16th Cine Europa @ Shangrila Plaza

Because I failed to go to film festivals earlier this year and even missed the Cinemalaya fest, I vowed to at least attend the Cine Europa which normally lasts more than a week, which means that I can allot at least 2 days for it. Here are some of the movies I was able to watch for this year's offering:

1. La stanza del figlio (The Son's Room/ Italy)

This movie portrays a family's grief over the loss of a son. The father is a psychoanalyst who had to go see a patient and in the process cancel a "date" with his family. His son went SCUBA diving with friends and died in an accident. The family members are very intimate with one another so when this happened, the father blames himself, the wife is still inconsolable, and the daughter starts having her own problems. They find healing when they meet the son's girlfriend who shows them pictures of the son's room.

2. Les bien aimés (Beloved/ France)

This movie is about two women with their respective tumultuous love lives. The mother Madeleine was a whore who first married a Czech doctor who cheated on her but would time and again come back to her life. They eventually divorced and the mother remarried. The daughter Vera was in love with a queer guy who seems to be fond of her, too, but cannot commit because he suspects himself of having HIV. 

3. Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland (Almanya – Welcome to Germany/ Germany)

This film is a drama comedy about home and identity. Young Cenk is confused on what he really is being of Turkish descent but living in Germany. His grandparents recently acquired German citizenship and the family of three generations go back to Turkey because his grandfather thinks they must not forget their Turkish roots. Cenk comes to know about the story of his grandparents and his uncles and aunt through his elder cousin Canan (lots of flashbacks in this movie). While in Turkey, the grandfather dies but is refused interment  at a Muslim cemetery because of his new citizenship. Cenk's second uncle decides to remain in Turkey and rebuild their house there while Cenk delivers his grandfather's speech. (I got teary eyed during this final scene...)

4. A Royal Affair (Denmark)

This film is a historical drama set in 18th century Denmark during the reign of the insane King Christian VII. His wife Queen Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, largely  ignored by her promiscuous husband, falls in love with the Royal Physician Johann Friedrich Struensee who gains considerable influence and briefly becomes the de facto regeant of Denmark. Struensee, a man of the Enlightenment, carries out reforms. He dies a tragic death of execution for all his efforts in  alleviating the commoners' plight. 

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I think I could have watched more if I only were able to report for work earlier but cool mornings make it almost impossible to get me out of bed... At least I did get to watch "A Royal Affair" which won two awards (Best Actor for Mikkel Følsgaard as King Christian, and Best Script) in the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.

Cine Europa: Proti Fora Nonos

Proti Fora Nonos, or Little Greek Godfather is a comedy film about an 11- year old boy named Alex who was sent to Crete by his politician father as the latter's substitute for the baptism of the child of a local party cadre. The presence of Alex's father was important to secure votes and to promote democracy (however it is defined) in Crete, but as he was too busy to go himself, Alex was assigned an important mission: to be a godfather and to read his father's prepared speech.

But everything is not as easy as it seems. Alex, being brought up in America, was unfamiliar with local customs. He couldn't even speak straight Greek. Being made to eat local delicacies and to compliment the cook regardless of the taste, and being advised to say yes to all the demands of the prominent families in Crete, young Alex had to struggle and to sacrifice his own views and opinions.

With the help of his young friends, he was able to succeed in his mission and do more. With his own speech (he did not read his father's) and with the speech of his friend, the oft-rebuked brother of the baptized child, a new democracy is defined wherein not only humans, but also hedgehogs are treated with dignity and equality.

This is a comedy film about growing up and about asserting one's own views and standing up to one's principles. It also shows an ugly side of politics wherein politicians promise everything and anything just to get the votes they need to be in power.

Cine Europa: Goethe!

This German film is loosely based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's life mixed with the plot of the Romantic writer's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

In the film, the young Goethe (Alexander Fehling) failed his exams and was sent  to the boring town of Wetzlar where his life will change forever. There, he befriended Wilhelm Jerusalem (Volker Bruch); the two of them under the employment of Justice Albert Kestner (Moritz Bleibtreu).

One night a a party, Goethe met the tipsy Charlotte Buff (Miriam Stein) and the two exchanged light insults though it is clear that at that very moment the two were attracted to each other. Goethe wooed her and the two fell in love.

There is, however, one problem. Kestner wanted Lotte for himself and being rich and influential, Lotte's father (Burghart Klaussner) wanted him to be his son-in-law, seeing the marriage as the only way to keep their house and to be able to send his children to school. Kestner and Lotte got married, but not without a lot of drama, as the young wife sacrificed herself for her family's sake.

Hearing of his beloved's wedding, Goethe writes a novella entitled The Sorrows of Young Werther which chronicles the love affair between him and Lotte. After that, he attempted suicide but failed.

On his return to his own town, he was surprised to find a crowd demanding copies of a certain book. He didn't know that he had become an in-demand writer. Turned out that Lotte sent the manuscript to a publisher.

This is a sad tale about a love that is not meant to be. The movie started out light with a little comedy here and there, then as suspense is built centering on the Goethe-Lotte-Kestner love triangle, the movies becomes dramatic. One gets teary eyed as Lotte confronts Goethe to say that theirs is a love not meant in truth, but in poetry. One cannot but cry as Goethe, flooded by sweet memories of a short love affair, pours his passion into writing and sketching, immortalizing a love that will endure only in the pages of literature.

This is one of the best films I have seen this year, thanks to Cine Europa and to Shangrila Cineplex. Because I have been studying and learning about material culture, I was fascinated with the details of this film, for instance, the costumes and the fashion,  the glass windows, the stoneware ink bottle, the oven, and other things of the late 18th century.