Edited by Andreas Wiseman
andreas.wiseman@emap.com
DIARY Christoph Terhechte Indeed, the Forum’s line-up of Beats Being Dead Forum on form
BY MARTIN BLANEY When Dieter Kosslick took up his position as Berlinale director in May 2001, it was only a month later that former film critic Chris- toph Terhechte succeeded Ulrich Gregor at the helm of the festival’s Forum section. “Before I took over, the Forum
was a programme that saw itself as being independent and trying to function as if it wasn’t part of the larger festival,” says Terhechte looking back on the past 10 years. “What concerned me at the time
SHOOTING STAR PROFILES Over the festival, Screen profiles the 10 actors selected for EFP’s Shooting Stars
was that the section was too big and you weren’t able to see all of the films, even if you just concen- trated on the Forum.” He argues that “the Berlinale
would be much the poorer without the Forum but, at the same time, I think the Forum couldn’t even be organised without the Berlinale. It was one of my tasks to make use of the potential synergies and, by reducing the programme, I’ve managed to create a greater attrac- tiveness and exclusivity, with more emphasis on premieres.”
40 films this year includes 25 world premieres and 11 international pre- mieres, including new films by directors such as Jonas Mekas (Sleepless Nights Stories), Christian Petzold (Beats Being Dead) and Thomas Imbach (Day Is Done). “I had to ensure the Forum is
taken seriously in a changing film landscape and film industry,” Ter- hechte explains. “To bring the word ‘industry’ in
connection with the Forum was quite a step. For a long time, we just had to deal with the director about a film coming to the Forum or later being taken on by the Forum’s distribution arm, but those times are past. We have to position ourselves now so that, as the Forum, we are interesting for producers and sales companies as well.”
Istvan Szabo
Today Sunny
intervals, high 2°
Tomorrow Sunny
intervals, high 2°
One On One MIRANDA JULY, THE FUTURE
US director Miranda July, on the pressures of making her second feature, being in competition in Berlin and talking cats
Your first film, Me And You And Everyone We Know was heaped with critical acclaim. Did you feel a lot of pressure with the second one? After the first movie, I really didn’t want to jump into writing another screenplay. I did feel a bit of pressure, because everyone tells you the second one is the hard one. But then after a while you just have to stop worrying about it and do it.
The Future is about a couple who are faced with the responsibility of looking after a terminally ill cat. Where did the idea come from? I wrote a performance called Things We Don’t Understand And Definitely Are Not Going To Talk About, about an affair, which had a talking cat in it and someone who stopped time, which I thought were just really interesting ideas. The script kind of evolved from that.
ALICIA VIKANDER (SWE) Credits Pure (2010), Crown Jewels (2011) First time in Berlin? It’s not my first time in Berlin but it’s my first trip to the festival. I think it’s such a wonderful, lively city. Plans for the festival? My schedule is full of interesting meetings, workshops and press conferences. What are you working on next? The Crown Jewels is a drama/fantasy feature in which I play the lead. It’s released in June. I’m in rehearsal for a historical epic film which we will begin shooting in Prague in March, directed by Nikolaj Arcel.
PILOU ASBAEK (DEN) Credits Worlds Apart (2008), R (2010) First time in Berlin? No, I’ve been to Berlin twice: last year with [Pernille Fischer Christensen’s] A Family, and [Niels Arden Oplev’s] Worlds Apart in 2008. Plans for the festival? I hope to meet new colleagues and new friends. What are you working on next? I’m working on Danish television channel DR’s series, The Government. I’ll finish filming in June and then I’ll be doing a feature film.
n 6 Screen International in Berlin February 15, 2011
IN CONVERSATION Coriolanus director Ralph Fiennes is again teaming up with legendary Hungarian auteur Istvan Szabo on today’s Talent Campus panel discussion. The two, who worked together on 1999 epic Sunshine, will discuss the director-actor relationship. The public event kicks off at 5pm in HAU 1 on the campus.
NOVEL IDEA The popular pitching session Breakfast and Books, at which producers talk with 10 hand-picked novelists about their work, returns to the House of Representatives Casino for its sixth edition today. The event has resulted in a number of optioned novels, including Katharina Hacker’s The Have-Nots and Bernhard Schlink’s The Weekend. The session starts at 9.30am.
The Future
Did you go for a similar style of film- making the second time around? It’s similar in that it has humour… and I’m in it. But actually, I’ve found that people who have read my book of short stories say this is more similar to that — because the book has some darker and more surreal elements to it. When I made Me And You, I think I held back because I said to myself, “You’re making a movie, you
gotta get normal.” But I’ve always felt comfortable expressing myself through unreal elements.
Does your passion lie with writing or directing? When it comes to making independent films, it’s so hard that you kind of have to approach each one like it could be the last one. I feel like if I had to do one, it would be writing.
How does your approach to script- writing differ from your approach to writing in other mediums? With a script it doesn’t matter if it’s well written, as far as the words go — it’s about making a world exist on the page. When I’m writing a script, I always think how much easier it is to write stories. But then of course, when I’m writing a story, I think about how fun it is to be making films. I learn things from both.
How does it feel to have the film in competition in Berlin? There was a lot of German support on this movie. I did most of my post in Berlin, so when I finished I thought it would be great to show it here. The audience reaction was great in Sundance, but I know it’s a different thing being in Berlin and you can never assume anything.
Sarah Cooper
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