Movie reviews

ARTEKINO FESTIVAL ONLINE

TELLIER SEBASTIEN, BEAUCOUP DE VIES (SEBASTIEN TELLIER: MANY LIVES)

Watchable. A documentary about a bum's sudden rise to fame. Various terms are used for his music. I'd call it psychedelic electro pop for its sound, the gig and video clip visuals are typical for the genre too. He's a disgusting, fat drunk and junkie. But one with a flair for music and a never-serious demeanour. Which leads me to think how much we value entertainment that we bankroll someone's debauchery. Not that it's even mentioned in the documentary. No, this one just charts his rise from his couch potato state to tours round the world, playing at a Karl Lagerfeld fashion show, singing at Eurovision and his consecutive albums. It's overtalked. The film looks as if they decided to put any opinion about him and by him in it, whether it matters or not. His music's light, enjoyable, videos fun, but not everyone deserves a film. This guy has no personality. Or if he has one - as his jokes may imply - it doesn't show here.

IVANA CEA GROAZNICA (IVANA THE TERRIBLE)

Watchable. Ivana Mladenović has made a superficial movie about her summer holiday. Beautiful young women, sandy beaches, light blue lake, pleasant Serbian and Romanian music, a younger boyfriend and family arguments. Easy to follow but as empty as the actress's pretty head. She tells a story in spite of having nothing to say

TELLIER SEBASTIEN, BEAUCOUP DE VIES (SEBASTIEN TELLIER: MANY LIVES) DIRECTOR Q&A

First Sebastien was a character in Valenza's movie. François Valenza wasn't thinking about a documentary about him, he's not into music but became "fascinated by his character". He ended up working on the film for 8-9 years. 

IVANA CEA GROAZNICA (IVANA THE TERRIBLE) DIRECTOR Q&A

She cast her real family. She had to teach them lines but not too well so they don't pronounce them too automatically.

All festival movies run quite smoothly, most are audible and the subtitles are legible from a distance, though bigger ones would be better, just as they could do with a black background. Sadly, the quality of the films themselves is low or very low. The whole festival is skippable.