Closing this year’s Scandinavian Film Festival on Thursday July 23 is Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words. One of Hollywood’s most radiant and beloved European imports, Ingrid Bergman becomes more of an icon with every passing year. In this fascinating festival highlight, Swedish writer, director and film critic Stig Bjorkman has created an intimate portrait that spans the significant periods of Bergman’s career: the Swedish period, the Hollywood period, and the Italian period. A combination of never-before-seen private footage, notes, letters, diaries and interviews with Bergman’s children Pia Lindström, Isabella, Ingrid and Renato Rossellini, as well as fellow actors Liv Ullman and Sigourney Weaver, results in a film that is both celebratory and revelatory. This is a captivating look behind-the-scenes of the remarkable life of a young Swedish girl who became one of the most beloved and celebrated actresses of American and European cinema.

No Thank You – Anu Sinsalo has won several Best Actress Awards for her portrayal of Heli.

Also screening at the festival is No Thank You, a Finnish comedy about 42 year old Heli, still very much in love with and attracted to her husband – however he prefers spending time with his computer to enjoying sex with her. The relationship hits serious trouble when the couple’s teenage daughter leaves for a month long holiday. Heli’s subtle hints and sexy clothes have no effect on her husband and driven to desperation, she begins an affair with a spunky young student.   But not everything goes according to plan… Star Anu Sinsalo won Best Actress award at the Finland Jussi Awards and the Swedish Peace & Love Film Festival. No Thank You screens on Monday July 20.

Hey Hey we’re the Beatles…(the Norwegian version)

Another comedy, this time from Norway, is Beatles, screening on July 22. Four teenage boys come of age in Oslo at the time when Beatlemania hit Norway. Kim, Gunnar, Ola and Seb each take on one of the Fab Four’s names and plan to start their own band during a time of great political upheaval. At the same time, they struggle through their formative years: battling with archaic textbooks and ancient teachers, and, of course, they discover girls. Based on Lars Saabye Christensen’s beloved bestseller of the same title, Beatles hits all the right notes with a gorgeous soundtrack generating nostalgic recollections of lost innocence and the importance of friendship.

The prize-winning Underdog  is  a tender human drama.

The shifting power balance between Sweden and Norway is explored in Underdog, a tender human drama that touches on themes of class and immigration. Bianca Kronlöf is outstanding as 23-year-old Dino, one of thousands of young Swedish émigrés scrabbling for work in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Her new life is a destructive loop of temporary jobs, financial troubles and hard partying until she lands a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy ex-sportsman. During a few sultry summer weeks she ends up in the centre of an odd and intense love triangle. Underdog was awarded Best New Director at the Chicago Internationall Film Festival and the Critics’ Award for Best Film Debut at the Zurich Film Festival and screens on July 21.

All Inclusive: Jealousy, love, lies – and disco.

In the Danish comedy All Inclusive screening on July 18, Lise, whose husband has recently left her, reluctantly travels to celebrate her 60th birthday in Malta with her daughters. Things get off to a rocky start as the sexy and chaotic Ditte and her sensible older sister Sigrid don’t see eye to eye on how to cheer up their dejected mother, stubbornly fighting over Lise’s love and attention. When a dexterous bartender named Antonio is thrown into the mix, everything becomes a little more complicated in what turns out to be a hilarious whirlwind summer holiday full of laughs, jealousy, love, lies, and disco!

Verandah Magazine has three double-passes to a session to give away…just put a comment in the FB box below, or on our FB page.

For info on all the festival films and screening dates, go to ScandinavianFilmFestival or pick up a program at Palace Byron Bay Cinema.

The opening night film will be followed by a party with live music, drinks and Nordic treats.

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The festival opens on Friday July 17 with the uproarious Here is Harold  (Her er Harold), a Norwegian road movie about a man who sets out to kidnap the founder of Ikea. For over 40 years, Harold has been running a successful business, ‘Lunde Furniture’. But this comes to an end when IKEA decides to open a new superstore right next door to his small furniture shop. In mounting anger and desperation, Harold wants revenge. He arms himself with a pistol and sets off for Älmhult, Sweden, in order to kidnap his nemesis – the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. But unfortunately, Kamprad is quite happy to be kidnapped!

Amanda Adolfsson’s haunting debut feature Young Sophie Bell

From Sweden, Young Sophie Bell (Unga Sophie Bell), screening on Saturday 18^th is Amanda Adolfsson’s debut feature, and the second film to come out of Stockholm Film Festival’s scholarship for female directors. In this drama inspired by The Virgin Suicides and My Summer of Love, two university friends move to Berlin after graduating, but their dreams are shattered when one suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

Based on a series of Finnish radio plays, The Grump(Mielensäpahoittaja) is a broad satire from director Dome Karukoski (Heart of a Lion) who returns to the comedy-of-bad behavior mode of his 2010 box office hit Lapland Odyssey. The film tells the story of a set in his ways 80-year-old farmer from rural Finland, who raises hell when he is forced to move in with his city-dwelling son. The Grump screens on Sunday 19^th.

Grimu Hakonarson’s Rams (Hrutar) won Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival.

The Festival also the Australian premiere of Grimur Hakonarson’s Rams (Hrutar) which was awarded the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. Cannes Jury President Isabella Rossellini said Grimur Hakonarson’s film was being honored for “treating in a masterful, tragicomic way the undeniable bond that links all humans to animals.” Applauded for its wonderfully wry, understated comic moments, Rams centres on two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley who haven’t spoken in 40 years, but have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them — their prize-winning flock of sheep.

Named by Variety as one of the ‘Top 10 Europeans to Watch’, Norwegian Writer/Actor/Director Ole Giæver brings us Out of Nature (Mot nature) a commentary on middle-class life and the Norwegian penchant for idealizing nature. With a wry Scandinavian sense of humor, Out of Nature is a sharp and compelling film about a put-upon salary man who seeks spiritual and sexual renewal in the great outdoors. Out of Nature screens on Sunday July 19.

Danish thrillers have certainly captured attention in recent years. In The Absent One (Fasandræberne) , the sequel to smash hit The Keeper Of Lost Causes, a troubling affair involving a double murder of twin siblings is reopened by the Copenhagen cold-case division after the children’s’ father commits suicide. The Nordic noir mystery switches between the past and the present as it uncovers what really happened in the 1990s at one of the country’s poshest boarding schools. The Absent One screens on Sunday July 19.

Verandah Magazine has three double-passes to a session to give away…just put a comment in the FB box below, or on our FB page.

For info on all the festival films and screening dates, go to ScandinavianFilmFestival or pick up a program at Palace Byron Bay Cinema.

The opening night film will be followed by a party with live music, drinks and Nordic treats.

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“Without cinema, we are nothing.” Spanish Director Pedro Almodóvar

Spain’s biggest ever box office hit Spanish Affair, which was seen by over two million people in the fortnight following its release in Spain, will open the festival in each state across Australia. This comedic tale mischievously pokes fun at cultural differences as it tracks a young southerner who tenaciously seeks to win the heart of a Basque girl, making it a very Spanish affair indeed.  Opening night festivities on April 30 begin at 6.30 pm with a glass of bubbles on arrival before Spanish Affair screens at 7 pm, followed by a Latin fiesta with Spanish wines, tapas and live entertainment.

Marina and Victor face a reality check in Easy Sex, Sad Movies

The mutual affection between Spain and Argentina lives on as two parallel love stories play out across the seas in Easy Sex, Sad Movies screening on Friday May 1. Marina and Víctor have everything that makes a beautiful love story: they are young, single, attractive and have a profound affection for one another. Very soon, they will realise they are soul mates. There is just one problem: Víctor and Marina are, in reality, fictional characters created by Pablo, a sentimental writer and director who has embarked on writing a romantic comedy. The question is: is it possible to write a love story when your own love is in the past?

Screening on Saturday May 2 are three films: Ismael, a tender drama about returning to one’s roots, centres on 10 year-old Ismael Tchou who heads for Barcelona in search of the father that he’s never met – his only clue the return address on a letter sent to his mother; Get Married If You Can is a Mexican rom-com which broke Mexican box office records, about the importance of staying true to oneself and the meaning of genuine love.

Paco Leon directs his mother, Carmina Barrios in Carmina and Amen.

In the third film, Carmina and Amen, Paco León returns to directing his mother, cult figure and matriarchal tour-de-force Carmina Barrios, and his sister Maria León. His previous film Carmina or Blow Up, became an unexpected comedic hit throughout Spain (and at our festival in 2013) and now Carmina and Paco have re-teamed with a hysterical sequel that upgrades the low-budget original with a more mature, polished film that still feels fresh and very Spanish but takes Carmina’s outrageous, larger-than-life personality to the next level. This time Carmina works furiously to conceal the surprise death of her husband from family and friends in order to allow enough time for his bonus pay cheque to clear.

This year, for the Spanish Film Festival, Rafael Bonachela, (Artistic director, Sydney Dance Company), reprises his role as Festival Patron.

The festival continues until Thursday May 7, with the closing night film multi-award winning Wild Tales. Tickets and program details available at: palacecinemas or spanishfilmfestival

To win a double pass to a film simply leave a comment in the box below or on Verandah Magazine’s Facebook page.

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Beloved by movie aficionados throughout the country, Pomeranz and Stratton were given ‘carte blanche’ to select their favourite French films to screen at the festival, with Margaret selecting 3 Hearts and Far From Men, and David choosing Diplomacy and The Blue Room.

“Benoît Jacquot has created a sublime, if painful, romance with fate intervening in the lives of a taxman, played beautifully by Benoît Poelvoorde, and two sisters – sublime performances by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chiara Mastroianni,” says Pomeranz of 3 Hearts (3 Coeurs).   “To add to that duo of fine European women, Jacquot has cast iconic Catherine Deneuve as their mother.  Mainly set in a provincial town south of Lyon, the coincidence of two sisters falling for the same man in a ‘coup de foudre’ is both bizarre and yet totally understandable.  The ramifications of that situation lead to a powerfully emotional film that references great romances of the past. This a moving, unmissable movie experience.”

Of Diplomacy, (Diplomatie), Stratton said: “Volker Schlondorff’s intense adaptation of Cyril Gely’s 2011 play unfolds during the night of August 24-25, 1944 in the Hotel Meurice, the Paris hotel that serves as the headquarters of General Dietrich Choltitz, the German Governor of the occupied city. The Allies are at the city gates and, following Hitler’s orders, Choltitz is prepared to destroy the city and its monuments – until an intervention from Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, who, during an intense and emotionally charged argument, puts forward the case for saving the city.  Niels Arestrup as Choltitz and André Dussollier as Nordling, give commanding performances in this totally gripping drama.”

Presented by the Alliance Française, this is the festival’s 26th year in Australia and its second year in Byron Bay, where a program of 18 exceptional French films is set to captivate Northern Rivers audiences from April 9 to 14.

Gemma Bovery: Starring the incomporable Gemma Arterton, in a comedy-drama based on Gustave Flaubert’s Emma Bovary.

Launching the Festival will be Gemma Bovery, a beguiling romantic comedy-drama from renowned director Anne Fontaine (Coco Avant Chanel), which had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.  Starring the incomparable Fabrice Luchini alongside the delectable Gemma Arterton, the film tells the story of an English couple named Gemma & Charles Bovery, who move to a small, picturesque Normandy town.  Local baker and resident Gustave Flaubert fan, Martin Joubert can’t believe that here are two real-life figures who seem to be replicating the behavior of his favourite fictional characters, right before his eyes…and becomes a man obsessed.
For the Festival’s closing night, the modern French classic Paris, Je T’aime will take audiences through the arrondissements of Paris, with 20 superb short films inspired by the subject of love from acclaimed directors such as Olivier Assayas, Bruno Podalydès, Gus Van Sant and Ethan and Joel Cohen.

Other festival highlights include Girlhood (Bande de Filles), a  story of female empowerment set in the tough neighbourhoods of Paris and The Blue Room (La Chambre Bleue) for which acclaimed actor Mathieu Amalric, in his second directorial feature, has turned to crime writer Georges Simenon’s novel about a passionate, yet illicit, small-town love affair.  Saint Laurent, France’s entry in the 2015 Academy Awards, is a spectacular celebration of the famous and flamboyant designer Yves Saint Laurent at the zenith of his celebrity, exploring his relationships, neuroses, addictions and insecurities.

The Bélier Family (La Famille Bélier) is an uproarious box office smash-hit about family ties, the joy of music and breaking free. In the Beliér family, everyone is deaf, except dutiful sixteen-year-old Paula, who acts as an indispensable interpreter for her parents and younger brother, especially in the running of the family dairy farm. In Samba, the writing-directing duo Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache reunite with The Intouchables star Omar Sy to tell this thought-provoking, cross-cultural romance, set against the backdrop of France’s immigration challenges. Samba is a Senegalese dishwasher who dreams of being a chef. Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is his immigration caseworker and his only hope of staying in France. Together, they might find a future, but the path will not be an easy one.

Programs and tickets for the Alliance Française French Film Festival are now available at Palace Byron Bay Cinema, or online at www.palacecinemas.com.au <https://www.palacecinemas.com.au> .

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What does the arty, discerning cinephile have in common with your average Aussie bloke? At the Byron Bay Film Festival, the answer is clear: absolutely everything. From online dating to speed-racing demons and exotic mountain-climbing the festival has something for both movie buffs and the he-men (and women) among us, writes Lonnie Gilroy.

There’s not much that’s blokier than motorbikes and one of the festival’s most exciting films has hyper-powered two-wheelers as its true stars. Out of Nothing, directed by Chad DeRosa, and co-produced by Andrew Lahmann and Ryan Stiles of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame is a terrific feature-length documentary following an obsessed group of motorbike enthusiasts who travel each year to the fabled Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to compete for land speed records.

Petrolheads will get a real thrill from the technical and mechanical aspects of the film, not to mention the exhilarating race cinematography. Complications inevitably arise during the speed trials – inclement weather, mechanical faults, even personal inner struggles – but the men involved display a reassuring certainty throughout.

From Out of Nothing. Photograph: Phil Hawkins, 2012, Ishootfromthehip.com

On the whole it would have to be said that the Shire is not a place where tough guys carry much clout and the BBFF generally shies away from anything that smacks of macho or militarism. But Oden Roberts’ A Fighting Season is such an impressive film we had to screen it. The film, which is having its World Premiere at the festival, looks at the work of two Army Recruiters who face the daunting task of finding people to sign up while the 2007 ‘surge’ is going on in Iraq, but whose own jobs are in danger. One has been stationed in the recruiting office long enough to get comfortable and the other, injured in the field, just wants to get back to the frontline. They experience a whole new type of conflict: war isn’t confined to the battlefield.

A local tough guy movie features Ballina kickboxing champion, Brodie Stanton, who is as tough as they come and has been a world champion kick boxer since he was 15. In the very fine doco Brodie Stanton: A Film Portrait made by his 16-year-old schoolmate, Ballina’s Jayden Morrison, Brodie is a sweet, smiling youngster. Just don’t get him angry.

Ballina boy Brodie Stanton has been a kickboxing champion since the age of 15. Brodie Stanton, A Film Portrait tells his story.

Another Australian film, Splendr, shows blokes doing that very blokey thing: chasing women. A remarkable student production from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Splendr tells the story of a young man who decides, on the urging of his best mate, to meet up with an older woman via an online dating app. Although prepared for a saucy rendezvous, both characters are confronted with something else entirely. It’s the sort of film that sneaks up on you, and is both effective and moving.

The perils of online dating and male confusion when the unexpected happens are also communicated hilariously in two other short Australian films: First Date and Early Checkout, starring Dustin Clare, and in the fun romp Ignition, a Griffith Film School graduate film, it’s 1970s Brisbane, the right time and place for men behaving badly. Long-haired Jake is awakened by the sound of rustling in his backyard. He rushes to the window to see someone’s stolen his beloved VW Kombi, Betsy. Ignition follows Jake, clad only in his undies, as he ventures into the night to rescue Betsy, with his unhelpful roommate Ben in tow.

Agua Blanca, shot in Mexico, is more of a slow-burner, with a deeply moving story of life lived to the fullest. The protagonists share a passion for the wild outdoors – the grandfather a love of climbing snow-topped mountains, the grandson is a white-water rafting enthusiast. Faced with the prospect of living his final days in a nursing home, Mauro instead sets out on one last trek. His grandson Sebastian accompanies him, and they embark on a journey that is as much philosophical as it is physical. The visuals are powerful and the direction measured. There isn’t a moment wasted in 29 minutes.

Agua Blanca, shot in Mexico, is a deeply moving story of life lived to the fullest.

More macho still are the expedition climbers in the breathtaking Jaeger Des Augenblicks, who like to make things difficult for themselves, choosing the most demanding of new routes to get to their destination – this time the top of the daunting mesa Mt. Roraima in South America. Awe-inspiring footage of the spectacular scenery helps us understand their motivation.

Last but by no means least, we all know that delusions of grandeur are great fuel for comedy, and there are none so deluded as the ageing cock-rockers who “star” in Brisbane writer/director Steve Pratt’s mockumentary Thunderlust and the Middle Beast.

Past their prime and struggling for a comeback hit, glam band Thunderlust travel to Jordan to make music videos for their new album. Abandoned by their regular video guy, they recruit local (and Thunderlust fan) Anas to direct the film clips. Anas soon learns the truth of the warning that you should never meet your idols. He’s got a tiny budget, tight timeframe, public controversies and squabbling band mates to manage.

It’s a classic band-story told with comic flair and confidence, perfect for fans of Spinal Tap and Led Zepplin alike. Along with writing Thunderlust’s music, Pratt also stars as guitar-shredding egomaniac Rocketeer, all at sea in Jordan’s traditional culture. It’s a hoot.

Byron Bay Film Festival runs from March 6-15. Tickets available now at venues and at www.bbff.com.au.

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I love film quotations, especially inane ones. You could collate a collection of gems purely from the movies of Charlton Heston. Like Anne Baxter (as Nefretiri, wife of Rameses) to Heston in The Ten Commandments : “Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!” And Heston, proudly, to Sir Cedric Hardwicke (the Pharaoh): “There is the obelisk of your jubilee!”

Unfortunately, whenever I see a picture of a contemporary pope, even the current likeable fellow, Pope Francis, I recall Heston, as Michelangelo, arousing the temper of Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Growled Julius: “You dare to dicker with your pontiff?”

I mention film quotations because a survey by Screen Australia has listed the all-time favourite lines from Australian films. In order, they’re from Crocodile Dundee: “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife”; The Castle: “That’s goin’ straight to the pool room”; Muriel’s Wedding: “You’re terrible, Muriel”; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: “That’s just what this country needs – a cock in a frock on a rock”; and Babe: “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”

It’s a classic – Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

More seriously, Screen Australia discovered what Australians think about local films. They found that nine out of ten people believe it’s important that the country has a local film and television industry that creates Australian stories. The most important reason given for a local industry was “to make sure that Australian culture isn’t overwhelmed by American culture on account of the amount of movies and TV series that Hollywood produces.”

Other reasons given were the local employment opportunities, and to ensure that Australian stories and important historical events were told and recorded. Eighty percent of people said that Australian stories were “vital for contributing to our sense of national identity”. Three-quarters said they would miss the Australian film and television industry if it ceased to exist.

The cultural export nature of our film and TV sector also registered strongly. Seventy-three per cent agreed that “Australian film and TV stories are vital to show the rest of the world Australian culture”.

And then came another statistic. Respondents were asked to affirm that “I typically watch more Australian content than foreign content”. A silly question, really, considering the foreign content outweighs the local product by about 90 per cent. Still, only 29 per cent agreed, which rather negated all their previously approving comments.

All of which brought me back to my film-quote collection. For my favourites it’s hard to go past Jack Nicholson, in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth!”; in Five Easy Pieces: “Now all you have to do is the hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven’t broken any rules”; Batman: “Wait’till they get a load of me!”; and The Shining: “He-e-e-e-ere’s Johnnie!”

Crocodile Dundee: “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife.”

We all have our favourites. Most people remember Robert Duvall’s “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” in Apocalypse Now; Arnold Swarzenegger’s “Hasta la vista, baby,” in The Terminator; Judy Garland’s, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more,” in The Wizard of Oz; Marlon Brando’s, “I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender,” in On The Waterfront, and his, “The horror, the horror,” in Apocalpse Now. Not to mention the customer to the waitress in the café, after Meg Ryan’s character, Sally, has faked an orgasm: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

For clever quotes, there’s Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City: “The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yes, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.” You could adapt that thought to the Pacific Ocean and Australia. As for local films, Breaker Morant has some beauties, both delivered by Edward Woodward as Lieutenant Harry Morant: “I’ll tell you what rule we applied, sir. We applied Rule 303. We caught them and we shot them under Rule 303.” And, “Shoot straight, you bastards! Don’t make a mess of it!”

But it’s the dialogue in Hollywood’s Bad Day at Black Rock that resonates perfectly in the current Australian cultural and political scene. Like Walter Brennan to Spencer Tracy: “I’m consumed with apathy.” And Tracy to Ernest Borgnine: “You’re not only wrong, you’re wrong at the top of your voice.”

Robert Drewe’s latest books, The Local Wildlife, set in the Northern Rivers, and Swimming to the Moon, are now on sale.

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