Spout is, sadly, not at the Berlin Film Festival, where screenings began this morning. But we’ll be trolling the blogs for scraps throughout the course of the fest.
- Immediately after Martin Scorsese’s opening night film Shine a Light screened for the press, I started seeing insta-reviews on Twitter and Facebook. “Shine a Light: weak sauce,” wrote About.com/IDrinkYourMilkshake.com’s Jurgen Fauth. David Hudson was slightly kinder: “Shine a Light is, well, okay for what it is - a concert movie.” I imagine we’ll see full reviews tonight or early tomorrow. Mike Jones has a report from the Light press conference, where Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts grumbled about the experience of watching the film, “I hate it.” UPDATE: Filmbrain yawns along.
- The other big news this morning seems to be that two members of the Berlinale Jury, director Suzanne Bier and actress Sandrine Bonnaire, have simultaneously dropped out of their commitment to the festival. The dropouts don’t seem to be related??????Bier says she has an urgent work matter to attend to, while Bonnaire has a family thing??????but it does seem like a very weird coincidence. The jury will carry on with just six members, including actress Diane Kruger and editing god Walter Murch.
- Morgan Spurlock, Eugene Jarecki and Ross Kauffman are amongst the filmmakers on the board of Cinelan, a new adventure launched in Berlin today that aims to provide an online distribution platform for short (under 3 minute) non-fiction films.
- Variety has published an interview with Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello frontman and star of Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, which will be unveiled in Berlin. Brilliantly subverting the trade’s form-letter questionnaire, when asked to name his “dream project” Hutz responds, “Anarcho-syndicalism worldwide.” Swoon.
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SpoutBlog » karina