“C’est finit” – this was in all honesty the last sentence in the last film I saw at the Berlinale this year. Simply perfect!
The International Berlin Film Festival ended last night and I am happy, exhausted and glad I didn’t have to be at Potsdamer Platz at 8:30 am this morning. I saw a few boring, a few excellent, a few confusing and a few funny films, one could conclude: It was a little bit of everything.
For five days the silver screens of this town have been running non-stop: the Berlin Film Festival is in full throttle. As a native from Cologne I had to first sing praise to my hometown at Karneval before I could go to the movies. Therefore I’ve only seen 6 films so far, not a bad cut for two days. With a programme of more than 400 films that still means I can’t report much, I will save that for next week.
But here are a few tips for the hot films of the festival, that are already much talked about and in the run for the Golden Bears.
They are all still running, so off to the ticket booths and into the cinema!
All of a sudden we’re busy every night. Every tiny bar has at least one flatscreen set up, shouts and screams roam the streets. The European Cup has started! The football fever is back and will certainly infatuate many more within the next three weeks. Football moves the masses. Since Friday flags are everywhere: they are hanging from balconies and cars, they become skirts and capes, and even shots of strawberry limes and other liqueurs are layered to represent flags. Personally, I’m not a big fan of this national pride everyone seems to be wearing on their cheeks these days, but as soon as it’s kick off, I’m there!
Of course football is also one massive piece of theatre! Players, coaches and fans know their parts by heart, and of course every striker knows what to do after scoring a goal in order to satisfy the audience. I’m sure this European Cup will provide plenty of joyous dancing, pulled up shirts and sliding on the grass; as well as weeping men and ripped flags hanging in trees whenever it didn’t end up well.
For those fans who can’t get enough, the following films will provide additional football entertainment. And for those who don’t watch football, well at least you’ll be able to take part in the conversation a little…
“You killed me first” at KW Institute
We can look forward to another week of exciting movie screenings and great openings: KW celebrates cinematic perversity and New York’s Rock’n’Roll-times with their exhibition about the Cinema of Transgression, Werner Herzog introduces individuals who have been sentenced to death, Bertien van Manen documents the habits of Russian peasantry and Alicja Kwade spins around in circles. See all details after the jump…
Berlinale has started this week with a lot of glamorous guests. But as always we don’t really care about glamour and are more into the artsy and creative part of the film festival. Unfortunately our film expert Lia is not here to enjoy all the nice movies that Berlin has to offer during this time. But for our readers we have something special: Lillet, the exquisite French aperitif, invited us to the 99 fire film awards next Thursday, and we have two tickets for our readers as well. Win them by leaving a comment with a valid email adress after the jump. The raffle goes untill Tuesday night.
Betty Drunk GBR 2011 Director: Laure Prouvost © Laure Prouvost
The 62. Berlinale dominates the upcoming week: Forum Expanded – its avantgardistic and experimental section – combines film, installation and performance in countless events; and, of course, many galleries go along with the current art-film trend: neugerriemschneider features a film by James Benning, and Cinzia Friedlaender presents the newest creation by artist duo Jutta Pohlmann and Dirk von Lowtzow. Besides all the films, Berlin also offers other artworks, as for instance installations by Robert Morris, paintings by Marcel Eichner and perhaps something kinky and rebellious by Dash Snow.
Every day there are incoming press releases right now, about which famous lady is walking in which designer dress over the red carpet of the Berlinale. Thanks to l’Oreal, the Berlinale will probably be pure glamour this year and even the bags are not such a bad horror, as they used to be. Despite movie star glamour I find the Berlinale most interesting when it brings attention to a few small films, that otherwise would never run on a commercial German cinema. Like the movie The sleeping Girl by Rainer Kirberg with Natalie Krane in the lead role. In the blurred border between fiction and art project this English language masterpiece brings a little ’60s nostalgia with beautiful black and white impressions into the Berlinale cinemas. Definitely a must see film for me. The dates after the jump.