MetteIn the cold Copenhagen spring, one event allowed me to seek refuge in the (relatively) warm cinema halls of the capital. CPH:DOX is an annual documentary film festival featuring new, challenging documentaries from all around the world. As a full-time student, I didn’t have the time to go to as many screenings as I would have liked to, but I did manage to cover a good bandwidth from “what the hell” over “yeah nice idea” to “oh my God I am forever changed”. Here’s what I saw.
[CULTURE]
The Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is nothing more, but also nothing less, than what you would expect from the title. It follows the happenings at this prestigious institution for one season, capturing work at all the different levels and from many different perspectives. For one moment, we are seated with the posh executives trying to find out how to lower the ticket prices, the next we follow a young, newly hired Russian opera singer, just to jump to the behind-the-scenes work of a personal assistant. You get a good sense of the inner mechanics of the famous opera house, without ever diving too deep into one particular subject. The aforementioned Russian singer, with the top executive, are the people we follow the most and for my part sympathize with the most. The documentary is a slow burn, but gorgeous and intriguing at all times. For example, the transition shots between scenes often show the “real” behind-the-scenes workers; those who clean the stage, offices and hallways, cooks as well as dry-cleaners. It’s a bit of a shame that they never get to say anything, but also somewhat symbolic. There are no talking heads, instead the filmmakers are on the sidelines of shows, rehearsals, meetings etc. and simply capture the natural flow of the events, making you feel as though you’re there too.
If you’re not into the performing arts at all, I think this film might be too self-indulgent for you. But if you are, I’m sure you’ll love to get a glimpse behind the curtains of this cultural powerhouse.
Eastern Memories
The only thing I knew about this film was that it was somehow about a journey through the east. Props for marketing, because in fact, this is a film about a deceased Finnish linguist – not a big selling point. But as any film that resembles a biography of some kind, it’s about much more than the life of a single person. This film is a beautiful representation of life in general, about traveling and interacting with other people and cultures. It’s heavily scripted and does have a voice-over in which we hear the memories of the deceased linguist Ramstedt. I’m not a big fan of voice-over documentaries, in particular because it’s hard for them to catch my focus and to be honest, they just make me sleepy. This happened to some extent with Eastern Memories, but it’s just such a gorgeously filmed doc that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for most of it. Also, the experimental electronic soundtrack is a treat.
Last Year in Utopia
The Danish press pretty much hated this movie and said that it was unrelatable if you hadn’t seen the German reality show it was centered around. Being German myself, maybe I’m biased, but mind you, I had never even heard of this show either. Yet I loved this movie. It’s a slow unraveling of a 2015 show called Newtopia, in which people from all parts of society came together to live in a secluded house and form a new society of their own. Eventually, things started going wrong and a sort of revolt ends with most of the oldest inhabitants quitting the show, forcing it to stop shortly after. I don’t want to go further into the details of what happens, as I quite enjoyed the mystery of watching this documentary without initially understanding what was going on. To me, it’s one of the most artistic and sensitive documentaries that I have seen in a long time. I love the respect and voice that it gives to people who are usually mocked by the viewers and even by the shows they appear in themselves.
Image courtesy of CPH:DOX