Berlin Special: Berlinale Palast!

The Berlin Film Festival is officially over as I write this. It's been a fine week with 7 films overall for myself. The two I saw today Ausente and Un Mundo Misterioso both had full houses and unfortunately no Q&A's as the people involved with the films have already departed.

Ausente deals with issues of breaking the law (namely having a relationship with an underage student), not giving in to feelings or emotions and finally blaming oneself for a bad outcome in a tragic situation. Nicely shot and not too tiring to watch, the public seemed to love it.

Un Mundo Misterioso, on the other hand, wasn't as popular as some people even walked out. It runs almost a full 2 hours and there's little plot development after premise has been set - the girlfriend thinks her boyfriend and her need some time apart. The dependent guy is thrown out of his comfort zone and the film shows his ministrations as he tries to lead his life on his own.

The good thing about the movie was that it was shown in the Berlinale Palast - La Citadelle de Berlinale. I arrived 20 minutes in advance hoping to score a really good seat and found myself queuing up after at least two hundred people, out in the cold of course. We were allowed to enter only 5 minutes after the showing was supposed to start and eventually started 10 minutes later. Somebody relaxed too early, me thinks. But anyway, here is a pictures galore from the inside of this beautiful building.

Berlin Special: Berlinale!

It’s hardly a secret to anyone who knows me even a little bit that I am a film buff. I do love movies, screenplays, cinematography, good dialogue, the film-watching experience, the way I anticipate a release I think might be good, reading Roger Ebert’s reviews, the credits rolling. I can go on about movies forever and have a thing for actors and actresses (although that might change soon due to my red carpet experience described below - shock, horror!).

As my plan about coming to Berlin was set in stone, I immediately realized I’ll be around for Berlinale as well and the thought of that made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Now that it is ongoing, I realize it’s different than I expected, in both good and not so good ways. However, it still is a pleasure to witness all of it.

It all started with the Red Carpet. I’d only been once to a festival opening before and that was in Sochi, Russia. I traveled there specifically to see Catherine Deneuve. I saw her. And sat in a row right behind her. Trust me, it was worth the two sleepless nights, the fight with my mother and the 35C-heat dehydration. The red carpet itself was alright if you are interested in Russian celebrities (cross me out). Now, you would think Berlinale would by far surpass Faces of Love (that’s the corny name of the film festival in Sochi), however I can’t say I was delighted. Far from it, in fact.

Berlin Film Festival opened in the evening of February 10 this year. Earlier the same day I was reading an interview with the project manager who is in charge of the Red Carpet at Berlinale, apparently he has been doing this job for 20 years and he’s never had any faux pas or bad experiences in his position. Maybe it was his first time, I don’t know, but I was mightily disappointed with the organization: my biggest complaint was the long pauses between arriving celebrities (and “celebrities”), sometimes breaks reached almost 10 minutes. And if you think that the Red Carpet ceremony normally spans 60-90 minutes, it’s already too much. It was a bit boring, too. There’s nothing interesting in watching people in evening dresses strike poses for 15 minutes to a crowd of photographers, really. I wouldn’t have thought it, but now that I saw it and it just happens so that it made me want to yawn.