Berlinale 2017
Stars on the Red Carpet
The Berlinale is one of the biggest international film festivals in Europe, along with Cannes and Venice. Every year famous directors and actors gather together to present their movies. We would like to introduce some interesting activities.
When you arrive at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, you see the signs and red flags of the festival. On the way to the main venue, the Berlinale Palast, you also find other movie theaters. It is a big festival and you need to be prepared in order to be on time without getting lost or missing any movie. The Berlinale Palast is a special place. The festival theme music is played and you feel special just being there. You sense the vibrant energy whether you are a professional or just a movie lover . Photographers go to photo-calls, reporters go to press conferences, TV cameras go to the red carpet. And fans? They can wait at the press conference arrival gate or at the red carpet to see the stars. Red carpet events are scheduled throughout the day and the whole setting is quite impressive. Security is tight, but friendly and we must give credit to the German efficiency in managing the event.
Competition: “Mr. Long”
Mr. Sabu, a Japanese actor and director who presented “Chasuke’s Journey”in 2015, returned with “Mr. Long” this year. Director Sabu, who is also a musician and who studied fashion design, truly impresses with beautiful cinematography. At the press conference he said laughingly: “I am always thinking, I think I have a thinking disease”. Director Sabu takes time to reflect and carefully chooses his words, though it is often his genuine answers get lost in translation.
We noticed the importance of small details and particular items in every part of the film. T-shirts with the word “Perfume” symbolize the protagonist’s happy moment, whereas knives, according to the director, express anger and grief.
The actor Mr. Chang Chen explained that the last fighting scene was quite stressful. He said: “Aesthetic results were very important to the director, I sincerely hope I did a good job.” Using a Taiwanese actor instead of Japanese musicians or fashion models as a protagonist is rare in Japanese movies. Here, director Sabu delivered actors in action which is a real game changer.
The German audience seemed to love the movie very much. A girl sitting next to us was very emotional, saying: “I was so touched and could not stop crying. It was beautiful…” We agree that this movie definitely deserved to be in the competition.
Panorama Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro
Raoul Peck, a famous Haitian director who once promised to make the most difficult films in the world, was a member of the Berlinale International Jury in 2002, followed by the Cannes Competition Jury in 2012. In this documentary, which is said to be the most courageous documentary of the year, he zooms in on historical racial issues.
In 1979, the American writer James Baldwin sent a letter to his agent. He wanted to write a personal memoire of his assassinated friends: Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. However, when Baldwin died in 1987, he only left 30 pages of manuscript. Director Peck tried to complete Baldwin’s book while looking back at the era in which he lived. He portrays the human rights movement in combination with photos of President Kennedy, the meeting at the Arkansas University with the ”Mixing race is communism” posters, the Afro-American protest versus police supression, all events which still surface today.
The voice over of Samuel L. Jackson adds a special poetic language to the documentary.
WCF Doc Day 2017
Berlinale World Cinema Fund – WCF Doc Day 2017
Documentary directors are unique students and do not fit in a school. Who is going to help them? Well, at least there is a counsellor office called WCF who will listen to them…
WCF, the World Cinema Fund, is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institute. Here, many foreign documentary directors get enthusiastic and envy Germany’s strong documentary spirit. As more countries become somewhat secretive and real communication is becoming difficult, the German government does not interfere but gives a platform to directors telling their stories. Today’s topic was “The Challenge of the Real: What is documentary? Questioning the meaning and the interpretation of reality.”
Mr. Vincenzo Bugno, the Project Manager of WCF gave an opening speech, followed by speeches of Dr. Andreas Gorgen, Director General of the Department for Culture and Communication of Federal Foreign Office, and Dr. Lutz Nitsche, the Assistant to the Executive Board of German Federal Cultural Foundation. They believe in cinema and we cannot agree more with the importance of having a platform for real cinema, which is different from the mainstream media.
By attending WCF Doc Day, we sense that this is not a money making business, but rather a teamwork for the love of cinema. It is interesting to realize that we are all diplomats who need to listen and understand what others are dealing with through motion pictures. There were four directors who presented their work, all clearly true believers of cinema. The key is to remain committed. The presence of such organization encourages many documentary directors and we hope to hear more from the WCF activities.
Awards of the Official Juries of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival
The 67th Berlin International Film Festival’s award ceremony was held on Saturday, February 18. Being nominated in Berlinale sounds great, but winning gives the world’s top.
The Golden Bear for best film went to “On Body and Soul” by Director Ildikó Enyedi, the Silver Bear grand jury wen to “Félicité” by Director Alain Gomis, Silver Bear for best director went to “The Other Side of Hope” by Aki Kaurismäki, and Silver Bear for best actress went to Actress Kim Minhee of “On the Beach at Night Alone” by Director Hong Sangsoo.
There are several female directors and movies with female leading role won this year. There were some disappointments for the fans of old-school movies who feel that cinema should look like real film and not digitally-made, but this will remain a debatable topic.
Over 11 days, the Berlinale sold a total of 334,471 tickets. As in every year, it’s truly the most well organized movie festival in the world. We cannot wait for the next festival which is scheduled from February 15 to 25, 2018.
MovieGa 素敵な映画人 