BERLIN 63 – Balance Sheet
Despite Worthy Winners Weak Programming was Called Into Question
By Alex Deleon, Berlin
The main prize winning films this year by unheralded unknowns from eastern Europe, “Pozitia Copilului” (Child’s Pose), Romania, and “Epizoda u Zivotu Beraca Zeljeza” (An episode in the life of an iron picker) Bosnia, were generally regarded as worthy choices, but the field of nineteen films in competition from which they were chosen was, by equally general agreement, regarded as the weakest in years if not ever. Dieter Kosslick, festival director since 2000, has been praised for bringing in lots of Hollywood glamour but also criticized for catering so slavishly to Hollywood that he is willing to program second rate pictures just to pull in the stars.
Examples from the competition entries include Gus Van Sant’s well-meaning but so-so fracking dissertation “Promised Land”, because it brought in star Matt Damon, and Steven Sonderbergh’s whistle blower on the machinations of pharmaceutical companies, “Side effects”, whose British star Jude Law showed up to promote his latest screen appearance. Both serious films but not the stuff that grand prix winners are made of.
The Bille August entry "Last Train For Lisbon" was an international concoction featuring an array of elder quality actors such as Charlotte Rambling, Jeremy Irons and German stars Martina Gedeck and Bruno Ganz, all speaking English although they are supposed to be Portuguese or Swiss in the story-- directed by a senior Danish director known for such multinational intellectual teasers. Not a bad film at all, but not hot prize material either, although Mr. Irons at 64 still has that superstar aura about him and was perhaps the biggest male celebrity catch of the week.
Irons at the Berlin Film Festival, February 13, 2013
Two other American flicks, "Prince Avalanche" an indie production with an actor by the name of Marc Rudd about two guys painting a yellow strip down the middle of a road out in the country, and a total celluloid miscarriage entitled "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman" featuring a scruffy American actor with the unlikely name of Shia Laboeuf wandering around the nightmarish Romanian capital of Bucharest, both felt like retreads from a festival of B movies. The former was merely boring, but the "Charlie Countryman" was so discombobulated it wasn't even bad -- just a complete waste of viewer time -- a walkout after about thirty head shaking minutes, while wondering how one lasted even that long. The selling point for the local German audience was the presence of Popular German actor Till Schweiger in a small unsavory unshaven role in this bloody violent meaningless totally tasteless picture.
"Before Midnight", the third installment in the on-again off-again love story between Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke spread out over 18 years ("Before Sunrise", 1994 and "Before Sunset", 2004) is pleasant enough as a date flick and even has some sparkling dialogues between its attractive protagonists, and some interesting insights into the difficulty of maintaining a marriage over the long term, but again you have to ask yourself; "is this material to contend for a top prize at a major film festival?" -- or is this a pleasantry put into competition out of desperation. Both previous films were shown at this festival and director Richard Linkletter was awarded a special distinction this time around, for unusual continuity if nothing else-- which does provide this work with a certain cachet -- and I personally enjoyed watching it -- while feeling it was just too lightweight to cut the Golden Bear mustard.
The tepid Hollywood showing was set off by a trio of French films featured the three top divas of the French cinema, Catherine Deneuve, still radiating star power oomph at 69, Juliette Binoche still beautiful at 48, (in "Camille Claudel 1915") and Isabelle Huppert still imposing (as a lesbian nun in "La Réligieuse") -- all respectable films, but again, not quite the kind to knock over festival juries. However, Deneuve as a chain-smoking grandmother riding around all over Brittany in search of a nicotine fix in an unusual road movie called "Elle s'en va" actually turned in a performance smacking of best actress élan, but she was aced out by an unknown Chilean actress, Paulina Garcia -- for her work in the Chilean film, "Gloria" by an unknown director from a country that barely has a film industry. Ms. Garcia was a true discovery playing a 58 year old divorcee refusing to take impending old age lying down as she sets out to find new romance on the swinging singles scene in Santiago.
The rest of the competition lineup was so uninteresting that all the German dailies (of which there are six!) were pretty much in agreement that Berlin is facing a minor crisis, and has to find a way to save face, if it is to maintain its standing as one of the Big Three film festivals in Europe along with Cannes and Venice. The answer is either a regime change in festival directorship or a major revamping of the programming team outlook. However Herr Kosslick's ability to attract stars is generally good for business, he has a strong personal following, and his contract has been renewed for another two years. Ticket sales this year were around the 300,000 mark so Berlin continues to uphold its position as the leading festival in terms of public turnout and the festival has so many other strong sections -- the Panorama, the Forum, etcetera -- that ticket buyers are rarely disappointed. Next year Kosslick expects a significant upsurge in ticket sales when the palatial ZOO Palast Cinema in west Berlin, which has been under refurbishment for several years, reopens. Before the entire festival moved to its current central location around Potsdamer Platz in 2000 the ZOO Palace theater near the elegant Kurfürstendam shopping area was the main red carpet venue for the galas and the heart of festival activity. One way or another fest topper Dieter Kosslick seems to have a way of coming up out of the muck smelling like roses. This writer personally has no complaints -- Berlin is always a treasure trove of new film discoveries aside from the competition lineup, has the best press conferences, the most bouyant atmosphere, and is generally the most easy-going, intimate, and user friendly of the Big Three -- maybe because the winter weather here is so bad you really have to want to be here ... to be here. Next up: the films that grabbed me during my Berlin week.
Alex at Kluckstraße Herberg.
