Atelier Alan Berliner
In partnership with Arte
A meeting with a highly influential figure of cinéma du réel:
Monday, April 19, 2010, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Salle de la Colombière
He lives in New York, is fascinated by the memory of the sounds and images of which he is a unique and exceptional collector and guardian. An astonishing discovery is guaranteed! With himself and his family as protagonists, Alan Berliner develops an oeuvre that explores the depth of the past and its archives, whose alarming contemporary richness he knows how to update.
This filmmaker is typically “Visions du Réel”: he works every shot with a silversmith’s talent and devises some oustanding edits. His films – short, long, so amusing and elegant, so “I” and inventive – are at the very heart of film!
Films of the retrospective Alan Berliner:
City Edition
Th, April 15, 8:00 p.m., Salle Communale
Th, April 15, 8:30 p.m., Capitole 1 Leone
The artist composes a visual and audio score of found footage to denounce the dumbing down of the masses touched off by the media.
Everyhere At Once
We, April 21, 7:30 p.m., Salle Communale
In the manner of a conductor, the filmmaker interprets all of these film fragments, weaving together to a jazzy and breathtaking tale.
Intimate Stranger
Sa, April 17, 10:30 p.m., Salle Communale
Five years before he confronted his father in “Nobody’s Business,” Berliner lays the first family imprint two generations back, both questioning and understanding, aggressive and humorous.
Myth in the Electric Age
Sa, April 17, 8:00 p.m., Salle Communale
A film like a Picasso painting ; a composition of associative cinematic imagery that is fused into a surreal orgy of images and orchestrated wonderfully by maestro Berliner.
Natural History
Mo, April 19, 9:00 a.m., Salle de la Colombière
Using sound and images unearthed in his library, the artist composes a poetic and personal precis of the history of humanity
Nobody ’s Business
Mo, April 19, 9:00 p.m., Salle de la Colombière
A cinematic sparring match between a stoic father and his insistently inquisitive son a masterpiece of the family film genre.
The Family Album
Tu, April 20, 10:00 p.m., Capitole 1 Leone
The stages of life in a photo album featuring various families, all different, yet so very similar. Alan Berliner edits sounds and images : the childhood of art !
The Sweetest Sound
Fr, April 16, 10:00 p.m., Salle Communale
“Nomen est omen” : this “ego surfing” examines the relevance of our names with some very amusing results.
Wide Awake
Sa, April 17, 5:00 p.m., Théâtre de Marens
Alan Berliner explores the causes of his insomnia and offers us intimate insight into his creative methods.
Atelier Wu Wenguang
In partnership with Arte
A meeting with an authentic documentary filmmaker:
Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Salle de la Colombière
He lives in Beijing, is committed with equal passion to making films himself and to allowing a new generation to make its own. Wu Wenguang has a project of exemplary modernity: to get dancers, choreographers, filmmakers, Chinese and foreign professionals, academics and peasant farmers to co-exist in his famous workshop. All of them together invent a new cinematographic map of a country in search of new narratives.
This filmmaker is typically “Visions du Réel” : he is a form of film in his own right. A rewarding discovery is guaranteed!
Films by Wu Wenguang:
Fuck Cinema
We, April 21, 09:00 a.m., Salle de la Colombière
How to make a film? The tribulations of a young man from the country who confronts the harsh reality of a profession full of surprises.
Treating
We, April 21, 1:30 p.m., Capitole 2 Fellini
The death of the filmmaker’s mother leads to the Sixties of the Cultural Revolution. An intimate and proletarian tale.
Films from the studio of the filmmaker, the CCD Workstation :
A Hundred Patients of Dr. Jia by Wang Hongjun
Sa, April 17, 10:00 a.m., Salle de la Colombière
Within a rigorously defined context, the ailing and wounded patients who file past the doctor create a light and touching human comedy.
Flowers de Tian Song
Mo, April 19, 9:00 p.m., Salle de la Colombière
A summer camp for Chinese youths, and the spectacular tale of their education and their domestication.
My Village 2007 by Shao Yuzhen
Fr, April 16, 5:00 p.m., Salle Communale
The extraordinary chronic of a village filmed by a 60-year-old peasant woman with a remarkable sense of detail, an extraordinary attention and intelligent images.
My Village 2007 by Wang Wei
Mo, April 19, 10:30 p.m., Salle Communale
Filming the everyday struggle for survival in his village of Shandong, Wang Wei reveals the harshness of social relationships that prevail among Chinese peasants.