The Guide: Preview: Film
The Guardian – United Kingdom; Jul 16, 2005
PHELIM O’NEILL
* Optronica LONDON
How can you not attend something with a name as cool as Optronica?
Just try dropping it into conversation and see how impressed and
confused your friends will be. It means a cutting-edge fusion of
music and visuals and judging from these events, it seems to warrant
the creation of such a fancy-pants new term. The IMAX theatre plays
host to live sets from DJ Spooky (pictured, who’ll be soundtracking
DW Griffith’s reprehensible, Klan-friendly classic Birth Of A
Nation), Plaid and ex-Kraftwerker Karl Bartos, all making splendid
use of the largest screen in Britain. At the NFT there are
audio-visual performances from Skoltz Kolgen, People Like Us and
Masakatsu Takagi, plus a free outdoor screening this Friday, and
dozens of other events. So that’s what an Optronica is, then.
IMAX, National Film Theatre, SE1 and The Spitz, E1, Wed 20 to Jul 24
Sergei Parajanov LONDON
Georgian/Armenian Sergei Parajanov was arrested twice by the KGB on
trumped-up charges, but it wasn’t just the law whose attention he
drew – his remarkable, allegorical films are still pored over today.
His masterpiece is the symbolic, dreamlike The Colour Of Pomegranates
(pictured), which is presented here in a director’s cut. Sumptuous
images flow into one another in a highly pleasing manner – although
it had a different effect on the Soviet authorities who practically
buried the film for almost a decade. His other inimitable works, The
Legend Of The Suram Fortress, Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors and
Ashik Kerib are also playing, and all screenings will be introduced
by his nephew Georgy Parajanov, who also unveils his documentary on
his late uncle, I Died In Childhood. po’n
Cine Lumiere, SW7,
Tue 19 to Thu 21
Experimenta LONDON & TOURING
This is a chance to get up to speed on the state of experimental
film, and also to put it into some perspective with some great
archive material. There’s a section on the final works of arch
avant-gardist Stan Brakhage – including Water For Maya and The God Of
Day Had Gone Down Upon Him – which saw him try new approaches without
diminishing his unique vision. New works from Robert Breer and Peter
Kubelka are placed alongside offerings from younger upstarts like the
woozy abstractions of Yuiko Matsumaya and the found footage of Julie
Murray. Jessica Yu’s excellent outsider art documentary, In The
Realms Of The Unreal, also starts a short run. The programme, or
parts of it, will be touring most UK cities between now and
September. po’n
ICA Cinema SE1, Sat 16 to Jul 24, experimenta
* Studio Ghibli NATIONWIDE
Live-action studios don’t really generate much trust and loyalty –
when was the last time you went to see a movie just because it was
made by Warner or Universal? But it’s different for animation houses.
Generally they’re built around one visionary who influences and
inspires all the output, delivering a more consistent product. With
Japan’s Studio Ghibli it’s the phenomenally creative Hayao Miyazaki,
and with his latest, Howl’s Moving Castle, due for release, this is a
great chance to get up to speed with their imaginative output.
Miyazaki’s films make up most of the bill: the critic-proof Spirited
Away, the breakthrough Princess Mononoke, as well as the lesser-known
examples Kiki’s Delivery Service (pictured) and Castle In The Sky.
Plus a couple of films with which he’s had heavy involvement: moving
teen drama Whisper Of The Heart and the wonderfully baffling The Cat
Returns. po’n
Picturehouse Cinemas, Wed 20 to Sep 25