In the last part of a series of mini profiles on the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and visitors that make the Berlinale every year, I am debriefing myself:
Name & role: Jutta Brendemühl, Berlinale Blogger and Goethe-Institut Toronto program curator.
Most lasting memory: Attending the premiere of the thoughtful doc on and with Stasi snitch Sascha "Anderson" in East Berlin. I went with friends who've been victims of that system and were involved in the film
(interview to follow here next week!). Sascha Anderson was also present, defiant in the face of shouts of "monster" afterwards. The loud and passionate conversation continued well into the after-party at GDR dissident Bert Papenfuss' bar in Prenzlauer Berg. At the end of the day, GDR literary legend Wolf Biermann summed it up nicely by just calling him "Sascha Asshole" ever since. In many ways, for me the film by Annekatrin Hendel had echoes of "Camp 14", Marc Wiese's excellent investigation of the North Korean system of manipulation and betrayal, but reversed the victim perspective.
Most pleasant surprise:...
Honestly, I spent the opening night of the Berlinale going to a Cineplex with colleagues to finally see the blockbuster Germany (and The Hollywood Reporter) had been talking about for months, "Fack Ju Göhte", playing in the popular German Film Awards sidebar that screens the best of the season. 138 minutes of politically incorrect laughter. We all enjoyed it, especially since there were decidedly fewer laughs over the next 10 days.
Favourite film title: Kraftidioten, Norway’s Competition film by Hans Petter Moland, starring Bruno Ganz, which most of you will remember as Downfall’s Hitler (he plays a Serb godfather here). Literally translated Kraftidioten means Power Idiots. Of course the in-joke of the film’s English title “In Order of Disappearance” --head count was about 22 in this gangster comedy-- worked even better. (Okay, there were many laughs in that one as well, just not sure it should have been in Competition).
Hardest decision I had to make this year: Whether to watch 3 hours of full-on "Nymphomaniac" sex in Berlin or the 5 and a half hour version coming to Toronto. I liked how Dieter Kosslick called Lars von Trier’s latest “a women’s film” on a German TV talk show, while in the same breath pointing out that the porn industry is by far the biggest film industry worldwide. I thought it was a publicity stunt when he declared the Berlinale 2014 a festival about sex, but I probably sat through a solid day of sex scenes overall while watching about 20 films. Not as fun as it sounds.
Biggest Berlinale pet peeve: The ticketing and box office system on all levels.
My German Golden Bear goes to: "Age of Cannibals" by Johannes Naber. Alas it is not in Competition. Otherwise I fear the actual Golden Bear will not go to any of the 8 Competition films I saw, and not to a German film. But could
"Jack"'s 11-year-old newcomer Ivo Pietzcker take the Silver Bear for Best Actor (like 15-year-old Rachel Mwanza did in 2012 for Montréal director Kim Nguyen’s "Rebelle")?
Other films I'm glad I saw: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" - lovely Grand Cinema in & about Old Europe. Also the world premiere of the new slick "Caligari" 4K restoration at the Berlin Symphony accompanied by John Zorn, who was charmingly wearing the same clothes he was wearing the last time I saw him in concert in the East Village year ago.
Films I'm sad to have missed: Among many others several films in the Forum and Perspective German Cinema sections, for example "Raumfahrer", an experimental prison road movie; "Scenario", which sounded categorization-defying, plus Britain's Northern Ireland drama "71'" and Ireland's black comedy "Calvary".
My take on this year's Berlinale from a German film perspective: "Every country has the cinema it deserves," young Berlinale veteran Dietrich Brüggemann stipulated in an interview at the start of the festival’s 64th edition. The German character profile then: Stern and angry, tentative and romantic, observing and empathic, globalised and politically engaged, darkly surreal and sarcastic, with the occasional kick in the groin, bold when looking abroad, particular when looking inside, --and formally diverse and inventive.
Finally, I want to declare it the Berlinale of outstanding cinematography. Audiences are in for a treat for the eyes and minds this year.
image: c Jutta Brendemuehl, www.twitter.com/JuttaBrendemuhl
