American Hustle is nominated for 10 Oscars. If you have this information it becomes impossible to watch the film without preoccupation. Thus when I went to see it at the packed Press screening at Berlinale my expectations were literally sky high.
We had to wait over a year, but now finally Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is back to the screen.
Living in a repressed futuristic world Katniss had to compete in the Hunger Games in the first part of this trilogy, which will actually be made into a quadrilogy as they are turning the third book into two films. These games are a kind of modern day gladiator entertainment that is staged in order to make the frustrated masses of this utopian world forget about the real issues. Each year only one player gets out alive and in the first film it was Kantiss. However by making everyone believe (or not?) that she was in love with her Hunger Game mate Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and pretending that they would swallow poisonous berries to kill themselves, they cheated the game and were both freed. Now the almighty President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is afraid of a revolution and when Katniss and Peeta cannot convince him on their tour through the 12 repressed districts, he decided that this year’s games will actually consist of all winners from earlier games.
So Katniss and Peeta are back in the ring and the fight is on again.
The film industry certainly knows what they are doing. In the Summer no great films hit the screens because everyone is out and about anyway. But in Fall when it gets colder and icky outside, so many fabulous pieces come to the cinemas it’s tough to keep up. Thus I thought it’s time for another trailerfest!
It was time for: „ And the Oscar goes to…!“ again in Hollywood last night. The Academy had sent invitations to the Kodak Theatre and all the famous and fabulous strutted down the red carpet in beautiful gowns and expensive jewellery. There weren’t any massive surprises but plenty of happy winners…
I never watch Fantasy films! And although The Lord of the Rings, Twilight and Harry Potter Films almost haunted you in recent years, I successfully refused to spend countless hours in fairytale woods and magician boarding schools.
Now the Hunger Games was released and was advertised with a horrific poster – A flaming broach and a girl with a flaming arrow. Fantasy fans may have been hot for this film, but I couldn’t have cared less.
But I actually spent 142 minutes of my Saturday Night in the woods of Panem and didn´t merely watch hero Katniss Everdeen but really suffered with her.
What had happened?