Visions of Europe

[Johann]

Keep your eyes peeled for this film.

It's a compendium of short films by many directors including Peter Greenaway, Bela Tarr and Aki Kaurismaki.

Also, Greenaway's next film is about Rembrant.

[arsaib4]

Thanks for mentioning it, Johann. An intriguing mix for sure as along with the veterans you mentioned, younger filmmakers like Fatih Akin (Head-On), Christoffer Boe (Reconstruction), and Barbara Albert (Free Radicals) are also involved.

[arsaib4]

VISIONS OF EUROPE (site)

"The idea is simple:

Twenty-five countries, twenty-five visions from respected film directors from each of the respective countries that form the new European Community. Each director will give a personal vision of current or future life in this coming cultural melting pot.

The conditions are equally simple:

Absolute freedom of expression.

All films receive the same amount of money regulated to a EU-index. The length of each film is set to five minutes. The shooting format will be compatible to television 16:9.

When the first Nations began working together in the 1950's to form what later became the EU, the idea was met with excitement and scepticism. Later other countries joined the community, and at the Copenhagen Summit, the latest enlargement of the EU was confirmed; twenty-five member Nations.

Envisioning the collaboration of twenty-five different countries, encompassing an even greater number of languages, could be considered a tremendous and potentially haphazard project. Yet throughout Europe, the number of supporters believing in the idea has constantly balanced the number of sceptics. Regardless of personal leaning, the EU is now a fact of life.

Focus on the differences and they are there to be seen. Look for similarities and they might just be found.

Europe is filled with differences, National and regional, urban and agricultural, culinary and cultural, social and political. Some inhabitants travel extensively, others may never leave their home region. Commodities appear from all over the world. Television brings all aspects of existence into our living rooms. Traditions of power, use and misuse, administrative and political influence, taxation, military prowess, Education, health service, crime and crime prevention, foreign affairs, immigration, colonial heritage, wage systems, unemployment benefit, and so on and so forth all these aspects are poured into a joint multi-lingual melting pot, and stirred by the hands of a diversity of chefs, with an equal diversity of interest.

Borders vanish; National currency disappears, sovereign laws and rules become predetermined by common European regulations. A mere glance at the foregoing three hundred years of European history shows an ever-changing map of a fluctuant Europe. The elements of understanding of our personal lives, captured in words like identity, roots, national pride, heritage, and so on, are being affected.

A small piece of the jigsaw might reflect the whole puzzle.

This project hopes that each director will individually grasp whatever piece of the puzzle that attracts them and give us a personal artistic vision of the phenomena called Europe.

It is important to underline that this is not a EU project in itself. The aim is neither to promote the EU, nor to deny it."

[Johann]

The late Theo van Gogh has a segment and Greenaway's is called European Showerbath.

Thanks for the link and info, Arsaib4- keep carrying that torch!