In 1968, Joy is pregnant with her second child, when she experiences dizzy spells and fainting. She is diagnosed with a heart condition that could prove fatal if she carries the baby to term. Together with her doctor and her husband, an ascending lawyer, the housewife appeals to the responsible medical board to grant an
“All starts with an A,” Sophie Rois’s distinctive voice narrates over the introductory images. As she elaborates on the letter’s importance in primal sounds (a baby’s first cry, orgasms, etc), the viewer is introduced to her character. Anna is an accomplished actress, gradually fed up with her profession. Outside of her regular café, she is
After dominating last year’s festival circuit and winning both Cannes and Venice, the prevalence of French cinema persists. Half of the 18 titles running in the Berlinale Competition are at least in part productions from France. One of the films representing the country is Claire Denis’s romance drama Both Sides of the Blade. Sara (Juliette
Emma Thompson is Nancy, a widow in her 50s. The former religious education teacher has always had misgivings about “concupiscence”, as she calls it, and has never experienced an orgasm. In hopes of a more satisfactory sexual encounter, Nancy hires the services of Leo Grande. The young man turns out to be much more than
Can you tell a story about the harrowing injustices of Guantanamo without losing hope in the human species? German director Andreas Dresen sets out to do just that with his latest contribution to the Berlinale Competition. In 2001, a Turkish family living in Bremen (Germany) learns that their eldest son has been sent to a
Richy Bravo is an over-the-hill Schlager singer, who performs for off-season tour groups in his adoptive home of Rimini. He boosts his meagre fees by prostituting himself to his fans. Apart from his mother’s funeral, for which Richy briefly returns to Austria, he only visits his dementia-stricken father to steal money from him. After one
Without a doubt one of the most eagerly anticipated events at this year’s festival is the return of horror legend Dario Argento. The Italian director, who brought viewers gems like Suspiria, presents his latest thriller as a Berlinale Special Gala, the world premiere occurring on 11th February at the Friedrichstadt Palast. As a solar eclipse
La Ligne’s opening sequence is one for the annals. In slow motion, accompanied by operatic song, a young woman is shown, exploding in anger. What starts out with music equipment thrown against the wall ends with Margaret striking her mother, who falls inauspiciously onto a piano. While the origin of this particular violent outburst remains
An awkward house viewing dramatically alters the lives of middle-aged couple Alain (Alain Chabat) and Marie (Léa Drucker). Initially somewhat underwhelmed by the property, a hidden tunnel in the basement is the decisive factor for their purchase. The subterranean extension seems to defy laws of time and space. Her husband sees less and less of
The 72nd edition of the Berlin Film Festival kicks off with a free adaptation of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 50 years after Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s original premiered at the festival. Honouring one of Germany’s cinematic pioneers, it is easy to mistake François Ozon’s latest feature as a commonplace opening film. But instead