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Berlin International Film Festival · 2014

Berlin International Film Festival 2014

Berlinale Special

Programme

20 films · 5 reviews

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The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared

A man escapes from an old folks' home and goes on an unlikely adventure.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2013; Director: Felix Herngren; Writer: Felix Herngren, Hans Ingemansson, Jonas Jonasson; Stars: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, Jens Hultén, Bianca Cruzeiro, Alan Ford, Sven Lönn, David Shackleton, Georg Nikoloff, Simon Säppenen, Manuel Dubra, Cory Peterson, Kerry Shale, Philip Rosch)

American Hustle

Review preview for American Hustle

Bradley Cooper as Richie gives the finest madcap performance of his career.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A con man is forced to work for a rogue FBI agent.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: David O Russell; Writer: Eric Singer, David O Russell; Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Alessandro Nivola, Robert De Niro)

Full review See: Interview with Alessandro Nivola about American Hustle , Article about a special screening of American Hustle, and after party.

Afternoon Of A Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq

Study of the ballerina.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Nancy Buirski; Writer: Nancy Buirski; Stars: Jacques d'Amboise, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Tanaquil Le Clerq)

Baal

Poet and anarchist Baal lives in an attic and reads his poems to cab drivers. At first feted and later rejected by bourgeois society, Baal roams through forests and along motorways, greedy for schnapps, cigarettes, women and men.

(Country: West Germany; Year: 1969; Director: Volker Schlöndorff; Writer: Bertolt Brecht, Volker Schlöndorff; Stars: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sigi Graue, Margarethe von Trotta, Günther Neutze, Miriam Spoerri, Marian Seidowsky, Irmgard Paulis, Carla Egerer, Wilmut Borell, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Andrea Brüdern, Claudia Butenuth, Johannes Buzalski, András Fricsay Kali Son, Michael Gempart)

The Bohemian Life (Boheemielämää, Boheemielämää)

Three unappreciated artists, all kindred spirits, share their views of the world, their financial travails and love stories.

(Country: France, Germany, Sweden, Finland; Year: 1992; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Henri Murger, Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Matti Pellonpää, Evelyne Didi, André Wilms, Kari Väänänen, Christine Murillo, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Laika, Carlos Salgado, Alexis Nitzer, Sylvie Van den Elsen, Gilles Charmant, Dominique Marcas, Samuel Fuller, Jean-Paul Wenzel, Louis Malle)

Tribute to Karl Baumgartner

Cathedrals Of Culture

If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?' Cathedrals of Culture offers six startling responses to this question.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Wim Wenders, Michael Glawogger, Michael Madsen, Robert Redford, Margreth Olin, Karim Aïnouz; Writer: Bjørn Olaf Johannessen, Margreth Olin)

César Chávez

A biography of the civil-rights activist and labour organiser.

(Year: 2014; Director: Diego Luna; Writer: Keir Pearson, Timothy J Sexton; Stars: Rosario Dawson, Gabriel Mann, John Malkovich, Michael Peña, America Ferrera, Kevin Dunn, Michael Cudlitz, Jacob Vargas, Lisa Brenner, Mark Moses, Debi Derryberry, Yancey Arias, Spencer Garrett, Peter Jason, Julian Seager)

Diplomacy (Diplomatie)

Story of Hitler's orders to destroy Paris.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Volker Schlöndorff; Writer: Cyril Gely, Cyril Gely, Volker Schlöndorff; Stars: Niels Arestrup, André Dussollier, Robert Stadlober, Burghart Klaußner, Lucas Prisor, Paula Beer, Thomas Arnold, Jean-Marc Roulot, Johannes Klaußner, Charlie Nelson, Tristan Robin, Stefan Wilkening)

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To Eden

Documentary portrait of a 1930s murder.

(Country: US, Ecuador, Germany, Norway; Year: 2013; Director: Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine; Writer: Dayna Goldfine, Daniel Geller, Celeste Schaefer Snyder; Stars: Cate Blanchett, Sebastian Koch, Thomas Kretschmann, Diane Kruger, Connie Nielsen, Josh Radnor, Gustaf Skarsgård)

European premiere

In The Courtyard (Dans la cour)

Review preview for In The Courtyard

Where is the plot? What is the hook?

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2.5 out of 5
Life, cracked ceilings, friendship and despondency in a Parisian apartment block

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Pierre Salvadori; Writer: Pierre Salvadori, David Léotard; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Gustave Kervern, Pio Marmaï, Michele Moretti, Nicolas Bouchaud, Oleg Kupchik)

Full review

A Long Way Down

Four suicidal people meet on a roof and make a pact to stay alive.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Pascal Chaumeil; Writer: Nick Hornby, Jack Thorne; Stars: Aaron Paul, Rosamund Pike, Imogen Poots, Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Sam Neill, Tuppence Middleton, Joe Cole, Shola Adewusi, Mohammed Ali, Ilan Goodman, Wilhelmina McFadden, Poppy Epstein, Thomas Williamson, Honey Epstein)

World premiere

Night Will Fall

Retracing the steps of a World War II 'missing Hitchcock film'.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Andre Singer; Stars: Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Bernstein)

Work in progress

Nymphomaniac

Review preview for Nymphomaniac

It's a film that goes out of its way to provoke and disappoint, but to those who get its jokes and can cope with the rest, it's a delight.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her experiences.

(Country: Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, UK; Year: 2013; Director: Lars von Trier; Writer: Lars von Trier; Stars: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen, Michael Pas, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, Maja Arsovic)

Full review

Someone You Love (En du elsker)

A famous singer finds himself reconnecting with his family.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2014; Director: Pernille Fischer Christensen; Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson, Pernille Fischer Christensen; Stars: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Sofus Rønnov, Eve Best, Lourdes Faberes, Peter Frödin, Thomas Hwan, Asger Gottlieb, Alfa Liv Ottesen, Anders Wallin, Jonas Krag, Henrik Liebgott, Jacob Gurevitsch, Ac)

The Turning

A collection of short films based on stories by Tim Winton.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2013; Director: Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Jub Clerc, Robert Connolly, Shaun Gladwell, Rhys Graham, Justin Kurzel, Yaron Lifschitz, Anthony Lucas, Claire McCarthy, Ian Meadows, Ashlee Page, Stephen Page, Simon Stone, Warwick Thornton, Marieka Walsh, Mia Wasikowska, David Wenham; Writer: Tim Winton; Stars: Rose Byrne, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh, Matt Nable, Callan Mulvey, Harrison Gilbertson, Myles Pollard, Dan Wyllie, Colin Friels, Brenna Harding, Susie Porter, Mirrah Foulkes, Kate Mulvany)

International premiere

The Two Faces Of January

Review preview for The Two Faces Of January

Patricia Highsmith on a low flame

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2.5 out of 5
Death in Greece involves a fraudulent investment banker, a tour guide and a young wife. There are no certainties and nowhere to run.

(Country: UK, US, France; Year: 2014; Director: Hossein Amini; Writer: Hossein Amini, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith; Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac, Yigit Özsener, Daisy Bevan)

Full review See: Article about The Two Faces Of January New York première

Untitled New York Review of Books Documentary

Documentary.

(Director: Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi)

Work in progress

Watermark

A documentary on how water shapes humanity.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2013; Director: Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky)

We Come As Friends

We Come as Friends views colonisation as a human phenomenon through both explicit and metaphoric lenses without oversimplified accusations or political theorising. Alarmingly, It is not a historical film since colonisation and the slave trade still exist.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Hubert Sauper)

European premiere