Berlinale 65: my predictions friday at noon...

 

....

I saw a bear yesterday outside the Starbucks near the Berlinale Palast.

It wasn’t golden,  or even silver.

 Just off-white.

Barely washed and confused, like the rest of us.

So what else is new?

As  I sat down with some south American mates

to discuss prognosis for this year’s awards ceremony,

there were some lifted brows.

Just because we had serious trouble

about a couple of potential winners

(Victoria, Under Electric Clouds),

doesn’t mean that their artistic achievement in a given field
(editing, umm, for Victoria’s one-take  narrative?

Script for the Malick?)

might bait for a bear …

It always helps to remember that
there are no critics in the jury:
just film people,

and film business people,

who don’t really like critics that much.

Jury's Peruvian director and 2009 Golden Bear winner

with her debut film Milk of Sorrows
 Claudia Llosa

sounded the anti-critical bell:

“I know what it’s like to be on the other side” said Llosa.

Tatou stopped reading critics a long time ago

and for her the jury doesn’t vote against,

but for something.

… whilst Daniel Brühl thought the whole thing

might be incredibly tough

and said he’d probably be drinking less than usual…

So, let’s recap:

feelings are important,

and so is honesty,

and so is fairness

and so are first impressions …

 And sobriety.

Based on these criteria (and a few of our own)

we the airborn bunch of global critics, here in this Starbucks,

 like to venture on the following:

Golden Bear for Best Film: Taxi by Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi.

It’s a small film,

there’s no drinking
either in the film or in Iran (officially)

and the film is full of political honesty

and feelings
at the same time.
Although really not my favorite…

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: Ixcanul.

… it’s a small and brutally honest movie,

and has great and emotionally forceful performances

from the two female leads.

Also: drinking too much is bad
and can lead to unwanted pregnancies…

Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for a feature film
that opens up new perspectives: Victoria.

The one-take  isn't actually really new

but it works here as a real-time accelerator

of a small, honest narrative.

And again, drinking

and general consumption of substances

gets some thumbs-down.

Silver Bear for Best Director: Pablo Larrain for El Club

has gone anti-mainstream

with his  brutally honest indictment of Catholic depravities

still leaving a hole open
onto the quest

for genuine faith.

Oh, and drinking red wine

is shown as a degenerate parody

of Catholic rites.

Silver Bear for Best Actress: Charlotte Rampling

in 45 Years.

…tells the story of what can go wrong

in a long-term marriage

as a process of self-awareness.

So honesty? Tick.

Drinking … not so much

…but one of the main characters does start to smoke again

and it doesn’t end well for him.

Silver Bear for Best Actor: Elmar Bäck

as Sergei Eisenstein
in Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato.

A: he was mind blowing!!!!!!!

B: the sex scenes were mind blowing!!!!!!

C: Drinking – purely social....

Silver Bear for Best Script: Aferim.

Another art-house movie,

there’s a lot of talking and irreverential humour

to the film’s main goal:

showing the mistreatment of gypsies
and all the sins and charms of the Romanians

in pre nation-State Romania.

Drinking? In connection with boredom

or as a sexual disinhibiter

(ok for young studs,

not so good for older men)

so definitely wrong side of critical levels.

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution in the categories camera,
editing, music, score,

costume or set design.

Might just have to be Pod electricheskimi oblakami (Under Electric Clouds)
for camera,

which was one of the film’s better features.

Drinking – none

(except after the press screening,

when we all needed a stiff vodka)...

Cheers.

 

giulia dobre – Berlin – Berlinale 65- February 13th