Queuing to go to the movies. How long since you last did it?
This is the queue for the Berlinale on the 7th of February 2013– the day the festival officially starts for the 63rd time.
You would need three things to “survive” the queue:
- patience (or some knowledge of alternative meditation techniques)
- 1 hour of your time and a good book with you
- to know exactly what you want to see and when
It is worth noting, that tickets are put into purchase only three days before the screening and you are able to buy not more than two tickets at a time – a restriction that on a second thought does make sense.
If we speculate that you want to see a film every day of the Berlinale and you want to be on the safe side, regarding tickets, you might want to be at the ticket center 30 minutes before it actually opens … every day. In other words, the early-morning-waiting-on-a-queue-ritual will become one of your own little morning rituals – at least for the next 5 days. People actually do that. And some even take leave from their jobs to do it – like the lady who was standing before me on the queue. Respect.
Surprisingly, you can book tickets on-line only for a very few titles. An interesting contrast to our every-day on-line buying, selling, consuming, and sharing. For the Berlinale, on the contrary, are faced with the slow process of waiting your turn. You actually make a physical effort to go to the movies. Call me an old-fashioned soul, but I like it.
As one might guess, the tickets for any of the 19 films competing for the Golden and Silver Bears are the most difficult to get – especially when they are shown between 19.00 and 21.00 hours. For understandable reasons, it is fairly easy to get tickets for the very early morning or the late night screenings. That is why yours truly will be seeing 2 films at 9,30 AM! – something I honestly haven’t done before.
As I usually tend to do, I have an unrealistically long list with films I would like to see. On the other hand, I was never a realist.
So far, I have managed to get tickets for:
- “The Weight of Elephants”, Director: Daniel Joseph Borgman; New Zealand, 2013
- “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”, Director: Danis Tanovic (!!!) – one of my favourite usual suspects; Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013
- “Harmony Lessons”, Director: Emir Baigazin; Kazakhstan, 2013
- “Gloria”, Director: Sebastián Lelio; Chile, Spain 2012
- “In the Limelight: Anita Ekberg” – not a movie really but a meeting with Anita Ekberg (Fellini’s dream in “La Dolce Vita”), who joins the Berlinale Campus to give a master class on her acting career (!!!)
Three further films I wouldn’t like to miss:
- the Romanian “Child’s Pose” (“Pozitia Copilului”) directed by Calin Peter Netzer;
(After seeing “12:08 East of Bucharest” (“A fost sau n-a fost?”) in 2007 directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, I keep a close watch on Romanian cinema and it has not turned me down since.)
- the Korean “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” (“Nugu-ui Ttal-do Anin Haewon”). It is about dreams. And what could you need more?
- The Iranian “Closed Curtain” (“Pardé”) directed by Jafar Panahi, who fortunately has ignored his 20-year ban on making films.
…
Tomorrow will be my personal opening of the festival with the Spanish film “La plaga” directed by Neus Ballús. It won’t be exaggerated to say, that I am looking forward to it.