ein gewisser Blick

Who I think will win:

Best Film Golden Bear:  ”Tabu” (Portugal, Germany,  Brasilia)

Best Actor : Mads Mikkelsen in “A Royal Affair” (Denmark,  Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany)

Best Actress:  Lea Seydoux in “Sister” (Switzerland,  France)  or  Nina Hoss in “Barbara” (Germany) 

Best Director: Taviani Brothers for “Ceasar must die” (Italia)  or Bence Fliegauf for “Just the wind” (Hungary) or Ursula Meier for “Sister” (Switzerland,) 

Best Screenplay:  Kim Fupz Akeson from Norway for “Mercy” (Germany) 

Who I think should win:

Best Film Golden Bear and Best Director:

“Tabu” Because it is simply the best thing I saw this year and because of its anachronistic and unique narration that never becomes annoying. It made me think “film” still has some surprises for us while everyone is already writing obituaries on the art. A story told with the naivety of a beautiful mind and rich in a deep intellectual way. The actors flirt with our imagination and let us carry on into a romance that bears horrors from the past.

Best Screenplay:

This year I have seen many good films that could have been great but lacked a better script, so I can’t really say I loved a screenplay this year. But I will be happy if the Silver Bear for screenplay goes to the brothers Paolo and Vitterio Taviani who with “Ceaser must die” wrote a good script with an original type of narration but without surprises and just a few flaws. Kim Fupz Akeson’s original Screenplay for “Mercy” would have deserved the award had it not to suffer through the horrible mutilations made by Matthias Glasner.  

Best Actor: 

Mads Mikkelsen in “A Royal Affair”; watching him performing as Dr. Johan Struensee was a pleasure and a proof of concept: An actor can transport a whole character from anywhere, anytime and any culture to everywhere, just with the use of this craft and without tons of explanatory dialog; but more importantly an actor can share his thoughts without ever speaking them out loud.  Mads Mikkelsen proofs this theory when he plays Struensee realizing his own transformation to a tyrant, or when he understands that no pardon but decapitation awaits him. In an instant Struensee understands the scheme and we his dilemma and fate.

Best actress:

Diane Krueger deserves the bear for a coherent interpretation of an all too well known role and character which has been disguised by stupid repetition of clichés and wishful thinking throughout history. Diane Kreuger pieces together a character; an actress in the situation in which Marie Antoinette was, rather than imitating a historically formed predefined Princess. Her performance remembered me of Bertolt Brechts idea of acting while never forgetting that it is an act in which the intellectual performance is dominating the physical. But of course, these days this style is not very much “en vogue”. So I am prepared to be disappointed by the Jury. Although I could live with the price going to Nina Hoss in “Barbara”, in my opinion her best performance yet.