’s nobility during
times of crisis. (Castro 10-25)
Soul Kitchen: Turkish/German
auteur Fatih Akin removes the darker hues from his rambunctious take on Hamburg
nightlife as his bumbling hero Zinos (the gorgeously disheveled Adam
Bousdoukos) screws up every aspect of his greasy spoon restaurant business. His
attempts to move upscale misfire hilariously – look for a sneaky cameo by Gus
Van Sant veteran Udo Kier (My Own Private Idaho). (San Jose only 10-30)