BFF5: It's a warzone

Working at a film festival is pretty tough going. After about four days of wall-to-wall screenings, navigating a seemingingly impenetrable system of checkpoints, internet access, transport options, venues and officials, you're not sure whether it's day or night or if you should be running to a screening or scrounging for food in the five minutes you have to spare all day. Meanwhile, here in Berlin, you have to keep an eye out for bicycles roaring up and down the pavements, as sidewalks have a bike lane in the middle of them.

And up on the screen it can be pretty brutal as well, with movies dealing with subject matter that's much heavier than normal multiplex diversions. Although for a film critic, it feels like taking a holiday from mindless fluff. Even when you see a bad movie here, it's usually provocative and intriguing. And of course there's also the star spotting! On Monday, I caught a glimpse of Keanu Reeves (here with Rebecca Miller's latest film) as well as the foursome above from The Messenger: Steve Buscemi (also seen here in Sally Potter's Rage), director Oren Moverman, Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. Speaking of which...

The Messenger
dir Oren Moverman 09/US ****
Sensitive and devastating, but a bit too straightforward to be a masterpiece, this post-war drama stars Ben Foster as a young veteran assigned to casualty notification with a bitter, twisted veteran of Iraq War I, played with a lot of steely emotion by Woody Harrelson. An offbeat romantic plot involving war widow Samantha Morton constantly threatens to become seriously yucky, but stays thoughtful and surprisingly haunting. It's also extremely well directed, with a raw sense of silence.

The Good American
dir Jochen Hick 09/Ger ***
This low-fi doc about male escort promoter Tony Weisse tells a fascinating story of a man who moved to America and then disappeared illegally into the system, where he turned to prostitution to survive and eventually helped launch the most successful rent boy website on earch, accompanied by a circuit of parties. The film follows him around America and then as he returns to Berlin for the first time in oevr a decade, knowing he might never be able to go back to New York. It's all rather indulgent, never quite sure whether it's documenting the man or his business. But it's lively and entertaining, sometimes almost uncomfortably intimate, and when it sticks to one aspect of the story, pretty revealing. Filmmaker Hick, along with Weisse and many of the guys from the film, took to the stage at the end for an intriguing Q&A that centred on what it was like to live with a camera peering at your every move the years the film was in production.

Fig Trees
dir John Greyson 09/Canada ***
This is another outrageously inventive rant from Greyson, similar to his pop musical Zero Patience, but this time playfully using opera to look at the life of notable Aids activists Tim McCaskell from Canada and South African Zackie Achmat. Mixing new interviews with film clips, satirical songs, animation and Gertrude Stein's opera Four Saints in Three Acts, this film keeps us mesmerised with its multi-screen, subtitled lyricism, constant comical touches and an underlying sense of anger at the greed of pharmaceutical companies and government inaction (or worse) that have resulted in the loss of literally millions of lives. It's extremely bold and inventive, and well worth seeing, but will never cross over to mainstream viewers. Greyson was at the screening, and fielded a wonderfully articulate, entertaining Q&A session afterwards.

BFF4: Four films and a party

It's interesting to see such a wide variety of film types gather in one place. Two are pictured here: from the edgy British glamour of Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (who is president of the main jury here) to the Danish actress-filmmaker Rie Rasmussen, who's here with a French film in which she plays an Albanian. I was meant to see five films today, but one ran over (and had a Q&A), so I missed the fifth one. I did manage to get to the Panorama party though, celebrating 30 years of the strand which features a great variety of films. It was a long day, but there were some great films...

The Bone Man
dir Wolfgang Murnberger 09/Aut ****
This gritty dark comedy from Germany takes off and barely pauses for breath as a sardonic repo man goes off the grid in a remote country inn, where he starts to believe something nefarious is going on. Indeed, the people he meets there are deeply twisted, most notably the owner who grinds up chicken bones from his restaurant to send to the farm as feed - and you just know that bone grinder could have other uses. Throw in some blackmailing Russians and a missing man who might be hiding right under their noses, and the film keeps us thoroughly entertained - both laughing and quirming in our seats.


Kill Daddy Good Night
dir-scr Michael Glawogger 09/Aut ****
Twisty and complicated, this film weaves togethes several strands that take place from 1959 to the present, centring on a guy issues who creates a videogame to take out his anger against his politician father. But as he travels to New York to help a friend witha special project, he's thrown into a situation that's linked to atrocities against Lithuanian Jews during WWII. The film is jammed with big ideas, provocative themes and intriguing characters, all of whom keep us utterly glued, although the off-handed approach may alienate some viewers.

Rage
dir-scr Sally Potter 09/UK ****
Now this is a very difficult one: the whole movie is made up of to-camera interviews by some very big stars (Jude Law, Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard) as if they're talking to a young guy working on a school project backstage during a fashion show. Someone dies tragically during the show, and then the bodies start to pile up - but all off-screen, as we only see these characters' reactions to the events. Despite the starry cast, this is a resolutely uncommercial film that will drive most audiences mad, but it also has some extremely clever things to say about our YouTube culture, experiencing the world second-hand, and being guided by the emptiness of celebrity.

Blue Beard
dir-scr Catherine Breillat 09/Fr ***
Taking her typically girl-power view and applying it to a fairy tale, Breillat creates a deeply undettling period tale about two sisters who are obsessed with the story about the resident of the nearby castle - and expecially the way his wives have all gone missing. When they get a chance to meet him, they play it as an audition, and sure enough, one is chosen as the next wife. But things don't go as expected - or maybe they do - as tables are turned and promises are broken. It's a tricky, difficult film to unpack, but there's some fascinating stuff inside. We were fortunate to have Breillat there to chat to us about why she told the story in this way after the screening. What a force of nature she is!

BFF3: Cops and lawyers

My first full day at the Berlinale was a busy one - dashing from film to film, with only a half hour free here and there. I'm starting to dig into the Panorama programme - which is the section my jury is looking at. There are 48 films (no way we can see all of them) in amazing variety - and this is the 30th year of Panorama, so there are some special screenings too. The atmosphere is great fun - screenings are full, and it feels like the whole city (well, this section of it) is movie mad! Here's what I saw...

Storm
dir Hans-Christian Schmid 09/Ger ****
Kerry Fox is terrific in this Euro-thriller about a war crimes tribunal at The Hague, struggling to keep the case alive after the key witness lies under oath. From here, the courtroom tension is deepened with an unsettling look at the evils of war and the just-as-awful way these things are covered up in the name of politics. Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) is terrific as a woman who reluctantly agrees to speak the truth.

In the Electric Mist
dir Bertrand Tavernier 09/US ****
Southern gothic noir as directed by a veteran French filmmaker with an ace American cast led by Tommy Lee Jones in a twist on his usual sardonic detective mode. Set in Louisiana, where young girls are being killed, old skeletons are found in the swamps, and a big movie star couple (Peter Sarsgaard and Kelly Macdonald) are making a movie, the film has a surreal twist as the past invades the present in provocative ways that add to the central mystery.

Bellamy
dir Chaude Chabrol 09/Fr ***
The master of understated suspense is back with another muted thriller, this time starring Gerard Depardieu as an optimistic detective on vacation who can't help but get involved in a case that seems to be being botched by his rival. It's talky and a bit strange, but keeps us gripped as the plot circles around the characters. We never have a clue what might happen next, and the whole cast delivers intriguing, insinuating performances.

High Life
dir Gary Yates 09/Can ****
Timothy Olyphant leads a bunch of opium-addicted ex-cons (Rossif Sutherland, Joe Anderson, Stephen Erik McIntosh) on a bank heist that would be pretty clever if they weren't all so wasted. The result is very, very funny, and also sometimes painfully tragic as these sharp young men dull their wits and look likely to destroy their lives over the course of one disastrous day. A lively and entertaining film. Yates and his cast were at the screening, which they said was the first public screening in the world, for a very surreal Q&A.

BFF2: Hit the ground running

Finally made it to Berlin today, after an abbreviated night of sleep back home (interrupted by my regular 20-minute slot on BBC Five Live, which should have been a Live From Berlin slot last night, ahem). Anyway, despite more snow in Britain this morning, City Airport was clear and we took off only an hour or so late.

I headed straight for the middle of the festival at Potsdamer Platz, to make the first meeting of the Fipresci Jury, and as I got out of the car my first view was of Kate Winslet running the gauntlet of paparazzi and fans on her way into the press centre. After the meeting I headed to my hotel, then back up to Potsdamer to look around. The press centre is a bit on the cramped side, and there's no wi-fi at all, so I will only be able to update this blog late, late at night when I get back to my room. I did manage to see two films...

Human Zoo
dir-scr Rie Rasmussen 09/Fr ****
This fascinatingly bold drama centres on a woman (played by writer-director Rasmussen, who starred in Luc Besson's Angel-A) reliving her horrific past during the ethnic cleansing war in Kosovo as she tries to reassemble her life in Marseilles. Stylish and energetic, with a fiercely feminist attitude, it's a clever look at the issue of refugees mixed with an examination of how much of our identity comes from our nationality. It's a bit populist and Besson-like, but keeps you thinking. Rasmussen and her costar Nick Corey were at the screening for a perhaps too-chatty Q&A.

White Lightnin'
dir Dominic Murphy 09/UK ***
An intriguingly dark and twisted story set in West Virginia, this British-made film takes the true story of Jesco White and spins it into a grisly fiction about a man (played by Edward Hogg) addicted to lighter fluid and other things, who splits his brain into multiple personalities as a lover, an avenging angel and Elvis. It gets increasingly gruesome as it goes - and some of the acting and storytelling isn't hugely believable. But there's a wonderful role for Carrie Fisher, and it's so unhinged that we never have a clue where it will go next. Murphy, Hogg and a series of writers, producers and crew members (the film was shot in the US and Croatia) took the stage for a fascinating Q&A afterwards - especially when they recounted anecdotes about the real Jesco, who sounds a lot more full-on than the movie character.

London Critics night

As promised, here I am with Dame Judi Dench, recipient of the London Critics' Circle Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film on Wednesday, 4 Feb, at the Grosvenor House. Other winners on hand to collect their awards were Kristin Scott Thomas (British Actress), Eddie Marsan (Supporting Actor), Darren Aronofsky (Film of the Year), Danny Boyle (British Director and British Film), Steve McQueen (Breakthrough Filmmaker), Thomas Turgoose (Young Performer).

And we had specially taped thank yous from Kate Winslet (Actress), Mickey Rourke (Actor), Tilda Swinton (Supporting Actress) and David Fincher (Director). Meanwhile, celebrities present included Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong and Mike Leigh. All in all a lively and enjoyable evening, as usual. Here's the full list of winners:

FILM OF THE YEAR

The Wrestler

THE ATTENBOROUGH AWARD: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR

Slumdog Millionaire

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

Waltz With Bashir

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BRITISH DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR

Kate Winslet - The Reader and Revolutionary Road

BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Michael Fassbender - Hunger

BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR

Kristin Scott Thomas - I’ve Loved You So Long

BRITISH ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Eddie Marsan - Happy-Go-Lucky

BRITISH ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Tilda Swinton - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR

Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire

THE NPCC AWARD: YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR

Thomas Turgoose - Somers Town and Eden Lake

BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER

Steve McQueen - Hunger

THE DILYS POWELL AWARD: EXCELLENCE IN FILM

Dame Judi Dench

BFF1: Still in London

I was supposed to be writing this from the opening night of the 59th Berlin Film Festival tonight. But no. After a week of weather-related travel chaos due to heavy snow on Monday, airports were back on schedule today, and the weather wasn't too bad. Alas, shortly after I made my way through security, a plane was stranded on the taxiway with mechanical problems, diverting incoming flights to other airports and leaving all of us stuck. They tried to put me on the next flight - and the one after that - but everything ended up being cancelled, and they eventually sent me home.

So I can't make any comments about the glamour of the red carpet on opening night (the film is The International, which I was supposed to see on Monday but the London screening was cancelled due to the snow).

On the other hand, I was out last night at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards, which was very glamorous, star-studded and great fun too. I plan to have some photos and commentary soon - watch this space.

Anyway, I'll be back at the airport first thing in the morning. But I'm more than a little nervous about reports that it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. Sigh.

Critical Week: Stars in my eyes

This is rather a massive week for me, film wise, as on Wednesday night the London Critics' Circle has its annual film awards dinner. I'm on the organising committee for the event, so it will be great to be there and see all our work finally come to fruition. A lot of nominees will be present, so it'll also be fun to have a social evening with actors and filmmakers we write about all year round.

Then the next day I head off to Berlin for the 59th Berlinale - I'm a member of the jury for the Fipresci Panorama prize. I'm still not sure how many films I have to see, but I know there are a lot I want to see outside the Panorama - so we'll see how it goes. Most of the films are world premieres, so much of Hollywood will be on the scene. And I hope I get invited to some of the parties at least. I'm there for the entire run of the festival, and plan to update this blog daily, so watch this space.

Meanwhile, I have a few screenings before I leave London, including Drew Barrymore's He's Just Not That Into You, which hasn't yet been screened for the press, which may or may not mean something; Jennifer Aniston's doggy drama Marley & Me; and Clive Owen's The International, which also happens to be the opening film in Berlin.