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LOCARNO
2002
REPERCUTIONS
FROM THE SCREENLESS AND LANDLESS, GUS VAN SANT AND
THE NEW
BELGIUM CINEMA
The last settlement of the Landless is
here, in Locarno, where two Italian filmmakers present
a documentary video with a Portuguese title "SEM
TERRA"/"LANDLESS", shot in Brazil,
inserted with interviews of MST leaders (initials
for the Brazilian movement organized by landless people),
militants from the Catholic Church such as Frei Beto,
and scenes from the Carajás massacre.
The
realization of the documentary was facilitated with
the support of Brazilian filmmaker Paulo Cesar Saraceni,
who speaks in the name of "Screenless People,
for 98% of film distribution in Brazil is controlled
by North Americans and Brazilian Cinema doesn't have
where to screen its films anymore".
Roberto
Torelli, one of the filmmakers along with Pasquale
Scimeca, is a renowned Italian documentary filmmaker,
whose last work "Bella Ciao" compares the
anti-globalization manifests in Genoa with the Italian
resistance that was censured and prohibited by Italian
television RAI, now under control of Silvio Berlusconi's
government. The filmmakers Roberto Torelli and Pasquale
Scimeca were last year at the WORLD SOCIAL FORUM OF
PORTO ALEGRE, when they shot the first scenes, including
the one about the occupation of Monsanto Farm and
its transgenic cereal plantation.
The
video points out how important the support from the
progressist branch of the Catholic Church is to the
movement, in a syncretism of São Francisco
de Assis, Santa Clara, Che Guevara and Mao, showing
that religion may have an important role in the fight
against misery in Brazil. The documentary shows the
positive results of the MST obtained on one of the
settlements in Rio Grande do Sul - in a huge area
that was before unproductive, more than two thousand
families live today, with agriculture as well as dairy
and cattle farming. The documentary has Chico Buarque
and Milton Nascimento in its soundtrack.
GUS
VAN SANT LOST IN THE DESERT
It's
the great surprise of Locarno International Film Festival
- a renowned filmmaker in Hollywood, in an independent
film produced by actor Matt Damon, made a film with
the rhythm of Portuguese directors and long takes,
worthy of Chinese or Iranian directors. The film aims
towards the opposite direction of American cinema,
for it is slow, extremely slow, almost without dialogues
and instead of rock or jazz in the background, there
is the beautiful though monochord music of Finish
Arvo Part.
Gerry is the name of the film (PHOTO) and of the two
young characters, interpreted by Matt Damon and Casey
Affleck, who decide to stretch their legs in a restricted
desert, but after an hour of wandering without a compass,
water, food or backpacks, and an awful sense of direction,
they get lost. They go around in circles, under a
torrid sun and without any trees to protect themselves,
until they become desperate and prostrated, just a
few miles away from the freeway.
Gus
van Sant, following Matt Damon's strict instructions,
wanted to make a film, faithful to what happened to
two young Americans, without incorporating in the
story any psychology in the relationship between the
characters. They have no other concern, except finding
the way back. They climb mountains in the attempt
to get better orientated, they get thirsty, they see
mirages, through Arvo Part's music you can hear the
dry sound of their boots against rocks and pebbles
or the wind that blows.
In
this attempt for art cinema, with a Gus Van Sant who
acknowledges Béla Tarr's influence, there was
the realistic desire to also give the spectator the
feeling of being lost in the desert, along with the
crew who followed the actors. Gus van Sant confessed
that he, himself, got lost in the desert while doing
set location.
The critics and the audience's reactions in Locarno
were extreme - you either like it or hate it. A great
number of people leave the theater during the projection
and some clap when the final titles come up, shortly
before you see Matt Damon's dirty and sun burnt face.
INSPIRED
ON A TRUE STORY
"It
was Matt Damon's original idea, says Gus van Sant,
after having read in the newspaper the misadventure
of two youngsters lost in the desert. One year later,
at a dinner with the actors, we decided to go to the
desert, without having a script but based on meetings
to decide what we were going to film. The starting
point was the true story that happened there. Part
of the film was improvised, there was no pre-established
schedule, everything could be changed the day before
the shooting."
Question
- What kind of rhythm did you adopt for the film?
Gus
van Sant - There are several ways to approach
time in cinema. In standard cinema, images reproduce
real time in a very fast way. The mind follows the
images in a rhythm different than the heart. I tried
to approach time just like the brain of the lost characters
were living it. In the car, as well as after they
get off and enter the desert.
Question
- The film doesn't have anything to do with Good Will
Hunting, also in collaboration with Matt Damon.
Gus
van Sant - For Matt Damon and Ben Affleck,
this had to be a Hollywood-type film, but for the
film Gerry, there was no interest in conquering Hollywood.
Our previous success allowed us to do a film beyond
the standard rules, as a sort of trial, and the results
elude certain conventions. Comparing to what is done
today in Hollywood, Good Will Hunting is almost an
art film and a rehearsal, for it's not an action film
produced by Miramax as a low budget film. Gerry goes
beyond the art film and the rehearsal, because we,
ourselves, took care of its financing.
BELGIUM
CINEMA MAKES A STATEMENT IN LOCARNO
Belgium
Cinema has found its place in Locarno, where up until
a short while ago, the Iranians ruled. Halfway through
the exhibition of the films in competition, the film
"Girl/Meisje", by Dorothée Van den
Berghe, stands out, and may repeat in Locarno, the
same success achieved by the Dardenne Brothers in
Cannes.
Dorothée's
recipe does not emphasize social aspects, though,
but rather the psychology of three women of different
ages, two of which are mother and daughter. The fact
that it begins with a close-shot of the feminine genitalia,
has nothing to do with provocation, assures the director,
but it may be the statement that this is a women's
film, made with women and their problems, without
excluding the men who come into their lives.
Although
most youngsters have the family rejection phase, the
director of "Meisje", raised in a hippy
community in Amsterdam, has always been fascinated
by "real families", never having had one
herself. "In the community I was raised - she
says - you'd never speak about couples who stayed
together for their whole lives. Only when I went to
Belgium, I discovered couples who are married for
many years and take care of their children's education
together. Before that, my school had only children
from split or divorced parents. I was raised by my
mother and maybe that's why the film focus the relationships
between mother and daughter.
Author
of short films, Dorothée Van den Berghe has
always emphasized sexuality in her films. "That's
because I was raised in a very liberal environment".
My father was always with other women and my mother
and I saw that. At age seven, I already knew everything
about sexuality, but without having felt anything
or knowing what it mean in my own body. In the film
"Meisje", I wanted to show how women live
their own sexuality. The scene in which Muriel masturbates
is one of the first ones I wrote."
Rui
Martins,
for 'Jornal
da Mostra'
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