Berlinale, 2/10.

"The same reason it is easy to pinpoint the interest in Tan Pin Pin's Invisible City is in fact the same reason the documentary fails: the video, for its unfortunately short running time, seems like a series of sketches for a more carefully crafted feature yet to come," writes Daniel Kasman at the Auteurs' Notebook, a new blog for an intriguing new service, The Auteurs.

Also, "there isn't a lot to recommend about Brigitte Bertele's Night Before Eyes, a psychological drama about a German soldier suffering trauma after returning from Afghanistan, so in lieue of a boring takedown, let's focus on the single positive aspect of the picture."

"Hamburg-born director Özgür Yildirim takes a classical story of small-time drug dealing spiralling out of control and makes it exciting all over again in his debut feature Chiko," writes Boyd van Hoeij. Also at european-films.net, Fabrizio Maltese's Berlinale photo diary.

"Shiver offers a few decent scares but remains safely within genre conventions," writes Jürgen Fauth. "Director Isidro Ortiz relies heavily on the tricks of the trade - an overbearing score, night vision footage, and so forth - but neglects to flesh out his characters, which remain generic."

Following that first dispatch, indieWIRE's been posting photos and notes.

Posted by dwhudson at February 10, 2008 2:22 PM