Berlinale correspondent Elena Lazic reviews Being 17. Although it was written by Céline Sciamma and directed by André Techiné, it’s got Sciamma’s fingerprints all over it.
Essays
Les Liaisons Dangereuses shines at the Donmar
Josie Rourke’s production at the Donmar plays up the novel’s feminist subtext while emphasizing the genuine bond between its two dissolute protagonists. The result is a surprisingly romantic take on this cynical novel.
The Lovers and the Despot lacks substance
The Lovers and the Despot tells what should be an interesting story without doing the work to create one. It recounts a bizarre slice of South Korean cinema history: in 1978, director Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, were kidnapped, separately, by Kim Jung-II from Hong Kong and held for eight years. Kim Jung-Il wanted swift improvements in the North Korean film industry, and this was his solution.
Notes on Blindness explores the soundscape
Documentarians Peter Middleton and James Spinney use segments of John M. Hull’s actual audio tape recordings to reconstruct his experience of going blind in this experimental non-fiction film.
Things to Come is a less damning portrait of misfortune than Eden
Berlinale correspondent Elena Lazic examines how Mia Hansen-Løve’s last two films, Eden and L’Avenir (Things to Come), reverse-engineer seemingly cliched stories in order to find the emotional truth and realism buried within them.
Compassion may be the enemy in A War
Tobias Lindholm continues to explore how trauma affects networks of people in this complex character study of a Danish officer whose compassion may be his undoing.