Summertime

 

For those who aren't very interested in football, here are some cinema/book ideas and plans for the upcoming summer in Berlin! 

It's time for open air cinema again! Because that went really well last year... I'm going to try it again, though, there's no giving up and maybe the weather will play along this year. Doesn't look like it yet, but there's always hope. Although some theaters don't even have a summer program yet, some have announced the movies they will be showing, and let's take a look at the attractive ones, old and new.

Danny Boyle's Trainspotting was first released in 1996 and inspired a whole generation to start wearing sneakers and, I'm not proud to say, to experiment with drugs, as if that was the point of the movie. Twenty some years later, T2 reminded us of how wonderful it all was back then, and in order to not forget this feeling, the original movie can be watched again on a hopefully nice summer night on the big screen. I know the European Championships hold priority (and between us, I think Renton and co. would rather watch football too) but it's important to make space for cult legends. Showtimes are on June 14th or July 15th at the Freiluftkino Hasenheide. The soundtrack alone is worth the effort.

And talking about the score, there's a movie which shares one of the tracks on it, one of the best songs ever, and is even titled similarly - Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, a bitter sweet feel-good movie that will be showcased on July 14th at Hasenheide and July 6th and 26th at Freiluftkino Kreuzberg.

Another cult legend being showcased on June 19th at Freiluftkino Kreuzberg is Donnie Darko, a personal favorite of mine. I own a small selection of movies that are "me", movies I feel good watching, and if I ever end up in the undesirable situation of not knowing what to watch, I fall back on that selection. Donnie Darko is one of those movies, I can't say why but it gives me comfort in a dark way. It is also a movie I can still watch after all these years and still find new details to discover. I guess that's what makes a cult classic.

I am surrounded by Nicolas Cage fans though I personally never had any strong feelings for him until I saw the psychiatrist scene in Vampire's Kiss (1988) and from that point on I felt something, namely utter confusion as to whether this man is genius or dumb. In any case I enjoy his role selection, he seems to have a soft spot for crazy roles and I generally enjoy watching movies of him. So it's a shame I actually missed Dream Scenario when it was in theaters this year, I have no idea why. It looks like a kind of pastiche referring to Nightmare on Elm Street but I'm not sure. In any case I'm happy there's a chance to see it after all. Show time is June 26th at Freilichtbühne Weißensee.

Speaking about Freilichtbühne Weißensee, they have a very sweet, very nostalgic program in the summer during which they show movies from former GDR each Thursday night. I'm not at all familiar with East German cinema, but I'm willing to find out, I'm sure it's very interesting.

I also want to see the "Norway Noir" Alle hater Johan/Alle hassen Johan, looks like a cute movie.

Exciting films at the wonderful Yorck initiative Creepy Crypt are; Faculty, a student's nightmare from the 90s, showtime is June 15th; Cuckoo, a movie I had a ticket for and missed for the Berlinale, showtime is June 29th and Carrie, what a great surprise! showtime is July 15th. The organizers also announced that this summer every other Saturday or so they'll show the remaining movies of the Friday the 13th series, as you know they had shown the first four in a marathon in March this year.

On July 10th you can watch a vampire cult classic, Bram Stoker's Dracula from the eyes of Francis Ford Coppola at the Odeon in Schöneberg. 

So, as you see, there are lots of options, especially horror-wise.

This was the movie part, now let's look at some books. As you may have followed, the Bram Stoker Awards for the year 2023 have been granted at the end of May and the winners are winners I can live with, though not all nominees were strong this year. Definitely deserved are the awards for anthology (Out There Screaming ed. by John Joseph Adams and Jordan Peele), best novel (The Reformatory by Tananarive Due) and long form (Linghun by Ai Jiang).

I have to say that no book really blew my mind in this slow year 2024 so far. The ones I enjoyed are Myrrh by Polly Hall, How I Killed the Universal Man by Thomas Kendall and the short story anthology Through the Night Like a Snake edited by Sarah Coolidge.

I feel there are more good books ahead, but it definitely has been a slow start, I'm still curious what's to come.

Don't forget music! Don't forget the Fête de la Musique on June 21st, and amazing gigs like Neubauten, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Therapy? (These are artists whose tickets are somewhat affordable, devastated that I missed Tool because of high prices) coming up.

Enjoy your summer whatever you end up doing!