ON THIS PAGE:
- Music for Black Pigeons
- Call of God
MUSIC FOR BLACK PIDGEONS
Denmark 2022, Director Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed, Running time 92’
In 2021 the Danish guitar player Jakob Bro, the Norwegian trumpet Arve Henriksen and the Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy published for the music label ECM the album Uma Elmo. The title of one of the nine tracks that compose the record is Music for Black Pigeon that Danish filmmakers Jørgen Leth (85, a veteran of Danish cinema) and Andreas Koefoed (43) have borrowed for their stimulating analysis of jazz music and musicians.
Jørgen Leth asks existential questions to the musicians about what play and listening means. The respondents give themselves enough time before trying to answer, confirming how difficult it is to transmit the emotions of music through words. The movie becomes a kind of cinematic improvisation. The suggested secret is that to really enter into music, we must be there while playing and jamming, bringing on the legacy of generations of jazz pioneers and creating something completely different from anything ever heard.
During the film, we follow the protagonist since they wake up in the morning and then rehearse, record, play and talk about music. The combination of tracks, concerts, backstage and interviews is enthralling thanks to the stellar level of the musicians involved, including Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Mark Turner and Joe Lovano.
Oscar Cosulich
CALL OF GOD
Kõne taevast, Estonia/Lituania/Kirghizistan, 2022. Director Kim Ki-duk. With Zhanel Sergazina, Abylai Maratov. Running time 1h e 21’.
In December 2020, the South-Korean director Kim Ki-duk died in Lettonia of the consequences of Covid-19. He was ostracized in his country because he was accused of sexual abuse in the heyday of #MeToo. This was the bitter end of the human experience of an author that was complex and troubled like his movies. The last one, Call of God (Kõne taevast) arrives in Venezia 79 after being wrapped by the Estonian filmmaker Arthur Weber following the guidelines left by the late director. Call of God follows a girl falling in love but as often happens in Kim’s movies, violence and inner torments have significant weight in human relationships. In fact, according to Kim’s words in one of his most essential and revealing movies, the documentary-confession Arirang (2011), life is «sadism, Self-torture, masochism». Arirang was the way Kim chose to talk about himself and his pain after a dramatic creative and existential crisis. The painful nature of existential research in the opera of the South-Korean director clearly emerged from that movie. The eternal knots of guilt, pain and loneliness were always the core of his stories. It’s hard to separate love and death in Kim’s movies. Samaria Difficile, allora, che nelle storie del regista amore e morte siano disgiunti. The samaritan (2004, Silver Bear for best direction in Berlin), the extreme and shocking silent apologue Moebius (2013), 3 Iron (2005) and Pietà (2012) are all vivid examples of his cinematic poetry. Kim won Silver and Golden Lion for the latter two, and many still remember his first time in Venice with Seom (2000), a movie that shocked the audience for its rawness.
Emanuele Bucci
