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Berlin 2010: Play it Again …! Series

Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg in Breathless

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Berlin International Film Festival will mark its 60th anniversary with the retrospective "Play it Again …!," featuring 40 films compiled by British film critic David Thomson from previous Berlin festivals.
Among them are Curzio Malaparte’s The Forbidden Christ, Alf Sjoberg’s Miss Julie, Akira Kurosawa’s To Live, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum, Niels Arden Oplev’s We Shall Overcome, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.
Also, Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses, which caused a furor in 1976. German authorities — who probably had better things to do (weren’t the Baader Meinhof running [...]

Berlin 2009: Joe Dallesandro to Receive Honorary Teddy Award

Joe Dallesandro, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey’s muse in films such as Flesh (1968), Trash (1970), and Heat (1972), and whose crotch adorned the Rolling Stones‘ album "Sticky Fingers," will be the recipient of the 2009 honorary Teddy Award, given to those who have contributed to gay/lesbian/etc. cinema, at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 5-15.
Two films featuring Dallesandro, who’s now 60 years old, will be screened at the 2009 Berlinale: Little Joe, Nicole Haeusser’s new documentary on the actor, and Catherine Breillat’s Tapage Nocturne (1979), winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama Audience Award.
In addition to the Warhol Factory films, which also include titles such as the revisionist Western Lonesome Cowboys (1968), The Loves [...]

Berlin 2009: Maurice Jarre to Receive Honorary Golden Bear

The 59th Berlin International Film Festival’s Homage will be dedicated to Maurice Jarre, 84, who will receive the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement on February 12, 2009.
Among Jarre’s screen credits are the David Lean epics and sub-epics Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter, and A Passage to India, plus Les Yeux sans visage / Eyes Without a Face, The Collector, Grand Prix, The Tin Drum, and the Peter Weir-directed dramas Witness, Dead Poets Society, and Fearless.
From the Berlinale’s press release:
"Born in Lyon in 1924, Maurice Jarre began his musical career with studies in percussion and conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris. He became the musical director of the Théâtre National Populaire in 1950, and composed [...]

Berlin 2009: After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall

The Dog’s Night Song by Gábor Bódy

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival will serve as the launching pad for the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek series “After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall.”
As per the festival’s press release, "in fifteen feature-length blocks, ‘After Winter Comes Spring’ will present films made in both Germanys and Eastern Europe during the last decade of the Cold War – films that convey a sense of the radical changes to come. Some of these works were made in the official studios of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Others were realized more [...]

Berlin 2008: Out of Competition Film Line-Up

Out of Competition

Opening Film:
Shine a Light, USA
by Martin Scorsese
with the Rolling Stones

Fireflies in the Garden, USA (World Premiere)
by Dennis Lee
with Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson

Katyn, Poland (International Premiere)
by Andrzej Wajda
with Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski and Andrzej Chyra

The Other Boleyn Girl, USA / Great Britain (World Premiere)
by Justin Chadwick
with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana

Closing Film:
Be Kind Rewind, USA (International Premiere)
by Michel Gondry
with Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz

Berlin 2008: CHERRY BLOSSOMS, THERE WILL BE BLOOD

2008 Berlin Film Festival: Official Competition Line-Up Part II

Berlin 2008: Official Competition Line-Up – Part I

Kirschblüten – Hanami / Cherry Blossoms, Germany
by Doris Dörrie
with Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Nadja Uhl

Lady Jane, France
by Robert Guédiguian
with Ariane Ascaride, Gérard Meylan, Frédérique Bonnal

Lake Tahoe, Mexico / US (World Premiere)
by Fernando Eimbcke
with Diego Cataño, Héctor Herrera, Daniela Valentine, Juan Carlos Lara and Yemil Sefani

Musta Jaä / Black Ice, Finland / Germany (International Premiere)
by Petri Kotwica
with Outi Mäenpää, Ria Kataja, Martti Suosala, Ville Virtanen

Restless, Israel / Germany / Canada / France / Belgium
by Amos Kollek
with Moshe Ivgy, Ran Danker, Karen Young, Phyllis Sommerville

S.O.P. Standard Operating Procedure, USA (World Premiere)
by Errol Morris

The Sparrow, Hong Kong
by Johnnie To
with Simon Yam Tat [...]

Berlin 2008: Official Competition Line-Up

2008 Berlin Film Festival: Official Competition Line-Up
The Berlin Film Festival will be held between February 7–17, 2008.

Avaze Gonjeshk-ha / The Song of Sparrows, Iran (World Premiere)
by Majid Majidi
with Reza Najie, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hossein Aghazi

Ballast, USA (International Premiere)
by Lance Hammer
with Micheal J. Smith, Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs

Bam gua Nat / Night and Day, Republic of Korea (World Premiere)
by Hong Sangsoo
with Kim Youngho, Park Eunhye, Hwang Soojung

Caos calmo / Quiet Chaos, Italy (International Premiere)
by Antonello Grimaldi
with Nanni Moretti, Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassman, Valeria Golino

Elegy, USA
by Isabel Coixet
with Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper

Feuerherz / Heart of Fire, Germany / Austria
by Luigi Falorni
with Letekidan Micael

Gardens of the Night, Great Britain / USA [...]

Berlin 2007 Winners

Yu Nan in Tuya’s Marriage

"When I started making films, my teacher said film should show people’s dreams. This film made my dreams come true," remarked Chinese director Wang Quan’an upon accepting the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for his rural drama Tuya’s Marriage, a portrait of the social and environmental costs of China’s unbridled economic growth.
In Tuya’s Marriage, a woman (Yu Nan) living in desertifying Inner Mongolia (a territory in northern China) tries to find a new husband to take care of herself and of her family, including handicapped husband #1. "I think that it is important, particularly in this time when the economy is booming," Wang remarked, "to ponder and reflect on what we’re losing."
Tuya’s Marriage is [...]

Berlin Film Festival Awards 2007

2007 Berlin Film Festival Awards
2007 Berlin Film Festival: February 8–18, 2007
Berlin 2007 Winners
 
International Competition

Golden Bear for the Best Film: Tu ya de hun shi / Tuya’s Marriage by Wang Quan’an
Silver Bear – The Jury Grand Prix: El Otro / The Other by Ariel Rotter

Silver Bear – Best Director: Joseph Cedar for Beaufort

Silver Bear – Best Actor: Julio Chávez in El Otro / The Other by Ariel Rotter

Silver Bear – Best Actress: Nina Hoss in Yella by Christian Petzold

Silver Bear – Outstanding Artistic Contribution: To the ensemble cast of The Good Shepherd by Robert De Niro
Silver Bear – Best Film Music: David Mackenzie for Hallam Foe
Alfred Bauer Prize: (for innovative work) Sai bo gu ji man [...]

Berlin 2007: Marianne Faithfull, THE WITNESSES

Peeping jane Marianne Faithfull tries to see if there’s a best actress Silver Bear awaiting her on the other side of the glory hole.

In The Guardian, Geoffrey Macnab interviews Marianne Faithfull, whose Irina Palm, the story of a woman who becomes a sex worker in order to get money for her sick grandson, was screened at the Berlinale:
"Irina Palm is far less voyeuristic than such a synopsis might suggest. Faithfull plays Maggie beautifully, with an understatement that belies her rock’n’roll past. She is at pains to point out that there is nothing remotely glamorous or funny about working in the sex industry. ‘I’ve had friends who worked in the sex trade, really good friends. And they are now dead. [...]

Berlin 2007: Cinema for Peace

Goodbye Bafana by Bille August

At Berlin’s Cinema for Peace charity event attended by Richard Gere, Catherine Deneuve, Christopher Lee, and Bob Geldorf this past Monday, a one-minute segment from a short video by Sergiu Matei was shown. Matei’s film depicts a Sept. 30, 2006, incident in which Chinese border police opened fire on Tibetan refugees attempting to flee the country.
Gere, a relentless Tibet advocate, stated that as this year’s head of the (do-nothing) G8, Germany has the "responsibility to encourage China to become part of the modern world [where] these kinds of actions and policies can not be tolerated." (Considering the atrocities perpetrated in and/or by the "modern world," I’m assuming that Gere must have been joking.)
Cinema for Peace award [...]

Berlin 2007: Asta Nielsen is Hamlet

Asta Nielsen in Hamlet

Sure, the 2007 Berlinale, which has kicked off this evening, will offer a number of good — hopefully, even a few great — new films. But for my money, the most interesting section this year is the Retrospective covering the roles of women in silent films of the 1910s and 1920s.
I’ve mentioned the Retrospective in a previous post, but I didn’t know at the time that a restored (two-strip) color version of Sven Gade and Heinz Schall’s Hamlet was going to be screened. Accompanied by Michael Riessler’s new score, Hamlet, starring Grand Diva Asta Nielsen as the angst-ridden, cross-dressing prince(ss) of Denmark, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival at 6 p.m. [...]

Berlin Film Festival 2007 Film Line-Up

Berlin 2007: Official Competition Line-Up
 

300 by Zack Snyder, U.S. (World Premiere, Out of Competition)

Angel by François Ozon, France/Belgium/U.K. (World Premiere)/Closing Film

Beaufort by Joseph Cedar, Israel (World Premiere)

Bordertown by Gregory Nava, U.S. (World Premiere)

Desert Dream / Hyazgar by Zhang Lu, Republic of Korea/France (World Premiere)

Die Fälscher | The Counterfeiter by Stefan Ruzowitzky, Germany/Austria (World Premiere)

El Otro | The Other by Ariel Rotter, Argentina/France/Germany (World Premiere)

Goodbye Bafana by Bille August, Germany/France/Belgium/U.K./Italy (World Premiere)

Hallam Foe by David Mackenzie, U.K. (World Premiere)

In memoria di me / In Memory of Myself by Saverio Costanzo, Italy (World Premiere)

Irina Palm by Sam Garbarski, Belgium/Germany/Luxembourg/U.K./France (World Premiere)

La Môme | La Vie en rose by Olivier Dahan, France/U.K./Czech Republic (World Premiere)/Opening Film

Les [...]

Berlin 2007: 300, THE COUNTERFEITERS, YELLA

300 by Zack Snyder (top); Nina Hoss in Yella (middle); In Memory of Myself by Saverio Costanzo (bottom)

Berlin Film Festival 2007: Part I
A few other titles that sound intriguing:

Inspired by Frank Miller’s drawings and directed by Zack Snyder, 300 depicts the battle of Thermopylae in the year 480 B.C.E. At that decisive battle, King Leonidas of Sparta and a mere 300 followers confronted invader King Xerxes‘ brush-stomping Persian army. If the film looks even half as good as the stills, it’ll win every cinematography and production design award for 2007. But I wonder if 300 will display anything resembling intelligent storytelling, or if it’ll simply be a series of extended battle sequences glorifying bravery, honor, sadism, and all those great [...]

Berlin Film Festival 2007

Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie in The Good Shepherd (top); Cate Blanchett, George Clooney in The Good German (bottom)

English-language productions dominate the Berlin Film Festival’s 2007 official competition line-up. In all, 22 films are competing for the Golden Bear and four are being screened out of competition at this year’s Berlinale, which runs between Feb. 8-18.
Most of the English-language fare hails from the United States and the United Kingdom, in addition to several American or British co-productions with other nations.
Robert De Niro’s Cold War drama The Good Shepherd and Steven Soderbergh’s post-WWII murder mystery The Good German had been announced earlier in January. Both films have big names attached to them (Matt Damon [...]

Berlin 2006 Winners

There weren’t many surprises at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival awards. One of this year’s favorites, Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica, the story of a 12-year-old girl (Luna Mijovic, above, hugging Mirjana Karanovic) who discovers that she is the end result of a Bosnian war crime — namely, rape — was awarded the Golden Bear for best film.
Also on the political side, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross took home the Silver Bear for best director for The Road to Guantanamo, which follows three British Muslims held at the notorious U.S. prison (located on the island of Cuba) where suspected terrorists — without having been formally charged and without access to legal representation — have been systematically tortured and abused.
The acting [...]

Berlin Film Festival Awards 2006

2006 Berlin Film Festival Awards
2006 Berlin Film Festival: February 9–19, 2006
2006 Berlin Film Festival Winners
Photos: © Berlinale 2006
 

Golden Bear : GRBAVICA, by Jasmila Zbanic
Silver Bear – The Jury Grand Prix 2006 (ex-aequo): EN SOAP / A SOAP, by Pernille Fischer Christensen, and OFFSIDE, by Jafar Panahi

Silver Bear – Best Director : Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO

Silver Bear – Best Actor : Moritz Bleibtreu in ELEMENTARTEILCHEN / THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES, by Oskar Roehler

Silver Bear – Best Actress : Sandra Hüller in REQUIEM, by Hans-Christian Schmid
Silver Bear – Artistic Contribution : Jürgen Vogel as actor, co-writer and co-producer of the film DER FREIE WILLE / THE FREE WILL, by Matthias Glasner
Silver Bear – Best Film Music [...]

Berlin 2006: REQUIEM, GRBAVICA, THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING

Moritz Bleibtreu in The Elementary Particles (top); Sandra Hüller in Requiem (bottom)

More on the Berlin International Film Festival:
Four German films will be screened in the Official Competition.
They are: Oscar Roehler’s literary adaptation Elementarteilchen / The Elementary Particles; Hans-Christian Schmid’s exorcism drama Requiem; Matthias Glasner’s Der Freie Wille / The Free Will, the story of a convicted rapist who is freed after 12 years behind bars; and Valeska Grisebach’s Sehnsucht / Desire (right), a love story set in eastern Germany, and starring Andreas Müller and Ilka Welz.
***
At European Films, Boyd van Hoeij gives his take on the films screened at Berlin 2006, including Jasmila žbanic’s post-Bosnian war drama Grbavica, the Icelandic gay soccer comedy Strákarnir Okkar / Eleven Men [...]

Berlin 2006: Is Dresden Burning?

"German filmmakers have tackled the touchy subject of whether the Allied firebombing of Dresden at the end of World War Two was a ‘war crime’ with a carefully balanced melodrama that got its worldwide premiere on Monday.
"Showing the German point of view of anything in World War Two is always likely to cause a stir — and that’s precisely what the makers of Dresden said they want to achieve.
"Dresden, which premiered at the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, quickly reopened old wounds about what many Germans privately call a war crime — and even act of terror." Erik Kirschbaum via Reuters.
***
Directed by Roland Suso Richter, the made-for-TV miniseries Dresden stars Marie Bäumer, Susanne Bormann, Michael [...]

Berlin 2006: Teddy Award Retrospective

Wieland Speck, director of the Panorama sidebar at the Berlin Film Festival:
"To show a film from Iran about a transsexual, as we did three years ago, was a sensation. We had to take enormous precautionary measures, because this continues to be a highly political issue.
"But it’s by no means just the Islamic countries. In our neighbouring Poland a man was recently elected president [Lech Kaczynski of the far right "Law and Justice" party] who has been spreading so much hatred towards gays and lesbians, that a lot of people have been hurt, also physically. At the moment in Poland, gays and lesbians are being attacked by neo-Nazis and the police are doing nothing about it. This shows that we are [...]

Berlin 2006: Out of Competition Films

Berlin 2006: Out of Competition Films

Capote, Bennett Miller

The New World, Terrence Malick

The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry

Syriana, Stephen Gaghan

V for Vendetta, James McTeigue

Wu ji / The Promise, Chen Kaige

Closing film: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Sam Peckinpah (digitally restored print)

Berlin 2006: Golden Bear Film Line-Up

Berlin 2006: Golden Bear Film Line-Up

Opening film: Snow Cake, director Marc Evans

Candy, Neil Armfield

El Custodio / The Minder, Rodrigo Moreno

Elementarteilchen / The Elementary Particles, Oskar Roehler

Find Me Guilty, Sidney Lumet

Der Freie Wille / The Free Will, Matthias Glasner

Grbavica, Jasmila Zbanic

Invisible Waves, Pen-ek Ratanaruang

Isabella, Pang Ho-cheung

L’Ivresse du pouvoir / Comedy of Power, Claude Chabrol

Offside, Jafar Panahi

A Prairie Home Companion, Robert Altman

Requiem, Hans-Christian Schmid

The Road to Guantanamo, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross

Romanzo Criminale / Crime Novel, Michele Placido

Sehnsucht / Desire, Valeska Grisebach

Slumming, Michael Glawogger

En Soap / A Soap, Pernille Fischer Christensen

Zemestan, Rafi Pitts

Berlin 2006: Andrzej Wajda, Ian McKellen to Receive Honorary Golden Bears

The 56th Berlin International Film Festival will present the 2006 Honorary Golden Bears to Polish director and screenwriter Andrzej Wajda (above, left) and British actor Ian McKellen (above, right).
Andrzej Wajda, one of Poland’s best-known filmmakers, has had several of his films in competition in Berlin, including Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania, Miss Nobody, and Holy Week. Among his forty or so features, most of which are highly politicized, are A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds, Danton, Man of Marble, and Man of Iron. In 2000, Wajda was given an honorary Oscar for his career achievements.
Wajda will be handed the Honorary Golden Bear on February 15 at 8.30 pm in the Kino International. [...]

Berlin 2006: Charlotte Rampling to Head International Jury

British actress Charlotte Rampling, 60, will preside over the International Jury of the Berlinale 2006. Referring to Rampling as a "fascinating woman and brilliant artist," Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick expressed his pleasure in having on board an actress who "has come to stand for unconventional and memorable cinema."
During her 40+-year career, Rampling — who has lived in France most of her life — has appeared in almost 70 films, including Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969); Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), playing opposite Dirk Bogarde; John Boorman’s Zardoz, with Sean Connery; and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (1980).
Also, Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict, in which she’s excellent playing opposite Paul Newman; Alan Parker’s Angel Heart (1987); Gianni Amelio’s [...]

Berlin 2005 Winners

Pauline Malefane in Carmen in Khayelitsha

The 2005 Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear has been awarded to a South African production, the Xhosa-language Carmen in Khayelitsha. Directed by Mark Dornford-May and starring Pauline Malefane (right), the film is a modernized version of Georges Bizet’s opera set in a South African slum.
Headed by Roland Emmerich, the seven-member Berlin jury gave the runner-up Silver Bear to Gu Changwei’s Peacock, which depicts the daily life of a working-class family in a small Chinese town.
Marc Rothemund was voted best director for Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, the story of the young German resistance leader who was eventually caught by the Nazis and beheaded along with her brother.
Julia Jentsch, the young [...]

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