Ten years. Ten years. Ten. Whole. Years.
I’ve gone from a fresh-faced Erasmus year student bowled over by Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015) and Victoria (Sebastian Schipper, 2015) to a cynical veteran bemoaning the soulless, card-only, vibe-free atmosphere around Potsdamer Platz. I’ve seen it all, a smooth operator in meaningless conversations (what did you watch; what are you watching next; what’s your next festival) and pithy one-liners about the latest nonsense in the competition section.
I was there when the crowd cheered when the camera zoomed in on a cat in Hong Sangsoo’s The Woman Who Ran (2020). I was there when Touch Me Not (Adina Pintilie, 2018) winning Golden Bear was compared to Brexit in The Guardian. And I was there when Meryl Streep said “We’re all Africans really.”
And I was not there when Hilary Clinton gave a press conference. I had stuff to do.
I’ve seen masterpieces. Siberia (Abel Ferrara, 2020). Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu, 2020). Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, 2022). Totem (Lila Avilés, 2023). I’ve slogged through the worst fucking movies ever committed to screen. And I’ve sludged through an endless sea of mid. From Marxist movies to one-take films; genre fare to arthouse nonsense; inspired masterpieces to celebrity vanity projects. All in the search for new, exciting and vital cinema.
Like the so-called “unclassifiable” Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias, 2024, below) playing in competition?
Wanting greater freedom while also looking to fill a yawning gap in serious/engaging film festival criticism, I formed Journey Into Cinema at the back end of 2022. With expertise in the different sections, the festival’s broader programming aims, the very complex and often enraging political context and personal geographic proximity to the festival itself, it’s safe to say that this website is probably one of the very best sources for Berlinale coverage in the English language.
Unbeholden to corporate interests, achieving ad revenue (at least for now) or year-long awards conversations, Journey Into Cinema employs the best of the best (and myself, sorry) to provide deep and sustained coverage of nearly every section. From the endless coming-of-age narratives in Generation to countless what-the-fuck-was-that experiences in Forum, to famous-actor-wears-distracting-make-up in Special, to overhyped nonsense in Competition, to a shot of a house for 20 minutes in the Berlinale shorts, to someone or other’s sexual awakening in Panorama, we’ve got it all, and then some.
Nobody does it better. Subscribe.