Snippets
by the KinoCritics

British actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Johannes Geyer were in Hamburg to introduce the German co-production of A Job, screened in the section “Northern Lights.“ The film is based on Irene Dische’s novel and shows beautiful shots of Hamburg. – PHOTO –

Brigitte Janner, well-known German TV actress, was seen in the foyer of CinemaxX before her “job” as a film moderator.  (photo)

Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Hamburg actress at the Thalia Theater, after the introduction to 35 Miles North of Malkom (see review on page ….) (photo)

Inge and Kati are mother and daughter are from Schleswig Holstein and drove to Hamburg in order to add to their collection of autographs. This time it was Vanessa Redgrave’s that they were after as well as Jan Schütte and other German directors. They said, “Ms. Redgrave was so nice; she even asked us questions.” Both were loaded down with albums of pictures and autographs of stars they had collected over the years. (photo!)

My two most memorable film scenes this year were: a newly converted Muslim circumcises himself in the restroom of his workplace. It’s a botched job and he goes into the hospital. A few weeks later he asks his boss to sign the papers testifying that it was a work-related accident (Adhen). Second: Salim Bey phones his son who attends school in another town. He is delighted to hear that his son is shaving for the first time and instructs him in detail, over the phone, exactly how to proceed. (Eye of the Sun)

The Brazilian animated film 31 Minutes is part Chucky, part SouthPark, and part Muppets Show, and therefore considered appropriate for children. Before the lights went down a group of teenage boys, very cool and hip, walked in. Later they told me they were in Hamburg coming from all parts of Germany to attend a rapper workshop by Samy Deluxe. They were preparing to perform in the Hafen City on Octber 3, Germany’s national holiday. And they did, in the rain. Samy had told them this film was cool and what Samy says goes.

Overheard between two very good-looking young men at Hadley’s Café, “Scarlet Johannsen went off and got married. She didn’t even wait for me.” “No sweat man, it’s just a body, not a brain.”

This year’s FilmFest Hamburg symbol was a red cinema chair located at the Dammtor bus stop, as well as several other places, e.g, Landungsbrücke, and they weren’t relics from poor old defunct,  abandoned Grindel cinema. That inventory went to Belgrade, to the director Emir Kusturica. These chairs came from e-Bay. One woman, looking like Old Mother Hubbard in better days, sat in the one at Dammtor bus stop, comfortably knitting without a care in the world. A wily actress in her own right, she charged me Euro 2 to take her photo. (photos)

S(ch)nackpunkt is a combination of snacks and Schnack (chat, small talk) over the noon break in CinemaxX.  The Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein Filmförderung provided the Schnack with live discussions on film topics. Wolfgang Wölffel and his Event Logistic and Service Company (ELS) put together the delicious snacks. All free of charge.