Perhaps the good news first: five German films made it into the competition at the 73rd Berlinale. This represents a new best performance, especially since only 18 films are competing for the Golden Bear this year.
However, that is only three titles more than at the controversial Pandemic Berlinale, which was held in spring 2021 only for a specialist audience. It was actually thought that the lull in the pandemic film production had been overcome in the meantime.
Five German films are running in this year’s competition
So, as Cannes continues to inflate its schedule and Hollywood returns to Venice in a big way (and with mixed results), Carlo Chatrian is trimming down his main competition.
So far, this has been good for the quality, even if this year’s program of the competition and of Encounters, which the artistic director of the Berlinale and managing director Mariette Rissenbeek announced on Monday afternoon in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, raises a few questions.
Cinema is more than reality. We also need a cinema of poetry.
Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director
That’s not the fault of the German directors in the competition. Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Margarethe von Trotta with her long-awaited Ingeborg Bachmann film, Emily Atef and last but not least Christoph Hochhäusler’s return to the director’s chair (after an interlude at the Dffb) promise a varied and high-quality competition, at least with regard to the German ones Participation.
Somehow they are all regular guests at the Berlinale, even though von Trotta last applied for a Golden Bear in 1983.
The field behind it, however, requires a decidedly cinephile interest, which makes the accusation made at the press conference that the Berlinale brings together the same names every year (this applies more to Cannes) somewhat ad absurdum.
If anything, this year’s Berlinale could prove to be a festival of discoveries. The only US production in the competition, “Past Lives” (which just had its acclaimed world premiere in Sundance, seemingly a new Berlinale routine under Chatrian), is directed by playwright Celine Song, while Encounters features the US indie film “The Adults” from hitherto unknown mumblecore star Dustin Guy Defa.
Hollywood makes itself rare
Which means that the hopes of all populists are clouded again, that the Berlinale could make contact with Hollywood again after the award of the honorary bear to Steven Spielberg and the jury president Kristen Stewart.
Apparently, Chatrian only gets big names to Berlin with the greatest concessions – such as Cate Blanchett, who already won a prize in Venice for “Tár” (in Berlin as “Special Gala”). On Monday he explains that he is now working more closely with German distributors in order to offer the cinema the greatest possible platform.
This star problem is already known from the last Kosslick years. Chatrian has to be conceded that he has now really distinguished his two main programs and that he is not resorting to well-known names out of desperation (except maybe this year the Frenchman Philippe Garrel).
However, the fact that once again no film from an African country made it into the two competitions, and this year also no film from the Arabic-speaking world, is still a shortcoming – of which Chatrian is well aware.
For a cinema of poetry
“Cinema is more than reality,” he said on Monday, before the announcement of the competition titles, referring to the themes currently revolving around cinema. “We need a cinema of poetry again.” He doesn’t have to worry about the reality content of the Berlinale, the crises and wars are omnipresent. The Ukraine War is celebrating its first anniversary on the Zielgraden of the Berlinale, one day before the award ceremony.
In this context, Chatrian’s biggest coup is undoubtedly the documentary “Superpower”, on which Sean Penn was working even before the outbreak of war in the occupied eastern regions of Ukraine and which then took a completely new turn when the Russian army invaded.
“Superpower” celebrates its world premiere in Berlin with Volodymyr Zelenskyj in a “leading role”. Chatrian and Rissenbeek announce various events with a focus on Iran and Ukraine. Even the Berlinale pin is blue and yellow this year.
Against this background, perhaps a bit of poetry is really good for the Berlinale. As far as the realities of the program are concerned, this year’s Berlinale is more reminiscent than ever of a grab bag. One can hope that it doesn’t end in disappointment.
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