Christian Petzold is among the most important German filmmakers working and the most sophisticated; His filmography includes reflections on collective German crime, elaborate allegories linking Nazism and the refugee crisis, and reinterpretations of Germanic myths. So it’s surprising that his new movie is a comedy and downright hilarious, at least until it ceases to be a comedy.
The sixth of his competing fictions for golden bear‘A fire’ It sets its sights on a writer who is characterized as an incredibly selfish man more than his talent, unable to show a minimum of empathy and therefore understand that his needs, fears and insecurities are of relative importance outside of his belly button. . And while teaching his hero a lesson, Petzold shows us that his cinema has the gift not only to nurture our intellect, but also to touch our hearts.
boring and tiring movie
If ‘Afire’ brought a breath of fresh air to the Berlinale competition, the third of the works in the competition presented today, took on the task of clouding it. Film directed by Portuguese João Canijo and starring three generations of women who run a hotel on the outskirts of Porto.‘Mal Vivir’ draws on a handful of methods most often associated with ‘artistic’ cinema – extremely long static shots, images reflected in mirrors and windows, frames that cut silhouettes aggressively, overlaid dialogue. to see how these characters argue, reproach each other, insult each other mercilessly, draw strength from their own misery, and generally tirelessly be cruel to one another; Undoubtedly, this is one of the most depressing and tiring films the festival has shown in recent years..
It forms a diptych piece together with ‘Vivir Mal’, another film directed by Canijo that focuses on guests of the same hotel and is also featured in the non-competition Berlinale. No one should expect the strength to come and see him from this chronicler.