Agonizingly long scenes

Now that the 69. As the international film festival in berlin is gradually coming to an end, you don't have to be a rough fortune teller to make this assessment: the last competition organized by dieter kosslick won't make it past the middle of the road.

The program simply offered too few moments of surprise, with "yi miao zhong" from china even one film had to be withdrawn completely for official technical reasons. At least there were no negative qualitative rejections, even if many people still wonder how fatih akin's clumsy film "the golden glove" came to be could make it into the competition.

Also about the third and last german entry in the contest "i was home, but" by angela schalenec, was eagerly discussed. From the rough "berlin school the filmmaker was here and there talking after the family drama.

Stilted dialogs

But one could also speak of stilted dialogs and agonizingly long-winded settings – at least if one sees cinema not only as an object of self-realization for artists, but also as a product for the audience in front of the screen. Schalenec tells the story of single mother astrid (known from the kiel crime series "tatort": maren eggert), who somehow tries to get herself and her family life on track.

The viewer does not find a tangible thread, no wonder there were clearly audible expressions of displeasure from the audience after a competition film for the first time this year.

Piranhas" was more exciting, an italian film somewhere between thriller and youth drama.

Based on the novel by camorra expert roberto saviano, director claudio giovannesi tells the story of a gang of youths in contemporary naples – a city that obviously still has the same furrowed values: money, power, brutality.

Drifting into crime

Whether the hierarchies in southern italy can really be changed so quickly with two or three shots from an assault rifle, as giovannesi suggests, is certainly open to question. But the helplessness with which parents and the state in southern italy (have to) follow the drift of their children into criminality definitely sticks in your mind after watching the film. Also thanks to the main actors, all of them amateurs from a furrowed quarter of naples.

Somewhere between seven and ten times, at least according to the digital berlinale archive, catherine deneuve has been a guest at the international film festival in berlin in the past 20 years. Heuer is the rough lady of the french film "only" to be seen with a film outside the competition: "L'adieu à la nuit".

There plays 75-year-old muriel – a grandmother who discovers that her grandson is on his way to go to war as a fighter for the is. Sometimes it's a bit na iv, homespun and old-fashioned, how director andre techine (also already 75) comes across with his story.

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