New Whores - 1960s porn on show in Copenhagen’s CPH PIX 2012

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

19/03/2012 - Delayed and shot in secret, after intervention by Mexico’s Coalition Against Trafficking had jeopardised the production, Danish 84-year-old veteran director Henning Carlsen's Memories Of My Melancholy Whores [trailer] will spearhead the selection of local fare at the 3rd CPH PIX – the Copenhagen International Film Festival - which runs between April 12-29.

Starring Emilio Echevarría, Geraldine Chaplin and Paola Medina, Carlsen’s 23rd film is based on Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s 2005 novel about an old reporter who decides to celebrate his 90th birthday by ”a night of wild love” with a 14-year-old virgin prostitute.

Another three new Danish productions – Anders Rønnow Klarlund’s The Secret Society of Fine Arts, Frederikke Aspöck’s Out of Bounds [trailer], Icelandic director Runár Runársson’s Volcano [trailer] – are included in the festival programme of 158 full-length movies scheduled for eight Copenhagen (and two provincial theatres), which festival director Jacob Neiiendam announced last week.

Ten international feature debuts will compete for the €30,000 New Talent Grand PIX; the annual retrospective focuses on the late Italian director Carmelo Bene, screening five films including Nostra signora dei turchi (1968), which was awarded in Venice. Prohibitive Denmark showcases films banned in Denmark, from pre-1969 porn and erotica.

International festival guests include German director Matthias Glassner, who will present his new film Mercy [trailer, film focus], shot in Norway; Indian director Anurag Kashyap, a pioneer in new wave cinema; French director Mia Hansen-Løve will show her three features, her latest, Goodbye First Love [trailer, film focus]. New Talent directors so far registered: Jan Speckenback, Fred Keleman (Germany), Wim Vandekeybus (Belgium).