By Mike Collett-White
BERLIN (Reuters) -
Actor Jack Black stars in a comical and
nostalgic tribute to the pioneers of cinema and jazz in "Be
Kind Rewind," which brings the 2008 Berlin Film Festival to a
fitting close on Saturday.
Directed by Frenchman Michel Gondry, best known for
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," the movie tells the
story of two friends who try to save a dying video rental
business by making their own versions of films.
Black, as exuberant on screen as ever, plays Jerry, a
delusional mechanic who is convinced the authorities are using
radiation to contaminate and control people's minds.
His sidekick is Mike, played by Mos Def, who works with
ageing Fats Waller fan Fletcher (Danny Glover) in a rental
store threatened with demolition.
When Jerry is magnetized attempting a hair-brained sabotage
mission on a power station, he accidentally wipes the videos.
The pair decide the only way to save the store is to make
instant versions of the erased originals, triggering a madcap
race against time to remake "Ghostbusters," "Driving Miss
Daisy," "Carrie," "King Kong" and many more.
As their scheme becomes increasingly successful, the local
community becomes involved and unites in a final bid to save
the shop with an original biopic of Fats Waller.
"I always saw Fats Waller as some punk figure of the time,"
Gondry told reporters.
"He was completely disrespectful ... but yet his music was
very elaborate and joyful," he said, speaking in English.
"There is a sense of resistance in the way the
African-American community produced some of the most beautiful
music of all time by creating their own form of entertainment."
"Be Kind Rewind" recalls the "rent parties" where jazz
legends like Waller and James P. Johnson would play the piano
and guests would contribute money to pay the host's rent.
It also makes a gentle dig at the film studios when a
representative, played by Sigourney Weaver, rounds up the
re-makes, has them steamrollered on the street outside and
threatens Fletcher with life in jail and a billion-dollar fine.
The irony of using a major distributor and Hollywood stars
to make the film is not lost on Gondry.
"The movies itself cost a certain amount of money, it's
having quite wide distribution, it has people that you would
recognize, so there is a contradiction here," he said.
"It was just trying to prove somehow that people can create
their entertainment.
"It all comes from the sort of utopian concept I had for
long years that if people gather together among friends or
neighbors and did any type of shooting they would have a great
time screening it the next week and watching it together."
The movie is released later in February.
(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog
"Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters/fanfare/ )
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