cafebabel.com

Von Trier, Bier, Mikkelsen: Denmark cleans up at European Film Awards 2011

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:35:40 -0000

On 4 December the 24th edition of the European film academy’s (EFA) annual film awards gave the top prizes to Melancholia and The King’s Speech, as well as an honorary award for Mads Mikkelsen

Documentary Italy: love it or leave it in a Fiat 500

('Eva Vanhee',) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0000

When the lease on their flat in Rome was up, film critic Luca Ragazzi convinced television journalist Gustav Hofer to spend a last six months touring their country and understand why they were moving abroad. Little did they know that those were the six months that changed Italy

Susanne Graf: 'Those who remember the GDR know what it means to be observed constantly'

('Annie Rutherford',) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:45:00 -0000

Berlin’s September elections made her the youngest MP in the parliament at 19, the only woman in her fraction - and a ‘pirate’. We talk data protection, mistakes in politics and why a quota for women in the pirate party wouldn’t make any difference

Meeting Mario Monti, interim Italian prime minister

('Tobias Sauer',) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:45:42 -0000

On 13 November the independent candidate, known as the president of Italian university Bocconi, officially succeeded Silvio Berlusconi in the middle of a deep debt crisis. Ave Mario, cries French newspaper Le Monde. Super Mario, scream spoof websites. We meet at a press conference in Berlin

Poland-Germany exhibition in Berlin: let the neighbours talk

('Annie Rutherford',) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:55:07 -0000

The exhibition ‘Good Neighbours? German Motifs in Polish Contemporary Art/ Polish Motifs In German Contemporary Art’ is showing at the Bethanien art gallery in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district until late October. The works on display reflect the quality of the German-Polish relationship today

Sila Sahin, Turkish-German actress and first 'muslim playboy model'

('Lyndsey Smith',) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:14:25 -0000

In May 2011 the 25-year-old posed on the cover of German Playboy, becoming the 'first muslim’ to pose nude for a glossy magazine. Her 'act of liberation’, as the tabloids called it, sparked religious outrage and divided the Turkish community from Berlin to Istanbul. Yet was it just a marketing coup, or even a daring act of integration? Interview

Five gay friendly neighbourhoods in Europe

('Dimi David Opsimoulis Fernandez',) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:00:31 -0000

As the spectacular gay prides flourish across Europe, cafebabel.com local teams from Paris, Ljubljana, Berlin, Budapest and Athens blog about the scenes across Europe

Berliners: foreigners, stop boozing on the cheap in our city!

('hkeet',) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:17:31 -0000

In the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain people are celebrating for all it's worth. More and more tourists are cavorting in the cheap cocktail bars, the parks and in the streets. The locals are fed up and are stirring up opinion. Stag dos, pub crawls, behaving obnoxiously: is Berlin the new Mallorca?

Post-communist underground: Budapest 'ruin pubs' threatened with closure

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:00:00 -0000

For two decades the Hungarian capital's delapidated yards have become its hottest alternative venues in the form of retro gardens and pubs. That's about to come to an end thanks to a stricter law set in place after a tragic episode at the beginning of 2011 by local right-wing authorities, and dutifully followed by conformist residents

cafebabel.com blogs: 'Nightlife: Paris are you Berlin...still?'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:59:16 -0000

Where are the new places to hang out in Paris? Is it because Paris is realising she is a dead town that she is starting to organise events called Berlin, like at the Gaîté Lyrique between 29 March and 3 April? View from the cafebabel.com Paris blog

Berlin citizen power: GreenLeaks, Stuttgart 21 and water privatisation

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:08:22 -0000

One of Europe's most politicised and strictly environmentally-ruled cities is home to a green-themed Wikileaks spin-off, run by an Australian documentary maker. The mood for disclosure is also celebrated in the annual film festival, which has incorporated the city's first successful referendum into its programme

From Libya via Japan: Germany still opts for nuclear energy

('Sarah Marshall',) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:10:00 -0000

In the midst of a revolutionary wave across the oil countries, some European leaders propose increasing the production of nuclear energy to limit their dependency on oil and to guarantee a stable energy supply at competitive prices. Over in Germany, Angela Merkel has ordered safety checks on 17 of the 144 reactors running in the EU, after the Japanese earthquake of March saw two nuclear plant blasts. What nuclear future does Germany have?

Green dancefloors Berlin: spread the eco-dance germ to Europe

('Molmash',) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:00:00 -0000

When it comes to ‘green’ music, you will have heard of the WATT club in Rotterdam with its Sustainable Dance Floor. But apart from that symbolic rather than effective initiative, saving energy in clubs and festivals remains a wasteland ripe for development. A few pioneers in Berlin are determined to crack that apple

Guerrilla gardening Berlin: fighting capitalism

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 06:00:00 -0000

Are they squatters? Ecologists? Do they fire flowers instead of bullets? Do they wear masks and secretly plant seeds? A tour around Berlin’s squares and avenues to get to grips with a popular initiative designed to cultivate organic culture in our cities

'Give food a chance': culinary cinema in Berlin

('Annie Rutherford',) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:14:32 -0000

At the 61st Berlin international film festival, the 'culinary cinema' series of events drew attention to the 'relationship between film, culture, cuisine and the environment' for the fifth time. Together with menus from top chefs in the Gropius Mirror restaurant, a mixture of films about nutrition and the environment reinforce the belief of festival director Dieter Kosslick: 'Food brings people together and connects them to their surroundings'

Berlin film festival 2011 winner goes to Iran: Asghar Farhadi's Nader and Simin, a Separation

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:50:57 -0000

In 2009 the Iranian director scooped a Silver Bear for best director for About Elly. This year's competition entry 'Jodaeiye Nader az Simin' was a clear frontrunner for the 2011 Golden Bear award, beating twenty-one other films in competition. Review

Yuriy Gurzhy: 'Achtung! The party is Russian-rock-free'

('Alexandra Belopolsky',) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:21:24 -0000

The legendary 'Russendisko' organiser is a notorious DJ and producer in Berlin. The Ukrainian-born musician co-created the club dance event in 1999 and his band Rotfront in 2003 with fellow Jewish Russian and Hungarian 'emigrantskis'. Time for some tea in Cologne

Berlin film festival 2011: Coen brothers True Grit opener not true to Coen

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:23:14 -0000

After the road movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and the thriller No Country For Old Men (2007) the Coen brothers are back in the deserted vastness of the American landscape. The ten-times Oscar nominated film opened the 61st Berlin film festival on 10 February

Berlin: Eid al-Adha is our christmas

('anuja',) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:20:04 -0000

It's early in the morning. Kreuzberg lays silent in the drizzling rain under the grey sky of Berlin. It is a November day like every other - and special for the more than 4 million muslims in Germany

Older migrants of Europe: forgotten until when?

('Monica Mircescu',) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:30:00 -0000

They came to work and in the end they stayed. Today the migrants of the 1960s are growing old in the cities of western Europe often in isolation and insecurity. Their discretion has turned them into an invisible generation. Portrait of retired immigrants whom everybody wants already buried

A French, German and Italian go to Berlin's Adolf Hitler exhibition…

('Helen Dray',) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:45:00 -0000

Since 15 October, 20, 000 people have already flocked to the German History Museum in Berlin to find out more about one man - the most famous dictator in Europe. 'What made Hitler possible? That's the question we're trying to answer in this exhibition, which runs until 6 February', explains a spokesperson. Three young Europeans chart their emotions

20 years reunification: Coke, immigrants and east Germans

('eurotopics',) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:28:46 -0000

On 3 October Germany celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its reunification. But many are disappointed with the unification process and East Germans are still underrepresented among the country's elites, the Czech, UK, Italian and Slovakian papers write

Swinger clubs: Blue Berlin 'liebt dich'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:45:00 -0000

Berlin loves you. Berlin is young and isn’t ashamed of its exuberance. An Italian visits the premises of a capital’s red-light soul which is not expecting anyone. Far from Amsterdam’s sex ghettos and Italy’s hypocrisies, between the naked bodies of those for whom sexuality is no taboo

'Shooting galleries' in Europe: political jab or social cure-all?

('ruth gray',) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:45:00 -0000

Supervising the use of hard drugs or not is an issue that's cropping up across Europe, with some countries tackling it with a different intensity than others; the UK has three injecting clinics. While eight progressive governments have already established the centres, others wish to silence such crazy calls for change. All in the name of morality. Obviously...

Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Paris: blogging city rivers

('cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:35:39 -0000

Europe's city rivers are both the place to be in terms of a good old rave - take the A38 ship on the Danube to Bar 25 on the Spree - and also for a spot of nudity or artificial beach time in the summer. Blog snippets from four cafebabel.com local team bloggers, who pay tribute to their watery city icons

Melancholy in Berlin: views of three foreign writer residents

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:43:59 -0000

Very loosely, a 19-year-old Klaus Mann saw 1920s Berlin as 'seductive, gray, scabby, peeling, yet vibrant vitality, nervous, shimmering, phosphorescent, animated, full of tensions and promises.' Italian, Croatian and French writers Gianluca Falanga, Maksim Cristan and Maia Mazaurette give us their noughties take

Irish artists in Berlin, a city 'always and never in crisis'

('M\xc3\xa9abh Mc Mahon',) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:45:00 -0000

Whilst Irish artists like Paul Diamond and You're Only Massive become better known in Berlin, stages in Irish bars remain empty. With less people investing in upcoming Irish talent, the young generation will continue to migrate to artistic-friendly places like Berlin to follow their musical dream

To be or to be in Berlin: poor but (creatively) rich

('Camelia Ivanova',) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:22:59 -0000

Money and the crisis are not on the agenda for Berliners who can focus on different things, such as art. 'Being poor is not cool, but OK,' is the word on the street. It all looks very promising for someone from Bulgaria, the EU's officially poorest country, where a lack of money, unlike cheap glamour, can never be a virtue

(Non-)smoker's summer guide to Europe's bans

('Emilie Prattico',) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:29:37 -0000

While you’re carefully planning your summer holidays, it might be worth considering what destinations will best suit your needs - be thee a lover of those tobacco-filled thin paper cylinders or not

Enough with the 'hard-working Germans paying for lazy Greeks'

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:26:28 -0000

In a spirit against nationalist agitation and economic ignorance, the presidents of the European movements in Berlin and Athens signed a common German-Greek manifesto for Europe on 5 May 2010. Here's what they have to say on a day that the 750 billion euro rescue package is agreed

Volcano: travelling Vilnius to Paris by train

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:19:15 -0000

Once upon a time, in the space of six days, airline companies lost 1.7 millions euros - and they weren't alone. I don't know exactly how many million euros Iceland 'owes' to the world aviation sector. With little sleep and lots of beer, it certainly owes me two days of my life by train across 2, 000 km of Europe

Cafe Niesen in Prenzlauer Berg: no children please

('Emily Corfe',) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:20:44 -0000

Prams, buggies, babies, toddlers, kids... you name it, anything child related, Prenzlauer Berg will have it. This includes a cafe which has been open since 2005 but is getting media attention now - extract from the official blog of the cafebabel.com team in Berlin

Music: (subversive) songs for the European city

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:35:08 -0000

Madrid's famous Gran Via boulevard celebrated its 100th anniversary on 7 April, with a local survey seeing 'Gran Via' by crooner Antonio Flores top a list of songs dedicated to the city. From monkeys in Berlin to Red Bull and Swedes in Barcelona via Stalin in Warsaw, a selection of offbeat videos suggested by the cafebabel network

Germany's far-right: style and tea party shakeup

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Boots, bomber jacket, baseball bat - does it sound like your average neo-nazi? As an anti-immigration march took place on the route of a mosque in Duisburg last weekend, remember that for a long time now the far-right extremists in Germany have tried to tone down their appearance in order to gain new followers

Europe's 'beautiful laundrette' culture: socialising chores

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Social networks have allowed a whole generation to abandon any sense of shame and showcase its private life. The fashion for exposure doesn't limit itself to the screen; Europe's urban landscapes offer more and more spaces which mix the private and the public. Washing your dirty laundry in public in Germany, France and Denmark

Kinshasa Symphony: why is Mozart in Africa an alien concept?

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:18:39 -0000

People passionately making music is always good film fodder. This German documentary offers a contrast to the conflicts and states of mind dealt with its 2008 predecessor 'Trip to Asia', which followed the Berlin philharmonic

Songbeat, Berlin: story of a German music start-up

('Jude Lister',) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:46:37 -0000

Philip Eggersglüß and Marco Rydman are two Berliners who launched an online music business at the age of 25. We discuss court cases, 'limited company' statuses via the UK and Hong Kong and the benefits of working in the German capital

Monetary union and media stress: young Greeks and Germans debate

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:30:00 -0000

This month, Greece was announced to be suffering a eurozone deficit of 12% - the maximum is 3%. The German media has called them the 'deceivers of the euro-family'. The Greeks respond that they are hypocrites, holding them accountable for debts from 1945. Who wants whose diplomatic blood? We hear immediate reactions from the two sides

Florian Lukas: no more 'best mate characters' for the 'Good Bye Lenin!' star

('Lindsey Evans',) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:28:25 -0000

He picked up a Deutscher Filmpreis for his role as the fake newsreader with a stick-on moustache who brought the GDR back to life after the wall had fallen in the 2003 cult hit. Seven years on, the 36-year-old is back, this time playing the sensitive lover of a German-born Turk. We grab the actor at the 2010 Berlin film festival

Berlin film festival: 60 years of masterpieces

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0000

The Berlin international film festival (or Berlinale) has been fraught with political struggles. Created by the allies of west Berlin right under the noses of communist dictators, it was a way of opening a window to the 'free' world. Over the years, it has developed into an unmissable world cinema event

Metropolis: masterpiece recovered at last

('Alison Frank',) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:42:15 -0000

A complete version of the masterpiece of German cinema was screened with great ceremony on 13 February at the Berlin film festival; some missing sequences of Fritz Lang’s film were found two years ago in Argentina, 83 years after the film’s original release

Escaping tourists: moving from Oranienstrasse to Neukölln in Berlin

('Andrew Christie',) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:04:11 -0000

As the former cult quarter of Kreuzberg suddenly blossoms into a tourist trap, hardened Berliners are taking to the hills in the search for authenticity. The story of a relocation from cafebabel's babelblogs

Ties and tees: three innovative fashion initiatives from Ljubljana, Lille and Berlin

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:00:00 -0000

Between 20 - 22 January, the historic Berlin-Tempelhof airport compound served as the venue of Bread and Butter, the most prominent trade fair for urban and streetwear, for the second year in a row. We pick tie manufacturers, T-shirt street fashion and an eco-sports label as top of the crop

‘If I had to choose between sex and performing live with The Whitest Boy Alive...’

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:15:18 -0000

One day it was just computers. The next day, god brought instruments. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based band’s polyphonic electronic sound has translated into pure deprogrammed happiness for live dance fans across Europe. We hear the boys from Bergen, Berlin and Toruń out

Netaudio festival 2009: kick in the teeth for traditional record industry?

('Elaine Jordan',) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:15 -0000

While traditional record labels plunge deeper and deeper into trouble, new formats for distributing music via the internet are basking in their success following a sell-out festival in Berlin

Music in November: Matias Aguayo, Rodamaal feat Claudia Franco

('sami3000',) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:13:35 -0000

Music wanderings take us into left-field hedonism this month via the German dance scene with its Spanish house vocals amongst others. Album and playlist of the month as well as a featured favourite album classic

9/11 - the fateful day of German history

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:17:00 -0000

From the revolution to the reunification, from Hitler’s putsch until Kristallnacht: November 9 marks the German history of the twentieth century

It's like talking to a Berlin wall

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0000

140 kilometres of wall crumbled in 1989 and hundreds of European expressions arose as it fell. The idiom of the week is flavoured by the 9 November event

Le Corps Mince de Francoise: 'fuck off saying we’re trendy. We sing about what we are'

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:14:35 -0000

The trio hail from Helsinki, record in Berlin and are managed in the UK. We meet in Paris to dissect their pan-European wanderings and find out why exactly they diss boys and Finland so much in their screamy surface pop-experimental sound

Comparing Paris and Berlin 20 years after the Berlin Wall

('Darren Thompson',) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:15:00 -0000

On 9 November 1989, Romy and Niklas were little more than children. Twenty years on, they have grown up between Paris and Berlin. They remember the divided city and think of a modern Berlin 'standing alone and free'