Berlin, Germany: Berlinale Offers Several Great Options Including Free Outdoor Movie

With almost 400 films and countless otherВ events accompanying this year's Berlinale, choosing what to see can be a daunting task. Fortunately,В The Local has sifted out a sampling of the festival's most interesting offerings. Second only to festivals in Cannes and Venice in glamour, the Berlinale claims to be the world's largest film festival open to the public. Anyone with the pluck to negotiate the overwhelming lineup 391 films with a total of 970 showings this year can experience the best global cinema has to offer. From the festival's nine categories, the winners are: BERLINALE SPECIAL Metropolis If you see nothing else this Berlinale, the freshly restored Metropolis should be on your list. But you only get one chance! Bundle up, grab your flask, and brave the frosty weather to see the legendary silent science fiction film in its original glory at an outdoor public showing at 8pm on February 12 at theВ Brandenburg Gate. If you prefer your sofa, broadcaster ARTE will be airing the film, along with the live orchestra soundtrack, at the same time. COMPETITION All twenty films competing for the topВ Golden Bear prize for best film, and the Silver Bears for best acting, production and screenplay, are likely to be well worth seeing. Here are a few of our favourites. Exit Through the Gift Shop The elusive graffitiВ artist Banksy's first film is sure to be popular. Here he inverts the outside world's curiosity about his persona with what he calls a film about a man who is trying to make a film about me. Howl Berlin hipsters are likely to flock to this flick, starring the dreamyВ James FrancoasВ Allen Ginsberg during the San Francisco obscenity trial about the famousBeat Generation poet's work Howl. Apart Together This period Chinese film opens the festival and depicts a soldier forced to flee communism for Taiwan in 1949 who more than 50 years later attempts to reunite with the love of his life only by then she is married to sergeant in the communist army. TheВ Ghost Writer Following the highly-publicised legal drama in Roman Polanski'sВ personal life, all eyes will be on his new film starringВ Ewan McGregor, which was finished from the director's Swiss chalet while on house arrest. Kristen Allen Excerpt from http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20100211-17229.html