review of the filmfestival 2006
2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

For the first time the Verzaubert Filmfest took place in the Cinedom, the biggest multiplex of Cologne. (Former year's Residenz cinema closed due to bankruptcy.) During the festival Cinedom 10 and 11 on the top floor were reserved for us. Concerning the technique and the comfort everything was fine. Of couse, the gay film festival in the multiplex was more impersonal, as we were not by ourselves, but part of a so-called "cinema-machine". So you have a very mixed crowd, some attending the festival, most going for the latest Bond movie or "Borat". At least the Cinedom is very comfortable, several bars and bistroes on each floor, plus "Pizza Hut" on the ground floor. Almost the only disadvantage: On weekends one must queue at the box-office; and an additional quarter of an hour should be taken in account.

Saturday 11/25/06 19:30 Cinedom 10 - Another Gay Movie - USA 2006, 92', English original version

The „all american boy" Andy, the sportsman Jarod, the grind Griff and the mega-queen Nico have just got their college degrees. As to intimate relations they are completely inexperienced, and all their dreams focus on "The Big A". Anal intercourse at last!

In the beginning the film shows a colourful villa of the 70s: Andy is surprised by his parents, while he is exercising anal intercourse with the help of diverse vegetables. "My God, that will be strenuous stuff", was my first reaction, and indeed, not a single cliché or tasteless point were left out in this trashy and disrespectful opus. Nevertheless the film has a certain appeal - due to the vivid acting and the physical presence of the attractive actors. Besides after a quarter of an hour there are more and more unexpected and really funny scenes in the movie, e.g. the soccer game queens vs. bears.
It's extremely funny - for instance - when Andy appears in his former teacher's home, who has converted his flat into an SM studio and wants to play "Belgian Chocolate" with the scared innocent boy. Everything else is true to life: Bodybuilders on ecstasy collapse in the middle of cool dancing, macho daddy's dick is way to small, clysters cause ugly flatulences at the most inopportune moments.

I will reveal the moral of the film "Real men take it up the ass!" but not the ending. As a persiflage on our habit of watching porn movies and on various heartwarming "coming of age" movies this opus surely has an entitlement. Laughter is guaranteed.

Homepage: www.anothergaymovie.com (trailer on the page)

order "Another Gay Movie" DVD at amazon.com (NTSC, Region 1)

Sunday 11/26/06 17:15 Cinedom 11 - Solange du hier bist (As Long As You Are Here) - Germany 2006, 77', German original version with English subtitles

George is a lonely homosexual pensioner, who spends most of the time in his conventionally furnished flat, where numerous photos tell the story of a life with unforgettable memories. The only highlights in his dull everyday life are the visits of the handsome rent boy Sebastian, who - unimpressed by George"s true affection - wants to be free to enter and leave the flat, whenever it suits him. But one day it happens that Sebastian stays overnight.

An old man and a rent boy, this remake of a well-known story is told in a surprisingly sensitive way, avoiding any kind of false pathos. Well, George is very bourgeois (his flat even tops that of my grandma twenty years ago), and has a somewhat grumpy charm, so that - independent of his age - it is rather difficult to like him spontaneously. But the idea to portray an elderly average person gives the film a great amount of credibility. The illumination is too dim, as the cameraman didn't make full use of the technical possibilities. When a light streams through a window at the back of the room, one can barely discern the figures in the foreground. This has nothing to do without authenticity, the film deserves a more attractive lighting.

As his first opus (diploma - University of Media, Cologne) the screenwriter and director Stefan Westerwelle delivered a short, emotional and coherent film, which I prefer to a long and discrepant one with pompous scenes. (This seems to be the right transition to Amnesia, the next film.)

Sunday 11/26/06 19:30 Cinedom 11 - Amnesia: The James Brighton Enigma - Canada 2006, 90', French/ English original version with English subtitles

This film was allegedly inspired by a true incident, but with regard to the content it seems to be rather doubtful. In 1998 a naked man is found at a deserted parking lot in Montreal. He suffers from amnesia, only remembering that he is homosexual. This handsome Kaspar Hauser of our time calls himself James Brighton. He appears in several TV shows of the "Please, contact us, when you know me" type. The Canadian Gay Committee takes care of him in a most touching way. One gets the impression that everybody in Canada is homosexual or at least gay-friendly. The police officer, who investigates the case, is homosexual too, and a female student of criminology, who resumes it, ends up in bed with one of the female witnesses. Here again we are confronted with a new bad habit of queer movies: The ineluctable (yet totally needless) lesbian in a gay movie, owed to political correctness? (Reminds me of the ineluctable black guy within a white clique soap.)

James complains in several soap-opera style outbursts that all the people of his environment project their wishes onto him, while he - the handsome boy without identity - is not able to reciprocate their desires. When the old Canadian community queen strokes his head and says: "After all you have got me", one can't help laughing and shouting to the director: "Do you think we are so stupid to buy this trash?"

Finally James' family from the States get in touch with him. They live in a small Texan hole full of homophobia: A hardcore "I love you so much" mom, a hardcore "God will forgive you" brother who is a clergyman. So we have the gay-friendly Canada on one hand and the gay-hostile USA on the other, cliché to the maximum! Fortunately James has got a nice sister, who helps him to remember the occurences of the past, so that the incident at the parking lot in Montreal is clarified at last. The nightmare of a previous car journey is one of the few thrilling scenes of the film, but unfortunately a flashback in the beginning pointed already to this event, so that there is no real surprise. The opus claims to be of high quality, long parts of it - however - contain more unintentional comic than real substance.

Webseite: www.amnesielefilm.com   Trailer (Quicktime)

order "Amnesia - The James Brighton Enigma" DVD at amazon.com (NTSC, Region 1)

Tuesday 11/28/06 19:30 Cinedom 10 - Quinceanera - USA 2006, 90', English / Spanish original version with English subtitles

The white gay couple Gary and James buy a house in the neglected Echo-Park­ quarter of L.A..The upper floor is rented by a Mexican extended family. There is the sexy young Carlos, on whom they soon have their eyes; and when James invites him to a house-warming party, they succeed in seducing the hot Latino.

Carlos' 14 year old sister is just preparing her "Quinceanera", the traditional Mexican celebration of her 15th birthday, which marks the turning point from girl to woman. When Magdalena tries the dress on, that is meant for the celebration, it is much too tight. Did the tailor take wrong measurements, or is the girl already pregnant at the age of 14? The latter assumption is true, and naturally her father, who is a clergyman, explodes in rage. In the beginning Magdalena protests that she never had any sexual intercourse (an immaculate conception of the 21th century?), but her father takes this for a big lie (and so do the watchers of this movie in the beginning).

Having to cope with such crises the "problematic kids" use to rush to their grand­uncle, who has a flat on the top floor of the house. Here the whole world is still intact. His rooms are decorated with photos and mementoes of the past, and amidst all these things there lives this wise old man, who is ready to listen to the problems of the youngsters without condemning them. Here Carlos too can relax and forget the trouble with his father, who is not able to put up with his son's homosexuality. But Carlos has still got other problems: He begins a secret affair with Gary (one of the landlord couple) falling hopelessly in love with him. When James discovers his partner's unfaithfulness, it has consequences for the whole Mexican family.

This wonderful family drama in L.A. contains many touching scenes and is told with much humour. Moreover the film is well-casted and perfectly acted. Of course, Jesus Castanos as Carlos is my favourite. :-)

Homepage: www.sonyclassics.com/quinceanera (Quicktime trailer on the page)

order "Quinceanera" DVD at amazon.com (NTSC, Region 1)

Tuesday 11/28/06 21:45 Cinedom 10 - Broken Sky - Mexico 2006, 140', Spanish original version with English subtitles

At first good news for the German film distributor (Pro-Fun-Media): The synchronization of this film will not take up much time (it can probably be carried out within one afternoon), because the experienced director of short films Julián Hernández preferres the language of pictures to that of words.The whole story is quickly told: The young and passionate love of Gerardo and Jonás goes through a crisis, when Gerardo catches sight of the attractive Sergio in a university library. (Extremely sexy: Alejandro Rojo)

The film excels in a perfect camera work, and due to the lack of dialogues almost everything is expressed in pictures: Intimacy, eye contact, uncertainty, advances, rejections and advances again. The cameraman mastered the art of selecting the pictures in a brilliant way: When Gerardo 'floats' on the dancefloor of a disco another young man can be discerned as a silhouette behind him. Now the camera focuses on this person, and we are able to watch Sergio's covetous glances.

One is permanently aware of the intense eroticism of this film. (Gerardo and Sergio have expressive faces, all three men masculine bodies.) Thus at least the first hour of this silent opus is entertaining. More or less this is perfectly staged photography on video.

Later the plot becomes strenuous: The watcher catches the new development from the beginning, but it takes another boring hour until Jonás finally realizes that his friend Gerardo fell into love with another boy. It's rather tiring to watch "I love you" embracements and "No, I feel something is wrong" rejections for hours! When the well-built actors permanently shower and change their clothes, one gets the impression that the director of the film wants to prevent us from falling asleep with the help of some boy eroticism. Moreover the message of the opus is difficult to understand. For me finding a new partner could mean a further development, for the screenwriter, however, giving up the first "true" love seems to be the wrong way.

On the whole: There are smashing pictures and beautiful men, but an abbreviation of 60 minutes and a bit more script would have improved this long epic of 140 minutes.

order "Broken Sky" DVD at amazon.com (NTSC, Region 1)

Wednesday 11/29/06 21:45 Cinedom 10 - Closing Night: Whole New Thing - Canada 2005, 92', English original version

The 13 year old Emerson is educated by his hippie parents - to the best of their knowledge - according to the values of the "Hardcore 68" in the isolation of a Canadian wilderness. When the naive, but smart Emerson, who has the charm of a long-haired Harry Potter, must start school in a small nearby town, he is confronted with new insights, that clash with his parents' ecological ideology. In the beginning Emerson has a lot of trouble with his classmates, who dislike anyone and anything they can't understand. But they all seem to have underestimated his quick-wittedness. Young Emerson especially enjoys disrupting the lessons of the English teacher Don; and one day he suggests to replace the shallow standard work "Snowboard"s Snowjob" with a Shakespeare work, and thus the whole class (almost a revolution) agrees to read "As you like it".

In a similar courageous way he makes a pass at his homosexual teacher Don, sending him a love-poem in Shakespearean style. When the teacher reproaches him, such advances between an underage pupil and a grown-up teacher couldn't be tolerated, Emerson reacts in his typically quickwitted way. He states that his behaviour has nothing to do with homosexuality; for him this kind of taboo is a "mere etiquette".

The entertaining and convincing story doesn't only deal with the problems of growing up, but also with the original ideals of adults. How much of them can be maintained in a world, where one is permanently confronted with everyday life? All the characters in this film are lifelike, the dialogues 100 per cent coherent, although there are some bizarre situations. The film is refreshing until the last minute. Strong script, strong direction (Amnon Buchbinder), strong actors.

Homepage: www.wholenewthing.com (trailer on the page)

order "Whole New Thing" DVD at amazon.com (NTSC, Region 1)

No "Verzaubert" filmfestival in 2007 :-(: The organizers take a break and postpone the filmfestival to spring, thus next Cologne fimfestival will take place from april 2008 10th - 17th.

On behalf of gaykoeln.com: Since 2001 we critically observe the Verzaubert Filmfest. Reviews of the festivals 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 are completely revised - now forming a uniform and integrated whole - and are a gay film archive that is worth reading (inclusive the Amazon.com link to the corresponding DVD).

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andreas