More dark and political films in Berlin competition

April is the Cruellest Month, or, Genocide African style,
and a Shadowy Russian View of Emperor Hirohito


As the Berlin festival enters the home stretch political films and political biopics continue to score strongly. "The Sun"(‘Solntze’) by Alexander Sukorov provides a very dark Russian view of Japanese Emperor Hirohito during the crucial final days of the war and the immediate postwar days during which the descendant of the Sun God had to come to grips with his essential non-Godhood and was required by General Macarthur to publicly renounce his presumed divinity. "Sometime In April" is a profoundly moving study of the Hutu-Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which I almost overlooked because of the innocuous sounding title, and which moved me to unexpected tears of deep sadness. Both films are in Competition.

For Sokurov “Solntze” is the third of a planned quintet of films on twentieth century tyrants. He has previously made films on Hitler and Lenin. The Hirohito picture was timed to coordinate with the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese capitulation in 1945, which finally ended World War II. Although there was a certain pressure at the time to put Hirohito on trial as a war criminal, MacArthur wisely decided to allow the Son of Heaven to carry on as a symbolic head of state provided that he publicly renounce the whole living God business, emperor worship having been the cornerstone of Japanese militarism. Almost the entire film plays out in an underground bunker beneath the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and, in this respect, is similar to “The Fall” describing the last days of Hitler. But there the similarity ends for “Tenno Heika” as he was officially known, is not about to commit suicide and is prepared to take full responsibility for the war of aggression and for the ignominous defeat. He is seen as an extremely dignifies figure, but one who is so catered to by a retubnue of servants that he has never had to even pen a door before and now finds himself at a loss before a common door handle. As Japan is crumbling around him he is still totally revered by all in his presence and it is he who must demand of them that they desist from treating him as a living god. The actor who portrays Hirohito, Issey Ogata, is really quite excellent in a role which, not too long ago, would have been as unthinkable to picture on the screen as it used to be, once upon a time in Hollywood, to show the face of Jesus., (e.g., “The Robe”, (1953. He plays him as an essentially shy man with a trembling lip, but totally aware of his importance and duties. He is also a scholar of Marine biology and, in spare moments, continues to pursue such studies in a bunker laboratory. .When the atomic bombing of Hiroshima comes on screen we see it through the emperor’s eyes as a mass of flying fish flitting over the flaming ruins and intermingling with them – a bravura sequence, and the only one in the entire film which is not shot in such deep shadow that it feels as though we are seeing the picture through a charcoal filter. Some critics call this Sokurov’s “chiaro-oscuro” style, but to this viewer it was more like “oscuro-oscuro” and a burden to the eye. One German I spoke to called it “the worst film I have ever seen” and “totally boring”, but the extended applause at the end of the screening indicated that his was definitely a minority opinion. Sokurov is something of a disciple of Tarkovsky so that this heavy stylization is only to be expected. I personally thought it was an extremely sensitive portrait – with a few moments of wry comedy woven in -- of the strange man who “ruled” Japan for more than half a century until he passed away in 1989. In the domain of towering political figures of the XXth century this film has to be measured against the Mitterand film mentioned earlier, although stylistically the two films are literally as different as night and day.

More to come, Pev, Berlin

On a lighter note, Popular actor Will Smith is in town to plug "The Date doctor" and the festival closes tomorrow with "Kinsey", of the famous sex report, and the annual distribution of the highly coveted Berlin Bears.

Stand By for details.