"Traffic" ahead as Berlin Film Fest calls it a wrap

Director Steven Soderbergh's unsettling film about America's futile war on drugs was nominated last week for five Academy Awards. The picture, which stars Michael Douglas and his recent bride Catherine Zeta Jones, has already won best film and best director honours from the New York Film Critics Circle. And the circle's best supporting actor honours went to Benicio Del Toro. Fest-goers and local critics have given the thumbs-up to the film, and Soderbergh braved a possible Hollywood strike and drizzly, bone- chilling Berlin winter weather to plug his picture here.

Michael's 84-year-old father Kirk Douglas was also in town, wowing audiences by speaking German and accepting a Golden Bear lifetime achievement award, his star allure untarnished by time or a debilitating stroke he suffered five years ago. The fest's other big star, showing up as the fest wound down, was 70-year-old Sean Connery. Plugging "Finding Forrester", Connery was stirred but unshaken by the media hubbub surrounding his appearances Friday and Saturday. That was in contrast to 16-year-old newcomer Rob Brown, his co- star in the movie, who was visibly awed by the bright lights and attention. In Gus Van Sant's film, Connery plays a reclusive author ensconced in a Harlem apartment who is befriended by a teenager who is a latent writer. Unflappable as ever, Connery told interviewers he preferred to watch the "other James Bonds" rather than his own screen portrayal. And when asked for the secret of his sexiness at age 70, Connery quipped, "I'm afraid I'll take that with me to the grave."

Despite Connery's personal appearance, "Finding Forrester" was not expected to garner awards at this festival. "Traffic" was the clear favourite, though the buzz on the red carpet at Marlene Dietrich Platz had it that the heart-warming Danish entry "Italian For Beginners" could emerge as a dark horse winner at the finish line. It is seldom that laughter and sobs are heard at this festival, best known over half a century for its political-intellectual fare. But it's almost unheard of for a low-budget Danish film to elicit both. "Italian For Beginners" accomplished that feat, despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that director Lone Scherfig is the first woman director ever chosen by the Dogma group of anti-Hollywood intellectual Scandinavian filmmakers who shun such "showy" things as artificial lighting or professional use of microphones. Using little-known actors, she tells a heart-warming story of lonely Danes who sign up for instruction in Italian and end up learning the true meaning of la dolce vita during a "vocabulary- building" trip to the Mediterranean.

No one in Berlin had anticipated this "small film" would emerge as one of the favourites of this fest. The Mike Nichols drama "Wit", starring Emma Thompson as a bookish spinster dying of cancer, also went over well in Berlin. Nichols charmed Berliners by showing up here - the first time he has been to the German capital since he was 8 years old. Turns out his real name is Michael Igor Peschkowsky and he was born in Berlin. His Russian Jewish emigre parents fled Nazi Germany in 1939. Speculation was rife as the festival neared its end that the fest - and his hometown - owe Nichols a token of respect. If nothing else, Thompson could well win the Silver Bear Best Actress statuette, pundits felt. There was no such buzz about Anthony Hopkins and Ridley Scott's "Hannibal", which received a unanimous thumbs-down from German critics. "Hannibal" director Ridley Scott found himself attending his mother's funeral instead of joining Hopkins in Berlin at the European premiere of his new chiller.

The timing could not have been better. Hopkins dominated TV news and press headlines just as box office figures showed "Hannibal" had wolfed down a whopping 58 million dollars in its first three days of release in the U.S. and Canada. That puts it behind "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" as the biggest three-day weekend opener. Whether that helps or hinders the sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" in the race for the Golden Bear remains to be seen, since this festival has a tradition of shunning commercial disturbing horror blockbusters (like "Hannibal") in favour of disturbing political dramas (like "Traffic"). The same could be said for "Chocolat", which garnered five Academy Awards nominations last week but which proved to be the surprise disappointment at the Berlin fest. In advance, the Berlin pundits had predicted the Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche vehicle "Chocolat" would be a highlight of this year's festival. But the reviews after the initial screening were scathing, with one critic saying "Chocolat" left a bad taste in my mouth, it was so treacly sweet. This time the feeling was that this "comic fable" (as it is billed) about passions and fears aroused by the opening of a praline shop in a small town in France was just "too American" to go down well with European audiences. And that despite the fact that it was directed by Lasse Hallstrom and adapted from the acclaimed novel by Joanne Harris.

Long-time observers of this festival warned against betting on "Traffic" as a sure thing. They recalled how an obscure Brazilian film won the Golden Bear two years ago, despite all odds. That film, "Central Do Brasil" (Central Station), then went on the following month to win the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. That was a lesson for smug Berlin critics - and for hopeful filmmakers. As Kirk Douglas admonished at a Berlin news conference this week: "Never give up."

(dpa)