Berlin film festival program: A list of the movies competing for the top Golden Bear award
By Geir Moulson
BERLIN (AP) --New films from Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese will rub shoulders with a historical drama from China and the work of an elusive British graffiti artist at this year’s 60th edition of the Berlin film festival.
Organizers on Monday presented the official program of 26 films for the Feb. 11-21 event, the first of the year’s major European film festivals. Twenty of them are competing for the top Golden Bear award.
It offers a mix of star power with a diverse global view. Scorsese is expected in Berlin along with Leonardo DiCaprio for the debut of his “Shutter Island,” which follows an investigation into the disappearance of a murderess from a mental institution.
Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan are expected in Berlin, which will have the world premiere of Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer.” The movie stars Brosnan as a former British prime minister who is writing his memoirs with the help of a ghostwriter, played by McGregor.
The director himself is under house arrest in Switzerland, where he awaits possible extradition to the U.S., which he fled in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
From Europe, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg will be showing his new film “Submarino” and France’s Benoit Delepine will premiere “Mammuth,” starring Gerard Depardieu. Britain’s Michael Winterbottom contributes “The Killer Inside Me,” starring Casey Affleck.
This year’s festival will be bookended by Asian entries. The opening film is “Apart Together,” from Chinese director Wang Quan’an, whose “Tuya’s Marriage” won the Golden Bear in 2007.
The story of a one-time soldier reunited with the love of his life decades after fleeing Shanghai for Taiwan, “this film is somewhat symbolic for us” in a year that sees the 20th anniversary of German reunification, festival director Dieter Kosslick said.
“It’s about a separation by politics and a private reunification,” he said.
The closing film will be veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada’s “About Her Brother,” one of many films this year that examines the workings of families.
One guest won’t be making a public appearance: graffiti artist Banksy, who made his name tagging walls and bridges and refuses to reveal his real name.
His film “Exit Through The Gift Shop” will be showing out of competition. “He will be present but, of course, he won’t be seen,” Kosslick said.
The Berlin festival was founded in 1951 and for decades was “part of the shop window of the west” of the divided city, the director recalled. It has spread across the German capital since reunification in 1990.
Organizers plan this year to use the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of the city’s division and reunification, as the backdrop for one screening of the restored original version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent sci-fi classic, “Metropolis.”
This year’s awards will be bestowed by a seven-member international jury under veteran German-born filmmaker Werner Herzog that includes actress Renee Zellweger.
Juries have often favored less-heralded productions such as last year’s Golden Bear winner, “The Milk of Sorrow” from Peru’s Claudia Llosa.
Berlin film festival program A list of the movies being shown in the official program at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 11-21.
In competition:
“Bal” (“Honey”), director Semih Kaplanoglu.
“Caterpillar,” Koji Wakamatsu.
“En Familie” (“A Family”), Pernille Fischer Christensen.
“En ganske snill mann” (“A Somewhat Gentle Man”), Hans Petter Moland.
“Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier” (“If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle”), Florin Serban.
“The Ghost Writer,” Roman Polanski.
“Greenberg,” Noah Baumbach.
“Howl,” Rob Epstein.
“Jud Suess — Film ohne Gewissen” (“Jud Suess — Film without a conscience”), Oskar Roehler.
“Kak ya provel etim letom” (“How I Ended This Summer”), Alexei Popogrebsky.
“The Killer Inside Me,” Michael Winterbottom.
“Mammuth,” Benoit Delepine.
“Na Putu” (“On the Path”), Jasmila Zbanic.
“Der Raeuber” (“The Robber”), Benjamin Heisenberg.
“Rompecabezas” (“Puzzle”), Natalia Smirnoff.
“San qiang pai an jing qi” (“A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop”), Zhang Yimou.
“Shadada” (“Faith”), Burhan Qurbani.
“Shekarchi” (“The Hunter”), Rafi Pitts.
“Submarino,” Thomas Vinterberg.
“Tuan Yuan” (“Apart Together”), Wang Quan’an.
Out of competition:
“Exit Through The Gift Shop,” Banksy.
“The Kids Are All Right,” Lisa Cholodenko.
“My Name is Khan,” Karan Johar.
“Otouto” (“About Her Brother”), Yoji Yamada.
“Please Give,” Nicole Holofcener.
“Shutter Island,” Martin Scorsese.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More