"The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson

Yet another book that was quite recently awarded with the MAN Booker Prize that I find particularly trustworthy. I just finished Julian Barnes' "The Sense of an Ending" awarded in 2011, so there came time to go back and read the winner from 2010.
Howard Jacobson's book is very English, as English as may be that is. The action takes place in contemporary London, and among the Jewsih community, or shall I say, Jewish intelligentsia living in London. The main characters: Julian Treslove, a non-Jewish unsuccessful radio producer, Sam Finkler, a popular philosopher and Libor Sevcik, a Jewish Czech gossip columnist from the times when Hollywood really mattered (Libor is almost 90 at the time of the events taking place in the book).

Berlinale 2013: Best of the Best

Another great festival ended, another year will pass before the next round. This causes a certain sensation in your stomach when you know you have to wait 12 long moths for something great. There will be other festivals, of course, but Berlinale is my very special place with this very special ambience worth waiting for. There were great surprises, there were misunderstandings, there were great meetings, and lots of "firsts". Here is the last list of the things I like a lot.

Berlinale 2013: Day 10

The last day of Berlinale for me (because the festival took place also the next day, on February 17th) was a very sad one because it meant that I could only watch one movie, I had to depart already in the afternoon. So I chose a movie which I wouldn't probably see anywhere else. I picked "Hide Your Smiling Faces" that was shown in the Generation section, directed by Daniel Carbone. It is a very tender story of two boys who are faced with a great tragedy - one of his best friends commits suicide jumping off of a bridge and the boys are the ones who have found his body. They immediately find the father of the deceased responsible for the tragedy and start to make his life unbearable with childish pranks. But this is also the way for them to cope with this difficult situation. Wonderful settings, wild, mysterious places where the boys play and grieve their lost friend, it all makes perfect sense. Glad I chose it for the last bit of the Berlinale festival 2013. You should see it too. Incredible, how mature this movie is. Loved it!

34. "Hide Your Smiling Faces"

Rating: ****
More on the official website of the film.

Berlinale 2013: Day 9

The penultimate day of the Festival started with "Nobody's Daughter Haewon" directed by Hong Sang-Soo, a Korean star. His previous movies included "In Another Country" with Isabelle Huppert, which I found a little pretentious, but nevertheless somehow understand, why might he be popular. There is this certain "allen" vibe, but it is a gross misunderstanding to place the Korean in the same line with the genius New Yorker. I wasn't bored watching "Haewon", I found it pretty interesting, until the story was leading somewhere. But then it suddenly stopped and I felt like moving around with all the characters entangled in difficult mutual relationships. A nice touch to the competition, but I didn't think it could be the "it" film of the Berlinale.

Berlinale 2013: Day 8

Almost the end, but not quite. More surpsrises, like the one caused by an almost absolute beginner: Emir Baigazin from Kazakhstan presented his "Harmony Lessons" that quickly became one of the best and most appraised films of the competition. Baigazin was one of the filmmakers to take part in the Berlinale Talent Campus a few years ago, so I guess the procedure of approving people for the programme actually work really well, "Harmony Lessons" is about a school somewhere in the rural part of Kazakhstan. These places are completely unknown for us, but the director seems to know them very well. The camera moves back and forth, leaving viewers in the state of anxiety throughout the whole movie, but it's a good kind of anxiety. After all, a very nice feature debut. Watch out for the young actors - the parts they had to play were very demanding and they played beautifully.

Berlinale 2013: Day 7

Seventh day in a row filled with films and conferences, buy for the first time - also an interview. That was a huge deal. I had a chance of talking to two great guys that made a movie for children called "Eskil&Trinidad" that made it to Generation this year - Linus Oscarsson and Stephan Apelgren (who also directed few episodes of the Swedish version of "Wallander"). The filmed, which I also saw that day was really nice and peaceful, something right for my mood that day. Later, already after the thrills of a first interview, there was time for "Night Train to Lisbon" - a new film by Bille August. Jeremy Irons and Leanie Laurent are in there, but I think I was prejudiced even before I saw the film, because I also read a book by Pascal Mercier, which I didn't like too much. I generally think it was boring and sort of the same thing happened to the movie, or at least my perception of it. Anyway, Jeremy Irons gives a good performance, but the movie is rather mediocre.

Berlinale 2013: Day 6

Day 6. Everyone is quite tired already, but also full of expectation. The day started with Jafar Panahi's "Parde" which was a huge disappointment. Perhaps I didn't understand it, but then I definitely wasn't the only one. This was also the first and only time during the festival when someone booed, and suring a press screening! But sadly my opinion was largely the same. The story is about a writer who comes to a secluded villa close to the beach with his beloved dog. Apparently there is a bad on having pet dogs in Iran, and so as the writer wants to save his best friend from getting shot out, he decided to spend his days in hiding. This was a rather interesting and intriguing beginning to a rather dull story, so I'm really amazed at the incentives that drove Dieter Kosslick to put this film in the competition.

Berlinale 2013: Day 5

The best day of Berlinale so far - two of wonderful popular films that you will surely see in your local cinema, plus the absolutely brilliant competition film made it a good day in terms of cinematic surprises. The day began with a press screening of the Romanian "Child's Pose" directed by Calin Peter Netzer. This story of a wealthy woman from the upper class of the Romanian society that gets involved with her only son's lethal car accident in which an innocent child dies is practically a story about family relationships, and about who can you trust and on whom can you count in times of trouble. Luminita Gheorghiu as the main protagonist put some question marks as to whether we only have Paulina Garcia for "Gloria" in competition to win Silver Bear. She was extremely good in this.

Berlinale 2013: Day 4

The fourth day of Berlinale was filled with surprises, not always and not only positive ones. First press screening of "Gloria" by Sebastian Lelio was met with great reviews, the film was absolutely brilliant, mostly due to exceptional acting of Paulina Garcia - who later was awarded the SIlver Bear for the Best Actress of the festival. There was no doubts about it and the film was equally well made.
Later a weird new James Franco project, "Maladies" with Catherine Keener and David Strathairn. I was confused and irritated for the most part of it, although usually I am very for everything James Franco does. I just think that his innovative and creative projects are just necessary for modern, or post-modern cinema. But "Maladies" perhaps wasn't the best example of a successful experiment.

Berlinale 2013: Day 3

Today I saw "A Long and Happy Life", "Lovelace", "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman" but the stage was won undoubtedly by the cast of "Les Miserables" on a press conference!
My full report in Polish to be found on FilmNews.

Berlinale 2013: Day 2

And Day 2 was opened by first in-competition viewings, with Polish "In the Name Of..." as the first one, "Don Jon's Addiction" and "Paradise: Hope" follow.
You can read my full report of the second day of Berlinale also here (but in Polish) FilmNews.

Berlinale 2013: Day 1

It's been a crazy February, that begun where all Februarys should - in Berlin, watching loads of films. It comes as no surprise that after two intensive weeks of a film festival, you need at least two more to get over it, and so I did. Here I'll just share short reviews of the 35 (!) films I saw, along with the rating that I decided to introduce, the scale is 1-6, 1 being poor and simply load of rubbish, 6 being just legendary, which you might not see often. Let's begin.