CPH:DOX

So this november the 5th annual CPH:DOX festival rolls along, and for the second year I am onboard! Last year I did not get to see as many movies I would have liked because of family business and other ridiculous nonsense. The only limitation this year is my pocket-book, and yesterday I picked up my tickets for the 6 screenings I will be attending this year.

09/11 – DAGMAR 16.30: All in this tea.

Starting off extremely strong with this movie, directed by Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht. This movie follows tea-afficionado David Lee Hoffman in his quest to introduce western sociery to the wonders of the tea that he himself grew up with in the orient. It documents his trip to China where he tries to buy tea directly from the producers. I don't have much interest in tea myself, but apparently this guy Hoffman so excels in his descriptions that even the most avid coffee-drinker will want to taste his tea. And no small factor is the appearance of Les Blanks old friend, Werner Herzog, who gets to drink alittle tea of his own. Here is what he has to say: "It is like a forest, leaves on the ground, it has just rained, it's damp. and you're taking a walk. Somehow that's all in this tea." Classic!

10/11 – DAGMAR 19.00: The Terror's advocate

On to something alittle more serious. Directed by enigmatic director Barbet Schroeder (Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait, Desperate Measures, Murd3r by Num8ers(!)) this movie focuses on french lawyer Vergés. This guy defends bombmen, planehijackers and all other sorts of terrorist/freedom fighter that he can get involved with. He even married a women bomber that he defended. I'm usually not that interested in movies like this, about people with questionable morals or people who obtained their position through dubious means etc. but this guy just seems like a very charismatic person, who should hold my interest.

11/11 – Cinemateket 19.00: Det Røde Kapel

This one is kind of a dark horse in my selection. It stars a couple of comedians and a theater-group, and was originally made as a TV-experiment. The interesting thing is though, that the group travels to isolated North Korea to perform their outlandish theatre, and that the two comedians who go there to meet them, are both adopted from North Korea, and hasn't been back since childhood. One of the comedians is a known person who I am a very big fan of, but I don't know any of the other people in the movie. Just the chance to get to see some of what North Korea is like is enough for me though, and I can't wait to see what it's like.

13/11 – Cinemateket 19.00: Global Metal

Call me stereotypical, but there is no way I could avoid this. Starring Sam Dunn, who previously put his anthropoligical education to some worthwhile use in Metal: A Headbangers Journey, this movie focuses on metal fans all over the world, as well as having new interviews with Heavy Metal icons. You might say that this has been done before, and that making fun of metal fans has gotten old, that metal is becoming a joke now, and you would have a point. However, I can't see this movie not being entertaining, and in addition there are some pretty cool things in it from what I hear. For example interviews with talking about experiencing the birth of democracy to the tunes of Heavy Metal, and a look at what metal fans are like in distant places like China or Japan. Say what you want, but you don't get that in Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

16/11 – DAGMAR 19.00: Zoo

A definite must-see, this movie apparently revolves around the story of a man who died from a ruptured colon, when he was fucked by a horse in a farm in America. From what I understand this movie is not very funny at all, and has been compared more to a Terrence Malick movie than to say, Trekkies. It's definitely something I'm looking forward to experiencing, and I am going into this movie without fear or contempt. Afterall, it's not the horses who die.

17/11 – Cinemateket 21.45: Helvetica

Ending off with a bang. I have been looking forward to Helvetica since forever, and even missed a screening+Q&A about 6 months ago, due to it being sold out. I was pissed off at that point, but now I am finally going to see this movie with the great premise of analyzing the extreme prevalence of the font 'Helvetica' in modern society and culture. Apparently the movie focuses both on the font itself, its pros and cons and people speaking for and against it, and also on why this unique font has become the biggest font in the world. I am interested in both aspects. I'm not the biggest typograph in the world, but I think that looking at the font itself is very interesting.

So those 6 screenings are the ones I chose after painstakingly weighing options against eachother. And if you look closely, you may find a review or two over at www.filmjunk.com. I can't wait for November 9th!

Zombies!

In honor of October, here are some real zombies for you.

Le Sacre du Printemps

(Another 'Movies seen in school post is coming! It just takes awhile, I'm seeing alot of movies.)

Today I went to the royal danish opera to see - ballet! Not that surprising, there is a lot of ballet playing there, and the major difference is that the ballets are not always sold out weeks in advance. You can actually take advantage of the 'buy at 1600 the same day and get half off' policy that major theatres have around here. Of course, I don't carea bout that because being under 30, my tickets are always 65% off, but seeing as the only people I know who enjoy ballet and opera are my folks, I have to wait untill they can get tickets.

For those people who don't attend these things too often (I'm one of them, sadly) when you go see a ballet you apparently get two-for-one. Kinda like the grindhouse of high-culture theatre! The show I went to see - it was no accident mind you, we knew what was playing, which I guess isn't very grindhouse-like - was a couple of Stravinsky ballets. L'Homme de Bois and Le Sacre Du Printemps. Le Sacre Du Printemps is pretty much a classic of the ballet scene, and definitely music that is among the most influential in the 20th century (if you want easy access, some of it is used in 'Fantasia' I know, but I don't know where, since I haven't seen the movie). Stravinsky is a very particular artist, alot of his music is very twiny, stingy and meticulous (scenes like the toad stepping in X-Men would not exist without Stravinsky ). Being not a very big fan of ballet in general I hadn't gotten my hopes up.

The first ballet started off extremely different from what I expected. The music being played (I learned later) was apparently some older Barok music that Stravinsky had re-arranged, and it was wonderfully sweet and delightful in tone. It was definitely melodic and fantastical in nature, and the only thing I could have wished for was it being louder. It seemed very low. I am a big fan of classical music, and I love wonderful melodies being played on 5-10 instruments over and over, just making me surrender more and more to the heavenly tunes of music. This ballet, L'Homme de Bois, definitely had moments like this and I was completely taken away with the delightfulness of the piece. I was sold from the beginning. Even though I had no fucking idea what was going on on the stage - I have generally decided not to try and make sense of ballet and just view it as music that people dance to - I had a fantastic time listening to the great music and seeing the people dance within the great setting and every was beautiful. I'm having trouble writing this and switching through adjectives, because both the music, setting and dancing was beautiful and that is THE key word when watching ballet. It has to be beautiful - and enjoyable of course, but if you have any sense of a brain that comes with it.

Smuk, Schön, beau, bello, hermoso and beautiful. That's what I can say of Le Sacre du Printemps, arranged by Jorma Uotinen. A fantastic production with tons of memorable images, including the 8 people descending down from the heavens crucified, succesfully put into my mind and still harrowing me 10 hours later. The music in this piece was drastically different, very staccato and jumpy. It reminded me of Bernard Herrman which is the best description I can give for you movie-buffs! It was a fantastic piece of music that definitely takes you on a journey through both the actions of the characters - that I don't at all comprehend, yet understand - and also takes you on a journey within yourself, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on right now? There is definitely a sense of epicy and grandeur in this piece of music, that not without reason has been heralded as a masterpiece and 'mainwork' (I ran out of english translations, what is the work for this in english? Like Citizen Kane would be considered a mainwork) within ballet.

Not being a fan of ballet, I can definitely say this showing of Stravinskys pieces was a wonderful, beyond enjoyable experience. I loved it, and I was completely entertained throughout the showing. There was a 30 minute break between the shows in which I enjoyed a delicious 'gylden dame', a beer. I don't want to review the new danish opera house - donated by a very, very rich man who, had he not donated the opera house, had had to pay taces of the money. The music and dance however, is definitely worth checking out, no matter how beyond or below you may feel you are to this sort of experience!

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So this is a post for all you sportsfans who read this blog. I'm sure all of you caught Sundays Packers-Vikings game, in which Brett Favre became the NFLs all-time leading TD passer. But if you didn't I just explained what happened.

I have to admit I shed a tear when it happened. I have in recent years been trying more and more to decrease my cynicism towards life, and allowing more hero-worship has been a big part of that. I know putting people on a pediestal ultimately leads to unhappiness, but there are some people that you can't help but admire and Brett Favre is one of them. As far as sportsmen go, he is one of the most deserving of the amount of fans he has. Everybody who has ever seen a highlight reel of him will know why - not only does he have an awesome way of playing the game, he also has personality like few other famous men on earth. I remember seeing a highlight reel of the man, in which there was a clip of him miced up. He dropped back, under pressure, the defender grabbed him by the jockstrap, and couldn't bring him down. I don't remember how the play ended, but when the defender passed Favre by on his way back, Favre mentions to him: "Not much to hold on to is there."

This is a man that you can't help but love. I embedded a youtube clip of his recordbreaking TD-pass, and even if you think football is disgusting (I know over there it's alot more hate/love than here, since football players are so worshipped all through life) you should watch it. His passion for the game and his abilities as a leader all seem to come through in this compressed moment in sports history, which definitely ranks up there with some of the greatest. Including Danmarks 2-0 victory vs. Germany in the 1992 European Championship final.