Four Days in Berlin

One year after the 60th anniversary, the initial impression of this year’s Berlinale is to forget milestones and get back to the annual business of earning its reputation as one of the highest ranking A-List film festivals. There was certainly an atmosphere in the air of getting on with it on this first day compared to last year. As per usual, the sumptuous Marlene Dietrich Platz gets the red carpet treatment, with the Berlinale Palast as its centre point. For the crowds, the exciting anticipation of seeing the big names get out of their limousines is, of course, de rigeur.

The Coen Brothers film True Grit dominated the opening day, particularly as stars Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin (and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld) were in town for the Opening Gala screening. Speaking in The Hollywood Reporter Berlin Daily about the Berlinale, Joel Coen said “We haven’t been there since The Big Lebowski,” before adding, “We’ve known [festival director] Dieter Kosslick for a while and like him.” The Charles Portis novel, about a young girl who hires an old, drunken Deputy US Marshall called Rooster Cogburn to help avenge her father’s murder, originally became an Oscar winner for John Wayne (his only Oscar) in the Henry Hathaway directed 1969 version. The Coen Brothers insist that any similarities in their version to that film is either coincidental or sub-conscious. “Our movie is from the Charles Portis novel”, Joel Coen somewhat clinically confirms. As far as the potential shadow of John Wayne hanging over the film is concerned, any inhibitions Jeff Bridges may have had about stepping into ‘The Duke’s’ shoes were dismissed by the director brothers. Ethan Coen says, “I’m not sure that was the iconic performance of John Wayne. To think of it as iconic largely because of the Oscar is a mistake.” Joel Coen adds “Jeff [Bridges] kinda didn’t care.” Also nominated for Best Actor Oscar, if he wins this time, Bridges will be only the third actor to do so twice in a row following his win for Crazy Heart last year.

Read all of Steven Yates' Berlinale report in the latest issue of Film & Festivals Magazine