Woman in Gold.

This season of the Robert Burns Centre Film Club was concluded with the screening of the 2015 British/American film Woman in Gold directed by Simon Curtis who you may remember as the director of My Week with Marilyn (2011) and also the award winning 2008 TV drama starring Julie Walters A Short Stay in Switzerland. This season has included some very good movies from World Cinema, America and this season two very different films from the UK,  Still Life (2013) directed by Uberto Passolini and starring Eddie Marsan and Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy (2015) starring Sidse Babett Knudsen which in my humble opinion was the highlight of the season.

 

The young maria with her Aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Getting back to Curtis’s latest outing we were informed by our host for the evening, Alec Barclay, that the movie was based on a true story and Alec gave us some very interesting background to a story that involved a famous painting and the women who eventually took the country of Austria to court in an attempt to get this valuable piece of art work back to its rightful owner.  I have replicated Alec’s introduction for your information something I believe will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the movie adaptation:

‘Tonight’s film is based on a true story, which deals with the struggle to return valuable property looted by the Nazis during World War Two. The Nazis were highly organised in that scouts were sent into countries before they were invaded and works of art identified in private and public collections. Gestapo teams then moved in and removed the chosen works.

The film’s title refers to the portrait originally entitled ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’. The subject was the Jewish wife of a successful Austrian banker and industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. She was a socialite living in Vienna, the cultural centre of Austria, and achieved intellectual stimulation by surrounding herself with some of the great writers and artists of the day. Ferdinand wanted a portrait of his wife. Gustav Klimt was chosen for the work, who at that time was a successful painter at the height of his artistic powers. It is estimated that what Ferdinand paid for the finished article could have purchased a reasonable sized villa in the suburbs. Frank Whitford in his book entitled ‘Klimt’ puts the work into perspective. ‘The painting creates an impression of wealth, influence and sensuality by means of its rich and polished surface. Klimt shows Adele Bloch-Bauer not as she really was, nor even as she might have wished herself to be, but rather as her husband desired her to be seen by others. The portrait is adorned with ornament for much the same reason that she wore the gowns, furs and jewellery her husband gave her – not only to enhance her beauty but also to exhibit his taste and affluence: the painting, after all, was hung in a prominent position in the sitter’s home, where it proclaimed her husband’s artistic discernment and status. Itself one of Ferdinand Bloch’s possessions, the portrait depicts the other: his wife.’

The painting forms part of Klimt’s gold period, along with perhaps the more famous work, ‘The Kiss’. (Both these paintings reached a wide audience in the 70’s reproduced as posters and prints).  A second portrait of Adele, executed in a different style, was completed in 1912.

The work on the painting featured in the film was started around 1903/04 and took till 1907 to complete. There were around 200 working sketches produced during this time. The painting measures 54 inches by 54 inches and uses oil and gesso along with gold and silver leaf.

Affairs seemed to be common amongst the upper class in Vienna, and it was strongly rumoured that Adele and Klimt had a 12-year affair. Allegedly only her maid and physician were in on the secret. Testimony to this could be the fact that Adele appears as one of the figures in ‘The Kiss’, and also semi-clad in various other paintings. Like most notable artists, Klimt caused controversy and outrage, in his case by showing women in what was regarded to be highly provocative poses, sometimes verging on pornographic.

In January of 1925 Adele died suddenly of meningitis. Ferdinand turned her room into a shrine, the only decorations being the collection of Klimt paintings, which were the 2 portraits and 4 landscapes, and a photograph of Klimt at the bedside, along with fresh flowers. In her Will Adele had asked her husband to donate the paintings to the Belvedere, which is the Austrian State Gallery, but Ferdinand revoked this. However, the Belvedere was soon to become the keepers of the work when Hitler came to power.

As a renowned collector, Ferdinand also had some old German masters in his possession. A Doctor Friedrich Fuhrer, from the Gestapo, was tasked with collecting the Bloch-Bauer paintings. He knew that Hitler and Goering would be interested in the German work but not in the Klimt’s, so he sold the two portraits and a landscape to the Belvedere (and kept a landscape for himself). The gallery were keen to display the work, so as ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’ was an easily recognised Jewish name, this was changed to ‘Lady in Gold’.

 After the war all the Klimt’s were reunited in the Belvedere, where they stayed for many years, with the ‘Lady in Gold’ becoming the Austrian equivalent of the ‘Mona Lisa’ and attracting many visitors. The painting was eventually sold to Ronald Lauder in 2006 for $135 million”.[1]

 

Maria and her husband attempt to escape the Nazis.  

The film not only deals with the struggle Adele’s niece Maria had in trying to recover what once belonged to her family but also goes back to when Maria Altman was a very young girl and takes you through her life starting in Vienna, demonstrating how the German National Socialists were accepted by the Austrians, the treatment of the Austrian Jewish families and how the Nazis took their belongings, valuables and their apartments, leading to Maria’s eventual escape to America with her husband leaving behind her beloved mother and father. This period of history is cleverly intercut with the present day where we find Maria living in Los Angeles and working in her dress shop. Its not until she discovers letters in her dead sisters belongings, which reveal an unsuccessful attempt to get the famous painting back, that she enlists the help of an inexperienced young lawyer, Randol (Randy) Schoenberg, to make a claim to the art restitution board in Austria which will eventually take this elderly Jewish lady on a ten year legal journey. 

Maria with her Lawyer Randy Schoenberg. 

Hubertus Czernin the Investigative Journalist. 

The film feature’s exceptional performances from Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, Ryan Reynolds as Schoenberg with German actor Daniel Bruhl as the left leaning Austrian Investigative Journalist Hubertus Czernin. Also in significant, but small roles are Curtis’s wife Elizabeth McGovern and Jonathan Pryce. Some critics have accused the film of being dull but I found it quite the opposite in that it was a very interesting and thought-provoking film. Perhaps these critics did not have the benefit of Mr Barclay’s introduction?

The real Maria Altmann in front of 'that painting'

---

[1] Alec Barclay Introduction to Woman in Gold at the RBC 27^th May 2015.

Nekromantik.

Berlin born filmmaker Jorg Buttgereit is best known for a series of controversial films made during the 1980’s and the early 1990’s, films that deal with the relationship between love, sex and death, Nekromantik (1987) deals with all three in a story of a boy and girl and a rotting corpse!    

Rob (Daktari Lorenz) is employed by Joe's Street Cleaning Agency, a company that handles the unenviable task of cleaning up grisly accidents and crime scenes. But Rob has a particular reason for liking his chosen profession, allowing him as it does to indulge in his hobby of choice, collecting body parts, which he keeps preserved in jars around his flat. Tasked with transporting the body of a young man from a murder scene, Rob seizes the opportunity to abscond with the corpse bringing it home, much to the delight of his equally unhinged girlfriend, Betty (Beatrice Manowski). But when Rob gets the sack from the cleaning company Betty is not overjoyed and leaves him, taking the corpse with her. At this point in his life Rob’s only redemption is through a very sharp knife.

Basically the story of a boy and a girl and a rotting corpse!

Banned in a number of countries, the British Board of Film Classification did not pass the film uncut, albeit unsurprisingly with an 18 certificate, until last year (2014). The film involves transgressive subject matter including necrophilia, violence, animal cruelty and some other very skin crawling behaviour along with various unsavoury imagery the worst of which involves our two protagonists making love to the corpse, jamming a length of pipe into it to act as a penis for the sexual gratification of Betty!

 

A job for the Street Cleaning agency.

Made with a ‘non-budget’ its bad acting and dodgy camerawork are synonymous with this filmmaker, but I do not exaggerate when I say every grisly act is fully demonstrated leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination! It’s a film that was made to shock, and shock it does. John Waters proclaimed the film, "the first ever erotic film for necrophiliacs”. I refuse to judge this film or its content on your behalf; you’re an adult - read the synopsis and make up our own mind whether or not to see it?

The End.

Eastern Boys.

Robin Campillo is better known as a writer, preparing the scenarios for Heading South (2005) and The Class (2008) and as co-writer on Foxfire (2012).  Campillo second feature film as both writer and director has been described as ‘a tender love story coupled with a hide and seek thriller’. Inspired by the real story of a man who adopted his boyfriend Eastern Boys (2013) is divided into four chapters the first entitled ‘Her Majesty the Street’ is set in and around the Gare du Nord Station in Paris. We witness a large group of Eastern Europeans, including teenagers and young men up to around 25 years old soliciting for custom from the older men that hang around the stations concourse, the middle aged Daniel is one such man. He meets Marek, a good-looking youngster who he immediately desires, agrees a price and makes arrangements for him to come to his high rise flat the following evening. ‘This Party of Which I Am the Hostage’ is the second chapter where Marek does turn up at Daniel’s luxurious flat but not on his own and Daniel first meets the leader of the ‘gang’, Boss a rather scary character that he finds mesmerising and enchanting at the same time. Tension builds during the invasion of his apartment, but although provoked he does not call the police, aware of the possibility of blackmail or exposure of his sexual preferences. Therefore he has to accept the invasion and join the party. The final two chapters are headed ‘What We Make Together’ and ‘Halt Hotel’ that deal with the aftermath of the flat invasion and I would not want to spoil your enjoyment of the movie by revealing too much, but suffice to say changes occur between Daniel and Marek’s relationship which the director described as “love moving from one place to another place over a period of time” and there is of cause the bonus of an exciting conclusion.

 

Gare du Nord station....

....where Daniel meets Marek. 

Daniel is played by Olivier Rabourdin, who appeared in Of Gods and Men (2010) Midnight in Paris (2011) and Grace of Monaco (2014), a brave role for a well-known actor, which others had already turned down. His character starts the film as a predator and then becomes a victim but is essentially human. It took Campillo six months to find the two main Russian actors Kiill Emelyanov who plays Marek and Daniil Darcque as the gang leader Boss. Shooting in the station is deliberately made to look like CCTV footage but most of the film is shot away from tourist Paris and the director used his own apartment for the invasion/party scene.  

 

Boss. 

In an interview Robin Campillo states “the film does not set out to lecture its audience or pass on a message other than at some time in your life you have to reinvent yourselves and take a risk and become someone different, you make up your own mind”. With a Techno soundtrack that gets darker during the party, the movie involves immigration and the political situation in France with the influx of Eastern European migrants, which the film does not view too favourable on the whole but does give a wee bit of an interesting insight into Marek’s background.  An admirable gay themed drama with a difference.

Katalin Varga.

Due to the success of The Duke of Burgundy (2014), a relationship drama about a sadomasochistic relationship between two women, I thought it was the right time to have a look at his debut film Katalin Varga (2008). This low budget rural revenge drama was filmed over a 17-day period in in the Hungarian speaking part of the Romanian region of Transylvania. A project he completed for £28000 with money that he received in bequest from his uncle.

 

The journey begins for....

With only a smattering of Hungarian the Reading born Strickland directed this foreign language film in English, stating in an interview "Even though I got to know the Hungarian translation quite well, I felt very helpless if the actors wanted to improvise certain parts. For me, this film represents a movie Transylvania - but not in the Dracula sense. Everything is heightened - the goat bells, crickets, and wind ... It's a conglomeration of what I felt as an outsider"[1]

 

....Katalin Varga....

 Although this is to a certain extent a classis revenge story: a young women is raped by two men and she sets out with her young son to extract retribution on both the culprits, it does not encompass the shook tactics normally found in many other films of this genre but almost gives a biblical edge to the drama or as one critic put it “a tonally rich cinematic poem”[2]

 

....and her young son Orban.

The film, to its credit, includes actors that will not be familiar with, which for many viewers will make the story more believable and realistic. Hilda Peter plays Katalin Varga, her son Orban is Norbert Tanko and Tibor Palffy and Roberto Giacomello play the men she hold’s responsible for her rape. Strickland’s direction is superb, Mark Gyori cinematography uses light and colour exceptionally well and along with an appropriate soundtrack makes this a debut film of great potential and proved to be a pointer to the writer/directors future work.   

---

[1] The Guardian June 2009.

[2] James Rice EIFF 2009 Catalogue.

The Duke of Burgundy.

Peter Strickland at EIFF 2012

Described as a maverick of modern British cinema Reading born Peter Strickland made his debut feature film in 2006. This low budget rural revenge drama Katalin Varga was filmed over a 17-day period in the Hungarian speaking part of the Romanian region of Transylvania; the project was completed for £28000. His next film had its World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2012. Berberian Sound Studio is a very nostalgic look at a world before digital recording devices and striped bare the mechanics of the old horror analogue film studios that would commandeer all sorts of every day items to make some very gruesome noises, including an array of garden produce like melons, cabbages and radishes! A film to be honest I had to see twice to appreciate! He followed this with a concert film that he co- directed and edited, Bjork: Biophila Live was filmed at the Alexandra Palace in Wood Green London in September 2013 and featured the Icelandic singer/songwriter[1] performing tracks from her recent tour.  Which brings us to Mr Strickland’s latest work and this weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening The Duke of Burgundy[2] (2014).

Shot in Hungary, Strickland’s latest movie is set in an enchanting pastoral world of butterflies and country houses, populated by women. (No men are to be seen anywhere in this movie). It is without doubt a relationship drama, albeit a sadomasochistic one and focuses on a submissive simmering love affair between Cynthia, a beautiful sophisticated woman and Evelyn, the younger of the two who acts as Cynthia’s maid carrying out tasks and being punished when she regularly does not complete them to her mistresses high standards. These punishments include being used as a human toilet.  Into this atmospheric situation comes the carpenter played by Fatma Mohamed[3] who specialises in made to measure items to intensify transgressive sexual pleasure and measures Evelyn for a bed box, a special gift from Cynthia for the younger woman’s birthday.

 

Sidse Babett Knudsen as Cynthia. 

The question quickly arises, who is actually getting pleasure in this relationship? At times I think your find it difficult to tell. I would agree with the Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw when he opines that The Duke of Burgundy proves that erotic cinema can have genuine substance. Although the narrative is pretty static it’s the ‘simmering undercurrents that are so curiously affecting’[4]. 

 

Chiara D'Anna as Evelyn.

Farma Mohamed as The Carpenter.

Similar in cinematic style to Berberian Sound Studio, which is not surprising as Strickland uses the same cinematographer Nicholas Knowland. It’s a very good movie to look at, beautifully photographed putting you in mind of Euro porn movie’s of the seventies with its soft focus and bizarre imaginary, and has an intriguing story line which you will either love or hate, but it is important that you view this drama with a completely open mind and bring to it no preconceived prejudices.

Just one of the beautiful settings that Nicholas Knowland captures with his camera. 

The star of this film is Sidse Babett Knudsen, who you will recognise as the Scottish First Ministers favourite TV female politician Birgitte Nyborg the Prime Minister of Denmark in the award winning series Borgen. She plays Cynthia, rarely off the screen and holding your attention at all times, a really wonderful sensual actress who portrayal is one of the main reasons for making sure you see this movie. The Italian actress Chiara D’Anna who Strickland used previously in Berberian Sound Studio plays Evelyn. This is by far the best of Strickland’s feature films to date and certainly one of the most interesting and captivating films I’ve seen this year: don’t miss a chance to see this wonderfully sexual and erotically charged movie.  

---

[1] Starred in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark in 2000, opposite Catherine Deneuve

[2] A European butterfly.

[3] Appeared in both of Strickland previous two feature films.

[4] Mark Reynolds Movie mail.