In Berlin, Film VIPs Decried War

"It's nice being in Europe this week," actor Edward Norton told a crowd of journalists and film industry professionals at the presentation of "25th Hour," a film by Spike Lee. "Almost everyone in Germany and France is in sync with their governments -- I almost forgot what it's like to be proud of my government."

Norton's voice joined the swell of criticism from visiting Americans that characterized the 10-day festival, which ended Sunday. And it found a welcome ear among the festival crowds, who greeted each expression of antiwar feeling from the visiting Americans with knowing nods and loud cheers.

"I am not anti-American, but I am anti the views of the present administration," Dustin Hoffman said to rapturous applause at the festival's black-tie gala. "Since 9/11, there has been an unfortunate manipulation of the media, which is mainly corporate in my country, and by the administration to use the grief of that day to manipulate political views."

Director and Vietnam War veteran Oliver Stone also accused the U.S. media of fostering a sense that conflict with Iraq is inescapable.

"The media has loaded the question as to when we got to the inevitable war, not as to why," he said at a news conference to discuss "Comandante," his documentary on Fidel Castro.

"I have no idea why we're fighting Iraq," Stone said.

From actor George Clooney to Lee and fellow director Martin Scorsese, the chorus of made-in-America criticism of the Bush administration went down like fine champagne in Berlin.

"Hoffman put a warm feeling in the stomach of many Germans," said Harald Martenstein, cultural editor for Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. "It gave the impression to Germans that by being against this war, you are in harmony with people in the United States who matter -- actors, directors and so on -- and it gave the antiwar movement here quite a big kick."

The festival, also known as the Berlinale, has often been politically charged since it was founded in 1951, the brainchild of a U.S. military film officer in the forces then occupying Germany. During the Vietnam War, the 1970 festival dissolved in chaos after Washington officially protested the screening of German director Michael Verhoeven's movie "OK." The film included the gang rape of a Vietnamese woman by four U.S. soldiers.