The party's over

After 10 days in snowy Berlin, the Berlinale came to a close with the closing ceremonies and a gala dinner in a mirror tent in the Martin-Gropius-Bau:

I wanted to attend, especially because of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. To find out a bit about his 10 days in Berlin, spent with the judge and watching movies. In the smoking section, we started talking, though the man from Hollywood does not smoke. First question: "Was it hard?" Good humored and relaxed, the young man (31, best known from the movie "Donnie Darko" and "Brokeback Mountain") stated, "We discussed an awful lot! But not because the Berlinale film festival is political," he says, "but because our jury president, Mike Leigh, is British. And Brits love to debate, "even to the extreme."

"Once we sat around a table and argued for twelve fucking hours." What he actually said there or chose or another criticized, Mr. Gyllenhaal reveals nothing. "But it definitely was always clear and interesting to see how different actors and directors analyze." And: "We eight jurors were always very fast and quite sure about what movies were good or remarkable. We argued only that it was good enough to be worthy. "



The author also asked Jake how he could persuade a straight friend to watch Brokeback Mountain, a film that the author deems the gay Titanic. Jake's reply: "Tell him it's a universal but special love story. A great film makes a love story unique."

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A few images from snowy Berlin and the festival:


The Reichstag

Movies rule.


Members of the jury.

A happy juror after the verdicts.


Fans' perspective.

Monica has posted clips of Jake from the red carpet and on stage on youtube. Links to all of them are here. I haven't watched the videos yet, but you can here the reaction when Jake gets out of his car at the end of this clip.

Thanks to Stephanie and Monica for keeping up with all the news from the festival.