August 2, 2004

Kinoeye. 4.3.

Kinoeye With each issue, Kinoeye spotlights a region of Europe, usually one now located in what Donald Rumsfeld has dubbed "New Europe" (and interestingly, that dubbing has stuck). This summer, though, Kinoeye leans west. The special section, albeit comprised of only two articles: "Film and Identity in the Benelux."

La Vie nouvelle Gérard Kraus takes a close look at Andy Bausch's Le Club des chômeurs (The Unemployment Club), the 2002 film that "can and has to be interpreted as a representation of Luxembourg's cultural identity," and Matt Ross looks back at Paul Verhoeven's 1973 Dutch hit, Turks fruit (Turkish Delight).

"Since its premiere screenings in late 2002, Philippe Grandrieux's second feature La Vie nouvelle (The New Life) has been a cause célèbre." In the featured article, Kinoeye steps south to France, setting the theme for one of the highlights of each issue, the hand-picked guide to the archive on the right. At any rate, Adrian Martin counts himself among La Vie nouvelle's "many passionate defenders."

Ronald Holloway looks back on the Sofia International Film Festival (March 4 - 14).



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Posted by dwhudson at August 2, 2004 10:06 AM

Comments

Ha, the "New Europe"!

Actually, Kinoeye expunged the term from its vocabulary -- and, more noticeably, its tagline -- more than a year ago. I'm sad to say it was in part due to Donald Rumsfeld, but also because it didn't seem that the term meant anything to anyone anymore. We really wanted to capture a new spirit in European film-making rather than a geographic bloc with a certain political alignment. But I think we failed, and now the term will forever have Rumsfeldian associations thanks to the man's diplomatic broadsides, and the Kinoeye remit is always misquoted as a result (sigh).

But there was some comfort in that the Edinburgh Film Festival tried to do exactly the same thing by introducing a "New Europe" sidebar (which included dynamic new films from across the continent) shortly after we ditched the term. Curiously, they don't seem to have revived it for this year...

Best,

Andrew James Horton
Editor-in-Chief
Kinoeye, http://www.kinoeye.org

Posted by: Andrew James Horton at August 5, 2004 9:34 AM