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Rolling Stones, Scorsese open Berlin film fest
2008-02-07
The Rolling Stones will rock the red carpet Thursday at the opening of the Berlin International Film Festival with the world premiere of Martin Scorsese's long-awaited concert film. The band and the veteran director are due in the German capital, kicking off an 11-day festival featuring new pictures by filmmakers including Britain's Mike Leigh, Johnnie To of Hong Kong and US director Paul Thomas Anderson. Twenty-one films will vie for the Berlinale's coveted Golden Bear top prize, to be awarded by an all-star jury led by Greek-French director Costa-Gavras at a gala ceremony February 16 before the festival wraps up the next day. After a few uneven years in the competition, critics expect a tight race with several hotly anticipated premieres from around the world. The glamour quotient will be high too with A-list talent including Madonna, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Natalie Portman and Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan expected. Julia Roberts, starring in the family tragedy "Fireflies in the Garden", was also on the guest list but had not yet confirmed her attendance. From the opening film, the 58th Berlinale will focus on music in cinema. The Scorsese picture, "Shine A Light", features outtakes from two Rolling Stones' shows at New York's Beacon Theater in 2006 and guest appearances by Jack White of the White Stripes, pop princess Christina Aguilera and blues legend Buddy Guy. It is appearing out of competition. Scorsese, who scooped up a long-awaited best director Oscar at last year's Academy Awards for "The Departed", used 16 cameras to compile more than half a million feet (150,000 metres) of footage of the band. "Shine A Light" also features rare archive footage and catches the Glimmer Twins' candid banter backstage. Festival director Dieter Kosslick called it a "major coup" for the Berlinale to snare the film. "They had to trust us as a festival that we would know how to handle a premiere of this calibre," he told AFP. Costa-Gavras told Thursday's Der Tagesspiegel newspaper that he had served on the jury in Cannes in 1976 that crowned Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" with the Palme d'Or, with the American playwright Tennessee Williams as its president. "It was wonderful," he said. "So I have a bit of experience. Hopefully I will nevertheless find the time in Berlin to work on my new film," "Eden is West" about illegal immigrants in Europe. Madonna will unveil her directorial debut, "Filth and Wisdom", in Berlin also outside the main competition. It is billed as a London-based comedy starring British cult star Richard E. Grant and the Roma punk band Gogol Bordello. The godmother of punk, Patti Smith, will attend a screening of a documentary on her career and perform live Friday night. Rock veteran Neil Young will present a film about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 2006 Freedom of Speech Tour, alongside pictures about Sudanese hip-hop artists and Argentinian tango. And Khan will be on hand for the international premiere of "Om Shanti Om", which is already a smash in India. The competition line-up includes the Oscar-nominated oil epic "There Will Be Blood" by Paul Thomas Anderson who won the Golden Bear in 2000 for "Magnolia". Leigh, known for gritty working-class dramas, will bring his improvised comedy "Happy-Go-Lucky" while Amos Kollek, son of the late Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, will screen "Restless" about an Israeli poet in New York. Popular action director Johnnie To will screen "Sparrow" starring Simon Yam, a soft-pedal drama about friendship among pickpockets. In 2007 the Chinese drama "Tuya's Marriage" (Tuya De Hunshi) about a Mongolian herdswoman's two husbands took home the Golden Bear. China will be represented in the competition this year by Wang Xiaoshuai's "In Love We Trust" (Zuo You) about a mother's bid to save her firstborn child from cancer. The Berlinale ranks among Europe's top three film festivals.
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