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Berlinale 2015: Nobody Wants the Night
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Berlinale 2015: Taxi

Berlinale 2015: Day Two

by Maximilien Luc Proctor on February 6, 2015

Berlinale 2015

On Day Two of the Berlinale 2015, I was up early today for the 9am screening of Taxi, Jafar Panahi’s follow-up to Closed Curtain. When it ended, there was a nice round of applause. I felt everyone was more or less pleased with the film. After a quick stop for a gallon-sized, five-euro ‘Pott Kaffee’ at Billy Wilder’s (Café, not his house sadly enough) I rushed back to get in line for Queen of the Desert. I was right to do so, as a considerable line ended up forming behind me. Once back in the auditorium, I sat next to a nice Belgian reporter who gave me a couple pointers about being a member of the press at the Berlinale. He told me where to get the neat free tote bags I’d seen everyone carrying; you just had to visit the basement of the very building we were in. Everything is secret here, you have to follow the crowd and hope they are taking you where you need to be. He noted that the more experienced reporters seemed to prefer things that way: it always keeps them one step ahead for the next scoop.

After Queen of the Desert, I thought about how strange it feels to watch so many movies in a single day; how we have maybe an hour or two to form an opinion and jot down notes or a short review of a film that took months or even years to make. Of course, if you’re one of the real hot shots here, you just pick up your phone minutes after stepping out of the theater and start dictating. This I find wholeheartedly fascinating. On my way out of the Desert, I overheard two friends joking. In reply to a joke, one said “Oh Jesus!” while his friend replied, “No. Oh Herzog!” Yet another pair’s conversation consisted of:

“You really going to the press conference?”

“Yeah!”

“Good luck!”

I soon found out why: for the first time, we were shunned from the gates to the kingdom of heaven that is our daily press conference room. Confused writers showed their badges repeatedly, failing to comprehend why their right to be upstairs had suddenly been revoked. The room was simply full.

So I returned to the Berlinale Palast, where the conference was being streamed to a giant monitor.

Herzog mentioned wanting to show “the dignity of life under Islam” and that he should’ve started making films with female protagonists much earlier in his career.

Because I felt I should make it a ‘queenly’ day, I decided to next see Alex Ross Perry’s latest film, Queen of Earth. It’s fun going into a film no one has yet seen, but sometimes that means disappointment. Queen of Earth started out thrilling and ended up disappointing. Most original end credits I’ve seen in a long while though.

Finally, after a few hours to have dinner, relax, and chat with friends, I went far off the beaten path to finish out my day with a 10pm screening of the excellently titled, La Maldad (Evilness). This was the first non-packed screening I attended. In fact, there were maybe 25 people in the theater. Roughly five of them got up and left half way through. In the final five or ten minutes, the only other person in my row got out his phone and proceeded to use it until the credits rolled. C’mon guy!

Event Coverage, Features, The 65th Berlin International Film Festival
Berlinale 2015EvilnessFilm FestivalsJafar PanahiLa MaldadQueen of EarthQueen of the DesertTaxiWerner Herzog
Berlinale 2015, Evilness, Film Festivals, Jafar Panahi, La Maldad, Queen of Earth, Queen of the Desert, Taxi, Werner Herzog
About the Author
Maximilien Luc Proctor
Maximilien Luc Proctor
Maximilien Luc Proctor graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma. In his spare time he plays guitar and sings in a band, as well as watching and making films however and whenever possible – as a one-man-production-team making avant-garde shorts or as a director of a small-scale independent feature productions. He likes what he sees in cinema and wants to celebrate the good stuff whenever possible.
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Berlinale 2015EvilnessFilm FestivalsJafar Panahi
 

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by Maximilien Luc Proctor on August 30, 2015
The latest from New German Cinema director Wim Wenders, Every Thing Will Be Fine is a film which walks an unbelievably dangerous line between ‘outright bad’ and ‘self-consciously analytical.’ A dangerous line walked on a tightrope a hundred feet in the air, and in 3D, no less. After a string of documentaries, Wenders has finally returned to […]
 
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by Maximilien Luc Proctor on August 30, 2015
Victoria's two-and-a-half hour long-take lets you vicariously live a night of criminal activity, but ends up being more like a theme park ride than a great film.
 

Berlinale 2015: Eisenstein in Guanajuato

by Maximilien Luc Proctor on February 27, 2015
A triumphant return from the annals of obscure near-incomprehensibility for director Peter Greenaway, but still rife with his trademark challenges like nudity, philosophical conversations, and vomit, Eisenstein in Guanajuato is an intellectual treat if you can handle the meat.
 
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Berlinale 2015: Sworn Virgin

by Maximilien Luc Proctor on February 26, 2015
Growing up is never the easiest thing in the world. Growing up a girl can prove especially difficult in certain parts of the world. In Sworn Virgin, that particular part of the world is Albania, and growing up means a struggle to make sense of traditional gender roles. A tale of two sisters, the film […]
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