BFI sees The Writing on the Wall
The British Film Institute (BFI) Southbank has programmed a major three-part season from October through December that looks at European identity, with particular emphasis on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Towards a New Europe: The Writing on the Wall launches with Roberto Rossellini’s Germany Year Zero (1947), shot on location in occupied Berlin. Other highlights include Carol Reed’s spy thriller The Man Between (1953), Jürgen Böttcher’s East Berlin set Born in ’45 (1966), which was previously banned, Wim Wenders’ West Berlin set Wings of Desire (1987), and Jean-Luc Godard and Jurgen Bottcher’s essays on German unification in Germany Nine Zero (1991) and The Wall (1990), respectively.
Other screenings include Frauke Sandig & Eric Black’s After the Fall (1999), Gerhard Klein’s Berlin - Schönhauser Corner, Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] (2003), John Burgan’s Memory of Berlin (1998), Oskar Roehler’s No Place To Go (1999), Barbara & Winfried Junge’s This is My Life - Marieluise of Golzow (1996) and Wolfram and Jörg Daniel Hissen’s Wrapped Reichstag (1996).
The season continues in November with special screenings to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and a month-long focus on how Europe has evolved since 1989.
November also sees a celebration of the work of auteur Michael Haneke with all his major films screened. As a centrepiece to the Haneke season, eminent German film scholar and expert Thomas Elsaesser will explore the director’s themes.
In December, the season’s third and final part will look at how Europe has been depicted by filmmakers as a symbol and metaphor.
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