by Alex Deleon
Romy Schneider look alike Marie Bäumer at Quiberon Press Conference
Though this was obviously not going to be the star powered program we have become accustomed to under flamboyant festival top hat Dieter Kosslick at Berlin (no Clooneys, Decaprios, or their likes in sight this year) the competition program alone had a number of high expectation films, among them, Three Days at Quiberon", a study of the last days of Romy Schneider, "7 days at Entebbe" a new take on the daring israeli raid on a landlocked African country to liberate a planeful of hijacked Jewish Passengers, and "U-22, Utoya", the first filming of the right wing massacre in Norway of innocent young people on a summer island outing in July 2011,
To start with no actress but German star Marie Bäumer could have possibly pulled off such a believable Romy given the uncanny physical resemblance and the ability to flit back and firth between French and German. as did Romy in real life. The film focuses on the last warts and all interview Romy gave the high profile German magazine Stern in 1981 which turmed out to be the last interview of her tortured life at age 42. A fuller review will follow, Suffice it to say that Actress Bäumer hooks you from the very beginning but German director Emily Atef doesn't let us off the hook until, we have over agonized to the point of numbness. In short, it goes on too long.
As for Erik Poppe's take on the Uttoya Island massacre in 2011 such a film was a long time coming and had to be made, but, did it have to be made in such a harrowing traumatic manner totally from the point of view of some desperate survivors, or could more have been made of the Perpetrator whom we hardly see except as a distant shadowy figure amongst an endless medley of shotgun blasts?
Result. We are reminded of the day in a way that is
more traumatizing than informative. We know these survivors will escape but do we need to be traumatized while watching to confirm our hopes? Not for the weak of stomach.
As for Entebbe; How could such a momentous real life thriller be reduced to a poltical argument between the highest Israeli government figures, Shimon Peres and Itzhak Rabin, whike creating sympathy for a couple of Gernan hijackers. See the ball Spot? --Run and jump - look and see ...
Personalities:
Jay Koller is an Israeli regular at Berlin
Sherlock Deleon, also ...