Summer Berlinale films

By Alex Deleon

Filmfestivals.com

For German film buffs the midsummer pickings at the Übernumerous movie theaters in Berlin include not only an enormous selection of world cinema but a generous reprise of the most talked about pictures that were shown here during  the Berlin film festival six months ago in the dead of winter.

Of course, one of the marginal benefits of attending big festivals like the Berlinale is that one gets to see a lot of new films long before they are released commercially. However, the catch is that, unless one can go completely without sleep for a solid week,  there are so many films to be seen that, inevitably, one misses some of the better ones --even some of the prize winners. There is another catch if you're hoping to catch up with films missed during the festival here in Germany, and that is that pictures in foreign languages are routinely "synchronisiert" -- or dubbed into German!

The uncatch  to this catch is that in a film savvy city like Berlin there are a few cinemas catering to uncomprising film buffs where it is possible to catch the film in question in the Original language mit  German Undertitles (OmU) or in a few cases -- for example at the CineStar kino complex  in the ultramodern Sony Center   (which also serves as a major screening venue during the festival)  -- to see films, especially American mainstreamers, in the original version (OV) without the distraction of subtitles.

This is partly a testimony to the sophistication of certain German audiences, but also to the fact that English is now so firmly entrenched in Germany as a second  language that there are plenty of people here who can follow the dialogues of an American film even though English is not their native tongue. For such films the available choice is either only English or only German  (expertly dubbed) -- with no subtitles in either case.  

I recently managed to catch up with the Robert Redford sixties rebels opus "The Company You Keep" which died on the vine in LA, but has been locked into a nice long  English speaking run here.  A third option, as in the case of the currently popular US indie "Frances Ha",   is in original English with German subtitles, or dubbed into German.  Many people here seem to think this is aGerman film because the heroine, Greta Gerwig,  and the director Noah Baumbach, both have German sounding names. This light hearted New Yorkish flick which preemed at Telluride and also made it to Toronto, had only limited release back home, but here it is almost a cause celèbre with Gerwig being touted as a new German version of Greta Garbo -- different strokes for different national perceptions...

Among February 2013 Berlinale biggies currently on view here are; 

Chilean competition film and Best Actress Bear-winner "Gloria" starring 58  year old Chilean actress Paulina Garcia -- one I missed back in February;  Ms Garcia again getting lots of press here while she remains unknown in the States,  then "The Kung-fu Grandmaster",  (Chinese title YI DAI ZONG SHI)  a panoramic period piece directed by Wong Kar-wai, which was the gala festival opener in February;  and romantic Julie Delpie starrer "Before Midnight"which has been a big hit everywhere ever since.  All of these available in a variety of versions.

The American film with the highest advertising profile city wide in Berlin at the moment is the massive  Hollywood flop, "The Lone Ranger"with Johnny Depp as a bird brained Tonto who basically turns the straight shooting masked man into his sidekick.  The German press on Ranger has been universally derisive but Depp is so popular the pic seems to be holding it own at the local. B.O. -- Who was that masked man, anyway .....

The Arsenal film museum, also located in the Sony Center, is putting on a full retrospective of the works of maverick Japanese director Suzuki Seijun, 90, whose has only recently come to be recognized as a truly innovative master because he made lots of  low budget but nevertheless fascinating gangster films in his early days at Nikkatsu studios.

One of the most popular films In thisseries is, not surprisingly,  his German themed masterpiece, "Zigeuner Weisen", 1980, voted best film of the entire decade in Japan.

So in a way the city that JFK famously declared himself to be a citizen of with the immortal words "ish bin ein berliner" (I am a creme filled donut)  is host to an ongoing film festival all year round.