Berlin International Film Festival

Festival Entries: Three American films are among the first eight pictures announced Monday for the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. "Toys," "Hoffa" and "Malcolm X" have been selected for the competition, which takes place Feb. 11-22.

When Claudia Llosa was growing up in Lima, Peru, adolescence wasn't a time for hanging out with friends in the streets. The country was in the grip of a brutal civil war pitting the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas against a government determined to stamp them out at any cost. "The message was, 'Stay inside! Hide yourself! Be careful!' " Llosa, 33, recalled recently during an interview at a West Hollywood hotel, speaking in Spanish. "I knew that I would speak of the theme one day, but I didn't know how to come face to face with it. It was a reality that changed everything.

As Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor describe it, there was no need for the cast of Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" to have long, philosophical discussions about the movie's creepy real-life parallels. It wasn't necessary, for example, to dissect Brosnan's character, a hazily sinister British ex-prime minister who's a dead ringer for Tony Blair, or to over-analyze his seething, neurotic wife, played by Olivia Williams as a cross between Cherie Blair and Lady Macbeth. It was all pretty obvious and pretty amusing.

As Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor describe it, there was no need for the cast of Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" to have long, philosophical discussions about the movie's creepy real-life parallels. It wasn't necessary, for example, to dissect Brosnan's character, a hazily sinister British ex-prime minister who's a dead ringer for Tony Blair, or to over-analyze his seething, neurotic wife, played by Olivia Williams as a cross between Cherie Blair and Lady Macbeth. It was all pretty obvious and pretty amusing.

Actors Brock Peters and Susan Strasberg will be the U.S. members of an 11-member international jury judging entries at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, Feb. 11-22. Other countries represented include Spain, China, Poland, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Germany.

Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" and Steven Soderbergh's "The Good German" will screen in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 8 through Feb. 18.

Mike Leigh is celebrating the power of positive thinking in his new movie, "Happy-Go-Lucky," which premiered Tuesday at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film focuses on the life of London teacher Poppy (played by Sally Hawkins), a character who, the director said, is "special . . . in a sense that she has this positive energy." Leigh said he wanted to counter a trend toward pessimism and show that "there are in the world people being -- despite everything that's happening -- people being positive and getting on with it."

Video maker Marlon Riggs will screen and discuss his work on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Crystal Cove Auditorium in the UC Irvine Student Center. His public lecture and one-day residency in the studio art department at UCI are part of the Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series. Riggs is producer, director and writer of "Tongues Untied," a controversial video documentary exploring the lives of gay black men.

Selections for this year's Berlin International Film Festival range from Iran to Argentina and include new movies from U.S. veterans Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman. This year's Berlinale, the 56th, runs from Feb. 9 to 19. It will offer 29 world premieres. The films are overall "very political, very close to reality ... directed toward people's problems, with less fantasy," festival director Dieter Kosslick said Monday.

When Claudia Llosa was growing up in Lima, Peru, adolescence wasn't a time for hanging out with friends in the streets. The country was in the grip of a brutal civil war pitting the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas against a government determined to stamp them out at any cost. "The message was, 'Stay inside! Hide yourself! Be careful!' " Llosa, 33, recalled recently during an interview at a West Hollywood hotel, speaking in Spanish. "I knew that I would speak of the theme one day, but I didn't know how to come face to face with it. It was a reality that changed everything.

Moral ambiguity and human complexity aren't qualities usually associated with action films, but for German director Tom Tykwer, they're essential parts of the mix. Great thrillers must not only work on a genre level but also contain moral perspectives as well, said Tykwer, who's best known for his 1998 hyperkinetic international hit "Run Lola Run." It's a philosophy that provides the underpinning for his new film "The International," a cat-and-mouse chase set in motion by the corruption of financial institutions -- an all-too-timely theme given the current economic collapse.

Mike Leigh is celebrating the power of positive thinking in his new movie, "Happy-Go-Lucky," which premiered Tuesday at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film focuses on the life of London teacher Poppy (played by Sally Hawkins), a character who, the director said, is "special . . . in a sense that she has this positive energy." Leigh said he wanted to counter a trend toward pessimism and show that "there are in the world people being -- despite everything that's happening -- people being positive and getting on with it."

Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" and Steven Soderbergh's "The Good German" will screen in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 8 through Feb. 18.

Selections for this year's Berlin International Film Festival range from Iran to Argentina and include new movies from U.S. veterans Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman. This year's Berlinale, the 56th, runs from Feb. 9 to 19. It will offer 29 world premieres. The films are overall "very political, very close to reality ... directed toward people's problems, with less fantasy," festival director Dieter Kosslick said Monday.

Flickering amid the sharp-edged steel and glass of this city's new architecture, the Berlin International Film Festival has evolved from a Cold War novelty to a major marquee for diverse, and sometimes eccentric, global cinema. Attracting an audience this year of more than 60,000, the Berlinale conjures up neither the glitz nor the summer sun of the more celebrated Cannes and Venice festivals.

Actors Brock Peters and Susan Strasberg will be the U.S. members of an 11-member international jury judging entries at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, Feb. 11-22. Other countries represented include Spain, China, Poland, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Germany.

Flickering amid the sharp-edged steel and glass of this city's new architecture, the Berlin International Film Festival has evolved from a Cold War novelty to a major marquee for diverse, and sometimes eccentric, global cinema. Attracting an audience this year of more than 60,000, the Berlinale conjures up neither the glitz nor the summer sun of the more celebrated Cannes and Venice festivals.

A Peck of Honor: Actor Gregory Peck will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival, only the fourth time in the festival's 43-year history that a performer has been so honored. The ceremonies on Feb. 19 will include a showing of "To Kill a Mockingbird," the 1962 film for which Peck received an Oscar as best actor. Previous recipients were James Stewart (1984), Sir Alec Guinness (1988) and Dustin Hoffman (1989).