Bitef

Monday, September 24 17:30 and 20:00 NIGHT OFTHE CLOWNS Screenplay/directed by; Ingmar Bergman Cast: Harriet Andersson, Äke Gremberg, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek, Gudrund Brost Production: Sweden, Sandrews Duration: 93 minutes, Black and white, 1953 The theater is like a faithful wife. The film is a great adventure the costly, exacting mistress. Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) is one ofthe most significant and mostfruitful theatre and film directors (62feature and 3 documentary films, 170 theatre performances directed). He was artistic director of Malmö municipal teaterna where he gathered an exceptional group of associates forming theso-called Bergman ensemble (Bibi and Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson...), who worked with him on film as well. The period in Malmöu was fiercely experimental. He directed most diverse plays and genres: from Lehar's Merry Widow, through Swedish folklore and to the classics - Moliere, Goethe's Faustus). From 1963 to 1966 he headed Kungliga dramatiska teatern, where he carne back in the 1980's with large projects (20th BITEF, Strindberg's Miss Julie). "I am not a dogmatist or, better, I was not then, and I am not now. I had a period of strong dogmatic Puritanism -something like an attackof Puritanism, butthat is over. One dream provoked me to make The Night ofthe Clowns. It is in the foundations ofthe movie. The dream is the theme, and one should add a series of variations to it.The scene with Ana and the actor Is one ofthem." When I was just beginning in the 7 940's, ту professor told me that a director must listen, and keep his mouth shut. It tookme a long time to realize thatl talked too much. Now I know that one should listen with his ears - and his heart.

Ingmar Bergman

Tuesday, September 25 17:30 ACROBAT SHEEN(AKROBAT SCHÖ-Ö-ÖN) Screenplay/directed by: Wolfgang Staudte Cast: Charlie Rivel, Clara Tabody, Karl Schönböck, Käthe Dyckhoffand others Production: Germany.Tobis Filmkunst Duration: 79 minutes, Black and white, 1943 Wolfgang Staudte (1906-1984) is considered tobe the most significant German director after thè Second World War. First he made films for the Eastern German DEFA, where he made his most important film The Murderers are Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns, 1946). His favorite subject at that time was spiritual stringency of the un-politically oriented middle dass through German history, so his opponents called him a politicai child and confused padfist. In 1955, after the conflict with Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel overthe screen adaptation ofthe play Mother Courage [Mutter Courage), Staudte left DEFA and since then he worked in West Germany. At thè end of his life he mostiy worked for televisión (famous action series Tatort and Komissar). He died in Slovenia during the shooting ofthe film Iran Road [Der eiserne Weg). In Avala Film in Beigrade, in 1963, Staudte made the film Male Excursión [Herrenpartie). The Acrobat is the first Staudte's feature-length film. His nextfilm is banned and he lost his job. On the tomb in his native town Saarbriken, it says: The cowardice turns every politicai System into dictatorship. Acrobat Sheen is a film about one ofthe most famous clowns, the Spaniard Charlie Rivel. His parents and brothers were acrobats too, and he worked in the circuses of Paris, Berlin, London and the USA. In 1910 he met Charlie Chaplin and inspired Chaplin's artistic alias. One of his best numbers was Acrobat Sheen. It is difficult to improve thè world with thè money ofpeople Who think that there is nothing wrong with this world.

Wolfgang Staudte