Shutter Island
On the first weekend of Berlinale, a replica of the The Ashecliffe Hospital – an institution for mentally deranged delinquents in the US – marked the location for Shutter Island’s after-party.
On the opening evening, the festival goers partied in Café Moskau. However, the next evening, decisions about where to go were not so easy. The Ghostwriter premiere party was in full swing, as was the Festival Night party in Berliner Palais. And Bollywood super-star Shah Rukh Khan showed up, proving that there were more than just a few credible parties on the scene.
Anyway, back to the Ashecliffe replica in central Berlin. In attendance were Wim Wenders and Dominic Raacke. And later in the evening David Kross (Kate Winslet’s lover in The Reader) popped by.
The only people not present were Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. Nurse-clad waitresses worked hard to please the guests by offering drinks and sweets in sanitary-shaped containers. And hanging above guests’ heads was the question haunting Leo in Shutter Island: “Who is patient number 67?”
In the film, US Marshall Teddy Daniels tries to track down a patient who doesn’t seem to exist. Shutter Island is a thriller full of suspense with mystery elements, which seem to run out of steam halfway through. There are too many hallucinations, flash-backs and plot twists. Yet the surprise ending pays off.
Not as great, is the new film by German director Doris Dörrie, The Hairdresser which is in competition as a Berlin Special. Gabriela Maria Schmeide plays unemployed hairdresser Kathi, who can’t find a job due to her weight. In a bid to make her dreams come true, Kathi decides to rent out an Asian restaurant and turn it into a hairdressers.
Gabriela Maria Schmeide is likeable in this role, but the fat suit looks ridiculous on her small frame. The film has received mixed responses at both press and gala screenings. So there might be hope for The Hairdresser, yet.
Josef Gruebl
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