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Home , Andrei Tarkovsky, A Generation, Federico Fellini, Lucrecia Martel, Pather Panchali, Roberto Rossellini

Section:GDN RR PaGe:10 Edition Date:070330 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/3/2007 22:35 cYanmaGentaYellowblack

10 | Friday March 30 2007 The Guardian | Friday March 30 2007 11 World cinema special

West : 1972-82 Sweden: 1951-1957 Hong Kong: 1989-1993 The politically febrile atmosphere of West Germany Though Bergman kept making fi lms through the 1970s -makers in Hong Kong laboured largely unnoticed by produced a handful of genuine master directors. In a and 1980s, Swedish cinema’s golden age was in the early the west until Reservoir Dogs borrowed John Woo’s tactic stream of radical, pioneering fi lms, Volker Schlöndorff ’s and mid-50s. Alf Sjoberg won an Oscar for Miss Julie in of dressing his hitmen in Blues Brothers get-up; there- Tin Drum (1981) is arguably the high point of the move- 1951, and Bergman began his extraordinary run with upon Woo and his compatriots became the hottest names Golden ment, but Fassbinder’s in 1982, and Herzog’s folie two years later. Arguably, he reached on the fi lm-making planet. It couldn’t last: Woo left for de grandeur marked the end of the era. his peak in 1957, with Wild Strawberries. Hollywood almost immediately, after Hard-Boiled in 1992. Key fi lm: Aguirre, Wrath of God (, 1972) Key fi lm: The Seventh Seal (, 1957) Key fi lm: The Killer (John Woo, 1989)

Denmark: 1996-1998 Iran: 1994-2000 globe and the Dogme movement revolutionised The fabular simplicity of Farsi-language fi lms took hold low-budget cinema, putting digital fi lms on the big screen in the 1990s. Abbas Kiraostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen for the fi rst time. But prankster Von Trier, ever the self- Makhmalbaf were the leaders; later fi gures include ironist, quickly distanced himself from it after his only Makhmalbaf’s daughter Samira. Since the latter’s : 1943-1952 & 1960-1975 Dogme fi lm, (1998), and went his own way (2000), Iranian cinema has struggled, partly USSR: 1957-1979 owing to the hostility towards the region after 9/11. Italian — responding directly to the second as the movement fl oundered. The Soviets took time to recover from the traumas of world war — pioneered rough-and-ready location fi lm- Key fi lm: (, 1998) Key fi lm: Through the Olive Trees (, 1994) the war, with Mikhail Kalatosov’s The Cranes Are Flying making, and in doing so triggered multiple new waves. (1957) initiating a golden period (taking in directors such Italy had its own golden age too, with Fellini, Antonioni, as Tarkovsky, Paradjanov, Konchalovsky and Klimov) that Bertolucci, a wave ended by Pasolini’s murder in 1975. lasted until the break-up of the communist state. Key fi lms: , Open City (, 1945) and Key fi lm: (, 1972) Ever get the feeling you can’t keep up? (, 1960). That no sooner have you got to grips with South Korea: 2002-2005 Far East cinema got a new injection of venom from a Japanese horror than non-linear Mexican : 1958-64 & 1981-1986 batch of hyper-violent, hyper-stylish fi lms, among which The French “nouvelle vague” did for cinema what the Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) has arguably had have become the must-sees at the cubists did for painting: radicalising and reinventing it at most signifi cant impact. Balance is provided by more the same time, and making cultural stars of Godard, Truf- serene off erings from art fi lm directors Kim Ki-duk and cinema? Here, for easy reference, is our faut and Malle. Two decades later, another generation — Im Kwon-taek. led by Besson and Beneix — took the lead in creating 1980s Key fi lm: Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003) “arthouse” cinema, with glossy fables of sex and death. one-stop guide to which countries have Key fi lms: A Bout de Souffl e (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) & produced the hippest fi lm-makers, and Subway (, 1985) Japan: 1953-1962 & 1998-2001 Japan can boast two distinct high points: the “golden when they’ve done it. Never again need you era” of Kurosawa and Ozu in the , and the J-horror phenomenon that began in the late 90s. Kurosawa’s work be caught out claiming the Czech masters Spain: 1986-1992 Czechoslovakia: 1964-1968 led directly to the spaghetti , while Hideo Nakata’s The post-Franco liberalisation threw up a group of taboo- Before it was crushed by Soviet occupation, the Czech Ringu trilogy prevented horror’s seemingly terminal slide. preceded the French nouvelle vague. shattering fi lm-makers, principal among whom was, of New Wave made a contribution to the country’s attempt Key fi lms: (, 1954) & course, the camply transgressive Pedro Almodóvar. Mata- to liberalise. Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel and Vera Chytilova Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998) Your tour guide: Andrew Pulver dor (1986) was the fi rst of his fi lms to make signifi cant were at the forefront, fusing documentary techniques and headway. By the 1990s, the excitement was fi zzling out, acidic comedy. Menzel won an Oscar for Closely Observed but Jamón, Jamón (1992) unearthed Penélope Cruz. Trains (1966) but Larks on a String was banned until 1990. Key fi lm: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Forman left for Hollywood in the early 1970s. (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) Key fi lm: A Blonde in Love (Milos Forman, 1965) BE INSPIRED BE INSPIRED : 2000-2002 : 1955-1962 “EVIL PREVAILS. ONLY THE “I HAD KNOWN BETTY FOR A Arguably the most successful of the recent wave of Latin Political liberalisation in mid-1950s Poland led directly American cinema, Mexico can boast a clutch of genuine to an upsurge of fi lm-making brilliance, led by Andrzej GOOD DIE YOUNG.” WEEK... THE FORECAST WAS (Alejandro González Iñárritu, , Wajda’s trilogy on the country’s wartime experience, A ) and bona fi de commercial success Generation, Kanal and Ashes and Diamonds. Another Lodz SP WONG CHI SHING INFERNAL AFFAIRS FOR STORMS.” (Y Tu Mamá También, 2001). Proximity to Hollywood and fi lm school graduate, , spearheaded a fi lm-world fashionability meant they were soon dispersed new direction away from the war with Knife in the Water ZORG BETTY BLUE to multiple international projects. (1962) — but he soon left for the west. Key fi lm: (Alejandro González Key fi lm: Kanal (, 1957) Iñárritu, 2000)

India: 1955-1962 Bollywood is trying manfully to make a global splash, but the last time Indian cinema was really relevant was in the late 1950s, when ’s Apu trilogy applied the lessons of to rural . A generation of fi lm-makers were inspired — notably , whose Calcutta trilogy fi nished with Subarnarekha in 1965. Key fi lm: (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

DIRECTED BY JEAN-JACQUES BEINEIX (FRANCE, 1986)

DIRECTED BY WAI KEUNG LAU AND SIU FAI MAK (HONG KONG, 2002) Argentina 2001-2004 Brazil: 1998-2002 China: 1984-1993 The early part of this decade saw a short-lived fl urry of Brazilian cinema emerged unexpectedly on the world Art cinema delved into new colour palettes with a wave © Tartan Video 2004 activity, part of the celebrated Latin buena onda, or “good stage via Walter Salles’ heartfelt fable Central Station in of fi lms from mainland China, by fi lm-makers newly liber- wave”, but undermined by Argentina’s wider fi nancial 1998, and Salles used his infl uence to get other direc- ated from the traumas of the Cultural Revolution. The so- crisis. The principal name to emerge was Lucrecia Martel, tors’ careers off the ground. Most notable was the global called “fi fth generation” threw up names such as Zhang with La Ciénaga (2001) and The Holy Girl (2004), but smash City of God (2002) from Fernando Meirelles — but as Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang; their work little has been heard from this part of the world since with many other Latin American countries, international formally joined the mainstream when Kaige’s Farewell My Carlos Sorin’s Bombón el Perro (also 2004). success has seen Brazil’s pace-setters move away. Concubine (1993) won the Cannes Palme d’Or. Key fi lm: La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001) Key fi lm: Central Station (Walter Salles, 1998) Key fi lm: Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984) © 1986 Cargo -Constellation/Gaumont. All Rights Reserved.