Costa del Sol
Review of Black Forest Gateau by Roland Quesnel
By Roland Quesnel - Sep 18, 2008 - 7:13 PM
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The Salon has been known over the years for auspicious events and appearances, and it's come a long way from the disused cinema it once was thirty years ago. By turning the clock back, the Salon was again transformed into a cinema, if only for one night. The event:
auspicious indeed. A world film premiere no less, but one with special resonance for all at the Salon. This was the first public showing of the full length feature film "Black Forest Gateau", whose cast were drawn from, or dragged, cajoled, inveigled upon and press-ganged from the Salon's own coterie of stalwart actors.
BFG, as it is referred to by its director, Mike Naylor, was shot and produced entirely locally in Fuengirola and Mijas. A semi-retired television sound and post-production engineer, Mike gave birth to this project some two years ago. Inspired by the brilliance of current digital technology and the deep existential question of how do retirees pass all that time in the glorious winter sun, the Wrinkly Film Company was born.
Mike wrote the script and, armed with a state-of –the-art high definition video camera, he recruited his merry band of Salon actors and various technicians and cameramen, and started filming. Then stopped. A lead actor was forced to drop out (wrinklies being the least robust segment of the population) and it appeared the project was doomed. Six months later, like some demented grumbling phoenix, the production rose again and was finished, staggering through numerous crew changes, bad weather, and the odd fine for lack of a filming permit. This all finally finished up being projected onto the silver screen via digital projector on Friday night last.
The place was packed. It even had its own film trailer. How much was expected of the film is hard to gauge. No ex-patriot retired person of this coast to my knowledge has ever gone out and funded, written, directed and edited a feature film on our doorstep. BFG confounded expectations. What came up on screen was a film in all senses of the word. It was very funny, the characters were convincing and entertaining, the story wound its way to its denouement and life returned to its sleepy and bumbling norm. There are some great gags, much cynical poking of fun at the woes of the World, and some great set pieces. The opening scene in a post-office looks for all the World like Scunthorpe on a wet Thursday, but is actually El Coto, Mijas Costa. Digital wizardry! The secret meeting is off the scale in its wackiness, and the actual eating of Black Forest Gateau pulls off one of the most hilarious visual jokes this cinephile has ever seen. The quality of production would have been envied by every TV station on this coast, and some bigger ones back home. Sound, image, editing, everything was up there where it needed to be, this was real cinema, albeit DIY.
The film is well worth catching, and can now be seen at the Marbella International Film Festival on 3rd October, where it is competing.
Good luck BFG.
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