...berlinale 65 just ended..
..so political, again...politics rul the world...
do they?
...how
political the selection and the awards were they?
Kosslick tried to explain:
“I have to say that I was pretty happy …
I do think it’s
important that we had these films that people call political because they
reflect what’s going on out there. So we weren’t just on the red carpet.
We
were out there in the world – just on a red carpet.
For as long as we stay on
the red carpet and know where we are the festival has something to do with the
world
and is political.
That’s how I see it.
More or less.”
Hmmm.
So is that more or is it less?
Probably a little more.
Which is good if the films match the aspirations.
And some almost did.
See Taxi,
which won the Golden Bear.
Very political.
You only had to watch Kosslick
bouncing up the red-carpet stairs
to give the Bear
to director Panahi’s niece,
to realize that.
Not that Taxi isn’t
a fair enough work of art.
It is.
But
precisely because
it successfully turns dissidence
into art
without sacrificing
integrity.
And then the stunning guatemalteque film Ixcanul
by Alfred Bauer,
who addresses
the lives of ethnic minorities (Maya).
And then another of my favourites, my Romanian Aferim!
(Best Director for Radu Jude)
did the same with Wallachia’s early 19th century gypsies.
...and also
on the social-political satire El Club (Grand Jury Prize)
and El Botón de Nácar (Best Script),
have strong political
meta-texts ...
...even though backed-up by radical artistry,
that sometimes stretched my
imagination
beyond breaking point...
Rewarding Pod electricheskimi oblakami
for its camera work
could (just) be considered political:
the film works with
epical images
that suggest the devastation of Russia’s cultural landscapes,
1
00 years after the Revolution!
...From here on in,
though,
the prizes went to emotionally charged work,
in which family dramas
opened
onto issues of non-communication:
Best Actor/Actress prizes for
the superlative 45 Years,
Best Director for occasionally
inconsistent Body.
...And then, there’s Victoria,
which appears to have won a prize (camera, Outstanding Artistic Contribution)
for the cinematographically bedazzling re-creation
of a moral no-man’s land
in
my beloved Berlin-Mitte.
Thank you, host city.
So... yes, it’s political...
And not a whisper
for the two big-name
films:
Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups,
Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein
in Guanajuato (my mind, soul and body last blow up!!!!!!!)!!!!!!!!!!!!...
Au contraire: about those ex aequo extra bears.
Ex
aequo et bono translates to
“according to the right and good"
or what is “just and fair”
and refers
to
“the power of the arbitrators
to dispense with consideration of the law
and
consider solely
what they consider to be fair
and equitable
in the case at
hand”.
In other words,
officialese for the Jury’s validation
of Kosslick’s
selection
by presenting two extra bears...
giulia dobre - berlin -February 14th
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