*A
delegation of high ranking officials from the Daimler
Chrysler visited the festival yesterday and met with
festival director Moritz de Hadeln, who outlined to
them the various giltches that have occurred in the
first use of their buildings for the Berlinale.
*
Hamburg based news magazine Der Spiegel criticized
the fair atmosphere in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt
Hotel. The festival which had complained about the lobby
design from the very first day of the festival wishes
to underline that this is not within their responsibilities.
*There
was a clatter of boots outside the office of Peter Schnappauf
in the radio and TV office of the Berlinale a couple
of days ago. No, they hadn't come to take him away.
It was the heavy heels of firemen, who stormed into
his room after the smoke alarm inadvertently triggered.
This, however, did something strange. It blew a vast
amount of cold air into the room, which blew the vast
numbers of papers off his desk and all over the floor.
One cannot help but think that all that oxygen might
only have served to fan the flames, while paper is traditionally
known to assist in the starting of fires. In a similar
incident, claxons and screeching tyres were heard around
the Hyatt, stopping passers-by in their tracks. The
reason? Another false alarm. Better safe than sorry.
*Good
news for journalists having to file copy to different
time zones from next year the press room and
the telecommunications facilities in the Berlinale
Palast will extend their opening hours to make life
easier for writers and broadcasters, especially from
Latin America and the USA.
*
Denzel Washington, in town yesterday for
the presentation of Norman Jewison's The Hurricane,
has revealed that a crime took place during the
festival when he was awarded the Silver Bear for
his monumental performance in Spike Lee's Malcolm
X. Awarded in his absence, the Bear never actually
reached Washington and so investigations are currently
taking place to see where it ended up.
*
Wednesday's debate about The Deerhunter
debacle revealed some juicy secrets that haven't
been widely known until now. The most important
of these was the fact that everything to do with
the affair was handled personally by Soviet Foreign
Minister Andrei Gromyko.
*
Festival director Moritz de Hadeln has been
very busy over the last few days, doing live interviews
with CNN's Riz Khan and also BBC World. In addition,
he received a large Chinese delegation yesterday,
including the team of the Shanghai International
Film Festival. Also passing through the festival's
doors was Mrs Masayo Okada of the Kawakita Memorial
Film Institute.
*
A meeting has taken place between festival
director Moritz de Hadeln and the general secretary
of FIAPF, Phyllis Mollet. While the festival was
praised for its smooth organisation, the question
of traffic snarl ups in the area of the Berlinale
Palast was discussed in order that it might be improved
next year.
