Is when you you have lost your all important accreditation badges and any sense of significance is quite quickly wiped away - forget sartre, forget camus - when it comes to the meaning of being: I have festival accreditation therefore I am! And so it was that once welcoming cinemas, ticket offices, festival staff said no. As i sat ruminating my fate in my second home - cinemaxx cafe - the mobile rings and a pleasant woman tells me that I have been found and that i should make my way to the Berlinale Visitor Centre and be reunited with myself. Relief beyond belief. My life is back to cinematic normality and the cinema doors are once again open.

When You're Strange is also the name of the of Tom Decillo's documentary on The Doors which uses newly discovered archive footage to tell the story of the the band and the tragically shortened life of their lionised front man Jim Morrison. I was never a big Doors fan but after the film have more appreciation of the musicianship (particularly John Densmore's jazz influenced drumming) which provided their increasingly erratic front man with a musical safety net whilst he was either provoking or collapsing onstage. The newly discovered footage is from a film Morrison made in the late 60s and there are discussions about that film getting a release on the dvd.


Thats Doors' drummer Johns Densmore on the right

A low point so far has to be Sally Potters new film Rage about the fashion industry. I saw it at its late night premiere and lasted all of 20 mins. The great film critic Robin Wood once wrote a brilliant essay entitled Smart ass and Cutey Pie which was a brilliant critique of the films of Robert Altman. It came to mind as I exited Rage.


Steve Buscemi arrives for premiere of Rage

The annoying thing was that I left a delightful dinner reunion with two jury members of last year's Encounters British Jury. As we ate, texts were coming through of news from the BAFTAs and the great news that Bristol based Esther May Campbell who they had picked for Best British film at the festival won the BAFTA for short film. We toast the success of Esther (and praise the BAFTA jury for their exquisite choice!)

Ricky Premiere

Difficult to know where the beginning was even after only two days. Already saturated in cinema notching up 4 or 5 films a day whilst trying to work your way through the 200 odd screenings per day across who knows how many cinemas and screens nestling within and without the Potsdam Platz. In the celluloid – or is that now digital – haze reality blurs and you could and can be convinced that a baby has wings and can fly courtesy of Francois Ozon’s new film Ricky or that war is over in Iraq courtesy of the NY times via the Yes men - of course none of it is unfortunately true but at least you are allowed a glimpse into a world of utopian possibilities.


Ricky


War is Over - If you want it

Back to reality and the very real task of sorting out what to see, when and where. We are here with two Berlinale virgins – Adrian and Vicky. How anyone arriving for the first time can work out where anything is, never mind what is on where is a mystery that is passed down from generation to generation. We go from registration to ticket collection to market to cinema accumulating bags, catalogues and tickets ending up in the all important Cinemaxx café bar where we dive into the programme to begin to work a route through the 59th Berlinale.

First up, as far as I can remember, as I’m writing this three days into the festival, was the Dutch film showing in the forum strand Can Go Through Skin; a powerful, initially disorientating film which tries to get inside the head of a woman who has been seriously assaulted, possibly raped, who retreats to the country to escape and withdraw. It is a very accomplished piece in all areas – acting, directing, editing and sound (a minor detail but I could have done without the songs which were too literal for such a visceral experience.) I noticed that the sound was done by someone called Geesin and given its naïve dissonance, I can only think that he must be related to Ron Geesin (note to self – follow this connection up). As I say, it is an immensely powerful and accomplished film but will it get released in the UK?


A Strasse of Berlinales

Telstar is a film that’s passed through my radar sometime ago, not sure where and when. It’s about music producer Joe Meek who was in at the birth of UK rock n roll and given Adrian’s interest in music it seems a good one to try. I know nothing about Meek apart from some of the music he produced and of course the title song. What I realise is that he is the UK’s Phil Spector with all the pioneering creativity, eccentricities and erratic temperament to match. Meek’s story however is even more tragic if that were possible. The film starts off a bit straight out of 1950s/60s central casting and props but the performance of Con O'Neill as Meek is outstanding and is the glue that holds the whole film together. In conversation with tony jones for Cambridge Film Festival, it transpires that there is documentary which is even more illuminating on Meek's music creativity, influence and unlikely background in the Forest of Dean.


Writer in Residence

A while back, I did a podcast – I think – wherein I talked about the Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude. He made the utterly wonderful short film The Tube with the Hat which won loads of awards around the world and, indeed won the best international short film at Encounters in 2007. We screened his latest short film Alexandra in 2008, which was equally brilliant. What I was saying was that I can’t wait to see what kind of feature film he would make. What do I see listed in the programme? The Happiest Girl in the World directed by Radu Jude. So with great optimism and a little trepidation (on my part!) we go the world premiere. Once outside that most simple yet difficult of questions – What did you think? Unfortunately, I am underwhelmed (and of course assume everyone else will be!) but delighted that Adrian and Vicky thought it was brilliant! The thing is, I realise, to watch without too much expectation – how to do this is the problem!