Benten Business Berlin Bound

In just a bit over forty-eight hours from now I'll be boarding a plane bound for the 58th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, or as it's commonly known, the Berlinale. Though I'm officially going as a buyer and will be attending the European Film Market with an eye on a few 2007 titles that didn't find distribution, my cinephilic side is as excited as a child on Christmas morning. Festival Director Dieter Kosslick received some heavy criticism last year for some of his choices (the J. Lo fiasco Bordertown, for one) and the strength of this year's competition lineup seems to indicate he's focusing more on quality rather than star chasing. Besides the aforementioned Hong-sang Soo film Night and Day, the competition list includes new films from Isabel Coixet (Elegy, based on Philip Roth's The Dying Animal), Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky), Erick Zonca (Julia), Johnnie To (Sparrow), and Errol Morris (Standard Operating Procedure), to name but a few. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is also in competition, but will European critics be as bowled over as their American counterparts? I can't wait to find out. The EFM is even larger this year than last, and navigating my way through the 700+ titles being screened is an arduous process. Like finding a needle in a haystack, one has to work their way through the various straight-to-video nightmares replete with B- and C-list actors in order to spot the potential gems. I'll have much more to say on the EFM at a later date.

There's been tremendous buzz about the nearly twenty music-themed films at the fest this year, especially the opening film, Scorsese's Rolling Stones doc Shine a Light. I'll admit to a certain skepticism, mostly because I find the Stones more than a bit inconsequential these days. Still, it is Marty. Yet more than any of the various docs, the one film I'm most curious about is Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, starring Gogol Bordello's own Eugene Hutz. The question remains –€“ will this be an utter train wreck, or will we soon be adding the name Ciccone to the auteur canon? (Can she be any worse than her husband?) The lineup in the festival's many other sections (Forum, Panorama, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, etc.) is equally as impressive, and though I've only scratched the surface, my list of must-sees is growing daily. I'm intrigued about a documentary called Jesus Christus Erlöser (Jesus Christ Savior), featuring Klaus Kinski. Though I can't seem to locate anything concrete about it online, I'm assuming it has to do with Kinski's infamous and controversial 1971 public reading of the titular work, which is his own reworking of the New Testament. Hoo-hah! Then there's Beautiful, a film written (but not directed) by Korean provocateur (and Mike D'Angelo fave) Kim Ki-duk. An echt Kim plot, this one concerns a breathtakingly beautiful woman who, after being raped (for being beautiful), begins to "kill her beauty." A meditation (or so it seems) on the blessing/curse of beauty, I'll withhold judgment until I see it, but the film already has my vote for worst/greatest tagline ever –€“ Your Beauty Makes Me Hard. If you're going to be at the fest, leave a comment below or email me if you'd like to meet up for an absinthe and a currywurst.