The combination of numbers 8 I 16 I 35 makes the heart of every cinema fan beat to unattainable heights. With the series |8|16|35| HoF Classics on Film, we reflect on the origins of cinema and the Hof International Film Festival. Until the beginning of the 2000s, analog film dominated before the digital copy displaced it. But to this day, the fascination for analog film material remains unbroken. Special cinematic moments of past festivals can only be relived with |8|16|35| "in your cinema" in Hof:
THE FIRST TIME
Direction: Connie Walther, 30th Hof International Film Festival, 1996
15-year-old Fili has a crush on Hollywood star Johnny Depp; he is the love of her life. Even though she hasn’t yet met him, she is convinced she and Johnny are meant for each other. So she saves up for a plane ticket to Los Angeles. But then she finds out that the star is interested only in more mature women and would never concern himself with a virgin.
THE FIRST TIME was a world premiere in a double sense: It was Connie Walther’s debut film and her first time at HIFF. And the director remembers it very well: "It was 8 p.m. on Saturday evening and the hall was full. A short film was shown before my feature film. That was a knee-slapper for people with a determined sense of humor...The loud, self-assertive laughter died down after fifteen minutes... My directorial baptism of fire in HoF was hell!"
ELSKER DIG FOR EVIGT - OPEN HEARTS
Direction: Susanne Bier, 36th Hof International Film Festival, 2002
What happens when fate suddenly snaps its finger and life turns completely upside down in one fell swoop? A young couple is looking forward to their upcoming wedding when an accident happens. You think the biggest problem of the day would be getting all the shopping done, and then suddenly your fiancé gets run over. It's like a knife is plunged into your back. Bad is the event that takes place, good is what happens afterwards...
KIDS
Direction: Larry Clark, 29th Hof International Film Festival, 1995
They’re into stealing, raping, breaking. They are on drugs and beat up a man. They hang around the mean streets of New York and deal in Washington Square, right next to the children's playground.
But they are no thugs, no real criminals, just normal KIDS, KIDS like everywhere else in the world. KIDDS who constantly think about sex, who spend a very normal summer‘s day in the city of New York – a very normal summer’s day that will change everything and yet nothing…
POLYESTER
Direction: John Waters, 15th Hof International Film Festival, 1981
In a Baltimore suburb, frustrated housewife Francine attempts to keep her mental equilibrium by taking care of her dysfunctional family…
John Waters: "I felt right at home when I premiered POLYESTER in Odorama at the Hof Film Festival in 1981. The Hof Festival has the beat cast in programming, the wildest parties, and the most insane film fanatics. For a director, attending in Hof is like winning a demented vacation on an American quiz show. I had a ball."
THE RAVEN
Direction: Roger Corman, 12th Hof International Film Festival, 1978
England in the 16th century, a primitive time marked by magic, fear and superstition. In THE RAVEN, Roger Corman satirizes all the stereotypes of his previous horror films in a fireworks display of gags and special effects. As Corman himself says, this is the first film in the Edgar Allan Poe series and the most famous to add irony to the serious eeriness of its literary template. THE RAVEN is originally a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Published on: October 24, 2023
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