Kobi
Despite a small stint working in a craft gallery, my knowledge of Kobi Bosshard, New Zealand’s grandfather of contemporary jewellery, is shamefully patchy at best. Thankfully, his daughter Andrea Bosshard (who also happens to be the film’s co-Director along with Shane Loader), knows a thing or two about filmmaking and has created a documentary that is as informative as it is insightful.
Andrea’s very personal account of her father tells the story of the Swiss goldsmith (third generation in a line of goldsmiths), who arrived here in 1961 and proceeded to transform New Zealand’s contemporary jewellery landscape. The film offers a thoughtfully edited array of interviews and archival footage interspersed with some stunning cinematography that indulges in the surrounds of Kobi’s tranquil home studio in Central Otago, observing the craftsman at work and at times glimpsing the fruits of his labour.
The film presents as intelligently ponderous and occasionally meandering, but its core concern always remains Kobi’s sense of conflict between technology and quality. He explains that technology has sped up processes at the cost of quality and has divorced us from our ancestors. His Heideggerian outlook posits how “we have lost faith in our instinctive ways of doing and seeing. We have to explain everything … we have to know why we like it. We can’t just say, gee I like it. It moves me.”
The film is beautifully laden with such insights and philosophical gems, although it does take a while to garner a deeper emotional connection with the man himself. Andrea confesses herself to “crave the detail that brings a story alive and entertains an audience”. Indeed Kobi must’ve been as much a cathartic process for her as it is entertainment for us. Thankfully, the film does make a good many emotional connections in its final chapter as it follows Kobi on a journey back to Switzerland to reconnect with an old friend.
Although the film provides an important historical document of one of New Zealand’s premier artisans, Kobi is perhaps more significantly a documentary that implores humanity to slow down. Above all, Kobi remains essential viewing for any Bosshard enthusiast and a wonderful exposé on a mindful craftsman whose gentle nature belies the prominent nature of his work.
Read the full review for the NZ Herald here.
“The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations” — such is the provocative statement written at the foot of an art exhibition at the centre of Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s (Force Majeure) film, The Square.
Now here’s a film that goes down like a churro dunked in chocolate sauce. And like that alluring sugar-coated doughy Spanish treat, Game Night is a film with zero nutritional benefits but sooo easy to consume. No subtexts, no heavy messages, it keeps its mood light and its subject matter dark—it’s a cheerful black comedy, if you will.
Greta Gerwig is no stranger to mixing a celluloid cocktail of angsty humour with a twist of social realism. In her sophomore years, the fledgling writer/director/actor was understudy to Noah Baumbach, both bringing about delightful films such as Francis Ha and Mistress America. With Lady Bird, Gerwig has spread her wings, gone solo, and showed us what a genuine talent she is.
Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t seem capable of putting a foot wrong. He is one of the most malleable auteurs currently working with a filmography that spans genres, periods and subject matter, each time garnering critical praise. The American director’s latest feature, Phantom Thread reunites him with Daniel Day-Lewis, whom he directed to Oscar-winning plaudits in There Will be Blood.
Thando Mgqolozana’s controversial novel, ‘A Man Who Is Not a Man’ has already ruffled plenty of feathers within South Africa’s Xhosa community. His work explored the contentious issue of traditional circumcision and the dubious conditions with which the rite is undertaken. Now, South African writer/director, John Trengove, has made the bold (or foolhardy, depending on your opinion) move to stir the pot further. His latest film, The Wound, is a reworking of Mgqolozana’s book (Mgqolozana also co-wrote the screenplay) and examines homosexuality against the traditional backdrop of the Xhosa ritual.
The process of animating over the top of pre-shot footage (rotoscoping) is a procedure that has existed since the dawn of cinema, most notably applied recently by Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life). Loving Vincent pushes the envelope further, with Directors Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela (and an army of artists) making the technically ambitious decision to turn their film into a Van Gogh oil painting through the arduous process of hand painting each frame. While some might find this a painstaking exercise in gimmickry, there is little doubt that the result is an immersive experience, nudging you ever closer to the work of the famous Dutch painter. Certainly, Loving Vincent is a film where you could hang any one of its overwhelming 65,000 frames on your wall—although at twelve frames per second, the resulting animation takes a little adjustment.
“The humiliation and depression had given way to blinding anger at my powerlessness over the unfair whims of men.”—it is a line that succinctly expresses one of Molly’s Game’s many concerns with male power and while the film is not explicitly feminist, its sentiments feel very apt in Hollywood’s current #metoo climate.
It seems the perfect time for Tonya Harding’s story to finally surface onto the big screen.
