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Getting into a star-studded film fest
Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, Glenn Close and sultry Catherine Deneuve top the list of stars who are expected on red carpets of the 55th Berlin Film Festival.
Going head-to-head against Cannes, Berlin Film Fest head Dieter Kosslick has single-handedly reversed that trend, luring French productions while at the same time making Berlin palatable to Hollywood moguls. Roland Emmerich, the German director of such Oscar-winning blockbusters as "Independence Day" and "The Patriot," has been picked to head the awards jury. Starring in "Les Temps Qui Changent" (Changing Times) by Andre Techine, Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu play lovers who meet again after 30 years. Also, the French historical drama "Man To Man" will open the 55th Berlin Film Festival, in what amounts to a major coup in Berlin's longstanding rivalry with Cannes. The film, which had been expected to headline the Cannes festival in May, will now be the highlight event when the Berlin festival opens on February 10 for a run through to February 20. In addition, "Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars" (The Walker Of The Champ de Mars) by Robert Guediguian will be up for awards in Berlin. "Man To Man," a US$30-million production by French director Regis Wargnier, features lavish costumes and sets against settings in Africa and the Scottish Highlands.
The Dutch-German-French co-production "Paradise Now" by Hany Abu-Assad will also be shown internationally for the first time. It gives an account of the last 28 hours in the lives of two Palestinian suicide bombers. German entries are also prominent this year in Berlin - something that was not always the case in the 1980s and 1990s. In "Gespenster" (Ghosts), a German-French co-production, director Christian Petzold recounts the true-life story of a French woman whose daughter was abducted as a small child in Berlin. Years later, she thinks she spots her daughter as a vagrant. Marc Rothemund's "Sophie Scholl: Die Letzten Tage" (Sophie Scholl Hope and Resistance) is the tragic true-life story of a young Munich woman who joined the anti-Nazi resistance in 1943. Focus on Africa "Our focus this year is on Africa - it's nothing new for the Berlinale to be a political festival and it will have political themes this year too," festival director Dieter Kosslick told reporters. South Africa is represented in the competition lineup with Mark Dornford-May's adaptation of Bizet's opera "Carmen." "Carmen in Khayelitsha" set in a South-African township. The film has been made entirely in the country's official language Xhosa. A South African directorial debut, the title role is played by mezzo-soprano Pauline Malefane, herself from Khayelitsha. A different view of Africa is given by "Hotel Rwanda," a British/ South-African/Italian co-production running as a European premiere not in competition for awards. Director Terry George tells the true story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle, nominated for a Golden Globe for the role) who during the Rwandan civil war sheltered more than 1,000 Tutsi refugees from the Hutu militia. The US production "Sometimes In April" also confronts the trauma of the Rwandan civil war. Raoul Peck's film begins at the same location as George's Hotel Rwanda, but takes a completely different course. Celebrated US video-clip and short-film director Mike Mills will present "Thumbsucker," his feature debut. The film describes the equally bizarre and dramatic odyssey of a young teenager into drug addiction. It stars Lou Taylor-Pucci, Vincent D'Onofrio, Reeves and Tilda Swinton. Also on view will be "Heights," a directorial debut by Chris Terrio, which intertwines the lives of five people on a summer day in New York in the shifting vagaries of love. This film is showing for the first time in Europe, and is not up for awards in Berlin. Glenn Close, Isabella Rossellini and Elizabeth Banks play the leads. Andy Tennant will present his romantic comedy "Hitch" out of competition. In it Hollywood star Will Smith plays a notorious "date doctor" who has a talent for pairing off entirely unremarkable men with extremely desirable women. The festival closes with the US-German co-production "Kinsey" by Bill Condon ("Gods And Monsters," 1998), which is also not under consideration for awards. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney co-star in this story about the life of sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey. Pre-Oscars buzz Kosslick told a news conference on Tuesday that the festival would be bigger than ever with 343 films from 52 nations - including 21 competing for the Golden and Silver Bear awards. Held during the frenzied run-up to Hollywood's Academy Awards, the Berlinale is a welcome vehicle for studios to launch their films in Europe, add awards or simply pick up pre-Oscars buzz. Berlin will thus again be filled with celebrities. Despite its freezing temperatures that make professionals long for Cannes in the springtime or Venice in the late summer, Berlin throws open its doors with public screenings running parallel to the competition and its various sidebar events. A total of 400,000 tickets to the 1,079 screenings will be sold, with fans often shivering in long lines for tickets. A record 500 films will also be on display at the European Film Market, a leading international bourse for film buyers and sellers that traditionally runs alongside the Berlinale.
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