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Berlin & Beyond 11 - closing night
Contributed by Sara Schieron
Saturday, 28 January 2006
CLOSING WITH A BANG: Berlin & Beyond 11 closes on Wednesday with a Romantic Comedy and some understated fanfare.
After the congregation at the Castro theatre settled themselves into
their seats, Ingrid Eggers took the stage to announce the winners of
the patron contest drawings and the Audience Award Winning festival
films. Eggers addressed the audience, "I've been bathing for years in
your warm response. Thank you for every year. Especially, this one."
Following her gracious introduction, two fashionable young inters drew
patron ballots and awarded a lucky audience member a Siemens' Kitchen
Renovation. The audience applauded politely. Following the awarding of
this prize, names were drawn for passes for the 12th Berlin &
Beyond 2007, and finally, the Audience Award Films were announced.
There were some rules, Eggers explained: "The Verhoeven films and the
Silent Films were not in the running for this award. Verhoeven was not
counted because he is the tribute recipient and the silent film
directors were not counted because they are no longer living." In Third
place was SILENTIUM by Wolfgang Murnberger, in Second was the
documentary RHYTHM IS IT! By directing team Enrique Sanches Lansch and
Thomas Grube, and the winning film was KAMMERFLIMMEN (OFF BEAT) by
Hendrik Holsemann.
KAMMERFLIMMEN is about an ambulance driver
named "Crash", who is scarred by the car accident that orphaned him and
mentally relives this accident throughout his daily life. The literal
translation of the film's title is "Ventricle Fibrillation", which
makes the English language title all the less logical. The soundtrack,
(which is very high intensity/high impact), paired with the
fibrillation enacted by the paramedics reminded me of something David
Fear wrote about the recent history of German Film in his coverage of
last year's Berlin & Beyond. Fear postulated the "runaway success"
of Tom Tykwer's 1999 film, RUN LOLA, RUN "opened up global export
potential for much of the country's output, critic Olaf Moller had
accused its director, Tom Tykwer, of tainting Germany's homegrown crop
with his fast-paced, cut-and-slash aesthetic." This, in turn imposed
what was pejoratively described as an "MTV aesthetic" on new German
Films. This inherently American style was seen as contradictory to the
"homegrown" German Aesthetic that the nation's industry had not only
practiced but, according to Fear, had earned "Germany a bad rap through
most of the 80's and 90's". KAMMERFLIMMEN unquestionably utilizes this
"cut-and-slash", though it's stylistics are not mirror images of
Tykwer's circa 1999, the film has its own sensibility, but as the
"Audience Winner" of the 11th Berlin & Beyond, one wonders if the
American reception of the film doesn't carry with it a bit of cultural
baggage. In all, Berlin & Beyond's press description of the film is
not with out it's provocation: "the jolting shocks used to repeatedly
revive heart attack victims throughout the film provide a cogent
metaphor for German youth's desperate need for another form of
spiritual defibrillation". Ponderous.
The Festival's closing
film, as Eggers described, "would put us in the mood for a party".
Contrasted by the festival's opening film, SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL
DAYS, the closing night film was a blend of classical Hollywood
Screwball and German comic sensibility. A cross between ROMAN HOLIDAY
and BRAZIL, BAREFOOT is a holiday romance that gently mixes comic tone
and dire consequence with a comfortable fluency. This love story
between an unemployed bachelor and a barefoot mental patient, was
co-written, co-directed, produced and headlined by Til Schweiger.
Schweiger is charismatic and his co-star Johanna Wolkalet had great
chemistry with him. While its use of music was somewhat excessive,
(giving one the feeling the film was 20 montage sequences strung
together with a basic narrative) the picture makes no claims to reality
so one can hardly expect gritty realism. One viewer described the film
as a "happy spin on BETTY BLUE". Upbeat and complete with happy ending,
one can't help feeling the film does put a bow on another successful
festival run for the Goethe-Institut. Bridging the gap between new
German Language cinema and the American Audience, the festival has done
a great job to offer media to connect the Bay Area to its lesser-seen
imports. With German film offering so much, the festival's potential is
quite high.
Following the screening, a closing night party was
held in the balcony level of the Castro. Upstairs, the festival
organizers enjoyed themselves, only occasionally barraged by questions
from meddling reporters. I asked Ingrid Eggers how she felt this year's
run went and her daughter, Milena Pastreich, jumped in to add her two
cents. "This year was better than last and the film selections got
higher votes. The voting ballots go from 1-5. 1 being the lowest. This
year the average response was between 3 and 5." Pastreich, also
mentioned the quality of the Student Film Series was impressively high.
" The student films used high quality to deal with small concepts and
the films came here and we can learn about everyday conflicts. If you
talk about your surroundings, others can learn from that." Offering
some gentle criticism of the Audience Award Winner, Pastreich said,
"OFFBEAT is semi-predictable. The protagonists of the film are huge in
Germany. The story is unbelievable, and the director said the film is
not so well received in Germany but Germany can look forward to the US
for a market." And, it seems, the US is open to this import, as the San
Francisco Audience liked this film above the rest.
The film
festival had another day long/double feature offshoot at Point Arena in
the Mendocino Area on the 21st of January and will offer other film
screenings and film events at the Goethe-Institut offices at 530 Bush
St, throughout the year. Filmshi will report on these screenings so
stay tuned for updates.
Festivals 
