Breathless 4: a Berlinale diary

Tuesday 14 February, 2006

Storm Saxons and a shaved-headed Natalie Portman have people flocking to James McTeigue's "V for Vendetta". Cinema at its most despicable: Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves", and loving a serial rapist: "Der Freie Wille" by Matthias Glasner.
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Breathless 3: a Berlinale diary

Monday 13 February, 2006

Detlev Buck's "Tough Enough" looks at the life of a rich boy in a rough area where the ultimate insult is "victim!" Terence Malick's "The New World" is little more than soft colonialist porn. Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion" is good, harmless family entertainment. Chen Kaige's "The Promise" desires to blockbuster. Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana" is an introductory seminar on the dirty ol' oil business. And Oskar Roehler's "Atomised" has taken the horrible out of Houellebecq.
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Breathless 2: a Berlinale diary

Friday 10 February, 2006

The festival got off on a gentle note with Marc Evans' "Snow Cake". Blood, sex and gore - but not for gore's sake - soon took audiences by storm, though, with Sono Sion's "Strange Circus". Pernille Fischer Christensen's "En Soap" was sadly just a washout. And "Close to Home" by Dalia Hager and Vidi Bilu shows 18-year-old girls struggling to sound authoritative in their army uniforms on the streets of Jerusalem.

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Breathless: a Berlinale diary

Thursday 9 February, 2006

This evening, Marc Evans' film "Snow Cake" will open the Berlinale film festival 2006. Ekkehard Knörer is keeping his eyes peeled for the mad and the beautiful, the puzzling and the devasting, understatement and excess. Stay with us for a front-row seat.
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Hunters of the hidden terror

Wednesday 1 February, 2006

Steven Spielberg's film "Munich" deals with the 1972 Olympic hostage taking and its bloody aftermath. The film is a provocative blend of cliches and originality, wisdom and presumptuousness, as inextricably tangled as the Middle East itself. By Tobias Kniebe
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"Cowardly and comfortable"

Monday 30 January, 2006

In Michael Haneke's new film "Cache", a Parisian citizen is confronted with a dark episode from his childhood – and suddenly France's colonial history comes rushing to the surface. The Austrian director talked to Dominik Kamalzadeh about guilt, guilty consciences and the legacy of the Algerian war.
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Fearing feelings more than fire

Thursday 12 January, 2006

Patrice Chereau describes his newest film "Gabrielle" and the challenge of adapting Joseph Conrad for the screen. An interview with Gerhard Midding.

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The many names of loneliness

Thursday 5 January, 2006

Andreas Dresen's "Summer in Berlin" hits the screens in Germany today. The sunny milieu film tells of cool nights, hard liquor and love in the time of Hartz IV. By Christoph Dieckmann
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"I am an American woman"

Thursday 17 November, 2005.

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier talks about sexual fantasies, the Pope, America, slavery and his new film "Manderlay" with an undaunted Katja Nicodemus.
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Berlin's ghosts

Thursday 22 September, 2005

Christian Petzold's most recent film "Gespenster" ("Ghosts"), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this year, has now opened in German cinemas. Anke Leweke raves about this ghost story, set in Berlin's here and now.
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Wim Wenders won't give up

Tuesday 6 September, 2005

Sometimes the strong points of a director cannot be had without the weak ones. "Don't Come Knocking" is Wim Wenders' best film in a long time. By Katja Nicodemus
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Attack of the killer disks

Monday 8 August, 2005

The future of cinema is threatened by the rise of the DVD. But cinema is also working hard at its own downfall. By Georg Seeßlen
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Rocking Istanbul

Monday 13 June, 2005

After winning the Golden Bear in Berlin for his last film "Head On", Fatih Akin has now made a documentary on Istanbul's music scene. A talk with Daniel Bax on the film "Crossing the Bridge", tour guides and Vikings, music divas and the responsibilities of critical acclaim.
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Rebels who move the furniture

Wednesday 8 June, 2005

Polish cinemas are full of films by the younger generation of German filmmakers. Their common theme seems to be rebellion. Or, as Adam Krzeminski sees it, rebellion lite.
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Heroic stupidity

15 March, 2005

Looking for the genius in the engineer: Werner Herzog's monumental documentary "The White Diamond" follows a Zeppelin-builder through the jungle of Guyana. A heroic journey to the borders of embarrassment and beyond. By Dietmar Kammerer
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