Berlinale. Panorama, round 2.

By David Hudson on 01/14/2009

Round 1 was nice and all, but with today's announcement from the Berlinale, we can now see that the Panorama program will have some oomph to it after all for its 30th anniversary. This year there'll be some nifty pairings and resonances with editions past; for example, see these two paragraphs from today's press release:

In addition to her most recent film in the Main Programme [the world premiere of "La Barbe bleue"], Catherine Breillat's film "Tapage nocturne," which was first presented in 1980, will be shown again in 2009. Joe Dallesandro, who played one of the protagonists in her film, is this year's Special TEDDY Award-winner. He will also be coming to Berlin for the presentation of "Little Joe," Nicole Haeusser's documentary portrait of him.

A John Hurt triptych completes the films being presented for this 30th anniversary: in the official programme, Panorama will be showing British director Richard Laxton's latest film, "An Englishman in New York," in which John Hurt plays Quentin Crisp in his later years in New York, as was celebrated in Sting's 1987 hit of the same name. The Presentation also includes Jonathan Nossiter's first film, "Resident Alien" (with Quentin Crisp, John Hurt, Holly Woodlawn and Sting) that premiered in Panorama in 1990, as well as Jack Gold's legendary "The Naked Civil Servant" (1975), in which John Hurt plays the young Quentin Crisp in England.

Among other highlights:

• Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross will present "The Shock Doctrine," their adaptation of Naomi Klein's book, as a work-in-progress.

• Michael Glawogger's "Das Vaterspiel ("Kill Daddy Good Night"), another world premiere, features Sabine Timoteo, which means I'm there.

• "Philippe Lioret's 'Welcome' shows the tragic situation in which illegal refugees from Iraq find themselves, if they try to reach England from France."

• And in Lucía Puenzo's second film, following "XXY," "El niño pez," "the love of two women takes them to the brink of something that goes far beyond personal sensitivities and ends in a political thriller."

Again, for a few more titles and a lot more detail, here's that release.

Tags: Berlinale 2009