Well we are on Day 5 of the BIFF and I'm 7 movies into it and finding it hard to keep up with the blogging and letting you know what's good and what's bad. Here is a quick summary of the Festival until I can get a breather which should be tomorrow, as I have another 2 movies today.
1. The new ticketing system SUCKS so get there early
This year they have decided to use Ticketek as the method of buying tickets, and it is terrible. If buying tickets at the cinema, you should probably plan to get there up to 30 or 45 minutes earlier than the start time, as the ticketing system is plagued with problems (passes must be linked to a Ticketek account, you can't see how many tickets you have left on a pass, you have to use all your 'evening' tickets on a pass before you can redeem your free daytime movies, the staff can't understand the codes to sort out problems that arise with the free daytime movies) and it is also really slow. I've seen lots of people waiting in line 5 minutes before a movie and by the time they get their tickets, the movie has already started. I've also seen some people standing at the counter flipping through the guide trying to decide what tickets to buy while people in line behind them who know what they want slowly start to boil over. Be prepared people and don't hog the counter. I've stepped aside a few times when buying advance tickets to let people buying for a movie starting soon go ahead of me.
2. The Congress was amazing but has already finished
Sorry folks but the best film I've seen so far has already completed it's second screening last night. The Congress is worth searching out on DVD if you like mind-bending movies which satirise Hollywood, blend eye-popping animation and live action and leave you thinking "wow" even though you have no idea what it was really about.
3. Watch the trailer to decide rather than using the Guide
The program guide can be misleading and can make things sound better than they really are, and awards from other festivals don't mean it will be good. An example is the guide saying that "The Act of Killing" is 'the documentary of the festival season' whereas I found it horrible and annoying and a waste of almost 3 hours. How this won an audience favourite prize at the Berlin Film Festival I don't know. There isn't another showing to take warning against, but my advice would be to try to watch the trailer to get a feel for movies before you go see them. The BIFF team this year seem to have obtained a trailer for every film and set up a Youtube channel to screen them, which is a great way to see if you might like something. Pity I didn't do it before yesterday's waste of time.
4. Allow for movies to start/finish late
If you are thinking of going to back to back movies, allow enough time to get to your second movie and build in somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes for it to be late. If you don't think you'll make the second one, you will have to cut one of those movies out. Most movies start on time, but not all. Sometimes the film reel has literally not arrived from overseas on time, and other times I have no idea why they start 10 minutes late (my theory is they are trying to sell more tickets before starting due to the aforementioned queue problems). Last night we missed the first 5-10 minutes of our second film due to the first one running late. This problem can be compounded if you have to walk between different cinemas - allow yourself plenty of time.
So far I've enjoyed Almost Human (gory horror movie fans should see this low budget comedy), The Congress, Spirit of '45 and Bethlehem. A Touch of Sin was ok but slow, same goes for Outrage Beyond. The Art of Killing was terrible. Today there are 2 movies which I have high hopes for: Oxv: the Manual and The Square. If you have a spare afternoon, it's well worth getting along to something but follow my tips above!
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