By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day
What is the European cinema? Not just the French, German or Dutch, but
European?
In fact, the notion of Europe is archaic, old-fashioned. Everything
located farther West than Brest and Chop is currently referred to as the
European Union, hence the European Union cinema. All things considered,
this was the week's underlying principle (the week actually lasted five
days at Kyiv's House of Film.
Also, there was the praiseworthy desire to show something new; all the
films submitted were productions dating back several months at most. European
quality. It is so refreshing, especially when it comes to such "trifles"
as food, shoes, cars, and the other things making up one's life. In this
sense cinematography presents a problem. You cannot spread it on your bread
and make a sandwich, nor can you park it at a filling station to check
the oil, tire pressure, etc. A motion picture excellently produced technically
but boring is worse than a pair of shoes a size smaller, torturing your
feet, because what you see on the screen tortures your mind, causing a
lasting headache. Of course, the organizers made a very alluring start,
running the German blockbuster Run, Lola, Run (see The Day,
June 15). A picturesque and witty movie, it made one hope to see more during
the week.
Alas, Lola was about as far as it went. One felt like one was
watching old Soviet movies, except that the characters had somehow forgotten
Russian. Most of the stories were hour and a half to two hour tearful snot-nosed
accounts of personal problems being solved by men and women weather-beaten
by life (Greece's Drop in the Ocean, Denmark's Barbara, Portugal's
Normal Life, Finland's Women by the Sea, and France's Western).
More often than not the finale became clear in the first thirty minutes:
he or she or both are unhappy and broken-hearted (variation: looking for
trouble for want of anything better to do), then what? Begging the learned
filmmakers' pardon, it all looked to me very much like a hundred episode
soap opera. And half the stories offer a universal remedy to all problems:
get out of this country and go to America. Is it really that bad in Europe?
I mean things ranging from film to family life?
Another solution is to totally immerse oneself in sports. In the Dutch
All Stars (a very decent production, by the way), the key characters'
only sense and joy of life is their amateur soccer team. A dozen brief
life stories in funny and sad collisions merging into a simple yet expressive
and easily entertaining plot. This cannot be said of the Belgian Simply
Friends and Swedish Big and Small Men, although made using the
same recipe, in this case jazz. The Swedish production is rather about
growing up and kissing childhood goodbye. A bit drawn out and heavy on
the dramatics, but with substantial technical merits.
Apparently, there are countries where movies cannot be made below a
certain standard and Austria is one of them. Austrian films are practically
nonexistent in Ukraine, and this made it an even more pleasant surprise
to watch The Inheritors as the worthy Alpine republic's representative
in Kyiv. It is a story about seven workers set at the turn of the century.
Suddenly they inherit a large estate... The plot is so expressive and convincing,
at times it reaches the level of classical drama. The trite poor man -
rich man juxtaposition would interest no one except for the film being
permeated by genuine passion, thirst for life, justice, and its native
land. And excellent casting makes even extras into carefully and colorfully
portrayed characters, each with his or her own voice. This mountain saga
was nominated for this year's Oscar and whether or not the authors receive
the award is not that important.
In general, it makes no sense to assess the week. The main intrigue
of the modern movie-making process in Europe by no means unfolds in the
course of such purely educational events. After all, the right to choose
the films rested with the embassies and cultural attachОs of the countries
that produced them. They received no instructions from the European Commission.
They picked what they thought was good. And they meant well.







