14 March 2011
For part two, click here.
For part three, click here.
Wednesday 16h February
My Best Enemy
Opens with a plane being shot down the Second World War, and a Nazi order to retrieve the Jewish prisoner on board. The film then jumps back in time to Vienna where Moritz Bleibtreu’s Victor Kaufmann and his family are betrayed by a friend when the fascists take over. The following film is a pretty exciting thriller of escape and survival. It is more a fantasy picture then grounded in reality, celebrating resourcefulness and courage. It is not particularly enlightening on the human condition, but it doesn’t look like that was its ambition.
A Mysterious World
I’m surprised this film was in competition, as it is so slight. With minimal dialogue we watch a guy, Boris, get dumped and then proceed to wonder around a city effortlessly seducing attractive women, and then end up where he started. Boris, who is in every scene bar one, is quite gormless, which makes his romantic skills all the more impressive. This movie is a collection of encounters but so little of note happens that I wonder the point of what we’re watching is. As a tone poem it is somehow engaging, even with the lack of depth and drama.
The Bengali Detective
A documentary about an unusual private eye in India, that is both humorous and very moving. The director cleverly got the audience hooked straight away by getting us to do a little dance, as one, before the film started. Rajesh is the dance-loving head of his own firm that investigate the spectrum, from shampoo counterfeiting, all the way to multiple-murders. He’s also a good singer. He has a young son and a very ill wife. The film somehow navigates a difficult course, treading perfectly between tragedy on many levels, and the pleasures of life – no mean feat. I can imagine this being a hit with audiences on the film festival circuit.
For part three, click here.
Wednesday 16h February
My Best Enemy
Opens with a plane being shot down the Second World War, and a Nazi order to retrieve the Jewish prisoner on board. The film then jumps back in time to Vienna where Moritz Bleibtreu’s Victor Kaufmann and his family are betrayed by a friend when the fascists take over. The following film is a pretty exciting thriller of escape and survival. It is more a fantasy picture then grounded in reality, celebrating resourcefulness and courage. It is not particularly enlightening on the human condition, but it doesn’t look like that was its ambition.
A Mysterious World
I’m surprised this film was in competition, as it is so slight. With minimal dialogue we watch a guy, Boris, get dumped and then proceed to wonder around a city effortlessly seducing attractive women, and then end up where he started. Boris, who is in every scene bar one, is quite gormless, which makes his romantic skills all the more impressive. This movie is a collection of encounters but so little of note happens that I wonder the point of what we’re watching is. As a tone poem it is somehow engaging, even with the lack of depth and drama.
The Bengali Detective
A documentary about an unusual private eye in India, that is both humorous and very moving. The director cleverly got the audience hooked straight away by getting us to do a little dance, as one, before the film started. Rajesh is the dance-loving head of his own firm that investigate the spectrum, from shampoo counterfeiting, all the way to multiple-murders. He’s also a good singer. He has a young son and a very ill wife. The film somehow navigates a difficult course, treading perfectly between tragedy on many levels, and the pleasures of life – no mean feat. I can imagine this being a hit with audiences on the film festival circuit.
COME RAIN, COME SHINE
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IF NOT US, WHO
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Thursday 17h February
Come Rain, Come Shine
Another languorous competition entry that involves a guy being dumped from the off. In a long single take during a car journey we witness her wanting a divorce and admitting there’s someone else. We then spend a day with these abnormally beautiful people in their stunning house, where they are forced indoors due to a torrential downpour. Like A MYSTERIOUS WORLD there is no real drama or anything to get a handle on due to minimal dialogue and gestures. What makes the film stand out is the production design where the home is allowed to say so much. Too slender to wholeheartedly recommend, but it is hypnotic, from the way they speak so gently to the rhythm of the rain.
If Not Us, Who
The mentioning of THE BAADER-MEINHOFF COMPLEX around the Festival was like spitting in someone’s food. No-one I spoke to appeared to appreciate that film. I do, I love it. It condenses a decade of history and juggles a large number of characters into a non-epic running time. For me, IF NOT US, WHO, firstly needs a question mark in the title, and then needed to beat that. Here we have a more intimate beast, focusing on Bernard Vesper, Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader and what led the latter two to becoming terrorists. It is an hour and a quarter before there is an overlap with its predecessor. There was a lot of buzz for this in the run up to the screening, as this was the dramatic debut of documentarian Andres Veiel. However, it didn’t say anything particularly more enlightening than THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX, bar the interesting analysis of Vesper’s character.
The Stool Pigeon
This was so bad I couldn’t believe it was being screened. Do you like cheesy crime melodrama? If so, this is for you. Right, so you’re thinking of making a police informant dramatic thriller, surely you’ll have in your mind HARD BOILED, THE INFERNAL AFFAIRES TRILOGY and THE DEPARTED. You better do, cos those films are the pinnacle of the sub-genre. Don’t bother attempting unless you think you have a shot of bringing something fresh to the table. The filmmakers made an overwrought, dull, lumpen, soap-opera. It involved quite a few deaths, sacrifices, etc. but I couldn’t care less. Woeful.
UNKNOWN
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SCENES FROM THE SUBURBS
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Friday 18h February
The Forgiveness of Blood
Wow! From the director of MARIA, FULL OF GRACE comes an even better movie. An Albanian-set family feud drama that is so palpably tense. It is a look at the impact on a family where the patriarch kills the patriarch of another, forcing his own family into effective house arrest under the customs of the community. The focus is on the eldest son, Nik, and daughter, Rudina. Nik’s burgeoning romance with a school-friend is curtailed as feuds can go on for years, as is his social life, while academic bright-spark Rudina has to stop school to start earning for the family. There is so much drama packed into this picture as to shame other films. The futility and destructiveness of revenge and anger is shown in an unusual context, and inter-generational non-empathy highlighted strikingly.
Unknown
The most superficial movie on my list, but also, secretly, one of the most fun. If you like Liam Neeson doing his TAKEN shizzle (without the dubious politics), then you’ll enjoy this. He’s an amnesiac scientist who gets sucked into a conspiracy in Berlin. I was wondering how a scientist could fend of lethal assassins, but it eventually gets explained. Instantly forgettable, and quite frankly a bit stoopid, but a nice little antidote to some of the pseudo-art nonsense I sat through.
Berlin Shorts 3
- Stick Climbing
An epic P.O.V. tracking shot through a European village, and then we watch as the camera-person climbs a mountain on what looks sticks attached to it. Exciting.
- Untying the Knot
From absent jury member Jafar Panahi, what looks to be one take, as a loquacious soldier with his gesturing sister try and sell a carpet.
- Terribly Happy
A Thai soldier returns home to find his sweetheart has married someone else. Pretty heartbreaking.
- Susya
An Israeli-Palestinian co-production about disputed land.
- Scenes from the Suburbs
The reason I attended, Spike Jones collaboration with Arcade Fire on a 28 minute look at suburbs at war.
Berlin Shorts 5
- Heavy Heads
A very funny animation about frustration, involving a woman getting sexual kicks from a fly.
- Cleaning up the Studio
A faux advert for a cleaning company. We watch them clean for about 10 mins. Er?
- Green Crayons
Two kids spit on each other. One of them seems particularly naughty, but owns up. Quite funny, but a bit pointless.
- Night Fishing
The reason I attended, Park Chan-wook’s collaboration with his bro, Park Chan-kyong. A 33 minute movie shot on an iPhone4. It looks amazing. It is supernatural and spiritual, with a lot going on.
- The Lost Town of Switez
An absolutely stunning animation which took seven years to make. Based on a 200 year old poem.
Saturday 19h February
I finished the Festival with a double-bill, from the retrospective devoted to Ingmar Bergman: THIRST and CRIES AND WHISPERS. What can I say about these two classics?
Overall, the 2011 Berlinale wasn’t a strong year for films; but it was so much fun, and an insight into how a world class festival is run. Thoroughly recommended!
