Movie recommendations – Day 6

2021.09.15. 07:05

Day 6 of the CineFest brings films from the Berlin International Film Festival. One of them, the Romanian movie, is the winner of the Golden Bear of 2021. Today we will learn how the Hungarian audience takes this controversial, overly sarcastic film.

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound is an exciting documentary taking us to the world of cinematic sounds. The film has been shown in Cannes and at the Tribeca, and now it arrived to the CineDocs. The film is an exploration of the history, artistry, and emotional power of cinema sound, as revealed by legendary sound designers and visionary directors, via interviews and clips from movies, and a look at the actual process of their creation and discovery. Let’s listen to what the biggest filmmakers – the likes of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas or Robert Redford – think about the art of cinematic sound. Last chance! Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

Occasional Spies is part of the ConeDocs competition program. The historical documentary sheds light on a little-known episode of World War 2, when the British Intelligence turned a group of ordinary young men into secret agents overnight and sent them on a risky mission behind enemy lines, to German-occupied Eastern Europe. They had to find an escape route for the Allied prisoners of war and to organize the resistance movement. Considering the fact that these young people were Jews who fled to Palestine from the very region where their peers were facing the “final solution”, the mission seems almost suicidal.

The screening is followed Q&A with the filmmakers. Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

Another Romanian movie is screened today. The fancy and somewhat peculiar title Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn won the most prestigious prize of the Berlinale in 2021. It was shot in the COVID era and reflects on the strange times we live in while turning the hard mirror on our societies. The film starts with a homemade porn video and by the time we start thinking about what this whole thing is about, the first images of a middle-aged woman walking the streets of Bucharest appear. It turns out that the woman in the facemask is the star of the homemade porn video that accidentally ended up on the Internet. She has to face the consequences at a parent-teacher meeting in the school where she teaches history. The director, Radu Jude can easily say that he has a secured spot at the CineFest, earlier his Aferim! was also part of the festival’s program. Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

From Cannes Un Certain Regard to the CineFest: Blue Bayou is the heartbreaking story of an American family. From award-winning writer/director Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc, a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy and so became the step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home. This is the last screening of the film at the festival! Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

After being screened in the competition program in Cannes, the Stillwater has made it to the CineFest competition program as well. In Tom McCarthy’s (The Station Agent, The Visitor, and the Academy Award winning Spotlight) drama an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, played by Matt Damon, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, currently in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. In the process, he develops a friendship with a local woman and her young daughter and embarks on a personal journey of discovery and a larger sense of belonging in the world. Last chance! Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

Eyes are not left dry at watching this romantic sketch movie that tells the story of three encounters in the interpretation of Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy has been screened at the Berlinale, winning Silver Bear, the grand prize of the jury. A surprising love triangle, a messed-up seduction between student and teacher, and an unexpected encounter affect the fate of the characters in this drama, which builds on dialogues and emotions, exploring the depths of human relationships. Tickets are sold for 400 HUF in the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.

In the Open Eye program we can watch Cinemability: The Art of Inclusion. It is a compelling story of disability portrayals in the entertainment industry. The spectacular documentary shows us the changes in how disability has been presented in movies and TV shows from Thomas Edison’s Fake Beggar to Forrest Gump and My Left Foot. Director Jenni Gold has spent years bringing the story to the screen. Good job, well done. Before the screening, the audience can watch Jonathan Glazer’s short film Strasbourg 1518. Inspired by the dancing plague of 1518, this short from Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) was made during 2020’s pandemic lockdown. Uniting some of today’s greatest dancers, and powered by Mica Levi’s hypnotic score, Strasbourg 1518 compellingly plays on the restless nature of our modern times. Combined tickets for the films are available at the ticket office of the House of Arts or online.