26 Marzo, 2013

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The first journey between fiction and reality, film and documentaries, will exemplify the intent of this column. The port cities we “teletransported” to are all located on the Mediterranean Sea (Thessaloniki, Tetouan, Barcelona, Marseilles, Genoa) with two smaller digressions onto the Caspian Sea, to Neft Dashlari, in Azerbaijan, and onto the English Channel, to Le Havre in Normandy. These are the locations we have selected to tell the stories directed by great film directors and cinematographers. The films were chosen to document the places and populations of that Middle Earth, which has no borders or languages to explain it, between city and port. The simple starting film on YouTube serves to outline the process and to convey the atmosphere, the climate, the light, the colours. The intention is to stimulate navigation in Internet by providing specific links that at the end of the road could provide a way to see the works in their entirety by paying to view them.

The languages spoken become secondary with respect to the power of the evocative images. Everywhere, the wharves, the boardwalks, the warehouses, the playgrounds, the clubs, the streets and the town squares seem to speak a language of their own that goes beyond the language of cinema. Stories of children, young and old people. But the result is ageless. These are timeless stories and accounts narrated in the spaces that have the smell of the sea in common, something that cannot be captured but can easily be imagined. This is also an opportunity for scholars in this field to spot and single out places that have been subject to transformation, perhaps even recently, and can therefore become a visual testimony of the past.

Travel instructions:

WIKIPEDIA – link to the page of the famous free encyclopedia.

IMDB – link to the Internet Movie Database, online information about films, documentaries, directors.

TRAILER/CUT – direct link to the film trailers, or parts of films on YouTube or Vimeo.

FILM/DOC – opportunities to watch online, for free or pay-per-view.

FACEBOOK – link to the page on the social network.

NB – Over time, there may be variations in addresses or national restrictions to viewing the pages.

telePORTation1

THESSALONIKI Greece: L’éternité et un jour [Mia aioniotita kai mia mera] (Theodoros Angelopoulos) 1998 Greece | France | Germany | Italy
TETOUAN Morocco: Mort à vendre (Death for Sale) (Faouzi Bensaïdi) 2011 Belgium | France | Morocco | Germany | United Arab Emirates
LE HAVRE France: Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki) 2011 Finland | France | Germany
NEFT DAŞLARI Azerbaijan: La Cité du Pétrole, Oil Rocks: City Above the Sea (Marc Wolfensberger) 2009 Switzerland
GENOA Italy: Trois faces (Erik Bullot) 2007 France

THESSALONIKI Greece

L’éternité et un jour [Mia aioniotita kai mia mera] (Theodoros Angelopoulos) 1998 Greece | France | Germany | Italy

Recognizing that his life is at an end (he must be hospitalized and has only a few days left to live), Alexandre, a famous writer, reminisces about his past. He casually meets a child washing windshields on the street (an Albanian child of Greek origin) and decides to accompany him back to the border. This moving encounter leads to a strange sort of road movie, full of flashbacks and oneiric images.

WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_and_a_Day

TRAILER

https://www.cinemovies.fr/film/l-eternite-et-un-jour_e67807/videos/1/m195290

CUT

IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156794/

FILM

https://www.artevod.com/eterniteetunjour

TETOUAN Morocco

Mort à vendre (Death for Sale) (Faouzi Bensaïdi) 2011 Belgium | France | Morocco | Germany | United Arab Emirates

Malik, Allal et Soufiane, trois copains qui vivent de vols à la tire dans une ville coincée entre une colline et une imposante montagne, Tétouan.

WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_for_Sale

TRAILER

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/deathforsale

IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2043822/

LE HAVRE France

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki) 2011 Finland | France | Germany

Marcel Marx shines shoes at Le Havre. The day a young African boy arrives as a stowaway on a ship, Marx decides to hide and protect him.

WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Havre_(film)

TRAILER

CUT

IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1508675/

FILM

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/id491522730

NEFT DAŞLARI Azerbaijan

La Cité du Pétrole, Oil Rocks: City Above the Sea (Marc Wolfensberger) 2009 Switzerland

Oil Rocks – behind the enigmatic name lies the first and largest offshore oil-platform ever built, a vast city in the middle of the Caspian Sea, built by Stalin in 1949.

WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Rocks

TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zno10mIFrbU

IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528788/

DOC

https://beamafilm.com/film-1488498544001.php

GENOA Italy

Trois faces (Érik Bullot) 2007 France

Three port cities on the Mediterranean (Barcelona, Genoa and Marseilles): the issue of bilingualism in Barcelona, the rights of foreigners through the existence of a detention centre in Marseilles, the recent urban regeneration projects in Genoa.

TRAILER

https://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=18836254&cfilm=134791.html

DOC

https://mubi.com/films/trois-faces

Buon viaggio!

Il primo viaggio tra finzione e realtà, film e documentari, vuole essere esemplificativo di questa rubrica. Le città porto toccate durante il teletrasporto si affacciano sul Mediterraneo (Salonicco, Tetouan, Barcellona, Marsiglia, Genova) con due piccole digressioni sul Mar Caspio, Neft Dashlari, in Azerbaijan e sul Canale della Manica, Le Havre, in Normandia. Sono le location scelte per raccontare le storie dirette da grandi registi e direttori della fotografia. La scelta dei filmati è stata quella di essere testimonianza dei luoghi e delle popolazioni di quella terra di mezzo, senza confini e lingue per spiegarla, tra la città e il porto. Il semplice filmato di riferimento su YouTube ha il compito di disegnare il percorso e quello di trasmettere le atmosfere, il clima, la luce, i colori. L’intenzione è quella di stimolare la navigazione in rete attraverso link mirati fino ad arrivare a poter vedere nella maggioranza dei casi le opere nella loro interezza noleggiandone la visione a pagamento.

Le lingue parlate passano in secondo piano rispetto alle immagini fortemente evocative. Ovunque le banchine, i lungomare, i depositi, i parchi gioco, i locali, le strade e le piazze sembrano parlare un loro linguaggio che va oltre quello cinematografico. Storie di bambini, giovani, anziani. Ma quello che ne esce è una età indistinta. Sono storie e racconti senza tempo narrati in quegli spazi accumunati dall’odore del mare che non si sente ma che ci si può facilmente immaginare. E’ anche l’occasione per gli studiosi della materia per notare e sottolineare luoghi che sono stati soggetti a trasformazioni anche recenti che quindi diventano testimonianza visiva del passato.

Istruzioni per i naviganti:

WIKIPEDIA – link alla pagina della nota libera enciclopedia.

IMDB – link all’ Internet Movie Database, informazioni online su film, documentari, registi.

TRAILER/CUT – link diretto al promo del film o a una sua parte sulle piattaforme YouTube o Vimeo.

FILM/DOC – possibilità di visione, libera o a pagamento, in rete.

FACEBOOK – link alla pagina sul social network.

NB – Nel corso del tempo possono esserci variazioni di indirizzi o blocchi nazionali alla visione delle pagine.