"Berlin Calling" is not a documentary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that would be "Berlin Falling". Nor is it a documentary on the 80's New Wave extraordinaire band Berlin (smell a severe case of "biasism" since it is my all-time favorite band), that would be "Berlin Hailing". The "Berlin Calling" I am referring to is the powerful independent German film "Berlin Calling". Professional Trance Music Disc Jockey Paul Kalkbrenner stars as D.J. Ickarus, a passionate & talented German trance spinning musician who also spins too many methamphetamines, hallucinogens, and narcotics in his daily social tunes. D.J. Ickarus drug-addiction downfall lands him in a Berlin psychiatric center, which Ickarus finds too icky for his taste. Ickarus does cause havoc in the psychiatric center a la Jack Nicholson's character in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". Rita Lengyel effectively plays Mathilde, Ickarus' devoted but gradually frustrated girlfriend who tries excessively to help Ick get out of the icky ills of his drug addiction while at the same trying to salvage his career. Corinna Harfouch psyches up her acting portraying Professor Dr. Detra Paul, the authoritative psychiatric center director who is a cross between Nurse Hatchett and Dr. Phil. She feels that Ickarus is a danger to others and possibly himself so therefore she pulls her own mental control spins on him. Kalkbrenner's performance as Ickarus was mind-boggling and put me in a trance of acting endowment. Moreover, the multi-talented Kalkbrenner's musical trance mixes caused me to want to get on "The Metro" and go "Dancing In Berlin" in Kalkbrenner's Tranceylvannia village! Writer-Director Hannes Stohr has many compelling and masterful plot lines & visuals stored for you in his imaginative film-making orchestration of "Berlin Calling". An innovative narrative of the music trance environment captured in film-making has been long overdue. I was elated that Hannes had the upper hand in its origination! "Berlin Calling" also called to my attention its chart-topping cinematography, art direction, and of course musical score. Hannes' "Berlin Calling" screenplay was also quite a comedic but yet gripping one that did not need "No More Words" to be regarded wordy adequate. I did have the pleasure to experience "Berlin Calling" at The Miami International Film Festival in March 2009. Hopefully, a film studio distributor will sign up the film so everyone could be in the mix to the surreal cinematic art form of the brilliant "Berlin Calling". ***** Excellent
Review of Berlin Calling
