Speaking From the Diaphragm: 02/19/2017

Eine saubere Sache!

The 67th Berlinale just ended and of course I caught a cold because being the fool that I am I didn't change into my street clothes after Djaning the Forum party at AdK. Instead soaking wet in my lovely Rick Owens gown I went out in the night air. Lucky for me Djane Olga Damnitz gave me, Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Diane McCarthy of FM Reboot a ride home in her trusty babydyke stationwagon. Obviously I am not use to coming home at 5am.

Had a great time Djaning the Forum Party this year with assist from a real Djane in the form of the mega talented Olga Damnitz. Empress Stefanie had the brilliant idea of having the drag queens from the Forum Film Casa Roshell directed by Camila Jose' Donoso do an impromptu performance singing traditional Mexican songs. It really got things going and brought a bit of a sexymexy flavour to cold bleak Berlin. There were so many films this year I wanted to see, but my gouty knees and feet kept me limited. In the Forum section I missed Joshua Z. Weinstein's Menashe about a portly Hasidic man and his young son, I did see Alex Ross Perry's Golden Exits which I could have easily skipped as it wasn't intriguing accept for nice performances from Adam Horowitz of The Beastie Boys, Chloe Sivigny and a stellar Mary Louise Parker. The theme for the Forum Expanded exhibition this year was The Stars Down to Earth which as usual was lovingly designed and installed by Angela Anderson and her top flight crew that includes Mascha Nehls, Richard Gabriel Gersch, Cat Barich, Alexia Apolinario, Catalina Fernandez, Josephine Breiberg, Laura Gamberg, Coral Short, Mark Andre Pennock & Company. My favorite pieces this year Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik by Sandra Schaefer,Purple Bodies in Translation by Joe Namy, The Karrabing Film Collective piece and Izadora (listening to versions of herself) which should have been in a room all to itself as the sounds from other installations interfered with its tranquil nature.

So glad I got to see both versions of Susanne Sachsse the fearless leader of kollektiv CHEAP's Confessions of an Actress at AdK and at Kino Arsenal along with Judy LaBruce hilarious Ulrike's Brain. This year could have also been subtitled Sachssenale as she was featured in 5 films. La Sachsse is the epitome of great beauty, profound talent and super smarts.

The other big buzz item of the festival starrying Miss Susi Su was LaBruce's The Misandrists a loose remake of Don Siegels 1971 classic The Beguilded starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. Kembra Phafler one of the other stars was giving excellent Geraldine Page realness in the film, but its Ms. Sachsse and breakout young star Kita Updike who shine the most though the entire cast is quite stunning. Because of the criticism I received for favouring only Forum Expanded and Forum films I branched out a bit by seeing more Panorama offerings. Loved the delicious Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino starring WASPY jew Armie Hammer and young Timothee Chalamet whose chemistry on camera continues off, if you believe the rumours, and I certainly do. God's Own Country directed by bearded Yorkshire brownbear dadster Francis Lee was also quite powerful starring juicy dark ginger skally lad Josh O'Connor. With freezing temps in Berlin it felt great to see the summer lovers film Bing Lang Xue by Hu Jia featuring two sizzling Chinese youth, one who flaunts his stuff in hustler white pants. I could have done without the films florays into violence, the main storyline was more then enough. Of the Competition films I only saw Viceroy House by Gurinda Chadha. I am a sucker for a costume drama and this one has Gillian Anderson in it. I wish Ms. Chadha had told her families true story set during the period of partition instead of the lame love story inacted, but at least I got a chance to druel over hunky Indian star Mannish Dayal.

This year Rising Stars, Falling Stars was part of the 12^th Forum Expanded Think Film Congress No 5-Archival Constellations. The panels and talks started at 10am at silent green Kulturequartier and ended at 10pm. Some hardcore archivists told me that they loved the endurance aspect of this year's congress, but I like coming to see programs every day for short time bursts. I wisely chose the 1957 Bugs Bunny Warner Brothers cartoon Hare-way to the Stars directed by Chuck Jones with vocalizations by Mel Blanc to close the day, and everyone seemed to agree with me including: celebs like Chino Darin, Guillaume Canet, Ellar Coltrane and Jai Courtney. Rising Stars regulars Daniel Hendrickson, the Jewish Muzlim, Trixie Schonherr, Stephan Ahrans, Uli &Anke, Nanna Heidenreich, Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and Clarisse Mehring were all having a hoot of a time. My former Malmo Art Akademie student Maria Normann took a ten hour bus ride from Sweden to attend Rising Stars and Forum Expanded screenings and exhibit while glamorously dressed taboot! It was also a delight to see one of my old LA pals now a top notch Hollywood producer Mr. Bryan Rabin. Bryan use to do the club Cherry in WeHO and also was the mastermind behind many big corporate industry parties and events. Bryan started his career as a professional Olympics style ice skater and still maintains his championship youthful physique. His movie Freakshow based on the novel by clubkid James St. James was in the Generations section of the Berlinale.

One of my more recent students Brenda Lien from Offenbach Kunst Universitaet was representing with a film in Berlinale Shorts called Call of Cuteness that was part of the Utopia Unplugged theme. Her film was a 4 min long animated meditation on unbridled capitalismos. Pretty Brenda is certainly a talent to watch and also within her segment the Argentine film Centaura by Nicolas Suarez, Helen Yanovsky's The Boy from H2 featuring a most expressive Palistinian child. I walked out on David O'Reilly's video game Everything-yuck!

Did not do very much partying this year but did go to the Panorama reception(Thankx Gerit!) and ran into my old Silverlake pal the Lars Von Trier darling Udo Kier who was my scrumpteous cover model for when I was guest editor with Ron Athey of the LA Weekly Style Issue back in 2000.

Speaking From the Diaphragm

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Galaktishch geil

Gefaehrlich sexy