Excursions to the jungle

And now to something completely different... Next week we will watch two documentaries, both somewhat related to the work on weakly-electric fish:

As a teaser we will see "Spying on an Invisible Sense", the movie the AG Benda created for the movie competition called for at this year's BCCN meeting. An exclusive preview, so to say!

The main movie of the day will then be “Wings of Hope (Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel)”, a documentary Werner Herzog made about Juliane Koepke who survived a plane accident in Peru in 1971. As the only survivor she wandered around the jungle for 10 days, while at the same time, Herzog was working in Peru on his movie "Aguirre". He had actually in the first place been scheduled to take the same flight, but by a lucky coincident didn't end up taking it. In 1998 together with Koepke he went back to the place of the accident and made this movie. The connection to the electric fish: Koepke leads a biological station in Panagua, where Jörg went for field work this year.

We hope that both movies draw interest not only in the AG Benda and look forward to seeing you next Wednesday (Sept. 21st)!

Daddy don't ever die on friday!

S'Been some time since the last film club....but horray...exams are over for now, and we can return to life's little pleasures.

So, tomorrow an absolute must! Hilarious, tragic and probably the best of all: fantastic music. In Zappa's words:

Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not truth
Truth is not beauty
Beauty is not love
Love is not music
Music is THE BEST...


It's about a love and hate relationship, which is so typical of the Balkan (almost forgotten in the lawful "west"), and which extends far beyond the plot of the movie. Two keywords: Bregovic and Kusturica. Legendary compositor and controversial film-maker. The perfect couple...which as in every real world, is doomed to break apart. Various reasons.


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When: Tomorrow 17th of August, 19:00
Where: Biocenter, GSN Seminar Room, Ground floor
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Black Cat, White Cat

Director: Emir Kusturica

Music: Goran Bregovic

Year: 1998

Erase'yr Head

Well....it's not yet another David Lynch shot, which I personally don't mind at all, but since around this time there are quite a few stressful hours, thinking of erasing the memories of these moments doesn't seem such a far fetched option. Yes, I'm talking about the exams! :D
So, because I have tomorrow another one, I'm not going to give a whole lot of descriptions here, and let you discover this wonderful(l) epic.

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When: Tomorrow, Monday the 1st of August, 19:00
Where: GSN Seminar Room, Ground Floor
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Director: Michel Gondry

Year: 2004

Starring: Jim Carrey

Kate Winslet

Elijah Wood

Kirsten Dunst

9 years later....

When 6 month turn out to be really 9 years, somewhere down the line things probably got a little messed up. But in the "real" life, situations often turn out that way, and a casual parting is in some cases a very long goodbye. Even so, when amused by a guitar melody played by a whimsical figure, some of the worries might fade away and the nine years condense into a somewhat longer Sunday evening.

P.S. Olivia had the nice idea that if tomorrow will be nice weather, after the film - before sunset, we shall climb on the sand hill in front of the BioCenter, snap some photos, have some drinks and maybe a small barbecue/picnic....So if you fancy joining, you're free to bring anything that you might consider appropriate for such an initiative.

Cheers!


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When: Tomorrow 18th of July, 19:00
Where:Biocenter, GSN Seminar room; ground floor
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Before Sunset

Year: 2004

Director: Richard Linklater

Featuring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

IMDB: here

CyLove

As announced last week, after the first part of the double story we'll have a one session break and dive in into something with a similar theme, though a very different feel.

And very different it is. There is always a second time you might say, a thought that becomes clear right after firing one of the very few shots available. She may have come into the game too early, too unprepared - whatever the reason, you know that once she hit that door you will start to wander the streets; you will peek though the muddiest of keyholes, hoping to get another glance at the vivid scent infiltrated deep in your dreams. And being on the run for such a long time, you might not recognize her when she stands right in front of you, asking for a minute detail, which only you happen to know.

A loose follow-up of "In the Mood for Love", Kar Wai Wong masterfully manages to create one of the most beautiful films in the history of cinema. Almost each frame can be printed and displayed as an art photography - combined with the elegant music and the delicate plot he truly gives birth to an unique mold.

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When? Monday 11th June 7pm
Where? GSN Seminar room, Biocenter, ground floor.
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2046

Director: Kar Wai Wong

Year: 2004

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance

IMDB: here

Step off your train! Know.

After having watched a series of pretty demanding films (Tarkovsky - The Mirror, Vinterberg and von Trier - Festen and Lynch - Blue Velvet) perhaps we should move on to something a bit more emotional, though not cheesy or cheap. What I have in mind for the next period are three films, two of which are parts of the same story. At Laurence's suggestion we'll separate those by another title, so that the idea in the first part can mature - as the characters also do.

Being one of my absolute favorites, I could talk about this title quite extensively, but I don't want to spoil any of the delicate moments which ornament the beautiful epic. I will only tell you how I've discovered it.

During my high school I had a very good friend who was 4 years older than me, which happened to have a huge and ever growing movie collection. I think that in those years I watched on average 3 to 4 films a week, and I really had almost 0 (zero) selectivity for what to watch next. A major exception was this one. Perhaps I already had this movie 6 or 7 months before I dared to give it a chance. But then came the summer break, my friend was on a holiday, and soon I ran out of new things. I starting rewatching movies - for the "Linklaters" I had no interest what so ever.

I thought that it may well be the most boring film ever to be produced. Why? Well, I zapped though it on several occasions, but I couldn't see anything happening. A more or less static scene, that being a couple filmed from a "news" angle - discussing. Very little background change (nice but similar places in Vienna), almost no soundtrack, so thought I could also turn the radio on, it might be the same experience.

Now being bored one summer day, I actually started listening to that dialogue. I couldn't stop. I watched the second part right away, and couldn't believe how captured I was by the whole unfolding.

This one is a must. If you've seen it you will probably love to return to that atmosphere!

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When: Monday, 4th of July, 19:00 (after the MCN lecture)
Where: GSN Seminar Room (ground floor)
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Before Sunrise

Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Julie Delpy
             Ethan Hawke
Year:     1995

Velvet underworld, not underground.

For this post I will restrict myself to only copy-and-pasting an excellent review which I stumbled recently upon while looking for some facts about our next screening.

"The last real earthquake to hit cinema was David Lynch's Blue Velvet —I'm sure directors throughout the film world felt the earth move beneath their feet and couldn't sleep the night of their first encounter with it back in 1986—and screens trembled again and again with diminishing aftershocks over the next decade as these picture makers attempted to mount their own exhilarating psychic cataclysms. But no one could quite match the traumatizing combination of horrific, comedic, aural, and subliminal effects Lynch rumbled out in this masterpiece—not even Lynch himself in the fun-filled years that followed before he recombined with himself to invent The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive.

[...]perhaps it is Isabella Rossellini's femme fatale Dorothy Vallens that is Blue Velvet's greatest gift to posterity. Director and neophyte actress collaborated to retool the old genre's often stock figure, to deglamorize and humiliate the supermodel, to knead her pulpy nakedness into a bruise-colored odalisque of inseminated sensualities and untrusting ferocity. There is something sharply porno-entomological, something of the implacable godless terror with which insects mate and devour, and something terrifyingly true, in the bearing of this bravely performed character. Nuns at Rossellini's old high school in Rome held a series of special masses for her redemption after the release of this film—still a hilarious, red-hot poker to the brain after 20 years. A new print has been struck for the special anniversary two-week run at Film Forum."

Source: villagevoice.com

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Where: GSN Seminar Room (Ground floor)
When: 19:00 (after the BCCN double lecture)
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Blue Velvet

Year: 1986
Director: David Lynch

Imdb: here