Sundance 2010: Mads Brügger's THE RED CHAPEL

Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger premiered his film, THE RED CHAPEL, at last spring's Hot Docs film festival, where it screened in the International Spectrum section.  Before that, it was a four-part miniseries on Danish television.  After a few other international screenings later last year (including IDFA), the feature-version now comes to America with a high profile slot at Sundance in the World Documentary Competition.

THE RED CHAPEL got some decent reviews in Toronto:  Pamela Cohn wrote then that the film was almost two films in one:

"One film is presented as a touching pastoral fairytale but turns out to be pretty much wall-to-wall laughs; the other a seemingly Python-esque charade played for laughs manages to provide plenty of fiercely sobering moments due mostly to a brilliant script master-minded by its director."

Meanwhile, writing for Exclaim, Michael Barclay said that the film was refreshing for not filtering out "its moral contridictions":

"The worst nightmare of a satirical filmmaker is to find out that the joke is on them. And it's debatable whether Danish director Mads Brugger realizes this when he takes two Danish-Korean comedians, who were both raised in Denmark, and don't speak Korean, to perform in North Korea, with the intent of getting away with as much as they can, somehow subverting the totalitarian regime that, amongst its numerous crimes against humanity, certainly has no sense of humour."

But if THE RED CHAPEL went a little under the radar at Hot Docs, it's garnering lots of attention in Park City.  Karina Longworth, writing in her new gig at the LA Weekly/Voice Blog, has been calling the film her favorite documentary so far:

"Brügger has convinced the North Koreans that the trio are a Kim Jong Il-sympathetic theater troop called The Red Chapel; in actuality, Simon and Jacob (who is developmentally disabled and refers to himself as "spastic") have no real act -- just some wigs, a whoopie cousin, and a suspiciously sincere acoustic cover of "Wonderwall" by Oasis. And Brügger is no theater producer, but a journalist determined to prove that 'comedy is the soft spot of all dictatorships.'...

I hate to bring another "real life version of Movie X" analogy into the world, but comparisons between Chapel and the work of Sacha Baron Cohen may be inevitable. If the smoking guns found in this invaded world are less over-the-top than the revelations of racism and homophobia that prop up Borat and Bruno, Chapel, though at its core a staged hidden camera stunt, also feels a lot less manipulated and manufactured. The show was an infiltration into an airtight closed state, and the film documenting it is an artifact that injects the initial comic shock of reality TV into a situation with actual global-politcal stakes. If that's not subversive, I'm not sure what is."

Charlotte at The Documentary Blog says that the film is hilarious:

"Jacob and his straight man counterpart Simon are geniunely funny not only when performing their bizarre slapstick show, but also in their reactions and comments throughout. The most incredible aspect of their setup is that Jacob (disabled and a self-proclaimed ‘spastic’) is the only person who can speak freely. All tapes were taken at night by the North Koreans to ensure that filming maintained a view of Korea they were happy with, however they cannot interpret Jacob whatsoever and so he speaks his mind continually on camera. It is a great way of showing how Mads has to change the two comedians’ comments to ensure the Koreans don’t suspect the truth, but also it helps to explain the difficulties Jacob is going through as the trip goes on."

HitFix.com's Daniel Feinberg was less impressed:

"The problem is that Brugger is probably correct in everything he claims about North Korea, he just doesn't have the footage or the narrative to corroborate the thesis he's trying to make. Instead, there's sterile censored footage and angry, political voiceover and the two never join up for a second, nor does the film reach the grand conclusion Brugger admits he hoped for. Sometimes a movie just doesn't come together the way you hoped, but under those circumstances you have to either adapt to the story you can tell or you chalk the failure up to poor luck and move on. Heck, I'd have also loved to see the movie Brugger obviously wanted to make, but the movie he really did make is a dud."

Erin Donovan writes at Steady Diet of Film that THE RED CHAPEL challenges "every documentary ethic known to the film-making world":

"American film-makers tend to train their lenses on North Korea as a personal crusade (KIMJONGILIA) which tends to produce martyr-as-storyteller adventure tales that can cause a brain-damaging amount of eye-rolling. Coupled with the fact American audiences want to see Kim Jong Il as a morally corrupt clown who appears only occasionally on the world stage to shoot off failed nukes and amuse us with his platform shoes and pompadour hairstyle (and "The Daily Show" is more than happy to oblige this narrative). But for as didactic, silly and potentially hazardous as THE RED CHAPEL can be, it never strays from letting the viewer know: behind the surreality of the situation, millions of people are living in a constant state of terror because a mentally ill dictator (who inherited the job from his dad) controls every facet of their existence. Brügger's intentions are heartless and intellectually bankrupt, but his outcome is a stronger document of the North Korean situation than anything of its kind."

Comments

[steeveetee]

Just saw this on UK TV and the thing that struck me most about the show was that Mads was just as guilty in trying to claim 'the truth' as anyone from North Korea.

Worse than that, at the beginning, he and his two 'comedians' came across as tons more unpleasant than the Koreans. In fact, I felt sorry for the latter, being subjected to a con and cultural imperialism into the bargain... while the Danes appeared cynical and without any decency or humanity.

Bit by bit though, the two Korean Danes became humanised - not by the movie but by being in Korea, reacting to the people around them, walking round the table at the de-militarised zone to their 'home country' of South Korea for the first time since childhood, going to Korean schools, picnicing with beautiful Korean girl singers and performers.

And, as Jacob says at one point:'It's much more complex than you're making it out to be, Mads...' But Mads was having none of it. He was on his mission - even if it meant joining in a peace parade he didn't believe in, saluting the Dear Leader and ORDERING poor Jacob to follow...So that, by the end you felt that he'd have been Heil Hitlering and goosestepping outside Auschwitz if it had been good for the film.

So, ultimately, it was Mads who came across as the real shit in the film. The real human with no heart, no morality, or even warmth. And certainly no sense of humour.

What was Mrs Pak, the guide and interpreter REALLY like? Who knows? She may have been false, may have been a brilliant actor, the way she mothered Jacob, smoothered him sometimes... The only thing I'd say is: I've never been to Korea, North or South, but I have worked in Japan and her behaviour towards her 'guests' I recognised: courtesy. Never to criticise. Never to offend. Never to lower the other's status.

As for the theatre director, I loved him. I really believed him to be a true amateur of his craft and doing the best job he could in making a decent comedy act out of no show at all.

And the main thing the film left me with was this: North Korea... When can I go? I can't wait. It looks like a fascinating place to make a great documentary. I'm surprised nobody's tried yet.

[pirate jenny]

I disagree with the majority of Steeveetee's analysis of Brugger's behaviour. Although I agree that he arrived there, guns blazing, ready to make a 'subversive satire' that quickly backfired on him, as the 'needs' and value system of the host culture assimilated his vaguely childish prank, I would argue that the three visitors quickly found themselves out of their depth, caught up in the atmosphere of North Korea, where as Brugger points out at the memorial, everything much more complicated that it seems on the surface. We in the west have very little concept of what living under a dictatorship means, day to day; breath to breath. I felt this film gave a precious insight into how people 'find a way to live' under oppressive regimes. I think there was much to love about the people, doubtless as carefullt chosen by the government to guide the interlopers through their cultural exchange as the flawlessly pretty girls at the picnic. Don't be fooled into thinking that Brugger was the villian here. Appearances are the easiest form of deception - and as the filmmaker found out the hard way (whilst wheeling his friend's chair in front of the anti -american demonstration) - when the facade is demanded by iron first under the velvet glove - it's fear that keeps people smiling, and saluting the troops. Naked, animal fear.

[Arne Sand]

Mads Brügger on Theory and Practice