Tuesday 23 February 2010

Berlinaling


Some of you may not be aware that Februrary is the month of the Berlinale International Film Festival, apparently one of the bigger of the worlds film festivals, up there with cannes and sundance et al (although I did read this on the festival website, and by that measure, every festival is one of the big ones).  So, there were a gazillion films on of late and apparently many big super hollywood stars here in Berlin for said festival.


Most of which, I missed out on.  One, because I failed to appreciate just how many people were coming and just how fast tickets would sell out (shutter island sold out in around 45 seconds).  And two because the emphasis was put upon people queuing up for tickets at silly little ticket booths like its still 1976, the internet/automation is still something rarely used here.  But!  I did manage to get some tickets, bought online, but I then had to go all the way to the cinema to pick them up (from the same place where they sell normal tickets).  Have they not heard of the postal service?  or at least printers/scanners?

All in all though it was quite enjoyable.  Watching a film in a huge cinema with lots of other film enthusiasts is a different experience.  Everyone seemed to engage with the film more and it was more like watching theatre than cinema (even to the silly point of the audience clapping at the beginning, throughout and at the end of the film).  A bit more of a communal experience.


So, what have I learnt?  Next year to go and queue up for tickets and be on the ball a bit more, buying every ticket in sight!

Otherwise, not a whole lot out of the ordinary has been happening.  Just more coffee drinking and photo taking.






This is the street I live on.  Yes, it is as noisy, busy and shitty as it looks.
But fortunately all the streets around it are not.

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