Leçon de cinéma

Sometimes it happens; the atmosphere is right, there is something in the air. Several days ago, after we had lunch and we had discussed the school issues, we stayed sitting in a restaurant: Nenad, Adriano and myself. School year is over so we drank few glasses of wine. At one moment and I don't remember by what was it provoqued, Nenad started to analyse Adriano's last film. And one of those magic moments started. We call Nenad maestro, because his knowledge of cinema and art in general is huge. He shares that knowledge with his students and also with us, his collegues, on a daily basis. But just sometimes it seems that all his passion wakes up, and than he goes with all his heart deeply into the life and cinema. I hope I can bring you closer the moment of that day through some of these photographs. It started like this:

This is like the opening sequence; Leçon de cinéma was just about to start:

J.J.B.

Easy Days

Week in Paris after two trips. I'm slowly trying to get back to normal life, whatever that means.
Anyhow, last week I met Brina. We were speaking about the shoot in front of us and other things. A while ago I got a test version of her book and I used the opportunity and gave it to Brina to signed it. Concidering the fact that this is a unique version, I hope that in 30 years this could be my old age pension:).
In the midlle of the week Karim came. The same day we went for a dinner to Cheri Bibi where we stayed quite long. Raphael surprised us with the news that he will become a father. Around two o'clock I made this picture.
Weekend passed by hanging around with Karim, of course L'Art Brut, dinner chez Mirella... He left on Sunday.
Today I went with Nenad to cinema Balzac to speak about possibility of screening Eicar International section student films in October. It was nice to see Mr. Schpoliansky again. And it was nice to listen to conversation between him and Nenad because they are both very witty.

J.J.B.

paris.love in Slovenia - part 2

Outside is raining at the moment so the best thing is to finish with what I have promised.
Sunday was the day of the screening(s). First was at 11 a.m. When Mirella and I came to Kinodvor, there were around 30 people sitting there. Mostly men. Koen told us that each Sunday Albanian comunity gathers and they drink a coffee there. It was very funny. On morning screening we had something like 15 people among whom was also my family: my mother Metka, my brother Andrej and my nieces Manja and Nika. While driving to Ljubljana my nephew Matic got really sick so his mother Mojca took him back home so at the end I didn't see them at all. Mirella's coment after the screening you can see in the first video. Vlado Skafar also came in the morning saying that he doesn't want to take precious seat in the evening. Thank you Vlado. Anyhow, the projection was nice and after it we went for a lunch with my family. It was nice, we spent a nice time but they were in the hurry so they left soon and Mirella and I went for siesta in the hotel. Around 6.30 p.m. Tom, Dzeni and Tomaz from Luksuz Produkcija came to take us back to cinema where we met again Koen and Nina and they invited us for lunch. I was already very excited so I drank also a glass of cognac. At the screening I met a lot of my dear friends and colleagues, I will not tell the names because I'm sure that I will forget someone. As I forgot, when I was presenting the team of collaboraters, to present Jure Moskon, Tom Gomizelj and Tomaz Pavkovic. Guys, I'm really sorry. Next time I will have a list on the paper.

J.J.B.

paris.love in Slovenia - part 1

We came back yesterday (on Monday), today I was trying to put together videos and pictures. It's almost midnight, on googlevideo.com is impossible to upload for a moment, my space has also some problems and on you tube the situation is the same. Till now I succeded uploading two, there are three more to come (maybe I will publish them tomorrow).
We came to Ljubljana on Friday evening. Vlado from Gustavfilm waited for us at the airport and he drived us to hotel. We went out for a dinner, we drank a glass of vine and that was it. On Saturday we met Jure Moskon. We went together to Kinodvor to make a test screening.

After that we were sitting, drinking coffee. This is how I surprised Jure Meden who was working on something. After a while we also met our dear friend from Paris, Reza Serkanian and I made a quick interview.
reza serkanien


The guys from Charlie TV arrived so they made an interview with me and immediately after Katja Lenart made an interview with me for vest.si (you can see it here). And the reverse shot that I made is here.

Then we went for a lunch: Mirella, Reza, Jure, his girlfriend Ivana and me. I took them to Bosnian restaurant to try our speciality cevapcici. Mirella didn't like kajmak (she called it vanilla ice-cream), I was more than glad to eat her portion by myself. After that Jure and Ivana went home and we went back to Kinodvor.
We met there Koen - the program director and Nina - the festival director. The cast on his hand is a consequence of a traditional football match on Isola Cinema Film Festival between guests and voluntary brigade.
He posed for us in front of our poster and after he took a photo of me and Mira. In between we went to see The Teacher, I am ashamed to admit but I felt to sleep although the film was very interesting. Cevapcici in my stomach were just too heavy. We spent the afternoon walking around. We passed by Metelkova where we stoped in Jalla, Jalla. Mira spoted the poster of Desperado Tonic, I haven't even seen it.


The evening was easy, Mirella started to feel sick so we went to sleep early.
Part 2 is cooming soon.

J.J.B.

Slovenia Strikes Again

After Buenos Aires I've rested for two days and then I was again on the shoot. Another Slovenian student Gregor Andolsek was selected to shoot a film on S16 mm. He wrote the script together with Spanish student Ivan Tobalina. Supervising this shoot was quite ok, they were doing a good job so I didn't interfere much. First day, on Monday, they were shooting in the bar.
While Gregor was rehearsing with the actors, Camille, the producer was preparing the food for the crew. I'm glad Gregor "got" his bar in Paris (once you shoot in it, you "owe" it, mine is this one). What I envied him is the name of the nearby street. I would kill to be able to shoot on that street in Paris :). Anyhow, next day we were on the street in Plaine Saint-Denis, shooting the sceene in front of the doors. We had access to the building because we took the electricity from there. However, we didn't have the key from the doors and by Murphy's law, at 2 in the morning someone by mistake closed the doors. Of course a lot of stuff got locked inside. But the window on the second floor was open. We tried with the highest ladder that we could find but of course it was not high enough. Luckily, that night we had a security guy with us (two weeks earlier the van full of equipment was stolen from our students not far away) and he called a friend of him, the fireman. So, he climbed up and opened the doors. That action was definitely the highlight of the day (pardon, of the night). Yesterday, we were again on streets of Paris, nothing really special happened. The shoot finished at around 5 in the morning. Here are more photos.
Apart from that, Brina called me today, she's just got from Buenos Aires and her book went into the print today. We will meet next week to organize next shoots. Tomorrow, me and Mirella will go to Slovenia for a screening of paris.love. Looking forward.

J.J.B.

Short Look Back

Voila, I'm back in Paris since Friday. I've got a bit cold on the airplane, so it made me good to rest for a while. Shooting a film in Buenos Aires was a great experience, a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work. And two days it was really, really cold (winter is just about to start there). Anyhow, I shot a bit for the blog first and last day (in between I was shooting a movie:)), so here is a video. First, crew gathering before the shoot and then final party at Sabina's place where you can see Sergio dancing with Lorena, Brina and Sabina.

Btw, more videos about our week in Buenos Aires you can see on Sabina's blog.

J.J.B.