LGBT films & WWII footage among final Berlinale highlights

Our correspondent at the Berlin Film Festival and France 24 writer, Jon Frosch, recently spoke with the director of standout LGBT film Test, Chris Mason Johnson. Test is set in 1987 and follows a young gay dancer as he agonizes over whether or not to take the new HIV test. Johnson shared his views on the state of queer cinema today: “I think after an initial phase of amazing queer cinema in the ‘90s, we entered a phase that was less adventurous. And now I think we’re coming out of that into a more artful, realistic representation.”

Frosch’s final dispatch from the international film showcase includes his thoughts on the harrowing 1945 documentary, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey. The work was filmed by British, American and Russian cameramen with the intent of eventually screening their finished product before a German audience, forcing the German people to face the horrors begot by their support or indifference. The filmmakers soon determined, however, that the film (overseen by a prominent Hollywood director) would work to counteract the Allies’ goal of German reconciliation. The Berlin premiere marked the first time the documentary screened in full feature-length form. Factual Survey stands in stark contrast to the “Hollywood cheese” of George Clooney’s WWII yarn, The Monuments Men.

'Tower Heist' to be available for just $59.99 three weeks after opening

By Sarah Sluis

If most city dwellers pay at least $10 for a movie ticket, it would take six people just to equal the price of watching Tower Heist on-demand for $59.99. The fee, which is more than six months of Netflix's streaming services, is part of a test being carried out by Universal and its parent company, Comcast. For that price, viewers can watch the film three weeks after its theatrical release in the comfort of their own homes. But who's buying?

A lot of people don't even have six comfortable seats on their couch, let alone the ability to wrangle so many friends together to watch a movie and share the cost. Do executives at Universal and Comcast expect people will invite friends over to watch the movie? Will couples gather older children (the movie will be rated PG-13) around the television? Will the teens themselves hit the "buy" button to the consternation of their parents? Or will this be a status thing for the people on MTV's "Cribs" with home theatres?

Comcast plans to test the VOD concept in two markets, Atlanta and Portland. Atlanta, with its high population of affluent black citizens and ex-pro sports players, seems like a good fit for the test, especially since Tower Heist has a couple of prominent black cast members (Eddie Murphy and Gabby Sidibe of Precious fame). Portland may be the counterpoint to that test, with a liberal, tech-savvy populace but not as much of a reputation for McMansions. Because the McMansion segment, presumably, has enough money to rent a movie for ten times what it used to cost at Blockbuster.

It's doubtful that Universal and Comcast would release the data from the test, so the best indication of this working would be if this idea of high-priced on-demand continues to flourish. So far, the exhibition industry and NATO have not spoken out on this issue. The audience for high-priced on-demands is probably small. It's hard to see the value proposition in paying so much to see a movie at home when a theatre provides more of a guarantee of good technical specs and an "event"-like experience.

Is this high-priced product intended to figure out the upper limit people will pay to watch a movie? Or is it simply a bit of a bait-and-switch? If the industry plans on offering more reasonably priced, $29.99 on-demands in the future, maybe this is just a way to gain a foothold and flout current windowing guidelines without prompting the ire of the exhibition industry.