The_Hollywood_Reporter__February_07_2018

The Best Veggie
Bowls in Berlin
The city of curry wurst has discovered
its inner lust for quinoa and beetroot
Vollbluth
Vollbluth, which just opened in September, takes
the veggie bowl to the next level with its seasonally
adjusted selection of salads topped off with millet,
black lentils or hulled wheat. Non-vegans can add a
portion of pork belly, duck sausage or salmon marinated
in maple syrup. Welserstrasse 10-12
Daluma
Just a short cab ride from the festival center, this
is the spot to get your superfood fix in Berlin. Try the
legendary acai bowl or a breakfast chia pudding.
Top it all off with a guilt-free cold-pressed smoothie.
Weinbergsweg 3
To keep things from getting stale,
My Goodness rotates its menu daily.
My Goodness
Also a short trip from Potsdamer Platz, this brandnew
power-food spot with an adjunct yoga and
spinning studio (Becycle) in the same building lets
you pack in a workout and a detox meal in one go.
Everything — from the breakfast sweet bowls to the
lunch salads of kale, quinoa and artichoke — is fresh,
surprising and delicious. Brunnenstrasse 24 — S.R.
Phoenix (left) plays cartoonist John Callahan, who became
a paraplegic at age 21 following a car accident.
KOSSLICK: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES. WORRY, ISLE: COURTESY OF BERLINALE. GOODNESS: COURTESY OF SUBJECT (2).
You worked with Harvey Weinstein on 1997’s
Good Will Hunting. How was your experience?
It was great. He was always very hands-off.
The amount of interaction was quite small. He
came to the set one day, then I saw him at the
screening, and then I saw him at the premiere.
You’ve tackled several films featuring real
people, from John Callahan to Harvey Milk, and
some loosely based on real people. What’s the
biggest challenge in portraying real people?
Harvey Milk was a well-known person, but
he’s not as well known as some [film subjects],
so we had a certain amount of leeway. The
same with John Callahan. I still haven’t done,
say, Churchill. To me, they’re the same dramatically.
They’re all directly connected to the
reality, whether or not we’re using real names.
You played Dr. Campbell in The Canyons, among
other roles. Why do you take on these parts?
The Entourage one was [supposedly me], but
I don’t think they knew me very well, so they
just invented a character that was more like
James Cameron. I’ve accepted roles generally
to see if I could actually pull it off. They’ve
always been very instructional as to how actors
feel on my own set. If your costume isn’t ready,
it interrupts the whole flow. So I do acting as
an experiment.
pre-Hispanic artifacts
from the
National Museum
of Anthropology in
Mexico City. Gael
Garcia Bernal stars.
UNSANE
After breaking his hiatus
from features with
2017’s heist comedy
Logan Lucky, Steven
Soderbergh takes a more
experimental turn with
this claustrophobic psycho-thriller
shot entirely
on an iPhone. Claire
Foy loses her crown
as a woman convinced
she’s being pursued
by a stalker, even after
she’s involuntarily
committed to a mental
institution. — DAVID ROONEY
The Knives Come Out for
a Festival Director
WITH DIETER KOSSLICK’S CONTRACT RUNNING OUT AFTER 17 YEARS, INSIDERS
ARE DEBATING HIS LEGACY AND SCRAMBLING TO FIND A SUCCESSOR
Dieter Kosslick,
with his black
fedora and bright
red scarf, has been the
enduring symbol of the
Berlin International
Film Festival for the 17
years he has served as
festival director.
But with his contract
up in May 2019, he only
has two festivals left —
including the one that
kicks off Feb. 15. And
already a battle has
erupted over his legacy
and what comes next.
In late November, 79
directors — including
art house stars Fatih
Akin (In the Fade), Maren
Ade (Toni Erdmann)
and Oscar winner Volker
Schlondorff (The Tin
Drum) signed an open
letter calling for a post-
Kosslick transformation.
When he steps down,
the directors wrote, the
Berlinale should “refresh
and renew” the festival
and think about its
“fundamental direction.”
Innocuous enough.
But the letter, published
by Spiegel magazine,
has set off a wave of
Dieter bashing.
In November, 79 directors
signed a letter calling for the
Berlinale to change its focus.
“The Berlinale has
gotten bigger and bigger
[under Kosslick], but
its profile continues to
diminish,” says German
director Christoph
Hochhausler, a signatory
to the letter and, Kosslick
has suggested, a driving
force behind it.
Kosslick dismisses his
critics as “the same small
group of people with
the same old complaints:
No American films or
no European films, too
big or too whatever.”
But he admits that his
Berlinale is less studioheavy.
This year features
a solitary studio title:
Wes Anderson’s fest
opener, Isle of Dogs,
from Fox Searchlight.
In his defense,
Kosslick cites a poll
of more than 1,000
festivalgoers by German
survey group the Forsa
Institute, which found
nearly all were “satisfied”
with the Berlinale
and more than half
“very satisfied” or “overwhelmingly
satisfied.”
“They want more
films, not fewer,” says
Kosslick. “They live in an
entirely different world
than some critics live
in. … If people want a
different type of festival,
a smaller festival with
12 films to watch over a
week, they can go somewhere
else. The Berlinale
isn’t a small, sweet little
festival for five people.”
Indeed, under
Kosslick, Berlin’s oncetiny
European Film
Market has become the
second largest film market
in the world, after
Cannes. The critics may
complain, but the market
remains robust, with
no signs of companies
pulling up stakes. — S.R.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
63
FEBRUARY 7, 2018