Oh boy oh boy more social critical films on the way to Berlin again
The 56th annual Berlinale Film Festival is beginning on the 9th of February so don’t even think about telling me later that you hadn’t been warned. Whereas Hollywood openly and shamelessly insists upon entertaining us at all costs whatever the cost and therefore must cater to our niedrige Instinkte (lower instincts) and is always right on the money with this formula and always manages to find that very broad lowest common denominator (i.e. us), the Europeans, being Europeans, sind was Besseres (are something better) and have long ago engaged in this dubious intellectual complicity to produce highly-political, Euro-centric and therefore politically correct and crappy films that nobody wants to see.
As the head honcho film boss culture vulture at the Berlinale Dieter Kosslick said recently about this year’s program in an interview with Die Welt : “They are almost all near-reality and political films. Drugs, sickness, globalization etc. are among the themes. But that is a world-wide trend at the moment, as you know, and ER doctor George Clooney is currently out on the road to clear up these matters in the United States.�
Huh? What does that mean? But thank goodness it’s Dr. Ross, is all I can say. I wouldn’t want that goofy Dr. Green trying to clear up important (not) cultural questions like this with American society. And yes, they still watch ER here.
And to make matters even worse, they are going to be showing tons of German films at the Berlinale this year (55 of them in all). Why that should be surprising at a German state-subsdized film festival held in Germany is itself surprising, I suppose, but they generally don’t like to show German films here. Apparently not even Germans can watch German films anymore.
But, then again, this being a political festival and all, it appears that this is now the proper time for the natives to address this very important cultural issue.
|
5 Responses to “Oh boy oh boy more social critical films on the way to Berlin again”
Submit your own story hereMore Irony:
(Check out our archives for even more irony!)
January 30th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
I fail to see the irony here, film festivals often feature politically charged films, two contemporary American examples that come to mind are “Bowling for Columbine” and “Is It True What They Say About Ann?” (excellent biting documentery on Ann Coulter) and “Operation: Fallujah”
It’s kinda the expected faire at these things.
January 30th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
How is this ironic at all? A film festival that showcases avante-garde films which are often politically charged…I know Sundance has become little more than a place for A-list actors to prove their “indie-cred”, but still, why should it shock (much less count as “ironic”) that a film festival promotes movies which are ignored by the mainstream?
There’s possibly something ironic about the complete lack of irony inherent in posting this bit of news, but trying to justify this article in post-modern terms is about as likely to succeed as an honest politician
January 31st, 2006 at 9:42 am
I never thought the americans understood irony, now I see that I was write….
January 31st, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Uh, I have a fairly keen understanding of irony, I just don’t see it as ironic…
If the ‘irony’ angle is that it’s a German festival, I’d remind them of the LONG German tradition of politically charged entertainment, back as far as the early 1900s cabaret at least… I just don’t see the irony here, sorry, could you explain and not just insult us?
February 1st, 2006 at 8:56 pm
“I never thought the americans understood irony, now I see that I was write….”
Understands all Americans + Can’t “write” right = Irony.