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Golden Apricot (July 9 -16) kicked off in YerevanThe 14 edition of the Golden Apricot (Vosge Dziran) International Film Festival GAIFF is off and running in Yerevan, the serenely beautiful capital of Armenia.
The Apricots have been duly blessed
The Majestic old Moskva Cinema on Charles Aznavour, Plaza is the heart of the Golden Apricot Film Festival The opening night film On July 7 was a tribute to early Armenian cinema, an unsual 1927 silent directed by Armenian Hamo Beknazar who was active as an actor and director in the USSR and Georgia and is regarded as the the founder of the Armenian film industry. As for the content of the film: At the end of 19th century the Shah of Persia endows England with a monopoly over the tobacco trade. Russia responds to that by blocking the wheat exports to Persia. Famine comes upon the land, and Khas-Push, the poorest peasants and craftsmen start a rebellion. Oddly rele vant to the ongoing situation in this part of the world, even today.
Twelve films will be screened in competitin, to wit.
Film Alter Ego Director, Vigen Chaldranyan Country, Armenia Year of the production 2016 Running time, 125 min.
Arábia, Directors, Affonso Uchôa, João Dumans Country, Brazil Year of the production 2017, Running time, 96 min.
Ember, Director, Zeki Demirkubuz Country, Turkey/Germany Year of the production 2016 Running time 115 min.
Khibula, Director George Ovashvili, Country(-ies) Georgia/Germany/France Year of the production, 2017 Running time, 99 min.
A Man of Integrity, Director(s) Mohammad Rasoulof, Country, Iran Year of the production 2017 Running time,117 min.
The Nest of the Turtledove Director, Taras Tkachenko Country, Ukraine Year of the production 2016 Running time, 103 min.
A Prominent Patient, Director Julius Ševčík Country, Czech Republic/Slovakia/Germany Year of the production2016 Running time,114 min.
Requiem for Mrs. J. Director, Bojan Vuletić Countries, Serbia/Bulgaria/Republic of Macedonia/Russia/France Year of the production, 2017 Running time, 94 min.
Sarajevo Songs of Woe Director, Fred Kelemen Countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Germany Year of the production2016 Running time 140 min.
Sexy Durga, Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan Country, India Year of the production2017 Running time, 85 min.
Still Night, Still Light Director, Sophie Goyette Country, Canada Year of the production, 2016 Running time 98 min.
Western Director, Film Western Director, Valeska Grisebach Countries, Germany/Bulgaria/Austria Year of the production2017 Running time A certain emphasis, as to be expected, on films of the general region including Georgia, Iran, Ukraine and Southeast Europe, but a few entries from further afield; India, Brazil, and Canada. A set of thirteen non-competition Yerevan premieres consists largely of films that garnered attention at Cannes and Berlin and other festivals earlier in the year.
Included in this section:
The Hungarian love story in a slaughterhouse "On Body and Soul" (Test és lélekről) which won the Best Picture golden bear at Berlin. Director Ildiko Enikő is sitting on the feature competition jury here.
The Finnish immigration crisis drama "The other side of hope" for which minimalist master Aki Kaurismäki was named best director at Berlin, and
"In the Fade" By Turco-German helmer Fatih Akin, for which German actress Diane Kruger walked off with the best actress award at Cannes.
This one I missed at Cannes and am looking forward to catching up with it here.
In the retrospectives section,
Jean-Pierre Melville's awesome 1970 caper epic, "Le Cercle Rouge" (The red circle) a unique French "polar" teaming up two French megastars, Alain Delon and Yves Montand. Saw this years ago and can't wait to see it again. Four other Melville classics will also be screened to commemorate the hundreth anniversary of the birth of the man nouvelle vague luminaries such as Godard and Truffaut considered their godfather. He later rejected his uppitty god children and went off on his own way, as usual to make better and more memorable films than they did
Melville did a memorable cameo in Godard's "Breathless". Playing a vain writer who, when asked what his final ambition was, replied: "Devenir immortel, et puis mourir" (To become immortal, and then die!) "Afterimages", Polish master Andrzej Wajda's final film, which has been making the rounds of the festival circuit and is worth multiple viewings. A final tribute to a great filmmaker. Walda was to appear here last hear but couldn't make it due to illness and died soon after at age ninety. He Iill be awarded the Parajanov Taner lifetime award this year posthumously. He had already been immortal for a long time before dying.
Master classes, workshops, and midnight open discussion sessions with a daily guest of the fest -- one of the most intriguing festival sidelights, chaired by Melik Karapetyan --round out the kind of week to whet the celluloid appetite of any film buff worthy of the name.
The Closing Film will be a new documentary on the Armenian Genocide, "Intent to Destroy" (2017), made by veteran American documentary filmaker Joe Berlinger who meets with historians and scholars to discuss the Armenian Genocide and the continuing denial by the Turkish government. Clearly made to order for this festival at this point in time
10.07.2017 | ALEX FARBA's blog Cat. : FESTIVALS
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Comments (1)
Feedback from Paul Lipari
This feedback from ex-pat American cine-savant Paul Lipari in Brittany, France.
<<Glad you are there. I know how much you love it. From what has become one of your favorite film festivals (Finnish) straight into one that has been there for a while. Not bad. Even more antidote to Cannes.
And I agree with you about Melville, though there is really only one film of his (of the handful I have seen) that I rave about: but that one happens to be LE CERCLE ROUGE, which I far prefer to LE SAMOURAI, though it seems the fashion now to denigrate the former in favor of the "purity" of the latter. I don't really know why Le Sam did so little for me; but Cercle seems to me a real film, whereas Le Sam seems to me almost more a study in attitude. Superbly realized, to be sure: but unaffecting. I would like to see it again. (Cercle I can watch any time: I have it on the brilliant Criterion DVD.) I also agree that Melville's best surpasses anything by the vastly overrated Truffaut, Godard, and virtually all of the New Wave except the great FEU FOLLET. How rare to see this: especially from you, because are you not always listing BREATHLESS as one of your three favorite films? The others being KANE and CASABLANCA, I always like to think you are having us on; but there it keeps appearing. Le Cercle Rouge would not make my "all-time" top ten, but I would take it about ten hundred thousand times over anything Godard ever shat out.
(And while we are on the subject, another French filmmaker--who in this case was utterly despised by the New Masturbation crew, who of course would have been lily-white and pure under the Nazi/Vichy regime--surpasses them all: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Short of titanic films like LA RÈGLE DU JEU, LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS, and JEUX INTERDITS--my three favorite French films, not including the work of the Franco-German-and in a way even American Marcel Ophuls--LE CORBEAU may be as great as any French film I have seen: even LA GRANDE ILLUSION and LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE. And THE WAGES OF FEAR is pretty goddamned brilliant as well.)
Finally, I loved your line about Wajda: "He had already become immortal for a long time prior to his death." Obvious, perhaps, given the Melvillean context; but very acute.
Have fun amid the apricots. I know you will.
P