Cinema Club

Events

Wondrous New Herzog Doc Headlines June Event

On Sunday, June 22 the Camera Cinema Club screened Encounters At The End Of The World (http://encountersfilm.com/), writer/director Werner Herzog's unusual, ruminative and wondrous documentary on Antarctica. In attendance was Henry Kaiser (producer, underwater cameraman and composer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kaiser_%28musician%29); and his malamute Kida.

Early bird sign-ups for the 2008-2009 Season are available through July 31st (contact me at celluloiddreams@earthlink.net for details or visit http://www.cameracinemas.com/club.shtml).

See you at our next screening: Sunday, July 20th!

Regards,

Tim
Director Camera Cinema Club
The Place To Talk Film
408-871-7774

Movie Review
Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
New York Times Critics' Pick

How Many Goodly Creatures Are There on Mr. Herzog's Planet

By MANOHLA DARGIS

Published: June 11, 2008

Few filmmakers make the end of days seem as hauntingly beautiful as Werner Herzog does, or as inexorable. In his documentary "Encounters at the End of the World," this professional madman and restlessly curious filmmaker travels to the blinding white of the Antarctic, where he meets melancholic scientists, brooding journeymen and various poets of the soul who, ensconced in the American headquarters, McMurdo Station, have traveled so far beyond the familiar coordinates - so far beyond traditional cities, suburbs and banal existence - that they might as well be on another planet.

Call it Planet Herzog. Though I'm certain that the men and the smattering of women in the documentary are far from ordinary - their fantastic milieu and haunted eyes suggest as much - part of what makes them memorable is how Mr. Herzog weaves them into his story. And make no mistake: from his familiar droning voice-over to his ethereally lovely images and stubborn fatalism, this is very much Werner Herzog's story of the Antarctic and not, as he intimates right up front, a heartfelt tale of "fluffy" penguins, an easy swipe at the palatable pleasures of the documentary "March of the Penguins." Though there are, as it happens, some penguins here too, most memorably a Herzogean creature that may trouble your dreams.

Like many of Mr. Herzog's movies, fiction and nonfiction, "Encounters at the End of the World" itself has the quality of a dream: it's at once vivid and vague, easy to grasp and somehow beyond reach. Its inspiration can be found in his 2005 movie, "The Wild Blue Yonder," a self-described science fiction fantasy (about outer and inner spaces, for starters) that mixes fiction with nonfiction. Its most striking nonfiction moments come courtesy of the underwater video images shot in the Antarctic by his friend and sometime composer, the guitarist Henry Kaiser, of divers swimming in the eerie blue under a shelf of crystal ice. (Mr. Kaiser produced this new movie and, with David Lindley, did its plaintive, effective string-centric music.)

These same underwater explorers return in "Encounters at the End of the World," floating in cerulean amid otherworldly creatures, like fuzzy-looking clams that languidly snap open and close like fur castanets and an undulating jellyfish with silvery, near-transparent tentacles and what looks like a raw steak at its center. I could watch these surreal creatures for hours, and from the way he returns to these images, you get the sense that so could Mr. Herzog. But there are other sights and sounds to marvel at, including the Weddell seals that loll about indifferently on the surface, soaking up rays like fat, lazy tourists but, once underwater, create a symphony of electronic-like calls that one scientist accurately compares to Pink Floyd.

One of the beauties of "Encounters at the End of the World" is that all the furry and floating animals are no more wondrous than the bipeds tramping through and around McMurdo: the linguist turned philosopher, the banker turned bus driver and the female adventurer who, for drama and odd entertainment, likes to have herself zipped up in a carryall bag. (She's her own baggage.) Mr. Herzog opens his mind, heart and eyes to all these wayfarers who - despite the persistent strain of melancholy that touches each and every person who appears on camera - seem eerily at peace at the bottom of the world. One reason may be that, like Mr. Herzog, more than a few evince a deep-felt pessimism about both the present and the future.

If this were a nature documentary like any other, the casual talk about global warming and other calamities might cast shadows across this bright expanse. But there's something about Mr. Herzog - including the accidental if now well-practiced comedy that colors even his most dramatic pronouncements - that inevitably keeps his pictures from growing too dark. One reason is beauty, which in his hands has a way of keeping the worst at bay; it is, after all, hard to fully despair in the face of so much of the natural world's splendors. Another reason, I think, has to do with Mr. Herzog's seemingly unshakable faith in human beings, who for all their misdeeds at times reach a state of exaltedness. They soar - just like that jellyfish.

An Overview of the 2007-2008 Season

Club members got a break from the heat wave with Encounters At The End Of The World (http://encountersfilm.com/), writer/director Werner Herzog's unusual, ruminative and wondrous documentary on Antarctica and the unusual folks -- human and otherwise -- who reside there. In attendance was Henry Kaiser (producer, underwater cameraman and composer); and his malamute Kida.

The Cinema Club showed the Canadian indie Sidekick, Canada's first (and only) bonafide super hero flick, about mild-mannered computer consultant Norman, who after discovering that Victor, his swaggering co-worker, has superpowers, sets out to help him refine his abilities. In attendance was the film's super entertaining writer/producer Michael Sparaga.

The April event featured The Memory Thief, the story of Lukas (Mark Webber)--an aimless, young man in contemporary L.A. whose chance encounter with a Holocaust survivor suddenly brings into focus a world and an identity he embraces with frightening intensity--the victimized Jews of World War II. In attendance was the film's most excellent writer/director Gil Hofman.

The Club screened Tre, a close-up look at the complicated nature of adult romantic relationships via the interactions of four main characters, all of whom wind up at one of the pair's spacious, secluded Calabasas pad, after breaking up with their respective lovers. The film's director Eric Byler (Charlotte Sometimes, Americanese) spoke at length following both screenings about the film's themes.

The Club screened Shotgun Stories, a slow burning, southern, familial drama which tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. 29-year-old writer/director Jeff Nichols, native of Little Rock, Arkansas, took questions and spoke to Cinema Club audiences via telephone from his home in Austin, TX.

The Club returns from the Christmas break with the powerful documentary, Taxi To The Darkside, a gripping investigation into the homicide of a taxi driver at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan shortly following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Director Alex Gibney spoke about the film in a recorded conversation with Club Director Tim Sika following each screening.

The Club screens The Savages, an irreverent look at family, love and mortality about two adult siblings (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) who find themselves plucked from their everyday, self-centered lives to care for an estranged elderly parent. A taped interview with Laura Linney and lively discussion followed.

The Club inaugurated its 12th Season with the sentimental drama Man In The Chair, in which two unlikely partners -- a would-be teenage film director hoping to escape an unhappy home life, and a senior citizen trying to recapture his days as a Hollywood crew member -- team up to produce a film worthy of winning a prestigious student film competition.