Ain't no stopping us ... 12 Berlinale Bloggers from 9 countries are back for the 71st Berlinale, reporting from wherever we are. Will miss chatting with my colleagues Philipp, Yun-Hua, Lucia, Elena, Camila, Hyejin, Igor, Hyunjin, Ieva and Sarah, but looking forward to their takes from Berlin, Australia, Lithuania, Korea, Russia, Brazil, Italy, and China.Get ready for our Instagram video reviews @GoetheInstitut and more in-depth ponderings right here, including two interviews with female Canadian arts leaders who will be attending the Berlinale with a courtesy badge by Goethe & the Berlinale, fostering diversity, inclusion, and different perspectives. Continue reading "Berlinale Blogger 2021" »
I remember sitting in the TIFF 2014 world premiere of Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, willing myself to let go. If you cannot suspend your disbelief and let Petzold take you by the hand, you will struggle to dive into his stories, which is true too for Petzold’s new Berlinale Competition contender Undine (and to a certain degree last year’s Transit, a relationship precursor to his latest). If you surrender to his curious storytelling, you are in for an intimately romantic and quietly humorous treat with Undine (
Wondering who the new TIFF Co-Head is? We chatted with Joana Vicente in January, just after she started at TIFF and was packing for the Berlinale.
My Goethe colleagues asked our group of 2019 international Berlinale Bloggers to answer 3 questions as the 69th Berlin International Film Festival is coming to the end, here's my take-away:
Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and fans, from rookies to veterans.
Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and fans, from rookies to veterans.
After the Austrian chainsaw massacre (THE CHILDREN OF THE DEAD at Berlinale Forum) now a "German chainsaw massacre," alas without a Schlingensief’s political acumen or sensibility for the signs of the times. Fatih Akin is clearly getting ready for his first Hollywood gig, directing Stephen King’s FIRESTARTER. “Playing with genre film has been running through my work since Short Sharp Shock in 1998,“ says Akin.
✔ Double score on sitting in the very last row on Sunday. Before breakfast at Friedrichstadtpalast for the very atmospheric and excellently played Austrian competition entry The Ground Beneath her Feet by Marie Kreuzer; and two hours later at Berlinale Palast for Israeli-German co-production The Operative with a very good Diane Krüger and Martin Freeman in an okay spy thriller. 
✔ Wang done. Think of Wang Quan’an’s slow-quirky competition title as Fargo in the steppe, or Zacharias Kunuk in Mongolia. The Chinese director has a promising track record, winning the Berlinale top honour, the Golden Bear in 2007 for "Tuya's Marriage” and a Silver Bear three years later for "Tuan Yuan.” “Öndög” (dinosaur egg, we learn) has the most amazing love scene --involving a camel, a wolf and a rifle-- and more feisty feminism than any New York indie. As the herder heroine replies to her suitor: “If I need a man I’ll let you know, but not today."
