Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.09.2010, Síða 32

20
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2010
films | Theaters
A few left over champagne glasses on the counter
are the sole evidence of the previous night’s big
opening party for Bíó Paradís. Without yesterday’s
crowd of housewarming guests, we are able to
view the new cinema in all its glory. Images of Al-
fred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe and other icons
of film history look down on the visitors from the
red-painted walls. Retro couches, an old piano
and a collection of film posters turn this unspec-
tacular building into a cosy place to hang out. The
Grapevine is here to learn about Bíó Paradís from
the new cinema’s programme director, filmmaker
and -critic Ásgrímur Sverrisson.
This cinema was known as Regnboginn until fi-
nally closing down last June. Now it’s re-opening
as Bíó Paradís. Why didn’t you keep the old name?
We have a completely different mission. This is
the first cinema of its kind in Iceland. It's true,
Regnboginn started as kind of an art cinema, but
not by choice. When it opened in 1977, the other
cinemas had the big studio contracts, so basically
Regnboginn couldn't get any of their films and
had no choice but to buy independent films. In-
dependent doesn't simply mean just art films. A
lot of big event movies were actually independent,
like Rambo, for example. Regnboginn didn't have
an arthouse profile, and eventually become more
and more a mainstream cinema. Although the
name Regnboginn actually describes our ethos
well—a rainbow has many colours and stands for
variety—we changed the name to Bíó Paradís to
have a clean break.
Can you describe these ‘different colours’ of Bíó
Paradís?
We have four things we want to emphasise. Firstly,
we are going to screen the latest arthouse films
from world cinema. Two, we are going to have a
big repertory section, starting with the French
New Wave films—the big guns. Third we are go-
ing to act as home to the film festivals in Reyk-
javík, including the Reykjavík International Film
Festival (RIFF), starting next week, and smaller
festivals like Reykjavik Short Film Days, Short &
Docs and the Nordisk Panorama. We also want
to put on our own festivals, by showing films ac-
cording to themes, such as the ones we are now
showing about Reykjavík and its music scene.
Fourth, providing film history education is a very
important part of our mission. Next year we will
hopefully start screening films for children, both
in elementary school and high school, as part of
the curriculum. Education about film history has
been completely neglected in Iceland.
Do you think there will be an audience for the
kinds of films you plan on showing here?
This is what we are excited about finding out—will
anybody come? In Iceland, cinemas get 5.3 visits
per capita, which is the highest rate in the world.
But this is very deceptive. The main audience is
comprised of 15–25 year olds, and they make about
20, 30 or 40 visits per year. Older people go quite
infrequently. Also the films on offer are around
85% from Hollywood, 10% Icelandic, and only 5%
are art films or documentaries. The result is that
interest and regard for film culture is very low.
But there are a few people here—I would guess
that it is about 10–15.000 people—that appreciate
a variety in film. I think this is a large percent-
age, compared to the population. We want to bring
these people together to create a growing commu-
nity. That’s our mission, and it is a very ambitious
one. We have no idea if it will work or not. But what
we are really worried about is, that people will say:
“Oh it's so nice to have this cinema, yeah, I will
definitely go!”—and then they never go. Now it
is 17:15, (turns around to the young men selling
tickets by the entrance) did anyone buy a ticket?
Oh, yes? We sold a couple of tickets? So we are not
completely dead!
Ásgrímur looked like he was joking, but he
displayed hints of concern at the same time. Bíó
Paradís got a grant from the city council to get the
cinema started, but if the theatre manages to es-
tablish itself it will depend only on a paying audi-
ence for sustenance.
Cinema Paradiso
Iceland's first art house cinema opens its doors to film buffs, and the rest of us
Bíó Paradís, Hverfisgata 54, 101 Reykjavík.
Phone: 695 6121
Web: www.bioparadis.is
Parisian filmmaker Mathieu Saura, better
known as Vincent Moon, catapulted to fame
after shooting The Arcade fire playing in an
elevator, resulting in collaborations with art-
ists such REM, Sufjan Stevens and Sigur Rós.
His ‘Take Away Shows,’ are informal studies of
bands that he encounters across the world in
a personal quest to act as an intermediary be-
tween artist and audience. Moon is currently in
Iceland as a guest of the Reykjavík film festival
and is using his visit as an opportunity to shoot
local artists such as Helgi Jónsson, Bárujárn
and Kría Brekkan.

How did you first get into the business of mak-
ing music videos?
I was interested in all kinds of diverse art forms
when I started out and didn't know what the fuck I
was doing. Most people are probably like that today,
hybrid creatures. We know a lot about music, art,
dance and cinema because things are readily avail-
able to us. Hybrid art, hybrid forms. It's impossible
to put things in a box like we used to or define things
by words anymore. The present is a beautiful mo-
ment for creation. My origins are in photography. I
grew up in Paris and after high school I ended up by
accident in film school. After a year there I attended
a photo class for four hours, one night a week. It
changed my life. That's where I discovered the situ-
ationist movement and it totally transformed my way
of seeing things. It's all about making one’s life an
art piece. I grew up in Paris, and studied there and
had access to so many things. I was nineteen when I
decided to give myself six years to learn as much as
possible and then become someone else. That was
pretty clear in my mind. I was a nobody. I didn't have
a personality. I was a transparent, extremely shy guy
and I decided to change myself and learn more than
other people. It was my revenge on the world.
Was your name change to Vincent Moon part of
this metamorphosis?
Absolutely. And for years I went to see all mov-
ies, art exhibitions and dance performances. I was
like a bulimic, gorging myself. I became more and
more interested in music, especially live music. I
became a fan of a band called The National and be-
came friends with them. I found that cool: “wow I'm
friends with a musician.” I asked them if I could take
photos of them, and that's how it started. They used
my photo on their album cover. Then I decided to try
my hand at music videos. I was especially inspired
by the photographer Antoine d'Agatha, who does
some really violent, radical stuff. I knew there was
something missing for me, it was the interaction.
Not just putting images on mp3 and making films
from songs. That's not collaboration. At this time I
met up with the founder of La Blogotheque, Chryde,
who was doing podcast interviews with bands and I
started to make these live music recordings, which
became the Take Away Shows. We would meet up
with foreign bands playing in Paris who were mostly
sick of stupid questions from journalists. When we
arrived we'd say: “Hey we're not going to ask you any
questions, just play some music.” This is what my
work evolved from, sharing a moment with a musi-
cian, improvising, capturing that pure energy.
And Arcade fire was your big break?
Well, our first really well known band was Grizzly
Bear, but yes, everything changed when we did a vid-
eo for Arcade Fire, which was shot in a freight eleva-
tor. That video went everywhere. That's when people
started coining me as a filmmaker who liked to shoot
bands in weird places. Which, in fact, is not right.
The idea was just to try out new things off stage. It
doesn't have to a particularly weird place. But yeah,
Ticket Prices & Discount Cards
Bíó Paradís offers a range of discounts for regular
visitors.
Regular price : 1150 ISK.
Member card: 2500 ISK
You get 10% of every ticket you buy; one ticket is in-
cluded in the price.
Bronze subscription: 13 800 ISK
You buy fifteen tickets, that is 920 ISK per ticket (20%
off).
Silver subscription: 17 500 ISK
You buy twenty tickets, that is 875 ISK per ticket (24%
off).
Gold subscription: 23 250 ISK
You buy thirty tickets, that is 775 ISK per ticket (32%
off).
There are also special subscription cards available
for RIFF.
Words
Wiebke Wolter
Photography
Hörður Sveinsson
Vincent Moon visits Iceland
films | Interview
It's My Responsibility To focus on unknown Bands