09:40 PST 3/5/2021
in
Scott Roxborough
Radu Jude from ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ said after winning the first online Berlinale: “My belief in cinema has nothing to do with this clowning.”
Hours after him Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear for best film at the first virtual Berlin International Film Festival, Romanian director Radu Jude looked at what he called “red carpet bullshit” and the false glamor of face-to-face film festivals. Jude said he was “very happy” that he did not attend a chic award gala in Berlin on Friday to receive his Golden Bear.
The jury of six at the 71st Berlinale announced at a live press conference that Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn was the big winner this year.
It was a controversial choice. Jude’s social satire, about a Romanian teacher who becomes the subject of a bitchy shame campaign after a sex tape she made with her husband was posted online, critics shared. The Hollywood Reporter was impressed. “Jude remains an audaciously original voice in modern European cinema, with serious things to say and increasingly adventurous ways of saying them,” praised our critic.
Jude emphasized this point – that he has serious things to say – at an online news conference held shortly after he was informed of his victory.
“The essence of cinema is to be a serious art, a serious discipline – I would like it to be treated seriously,” said Jude, who was very critical of the “dresses and costumes” on display at a typical awards ceremony.
“My belief in cinema has nothing to do with this type of antics,” he added.
The book industry, said Jude, does not feel the need to improve its art to attract attention.
“If you go to a book fair, there are no people in costumes. They are the people who love the books, the authors who wrote the books, who find their audience and that’s it ”, he observed. “You don’t see all that big red carpet shit, sponsored cars and everything. I understand that there is a price that the festival has to pay to do this, but this year it didn’t and I am very happy about it. “
Ada Solomon, producer of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn supported Jude’s notion that film festivals should be a celebration of cinema, not fashion.
“When we talk more about dresses than movies, we have a problem,” she said.
Jude filmed his new film during the confinement of COVID-19 in Romania, with the entire cast and crew being forced to wear face masks and maintain social distance, also on camera. The director recalled that filmmakers from smaller territories are used to finding “unconventional solutions” because “we have always been in almost crisis situations. We have always had to adapt … we have always had to be very creative”.
The director praised Berlin’s online edition this year. While Berlinale hopes to hold a face-to-face event in the German capital in June – along with those dreaded red carpets – Jude said he looks forward to future virtual festivals.
“It is very good that they have done something; it is not ideal, but we are not living in an ideal world, ”he said. “Someone said to me, ‘We took that stupid red carpet, maybe we should keep it that way.’ And I agree.
The Golden Bear’s victory should help sales of Bad Luck Banging. Heretic Outreach, who is handling the film, confirmed several territorial deals for the film on Friday, including Germany, Russia and Taiwan.
A deal in the United States can be tricky, as the film contains several scenes of heavy sex. Solomon answered a question about the film’s eroticism, suggesting that representations of sex should be seen in context, especially given the often relaxed attitudes towards violence on the screen.
“It is happening more and more that violence is accepted [but] nudity is not, “she said.” For me, violence affects me emotionally much more than nudity. I am not saying that we should censor this too; we should consider [the sexual content], not by means of an algorithm. Things must be considered in their complexity – there is no complete black and complete white. “
Berlin certainly doesn’t seem to have any problems with explicit sex. NSFW Drama by Adina Pintilie Do not touch me, who featured a lot of nudity and eroticism on the screen, took the Golden Bear in 2018. Coincidentally, Pintilie was on the jury this year, which was composed entirely of former Berlin festival winners.