Siegessaeule BlogSchwul-lesbischer Blog für Berlin und Deutschland

Friday night on February 18 was unforgettable. This year I didn’t go to a lot of Berlinale parties (perhaps because there weren’t so many. Good old last year!..) so I was looking forward to the Teddy Award very much. The ceremony was beautiful but a little bit too long (2.5 hrs non-stop!). People who have not seen all the movies and have not known people on stage got tired. Still loud applause was awarded to the gigs of Evita Bezuidenhout and Ennio. There were also some awkward slips of tongue by Annette Gerlach when she announced Tomboy to be the Berlinale’s opening film (not of Panorama) or when she mixed pronouns “he” and “she” while introducing Romy Haag. Not exciting either was a political appeal by Rosa von Praunheim: willing to blame homophobia in Uganda he commanded the audience to stand up and say three times “Shame!” for “things that happen in Afrika”. Given the presence of South African ambassador among the guests who gave a rather gay-supportive speech this generalization was not politically correct. Nor was it gender correct: Rosa talked mostly about gay men, mentioned lesbians once and didn’t say a word about transgender people.

But the most important part was the winners.

I am really happy with the Else-winner movie Harvest and the best documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye. Both are beautiful love stories, touching and sincere.

Here handsome director of the “Harvest” Benjamin Cantu with Else and the jury.

And here amazing Marie Losier, director of “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye”.

I was so impressed by this movie that I went to the concert of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Tony Conrad yesterday night. This was an incredible experience. The music was overwhelming. I felt like I have reached other galaxy and stayed there for a long time even after the concert ended.

I was also pleased that Tomboy got The Special Jury Award. Unfortunately Celine Sciamma got sick this day and couldn’t get to the stage (imagine how she would feel!..).

Unfortunately I haven’t seen Teddy’s Best Feature Film Ausente, so I can’t give you my opinion. It was  completely sold out for the next day, no wonder. I was very glad that The Mountain was nominated although it did not succeed. After watching around thirty movies I can say that this has been my favorite feature film this year. This may not be a movie for everyone. Like for somebody who asked “Why couldn’t these women just talk to each other?”. If people do not understand the conflict of the film how can they like it? I dare to say there were two sorts of people at Berlinale: some were sleeping/snoring during this film, the others were crying at the end. I belong to the second group.

Then there was a party…which I loved a lot! The former Berlin airport Tempelhof  was really an outstanding location. Plus there were many nice people around and a very good music. We stayed until 5 am. I regret that Michael wasn’t there so we didn’t meet for real, only in a virtual space. Maybe next year?

Here a party picture of the cute actor of “Harvest” Kai-Michael Müller and myself.

I am coming to an end now. I’ve just come home from my last Berlinale film “Les femmes du 6ème étage” and I feel good, not even tired. Tomorrow I will leave for Sao Paulo where I’ll be wearing sun glasses and it will all be so fucking different!

Thank you all for reading this. It was a pleasure for me to report on Berlinale gigs and kicks for you.

Looking forward to the next Berlinale and see you all there.

Yours sincerely

Inga

Hurrah! Tonight is the Teddy Award:

Party-party-party mood!!! I am so excited!

Inga

It was my first premiere at the Berlinale Palast. And it’s just amazing how different one same place can be. The press-screennings at 9 o’clock in the morning are busy, people are coming and going all the time, running away rapidly after the film ends, people just do their work. But in the evening the same location becomes festive and special, people celebrate being there in the here and now. Sure, they spend time and money for coming here, they deserve it! That’s why it is a great pity if the film is bad.

No, no, Odem wasn’t a bad movie to watch at the Berlinale Palast. And I know what I am talking about – I’ve seen movies like Yelling to the sky and If not we who before… I was glad that I chose exactly this “lesbian” movie to experience there. With marvellous actresses playing, the film is interesting to follow: it tells three stories about different times in the lives of Lara and Inam, that viewers can put together themselves. But this movie doesn’t tell enough about lesbian feelings. Despite of the fact that a lesbian love story is in the centre of the plot, it has so much to draw viewer’s attention from it that this story line almost disappears. Failed marriage, psychological disorder, rape, alcohol addiction… Probably the director thought it was too simple to show just a lesbian love story, so he added all possible problems that can happen in the world. And what is the result? This is a tragedy that shows lesbian desire only as destructive and painful. Not bad, but from the lesbian point of view the story is not satisfying.

When the production team came on the stage, I really got a bit of a shock because they were all men (around 15 of them), with the exception of the actresses, of course, and just one colorist lady. So that is how a movie about women is made!

Inga

Brownian Movement, also die Brownschen Bewegungen beschreiben die Neuanordnungen und Möglichkeiten verschiedener Teilchen in Flüssigkeiten und Gasen.

Eben jene Versuchsanordnungen deklariert die Niederländerin Nanouk Leopold in ihrem 102 Minüter denn auch durch. Charlotte, die Hauptfigur versucht sich mit immer neuen Sexualpartnern ihren Alltag zu gestalten. Das alles mag an Bunuels Belle de jour erinnern und um dies vorweg zu nehmen, man ist gut beraten sich lieber an diesen Film zu halten. Denn dort, wo die junge Catherine Deneuve sexuelle Lust als Nutte erfahren darf und das Abgründige der ganzen Situation im surrealen verwischt muß Leopolds Hauptfigur in die Therapie.

Da wo Bunuel den McGuffin-Effekt setzt, also ein unbestimmter Moment, der ein schwüles Osszilieren erzeugt muß man als Zuschauer bei Brownian Movement zusehen, wie ein alter Mann, ein dicker Mann, ein häßlicher Mann etc. pp. die Hauptdarstellerin mehr oder minder befriedigen.

Bunuels Film endet damit, dass man als Zuschauer nicht erfährt, ob die gute Deneuve nun erwischt wird oder sie mit ihren Eskapaden davon kommt. Ebene jenes Unbestimmte macht den Film zum Klassiker. Leider, leider wird die arme Charlotte aber erwischt und wird ab der zweiten Hälfte des Films in die Therapie geschickt….

Das alles wirkt so unmotiviert und gekünstelt, dass man am Ende nur noch der Frage nachgehen mag, wieso eine heterosexuelle Frau, sobald sie Sex ohne ihren eigenen Mann hat zur Therapie gechickt wird. Auch warum der außereheliche Sex als Art Rocky Horror Picture Show im Dogmastyle inszeniert wird bleibt unklar.

Tipp: DVD kaufen und von der jungen Deneuve träumen.

Andreas und Manuel

After watching five films yesterday I had no clear opinions in my head, but just a few thoughts.

* If there would be awards for cinema at the Berlinale, Cinemaxx would get the prize as the most press-friendly and Kino International as the most press-phobic.

* I could definitely fall in love with Lady Jaye (The ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye – the queerest love story I’ve ever heard) and with Argentinean actress Ines Efron (you may remember her from the movies XXY and El niño pez, now you can see her in Medianeras – not queer at all, but just a nice movie about Buenos Aires).

* Did I misunderstand the movie Our Grand Despair? Did the person who listed it as a queer movie in the Teddy programme do the same? I thought all the time that the two protagonists are a gay couple and there were explicit romantic hints about that, for example when Ender said he missed Çetin so much that he was searching him in every man and every woman. And I even thought “That’s fine, but why is everything so innocent, why don’t they kiss at all, not to speak of sex?” And now I am reading in the description at the Berlinale homepage and everywhere else, “Two men have been friends since they were at school together…” Just friends?? Does the movie pretend to ‘play with it’?

* “Wow, I know all these people!” This is what I said to myself while watching a wonderful documentary about Werner Schroeter Mondo Lux. And it’s only my second Berlinale. You know what I mean? It’s like every documentary supplements the history of the last 30 years with new stories and figures, and they are all connected to each other. Here is Candy Darling playing in one of the Schroeter’s films, in the next scene Wim Wenders talking about their student years, then Rosa von Praunheim, his friend, and Peter Kern once again, and all of them I saw in life or in the other movies recently. Great feeling!

This time I took some pictures. Director of Mondo Lux Elfi Mikesch and actor Peter Kern.

Inga

And… It finally happened!

If you are in the mood for a real experimental arthouse movie, the only one I recommend so far is the Indian film Gandu! Just unbelievable subversive and sexual images without any genre borders. Not that gay, but pretty much queer. Enjoy!

Inga