Berlin Writes Current History through the Past

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Berlin Writes Current History through the Past

“Notes on a Scandal” – intriguing play with female psyche

#7 It is interesting that at the very opening, this festival set high standards by screening the French film “La Vie en Rose”, by Olivier Dahan, dedicated to the life story of the French icon Edith Piaf. This film was in competition, and what is the most important thing is that it fascinates with its authenticity and intensity of penetrating deep in the intimate and artistic world of one of the most recognizable world chanson singers. The life of Edit Piaf was very dramatic, difficult and unhappy, and her role is played fantastically by young Marion Cotillard who definitely deserved the “Golden Bear” which unfortunately went to actress Nina Hoss for the very poor and unconvincing German film “Yella”.
#8 One of the most beautiful films of the festival as definitely “Notes on a Scandal” of Richard Eyre, with the brilliant Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. “Notes on a Scandal” speaks of homosexuality discretely and indirectly, a topic very present at the festival, through the complicated relationship of a forced friendship that should conceal the real intentions. Richard Eyre fantastically leads his film through the labyrinths of passion, the non-allowed, the problematic family relationships, but also the possessiveness and obsession, desperation and awful feeling of unreturned. One of the better films was also “Letters from Iwo Jima” by Clint Eastwood, which was in the official selection together with the previous film, but outside the award competition. “Letters from Iwo Jima” brings us back to the legendary battle of the Pacific and is second film made by Eastwood on this topic (the first one is “Flags of Our Fathers”). #9 It is a film that manages to speak of Japanese tradition via an unusual perspective. In other words, although Clint Eastwood goes back to this battle (where 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Americans were killed) from the Japanese side, he tries to create the profile of soldiers led by the excellent general Kuribayashi (played by Ken Watanabe) through their letters that never reached their destinations, but also to speak of many things that in their own way create Japanese mentality and tradition.
#10 Best audience reaction was towards the film of Sam Garbarski from Belgium, first of all because of the lucidity of the story entitled “Irina Palm”, with Marianne Faithfull and Miki Manojlović. Although “Irina Palm” was one of the weaker films, the audience and the critics were thrilled with the story of an adult woman who starts working for a sex-club in order to make money for her grandson’s surgery. It is really a warm, cute story, full with humor, witty and honest, but a film without any artistic value. #11 The only South-East European film, the Czech “I Served the King of England” by Jirí Menzel, did nit have such a reception, although it was one of the most quality pieces of this year. Menzel showed that even after a 15-year break he had not lost his irony and sharpness in filming one of the works of his favorite writers, Bohumil Hrabal and won the critics’ “Fipresci” prize again. “I Served the King of England” is an ambitious film dedicated to 20th century history, but also a film that through the eyes of an unqualified waiter in a very subtle, humorous and precise way draws the “weird” side of European history and plays with it.

“Forum” and “Panorama” bring the cinema of the future

#12 Everything that was missing in the main program could be seen in “Panorama” program, which brings the invention, artistic approach, imagination and surprise, and the reflection of social processes in its documentary part, as well as in “Forum” program, which brings the cinema of the future. These two programs had more interesting films that played both with esthetic and narrative borders. The Canadian film “The Tracey Fragments” by Bruce McDonald was made in images of different sizes that passed through the screen all the time, to tell us a very sick story about a girl that does not belong anywhere, via her fascinating monologues and awful, but often logical solutions of escaping from her own reality. “Interview” by Steve Buscemi was made as a remake of the film of the Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, who was killed two years ago, and fir certain it had the most unexpected story, intelligent and sharp, about the interview of a political journalist with a movie star, where Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller have excellent roles. The Canadian drama “Away from Her” of the young Sarah Polley spoke about Alzheimer’s disease, but in a really unexpected way, in which you reveal the shockingly intimate truth after 45 years of living together. In her almost fully author’s work “2 Days in Paris”, Julie Delpy makes a fun, but very precise parallel of Europe and America which speaks of stereotypes, prejudices, fear and cultural shock, in an excellent way.
#13 Berlin festival simply managed to touch history in an impressive way, but also deal with the present with all of its implications, fear and isolation, all misunderstandings and expectations. The topics related to war somehow stood up; these were not related to battles and killing, but to people and everything that they won or lost, their illusions, delusions, non-sense. Although there might not be war in today’s globalization era, still complete cultures disappear, as the festival director Dieter Kolsick said. Many things disappear before our eyes, and we can not do anything about it. The films showed the modern threats that we are not aware of in a very open way, stating that their consequences are sometimes the same.

2018-08-21T17:23:10+00:00 April 14th, 2007|Categories: Reviews, Gallery, Blesok no. 53|0 Comments