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Live screenings will resume in 2022 after last
year's online-only version, in an event artistic director Carlo
Chatrian hoped would restore the social bonds that two years of
lockdowns and isolation have weakened.
"Never before have we seen and welcomed so many love stories as
this year: crazy, improbable, unexpected and intoxicating love,"
Chatrian said, unveiling this year's competition lineup.
Eighteen films will compete for the Golden Bear for best picture
in a slimmed-down competition that includes French director
Claire Denis' "Both Sides of the Blade", casting Juliette
Binoche in a pandemic-time love triangle.
"Seeing a film in a theatre, being able to hear breathing,
laughter or whispers next to you (even with correct social
distancing), contributes in a vital way not only to the viewing
pleasure but also to strengthening the social function that
cinema has, and must continue to have," Chatrian added.
Founded in 1951 in a divided city that straddled the frontlines
of the Cold War, the Berlinale is often the most political of
the major film festivals, and the 72nd edition, which runs from
Feb. 10-20, preserves some of that spirit.
Even as the U.S. Supreme Court hears cases that could limit the
right to abortion, Phyllis Nagy's "Call Jane", starring
Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Mara, is set in the
1960s at a time when abortion was illegal in the country.
France's Francois Ozon returns to the festival with "Peter von
Kant", a retelling of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 study of
love, rage and possessiveness, while Isabelle Huppert, who wins
a lifetime achievement award this year, stars in Laurent
Lariviere's "About Joan".
Other premieres include Peter Flinth's "Against the Ice" and
"Dark Glasses" by Dario Argento, the Italian director best known
for the lurid 1977 cult horror film "Suspiria".
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Miranda Murray and Mike
Collett-White)
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