The global financial Crisis, Recession, Depression -- call it what you will - was not overly in evidence at the 59th edition of the Berlin Film Festival which ended its annual ten day run here on Febtuary 14th, Valentine's day. Private VIP and celebrity parties as reported in the gossip tabloids seemed to be as lavish as ever, and public box-office attendance in terms of tickets sold, was the highest ever at 270,000, up a solid 20,000 from 2008. The one festival section that did seem to be aff...

It was "Michelle Ma Belle" on the Berlin front pages this morning announcing the arrival on day six of still fairly pretty, 49 year old Hollywood star, Michelle Pfeiffer, here to rep her competition film "Chéri" in which she plays an aging coutrtesan (French euphemism for "high class hooker") in hopeless love with a much younger debauché -- French for "degenerate profligate", of masculin gender. The classy period piece set in "Belle Epoche" France (the period from the turn of the century to W...