So “Cesare deve morire” got the Golden Bear. Quite unexpected. I can not say anything about the other competition films as this is the only one I watched. I am however not opposed at all; it was definitely great and I am happy that this time it was not the same blatant political shuffling as last year.
Continuing in my tradition of not really being clear in my reviews, I shall remedy this at least in part by ranking the films so you may get a hint on how much I enjoyed things:
- Parada
- Rent-A-Neko
- Cesare deve morire
- Kazoku no kuni
- Love
- Nuclear Nation
- Koi ni itaru yamai
- Highway
- From Seoul to Varanasi
- 10+10
- My Way
My criteria and weighting from last year’s ranking still apply. Unlike last year, we have cut-off which is just above last place. Watching “My way” was not completely worth the time and money invested. Everything above the cut-off is relatively close together, the cut-off also marks a great jump in enjoyment, so “10+10” far example was quite interesting despite being second-last.
Thank you for reading and may you have found something new to add to your endless lists!
Berlinale does weird things – Golden Bear winners are somewhat less likely to be uber-hyped oscar contenders or whatnot (like The Tree of Life) and might seem more esoteric etc. I have yet to hear a single bad thing about “A Separation” – it’s been a while when I have seen such unanimous praise for a film coming from both the most mainstream of mainstream voices as well as the most snobbish contrarian critics on the web. That means there must be something about the film that’s bound to be great, I think, and i really want to see it! However in other years…such RANDOM films seem to be winning and it’s all laced with this ethno-“political” feeling that makes the main competition of the festival so blahhhhh many years round. But that’s why the separate programs of the Berlinale are like 100000000x more worth attending and always have tons of films i want to see!
Dito!
I always look at the competition films last, I was even highly reluctant to watch this one. Mostly the new venue and the lack of real alternatives brought me there and then it turned out it was absolutely worth it! <3
Wow, Cesare deve morire – amazing! It was the only movie in the entire competition that I thought was worth a look, and my choice was completely random too. How exciting!
This Berlinale actually seemed to be great, wow. I am really happy that Cesare deve morire seems to be a completely apolitical movie, and wholeheartedly approve.
Personally I consider it possible that “A Separation” is a good movie, but from its story I have high doubts that I’d like it. I agree with Pixelmatsch that it totally looks like political nonsense. We’ll see what the Oscars say this year, hohoho.
Gorp, you should recommend Berlinale movies for Pixelmatsch to see too! XD Next year next year…