IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOVIE at the Los Angeles Film Forum

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Tonight I decided to get some cinematic diversity by checking out the show “IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOVIE” playing at the Los Angeles Film Forum.  It was VERY interesting.  The filmmaker/artist Tellervo Kalleinen has spent time traveling the world placing ads that read: “Plan a film scene in your home and give a Finnish woman a role in it”.  She went to each home she was invited to and acted the scenes that the people concocted.  The scenes are brief and diverse and say a great deal about the writers and the countries she was filming them in. Her travels included Helsinki (Finland), Hamburg (Germany), Los Angeles (USA), Seydisfjördur (Iceland), St. Petersburg (Russia) and Tallinn (Estonia). In watching these, I noticed that apartments look pretty much the same no matter what corner of the world you are in.  People are also interested in sex and violence pretty much everywhere.  In one scene, Tellervo (the Finnish woman) smeared ketchup all over a guy who then acted out a violent suicide scene.  In another scene people were walking around naked and acting like they were in a David Lynch movie.  Another thing I thought about was the universality of human emotions.  People may live on the other side of the world, but we ALL share many of the same hopes, dreams and fears. I found myself doing a great deal of eyeball rolling during the scenes that were shot in Los Angeles.  It seemed that EVERYONE had a film, band, art gallery or something they were trying to shamelessly promote.  I love living here (honest) but sometimes people here can be SO shallow, self-serving and narcissistic that it drives me insane.  The Los Angeles films were really hard to watch.  I found the other ones far more interesting. Overall I think that Tellervo Kalleinen captured some really interesting ideas through these people.  I would definitely be interested in seeing more of her work in the future.     http://www.filmradar.com/karies_blog/item/in_the_middle_of_a_movie_at_the_los_angeles_film_forum/