Thursday, February 6: Today was my baptism into the world of film fests – and what a crazy world it is! Thank goodness Mary was there to show me the ropes. We started the day on a 9:00 train out of Hamburg and took full advantage of the 2.5 hour ride to get ourselves in the fest mindset. When we finally arrived in Berlin, we began our fest experience by waiting on line for 45 minutes to get our press credentials (during which time I was randomly interviewed by the German media about my thoughts on the fest). Once through that, we hurried over to the Berlinale-Palast theater for the opening film, Chicago. Unfortunately, the only seats we could find were in the 2nd row; we vowed to never let that happen again! After the film, we stopped downstairs in the press box area to pick up our Berlinale! Katalog, then headed over to the Hyatt for the Chicago press conference. Again there were no seats available by the time we got to the room, so we camped out in one corner. The conference itself was interesting, though a lot of stupid questions were asked. After so much rushing around, we were happy to break for supper at Tony Roma’s and walk around a bit to see the stars’ arrivals on the red carpet for the opening gala.

Friday, February 7: Today the heart of the fest really began. We started with 7:45 breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the first film of the day, In This World. It was a gripping fictionalized documentary, and the press conference afterward provided interesting insights into the story and message. Mary asked the producer a good question about the young lead actor and his life today. We then decided to stick around for the press conference for the Jackie Chan documentary Traces of the Dragon, even though we hadn’t seen the film yet. It was announced before it started that the conference was going to be conducted in German and Mandarin Chinese, so Mary and I quickly ran and grabbed translator boxes (through which a translation of anything said was piped to you in German on channel 1, English on channel 2, etc.). The conference actually ended up being an interesting mix of German, Chinese, and English.

After the press conference, we headed to the screening of The Life of David Gale, which we thought was interesting but that the ending was too tidy. We then headed back to the Hyatt for the press conference. Politics reared its ugly head, and not just in the expected discussion of America’s position on the death penalty. All three of the attendees were asked about their views on the Iraq conflict; Kevin Spacey was particularly well-spoken. After the press conference, Mary and I had time for a quick bite to eat before heading to our first documentary, Local Angel, a film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both of us thought the middle of the film was good but were thoroughly confused by the beginning and ending portions. After that, we saw the much more enjoyable Jackie Chan documentary. Finally, we had hoped to catch a grouping of short films at 22:00, but were shut out (the first of many times this happened).

Saturday, February 8: Today was my first day on my own since Mary had headed back to Hamburg for some much-needed R&R time with her husband. I started off the day by standing in the usual morning line for tickets for the next day’s films. After that, I headed to the first screening of the morning, Io Non Ho Paura (I’m Not Scared), an Italian film. While waiting for the film to start, I struck up a conversation with a guy with an American-sounding accent sitting behind me; it turns out that he is a writer for the Boston Globe named Peter Brunette. My first contact! The press conference after the film was a bit mind-blowing given that the languages spoken ranged from Italian to Spanish to German to English. After that, I headed to the screening of Spike Jonze’s comedy Adaptation. I enjoyed most of the film but was unimpressed by the ending. Apparently I wasn’t alone in that; the second question asked at the press conference was about the ending.

After the press conference I hurried to get a good seat for Solaris (since by this point I had learned that to get a good seat at press conferences you had to high-tail it out of the film as soon as the credits started rolling and run over to the press conference room). Solaris was a thought-provoking (though rather slow-moving) film, and I actually had a few questions to ask at the press conference. So I ran over to the Hyatt and got myself settled in a prime position in the 4th row close to one of the aisles (being near an aisle made it easier for the microphone-runners to get the mike to you). After raising my hand about a million times, I finally got the attention of the moderator and got hold of the mike to ask my question. However, the journalist right before me made the unexpected comment that “frankly, I felt your film was boring.” George Clooney had a rather strong response to this, telling the journalist that he didn’t find the journalist particularly interesting either and that he’d like to see the journalist try to make a film. By this point the moderator was frantically motioning for me to ask my question, so there I stood waiting for Mr. Clooney to finish his tirade. When he finally made his last mutter of “jerk”, I asked Steven Soderbergh my question, to which he gave an eloquent answer. Quite an interesting first-time question-asking experience!

After my next film, The Event (a very moving and well-done film), there was a Q&A session with the director and one of the actors, during which a journalist asked an unfortunate question: one of the actors in the film was Olympia Dukakis, and the journalist asked whether this was her first film. The director tried to delicately state that, actually, Ms. Dukakis was an Oscar-winning actress who has been in more than 70 films. Obviously you need to do your homework before asking questions! I finished out the day with a funny documentary about German actress Eva Ebner, which was a light ending to a long day.

Sunday, February 9: My day started with my usual wait in line for tickets and 9:00 screening; this time of The Hours. I chatted with a journalist from Holland before the screening, then enjoyed seeing the film again (I had seen it in the States but picked up more on the second viewing). I then ran over to the press conference where I sat between two friendly Brazilian journalists. I was successful in getting the moderator’s attention right away to ask the third question of the press conference, this time to Nicole Kidman. Afterward, I decided to stay put and wait for the next press conference, which was for Moonlight Mile. Unfortunately, the press showing of the film had been at the same time as The Hours, so I had missed it and planned to see it that night. As it turned out, most of the other journalists attending the conference were in the same position – when the moderator asked for questions, no one had any. Dustin Hoffman even asked if anyone had seen the film, and only a few hands went up. I managed to muster up a pretty good generic question though, asking Dustin Hoffman about whether he sees himself as a mentor to younger actors. He had a great response and smiled broadly at me as he finished.

The next film I wanted to see, Party Monster, was scheduled to start before the press conference ended, so I left early and ran to catch it. If I hadn’t made such an effort, I would have walked out, especially since I was stuck sitting on the floor. Things didn’t get any better when I was shut out of my next film, Teknolust. But I studied my Programm and finally found a film starting half an hour later for which I didn’t need a ticket. That was the German film Befreite Zone, which turned out to be pretty good.

Next I had to take the U-bahn to get to the theater for the screening of Moonlight Mile. The film started 35 minutes late because Dustin Hoffman, who was there for the screening, took a while signing autographs outside the theater. So I had to run for the train as soon as the film ended in order to make it back to the CineStar theater in time for my 22:00 screenings of the short film Just Call Me Kade and the documentary Fight Back, Fight AIDS. Both films were well done, but by 23:30 I was wiped out.

Monday, February 10: I was happy to see Mary back at breakfast. We set out together for the Hyatt for our usual wait in line before the 9:00 screening of the Canadian film My Life Without Me. We both agreed that the film was well done but that we didn’t agree with the film’s basic premise, which made it difficult to like. We skipped the press conference and headed to the screening of Owning Mahowny with Phillip Seymour-Hoffman and Minnie Driver. We both thought that the film was extremely slow-moving, but stopped over at the press conference briefly anyway. I bailed out shortly after it started and went to stand in line to try to see Teknolust again. After a half hour wait, I was shut out again. Frustrated, I decided I needed a break from films and went for a big cheeseburger at an American-style diner nearby!

After that, I was in a much better state of mind to see Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I was surprised at how much I liked the film and looked forward to the press conference. It didn’t disappoint; George Clooney was in a jovial mood (probably due to the warm response to the film) and even asked a female journalist to marry him! I posed a more serious question to him, asking how he chose this, such a challenging story, to be his directorial debut. He was modest in his answer, but Miramax head man Harvey Weinstein gave him a big complement by saying they supported his vision all along.

My final screening for the night was a much more serious film called El Kotbia (The Bookstore), an Arabic film. It was well done but somewhat slow, and by the time it was over I was too tired to see the film I had planned for 22:00, so I called it quits and headed back to the hotel.

Tuesday, February 11: Today was a marathon – six films in one day! I started the morning with the usual 9:00 screening, this time of French film Son Frére (His Brother). I ran into my Boston Globe friend Peter again and was just about to ask him how to get into all the exclusive parties we kept hearing about when the film began. Oh well – maybe next year! I took a quick break after the film to check our press box downstairs at the Berlinale-Palast, then went for a much-needed coffee at Starbucks!

My next screening was the German film Lichter (Distant Lights). Afterward, I ran to catch the train to the Babylon theater for the film Something More Than Night. This was a silent film consisting of images of Chicago at night, which I would have found quite dull if I hadn’t spent my time figuring out where each shot was taken (having lived in Chicago for 5½ years)!

Afterward I took the train back to Potsdamer Platz to catch the French film Une Grande Fille Comme Toi (A Big Girl Like You), which was only OK. But my next film, a German one called Science Fiction, was quite interesting and rather funny. Plus, I realized that I had been sitting two seats away from the lead actor the whole time! The screening ended with just enough time for me to run to the film Lettere Dalla Palestina (Letters from Palestine). Whew, what a day!

Wednesday, February 12: I took it easy today after my long day yesterday. I slept in, got my tickets for Thursday’s films, had a leisurely breakfast at Starbucks, then spent an hour walking around Berlin. I finally headed back to CinemaxX at 11:30 for my first of three screenings there, the Canadian film Flower & Garnet (which was only OK). My second screening was the Hebrew film Knafayim Shvurot (Broken Wings), which was excellent. I stayed for a little while after the film to listen to the Q&A session with the director and two of the actors.

My third screening was the Spike Lee film 25th Hour, which I enjoyed. Mary asked one of the few non-politically-oriented questions during the press conference. Of course, all four conference participants (director Spike Lee and actors Edward Norton, Rosario Dawson, and Barry Pepper) were asked what, as Americans, their views were of the Iraq conflict. To their credit, they all had very eloquent answers, although Barry Pepper’s answer was the most amusing as he started with “well, since I’m Canadian...” I had planned to attend two more screenings in the evening, but it didn’t take much convincing to instead join Mary for a late dinner at the atmospheric Paris Bar.

Thursday, February 13: After starting my day at KaDeWe (where I went to buy a new hairdryer after mine shorted out), I went to CinemaxX for an 11:30 screening of the Brazilian film O Homem do Ano (The Man of the Year), an unusual story about a guy who becomes a contract killer and what it does to his life. I was looking forward to my next screening, a Korean action-adventure film called Sungnyangpari Sonyue Jaerim (Resurrection of the Little Match Girl), because I needed something fast-moving after seeing so many heavy films. Unfortunately, this film was awful – even the subtitling was terrible.

My third screening was a documentary called Polígono Sur (Seville, South Side) about the plight of Spanish gypsies in Andalucía. Mary and I had hoped for more flamenco dancing and less singing, so we were a bit disappointed. Luckily, my fourth screening, a German film called Herr Wichmann von der CDU (Vote for Henryk!), was very enjoyable. It was a documentary about a 25 year old’s campaign to win the CDU seat in a small northern German town during the 2002 election. It was very down-to-earth and funny, plus I learned a lot about German politics.

My last film of the day was Poco Piú di un Anno Fa (Little More Than a Year Ago), an Italian film about a gay porn star who was found dead under mysterious circumstances. It was actually better than I expected – at least it kept me awake!

Friday, February 14: Our last day! We started with the 9:00 screening of the German film Der Alte Affe Angst, then Mary ran to a press screening of the Oliver Stone documentary Comandante while I returned our press box key and had a coffee break at Starbucks. We met up again at the 12:30 screening of the Australian film Alexandra’s Project. It was an interesting film, so we decided to go to the press conference. Since it was sparsely-attended, both of us had the opportunity to ask questions of the producer and lead actress.

After that, we took some time for picture-taking, including both of us walking on the red carpet like the stars! Mary then headed to the press conference for Comandante while I headed to Tony Roma’s to reserve a table for us. During lunch 45 minutes later, Mary related how Oliver Stone completely misinterpreted her question and yelled at her at the press conference. Finally, we ended our week with a frantic taxi ride to the train station, worn-out but much wiser in the ways of film fests! (KG)