5/10/2021 0 Comments Berlin International Film Festival
During the festival, a smidgen of suspense was injected in the proceedings by dint of the fact that Barbarins trial was scheduled for March, some weeks after the Berlin premiere.For some time, both local German talent and a sizable swath of the international press have been demonstrably impatient with Kosslick, who has headed the festival since 2001, and viewed his regime as regressive.Even though notable films continue to be screened during the festival, Kosslick received a considerable amount of criticism for the tepid nature of the competition entries.In 2017, seventy-nine directors, many of them well-respected figures such as Maren Ade, Volker Schlndorff, and Christian Petzold, signed a letter calling for transparency and a restructuring of the festivala new startonce Kosslick exits.
Berlin International Film Festival Trial Was ScheduledThe festival has more or less responded to this plea by appointing a new team that will, beginning in 2019, split the duties of festival director. Carlo Chatrian, the affable head of the Locarno Film Festival who has to many festivalgoers minds successfully combined crowd-pleasing films and rarefied art cinema during his years at the prestigious Swiss event, will serve as the artistic director responsible for programming. Mariette Rissenbeek, a woman with deep roots in the German film industry, has been appointed the executive directormore or less the CEO. Without being cynical, the idea seems to be that gender equity and artistic integrity have been instituted with fell swoop. At a time when Berlin has become an unwieldy behemothin some respects beleaguered by instead of benefiting fromscreening many more films than Cannes or Venice, its clear that some sort of process of reassessment is in order. Despite the justly maligned competition slate (as well as the variable nature of the eclectic films assembled in the Panorama section), the one bright spot at Berlin remains the Forum sidebar. Somewhat insulated from the brouhaha that always surrounds the competition films, the Forum selections resemble the prototypically offbeat films often showcased at festivals such as Locarno and Rotterdam. From one vantage point, it is manifestly unfair to judge a festival by its opening night gambit; its quite common for many prestigious festivals to begin with a whimper and showcase a mediocre film. In addition, because of other commitments, I regretted missing competition films that turned out to be among the festivals most acclaimed entriese.g., Synonymes by the well-regarded Israeli director Nadav Lapid (which ended up winning the Golden Bear) and Angela Schanelecs I Was at Home, But. Nevertheless, its difficult not to sigh and admit that The Kindness of Strangers, a well-intentioned but inept co-production by a Danish director working with a clunky script that might have been translated from the Esperanto, sums up the sort of lame offerings that have plagued the competition during Kosslicks tenure. Zoe Kazan plays Clara, a woman who flees her nearly psychotic husband (the adjective abusive is not quite adequate) in upstate New York and arrives, kids in tow, in New York City. Homeless and desperate, the waif-like Clara receives the sort of redemption that is meted out to characters in maniacally schematic movies. Her travails are often reinforced with a shaky Dogme 95style camera and the script offers the most saccharine solution imaginable to Claras plight. She is welcomed into an incongruously welcoming surrogate family, a brood headed by restaurant owner Bill Nighy, who mugs with a twinkle in his eye and a transparently phony Russian accent. Andrea Riseborough, a benevolent nurse cum social worker, also comes to the heroines rescue and Kazan ultimately finds solace in the arms of a dreamy reformed ex-con played by Tahar Rahim. A film marred by a surfeit of bogus kindness can be as dispiriting as a relentlessly pessimistic melodrama. Known for films laced with seemingly obligatory kinkiness, (his previous, and quite ludicrous, outing Double Lover featured the female protagonist mounting her lover with a strap-on dildo), By the Grace of God is dutifully earnest and slightly plodding. ![]() The Catholic hierarchys obliviousness to abuse in its midst is personified by the high-handed attitude of the Lyon archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who feigns empathy but does little to alleviate the trauma suffered by Alexandre and his fellow victims. Before long, Alexandres candor and willingness to speak to the press encourages other victims to come forward with their stories and form a support group. Many of the dramatic machinations involve tensions between Alexandre, who still remains a devout but troubled Catholic, and his more secular allies. Hovering between docudrama and fictionalized melodrama, the film uses the actual misdeeds of Preynat and Barbarin as dramatic fodder while the roster of victims are composite characters.
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