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the verzaubert filmfestival takes place every year at the end of november / beginning of december. films are performed in the major german cities, not only cologne, but berlin, frankfurt, hamburg and munich, as well. this year's motto was "spanish showcase", thus many contributions came from this area.
a talented volleyball player in a thailand small town dreams of the big career. but he is forced to watch instead of playing, as his fellow players show him the red card not liking his long hair and soft appearance. his friend with girlish hairstyle and affected movements tells him not to give up. when a new trainer, a lesbian, enters the scene and looks for dashing boys who can score points in the fast game, finally comes together, what makes you roll over the floor and laugh: a muscle packed soldier with fingernail problems, a shy sunnyboy from a rich family with coming-out problems and a transsexual stage performer with men problems. they push a team to success which at first nobody took seriously.
the film's message of emancipation, telling you to try your own way to luck both in sports and love, makes the gay crowd triumph over their rivals. considering, that this story is based on a true incident in thailand, this may be an invitation to have a closer look at the country with the slightly different boy culture: it's a men world!
the film starts like a shrill coming-out story: margaret hall, a mother (ravishingly played by tilda swinton), loses her way and lands in a night-club where gay leathermen give way to their lust. her son, who is yet minor, seems to be attracted by bondage games, however shows lack of concentration during his violin lessons.
a videotape with an amount of explicitness that hardly can be topped reveals the boy's love games. in the middle there is a row of accidents - on the road and at the see -, which gives the film an unexpected turn. the drama between mother and son is superimposed by the attractions developing between margaret and her seductive blackmailer (played by the cute goran visnjics). during these "off the way" approaches beautiful pictures of lake tahoe are included, as well as further corpses. thus there is no happy end in the developing romance, but at least mother and son find themselves in each others arms at the very end. the putative scene film turns out to be absolutely family friendly and offers good entertainment in the best tradition of hollywood's cinema.
in the hardcore conservative, hardcore catholic town lima ("why hiroshima? why not lima?") cute joaquín experiences his coming out and his cocain-backed student years. while joaquín ends his friendship with his platonic alibi girlfriend, his male lovers do not act that consistantly: they rather lead a dishonest straight life than being a "maricon". joaquín is almost drifting completely into a circle of cocain abuse and fast love, when he manages to arrange his flight to miami usa. from now on the film is rather uninspired, the following coincidences are unbelievable, the happy end in lima is both unrealistic and unsatisfactory. an entertaining film with some amusing scenes, yet as a whole not convincing.
woof - if you should any time have the opportunity to watch this film, do so, it was my most intense cinema-experience for long! the successful writer fernando jaramillo comes back to medellín, colombia and invites the cute street kid alexis to live in his luxury top floor apartment: a bit of cocain, a bit of love, noisy music, the two have no better ideas to kill the time.
while the old fernando philosophizes about the decline of colombia the young alexis solves the problems of every day life with his gun: the noisy neighbour, the cheeky taxi driver, whoever disturbs you, just shoot him down! fernando first urges alexis to restrain himself ("you have to let them live! if you kill them, you do them a favour!"), later he more and more agrees to the progressive brutality and comments it in his unique incredibly cynical way: after alexis shot down two motorbike - assassinators, his comment to a crying passerby: "what are you crying for? this is not switzerland, this is colombia!" ... the turn at the end of the film is both surprising and cynical...this film is a must!
the film plays in the buenos aires of the 60s: angel and nene are a male gangster couple, partner both in bed and "profession". in this film -again- the actors consume plenty of cocain, looks like you can't make a gay film without it today. :-) as the attack on a money transport ends with the killing of a policeman the two friends and two other gangsters being involved are forced to hide in uruguay: during this time nene falls in love with a whore. what started like a lame gangster story, from now on turns into a dramatic triangular: angel can not be without his friend and does not want to lose him. the final showdown with the police brings the two friends together again. a well acted erotic film with overwhelmingly beautiful pictures, something for the big screen.
the first shrill pics show immediately: we are in usa, brighter colours, faster camera movements. we are in the "most-usa" part of usa, los angeles: the former small town cop john lands in the la high life gay party scene and soon is made familiar with sex, drugs (cocain again!), money, bodybuilding and - above all - the "god of beauty". soon it shows that today's stars will be tomorrow's victims: like cute hector who suffers from being "way too old" at an age over 30. or the hiv infected showboy bobby who injects steroid directly into his dick before he enters the stage: "believe me, it works better than viagra!". solid director's work, good acting, thrilling from the beginning to the end. we 12/05/01, 11.00pm residenz 1 - big eden - usa 2000, original version
i comment this film before "urbania" as i don't want to finish with a bad film: the new york artist henry hart returns into the small village of his youth in the hills of montana in order to care for his sick grandfather. here he meets his old highschool love dean again, who has two kids but no wife. dean shows strong desire for henry, which is completely unbelievable to me as the actor arye gross has as much sex appeal as a mix of woody allen and a pug. in addition there is a lightly fat indian looking guy named pike who also falls for henry and finds no other way of showing it than by cooking finest french cuisine for henry and his grandfather. besides there are the hills of montana, the fresh water of the clear seas, a grillparty and the super super super super friendly village people - bullshit !!!
this film's teasers are these lovely short horror tales ("urbanian tales") like the dog in the microwave or the woman who steals her one night stand lover's kidney... but it really is all about a dark memory which our hero charlie has to overcome and which first comes into view in fragmentary flashbacks, while charlie restlessly walks through the dark streets of new york. in the midst of the film everything becomes clearer when charlie meets a super butch straight criminal. i can't tell you much more (otherwise i'd spoil the suspense of the film), only so much: for charlie this is a day of revenge. charlie is played by dan futterman ("the birdcage") who acts brilliantly. a hard, brutal and thrilling film.
if i had the chance to watch some of these films a 2nd time, i'd choose "our lady of the assassins" and "urbania". one of the festival guys told us that most of these films will be running in prague in january. so, if anybody of you is living in the prague area and just reads these lines, the films indeed are worth seeing! cologne's next "verzaubert" festival will be celebrated from 11/27/2002 to 12/04/2002. |
review of the filmfestival 2001)
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andreas