|
Feb. 8th, 2008 Buying tickets for the Berlinale Film Festival, in Berlin, online seemed like such a great, fast and easy way to start the festival. Well, that was a nice thought and would have been a nice reality except for the fact that Berlinale forgot to teach their ticket salespeople how to use the program. In the end, Berlinale's online ticket option is a real life nightmare. Many of the film festival's tickets are available same day at the cinema where the film is playing. We have found that to be a much easier and pleasant ticket buying experience. El, a film by Luis Bunuel, was fabulous. A completely unexpected surprise. Berlinale is doing a retrospective on him at the film festival. Bunuel is a Mexican filmmaker who has a propensity toward the surreal and he has a beautiful approach to smoothly incorporating it into film. It comes from his soul. It is not a pretentious act, rather it is an act of love, of desire. 
Potsdamer Platz is a lovely architectural maze of extreme zigzags and soft curves. It is an expressionistic version of line and form. It is like an architecture rebellion against communistic structural design in public spaces. We saw the Berlin Wall. 
Berlin is a vibrant city. Alive. Interesting. With such a rich history, albeit tormented and dreadful, these people have a very recent past not yet forgotten or lost by time or to their teenage children. The past here is tangible. You feel it in every aspect of the city's being. 
Films We Bought Tickets to See Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore by Director Luis Bunuel We missed it. If you asked just about anyone about buying tickets to see films at the Berlinale Film Festival undoubtedly and repeatedly you will hear them say that buying tickets is a complete nightmare and nearly impossible. While Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore was playing we waited for well over an hour to pick up our tickets which we had purchased online a couple days before. Unfortunately, the people working behind the counter had not been trained well with how to use the software program. Had the employees known how to perform their jobs well the line would have moved quickly and smoothly. Instead, it was a nightmare for all. El by Director Luis Bunuel I was less sure about seeing this film than any other film we had purchased tickets for. In the end, it was fabulous. Both Sophie and I were very impressed with his work and looking forward to seeing more of it. Bunuel is instinctively surreal. He didn't work at it - like so many rather filmmakers of today - rather, he couldn't help himself. It came natural and he owns the medium as it is clearly part of his soul. Abismos by Director Luis Bunuel We were pleasantly surprised by Bunuel's work across the board. It was a fantastic opportunity to see a director who's work we would not have otherwise seen. Tickets for this first full day of films were difficult to get in general, except the retrospective films seemed more feasible. A great director. A great learning opportunity. Well worth the price of admission. The Aquarium by Director Yousry Nasrallah We missed it. We got all excited when we realized that we could buy tickets at the ticket counter of the theatre, so we did it, not realizing until later that it conflicted with tickets we already had for a previous show. Secrets Behind the Wall by Director Wakamatsu Koji This was a rather wild ride. Unexpected. This film screened at the Berlinale Film Festival 43 years ago much to Japan's dismay due to it's erotic nature. Japan went so far as to boycott the film festival in protest. This time around Japan went so far as to pay for the translation and now considers Wakamatsu Koji an important director in Japanese filmmaking history. Related Links Berlin and Berlinale Film Festival - Day One Berlin and Berlinale Film Festival - Day Three Berlin and Berlinale Film Festival - Day Four Kreuzberg - Berlin, Germany Photos | Home *My Articles* *My Blog* *My Blogspot* Family Film Stuff European Travel France Antibes, France Nice, France Cannes, France Disneyland Paris, France Strasbourg, France Basel, Switzerland Berlin, Germany Kreuzberg, Germany Kehl, Germany Civitavecchia, Italy Edinburgh, Scotland Stirling, Scotland Barcelona, Spain Healthy Recipes Frugal Living Living Green Make Money Online Jobs for Teens Sophie's Space Dreadlocks About Me Contact Us 
|