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The Year My Parentes Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger

57th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL BEGINS

Today, February 8th, marks the beginning of one of the most influential and widely known film festivals in the world, the 57th Berlinale, which will go on until the 18th. The opening film will be La Vie en Rose, Edith Piaf’s long awaited cinematic biography.

Written and directed by French filmmaker Olivier Dahan, La Vie en Rose dramatically depicts Piaf’s passionate yet troubled singing career. Piaf, a petite woman and one of the most popular stars of the 20th century, is played by the beautiful Marion Cotillard (from A Good Year), alongside Gerard Depardieu, Pascal Greggory e Emmanuelle Seigner, among others. Dahan, who has directed music videos for such artists as Zucchero and The Cranberries, is the director of the thriller Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse.

La Vie en Rose also opens the competition, this year to be presided over by American filmmaker Paul Schrader. Seven highly respected movie industry professionals will be in the jury: Palestine actress Hiam Abbas (from The Syrian Bride); veteran German actor Mario Adorf; Mexican actor Gael García Bernal; American actor Willem Dafoe; Chinese producer Nansun Shi (who has produced the cult movie Infernal Affairs, among several other films) and Danish editor Molly Marlene Stensgård, who is Lars von Trier’s frequent collaborator.

Below is the alphabetical list of the films in the competition. The selection includes two Latin American feature films: Argentina’s El Otro (The Other), by Ariel Rotter and Cao Hamburger’s O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (The Year My Parents Went on Vacation), representing Brazil, which was screened at the 30th São Paulo Film Festival.

· 300, by Zack Snyder, USA (out of competition)
· Angel, by François Ozon, France /Belgium /UK (closing film)
· Beaufort, by Joseph Cedar, Israel
· Bordertown, by Gregory Nava, USA
· Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters), by Stefan Ruzowitzky, Germany / Austria
· El Otro (The Other), by Ariel Rotter, Argentina / France / Germany
· Goodbye Bafana, by Bille August, Germany / France / Belgium / UK / Italy
· Hallam Foe, by David Mackenzie, UK
· Hyazgar (Desert Dream), by Zhang Lu, South Korea / France
· In Memoria di Me (In Memory of Myself) by Saverio Costanzo, Italy
· Irina Palm, by Sam Garbarski, Belgium /Germany /Luxemburgh / UK / France
· La Vie en Rose, by Olivier Dahan, France / UK / Czech Republic (opening film)
· Les Témoins (The Witnesses), by André Téchiné, France
· Letters from Iwo Jima, by Clint Eastwood, USA (European première, out of competition)
· Ne Touchez pas la Hache (Don’t Touch the Axe), by Jacques Rivette, France / Italy
· Notes on a Scandal, by Richard Eyre, UK (world première, out of competition)
· O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram by Férias (The Year My Parents Went on Vacation) by Cao Hamburger, Brasil /Argentina (world première)
· Obsluhoval jsem Anglickeho Kralé (I Served the King of England), by Jirí Menzel, Czech Republic Tcheca / Slovakia (world première)
· Ping Guo (Lost in Beijing), by Li Yu, People’s Republic of China
· Sai bo gu ji man gwen chan a (I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK), by Park Chan-wook, South Korea (world première)
· The Good German, by Stephen Soderbergh, EUA (world première)
· The Good Shepherd, by Robert by Niro, USA (world première)
· The Walker, by Paul Schrader, USA /UK (out of competition)
· Tu ya by hun shi (Tuya’s Marriage), by Wang Quan`an, People’s Republic of China
· When a Man Falls in the Forest, by Ryan Eslinger, Germany / Canada / USA
· Yella, by Christian Petzold, Germany

Among the main selections in the Berlinale is the Panorama section, which will present 50 titles this year: 17 feature films in the main program; 16 in the Panorama Special and 17 in the Panorama Dokumente (“Documents”). Of these, 26 titles are world premières and seven are first works. Germany, France and South Korea are particularly well represented and so is the American indie production.

The Panorama fosters the dialogue between East and West and brings esthetically and thematically alternative productions to an audience which would otherwise have little access to this type of production. Each year it accounts for a large number of Berlinale’s discoveries. Some themes are recurring in 2007, such as contemporary paranoia and young people’s search for their identity. Moreover, there is actress Tilda Swinton in two intriguing documentaries and director-turned-actors such as Sarah Polley, Steve Buscemi, Julie Delpy and Antonio Banderas.


Here is the film list:

From Germany:
Ferien (Vacation), by Thomas Arslan
Guten Morgen, Herr Grothe (Good Morning Mr. Grothe), by Lars Kraume

From Germany / US:
Fay Grim, by Hal Hartley

From Germany / Republic of Serbia /Austria / Bulgaria:
Gucha (Gucha – Distant Trumpet), by Dusan Milic

From Argentina / France:
La Leon, by Santiago Otheguy

From Australia:
The Home Song Stories, by Tony Ayres

From Azerbaijan / Russian Federation:
Proschai, Yuzhnyi Gorod (Good Bye, Southern City), by Oleg Safarliyev

From Brazil:
A Casa de Alice (Alice’s House), by Chico Teixeira

From Brazil /Germany:
Deserto Feliz (Happy Desert), by Paulo Caldas

From Canada:
Away From Her, by Sarah Polley
Poor Boy’s Game, by Clement Virgo
The Tracey Fragments, by Bruce McDonald
From China / Hong-Kong:
Luo Ye Gui Gen (Getting Home), by Zhang Yang

From Czech Republic:
Grandhotel, by David Ondricek

From France:
Anna M., by Michel Spinosa

From France / Belgium
Lady Chatterley, by Pascale Ferran

From France / Germany:
Deux Jours à Paris (Two Days in Paris), by Julie Delpy

From Hungary:
Boldog új élet (Happy New Life), by Árpád Bogdán
Férfiakt (Men in the Nude), by Károly Esztergályos

From Israel:
The Bubble, by Eytan Fox

From Italy / France:
Riparo (Shelter), by Marco Simon Puccioni

From Japan:
Buchi no Ichibun (Love and Honor), by Yoji Yamada

From South Korea:
Dasepo Sonyeo (Dasepo Naughty Girls), by E. J-Yong
Haebyuneui Yoein (Woman on the Beach), by Hong Sangsoo
Hu-hwae-ha-ji An-ah (No Regret), by Leesong Hee-il

From Spain / UK:
El Camino de los Ingleses (Summer Rain), by Antonio Banderas

From Sweden /Germany:
När Mörkret Faller (When Darkness Falls), by Anders Nilsson

From Taiwan:
Ci-Qing (Spider Lilies), by Zero Chou

From Turkey / Germany:
Takva (Takva – A Man’s Fear of God), by Özer Kiziltan

From UK:
Surveillance, by Paul Oremland

From USA:
Itty Bitty Titty Committee, by Jamie Babbit
Teeth, by Mitchell Lichtenstein
From USA / Netherlands:
Interview, by Steve Buscemi

PANORAMA DOKUMENTE:

From Germany:
BerlinSong, by Uli M. Schueppel
Der Rote Elvis (The Red Elvis), by Leopold Grün
Fucking Different New York, by Steve Gallagher, Lala Endara, Todd Verow, Barbara Hammer, Andre Salas, Abigail Child, Jack Waters, Samara Halperin, Amy von Harrington, Sherry Vine, Hedia Maron, Dan Borden, Charles Lum
Tamara, by Peter Kahane

From Germany / France / Netherlands / Sweden / Finland:
Schau Mir in die Augen, Kleiner (Here’s Looking at You, Boy), by André Schäfer, with Stephen Frears, Gus Van Sant, Tilda Swinton, François Ozon

From Germany / UK:
Neue Bilder – Schwarzer Filmschaffender in Deutschland (New Perspectives – Black Artists in German Film) by Todd Ford, Ezra Tsegaye, Sebastian Kühne, Branwen Okpako, John A. Kantara, Winta Yohannes, Otu Tetteh

From France:
Célébration (Celebration), by Olivier Meyrou
Lagerfeld Confidentiel (Lagerfeld Confidential), by Rodolphe Marconi

From Russia:
Moskva Pride `06 (Moscow Gay Pride Festival), by Vladimir Ivanov

From Spain:
Invisibles (Invisibles), by Isabel Coixet, Fernando León by Aranoa, Mariano Barroso, Javier Corcuera, Wim Wenders

From UK:
Blindsight, by Lucy Walker
Crossing the Line, by Daniel Gordon

From UK / USA:
Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, by Stephen Kijak

From USA:
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, by Ric Burns
Miss Gulag, by Maria Yatskova
This Filthy World, by Jeff Garlin, with John Waters
Strange Culture, by Lynn Hershman Leeson, with Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Coyote, Josh Kornblut (world première)

Photo gallery

La Vie en Rose, Man in the Chair, Children Of Glory and Blindsight