George Clooney at the Berlin Press Conference for Hail Caesar

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Tilda Swinton shows off her quirky sense of style in elegant tweed and statement shoes as George Clooney leads Hail, Caesar! stars at Berlin Film Festival photocall
By Joanna Crawley For Mailonline
Published: 15:31, 11 February 2016

It's an all-star movie from acclaimed filmmakers the Coen Brothers.
And Berlin welcomed the famous faces from the anticipated Hail Caesar! on Thursday as the big screen caper prepares to open the city's famed Film Festival.
Taking part in a press conference and photocall ahead of the red carpet premiere in the evening, George Clooney and Tilda Swinton led the stars as they greeted huge crowds in the German capital.
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Hail George! Clooney led the star-studded cast of the Coen Brothers' new film Hail, Caesar! as they took part in a press conference and photo call at the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday 
George, 54, teamed jeans with a black leather jacket for the photocall, looking in great spirits as he joked around with his co-stars.

Tilda, 55, bought a touch of glam to the day's promo, looking supremely elegant in a smart tweed jacket teamed with a matching midi-length skirt.
She added a pair of statement shoes, with the cork wedges featuring an unusual heel.
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Elegant: Tilda Swinton looked super chic in a tweed jacket and skirt and quirky wedge heels




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Happy to be here! George looked in great spirits despite the dreary Berlin weather as he arrived at the event
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Let me in! The Hollywood a-lister appeared keen to shelter from the rain as he joked around with the crowds
The quirky actress finished off her photocall ensemble by slicking her platinum blonde locks into a quiff and adding a slick of bright red lippie.
Joining George and Tilda at Thursday's photocall was Channing Tatum, who looked very dapper in a smart blazer as he smouldered for photos.
Josh Brolin and Alden Ehrenreich also joined the lineup alongside writers, producers and directors Ethan and Joel Coen.



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In demand: George stopped to sign autographs with the huge crowd of fans gathered at the 66th annual Berlin Film Festival 
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Man on a mission: With pen in hand George seemed keen to see as many fans as possible 
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Say cheese! The star pulled a face as one fan snapped a selfie while another whipped out a vintage ER photo for the actor to sign
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Superstar: The actor stars as a Hollywood Golden Age leading man in the anticipated Hail, Casear! 
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Check out the ring: George, who is married to Amal Clooney, showed off his wedding band at the press conference for the film
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Joker: The suave leading man pulled plenty of faces during the high-spirited chat
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What's wrong? George was hugely animated as the cast took questions from press and fans
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Prankster: George blew a raspberry at one point during the conference 
Set during 1950s Golden Age of Hollywood, Hail Caesar! also stars Ralph Fiennes and Jonah Hill.
It focuses on Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix (Brolin), who has the difficult task of keeping the film studio's stars in line and covering up scandals.
Mannix is tasked with coming up with a $100,000 ransom in order to retrieve the studio's biggest star Baird Whitlock (Clooney).
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Superstar! George was mobbed by excited fans and did his best to sign as many autographs as possible 
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Hollywood comes to Berlin: The actor showed off his suave leading man looks
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Good to see you all! George looked delighted with the huge turnout for the promo day
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Time for a selfie Tilda? The crowd clamoured to get Tilda's attention with their camera phones as she strutted down the barriers
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Stunning: Tilda finished off her quirky look by backcombing her blonde locks and adding a slick of red lippie
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Sign here please: Tilda smiled away as she got stuck into autographs in the Berlin rain
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Look who's here! Channing was also mobbed by the crowd who were in for a treat with all the a-list names
The studio is trying to work on its biggest picture of the year - Hail, Caesar! - when they receive a ransom note informing them their leading man has been kidnapped.
Speaking to People Magazine this week about his character, George, who has starred in four Coen Brothers movies, admits Whitlock is perhaps his dimmest on-screen persona yet.
'There's no bulb at all,' the movie star admits. 'That's how un-bright these bulbs are. I've never played a character with any integrity or any intelligence in any of [the Coen Brothers] movies and I've done four of them. They keep offering them to me with these notes, "We wrote this with you in mind," which concerns me.'
Hail, Caesar! hits cinemas in both the US and the UK on March 4. 
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Dapper gent: Channing was looking suave in a classic suit teamed with a pocket square and grey shirt
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Another famous face: Josh Brolin also stars in the Coen Brothers new movie as Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix
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Mr fix it: Mannix is tasked with coming up with a $100,000 ransom in order to retrieve the studio's biggest star Baird Whitlock (Clooney) after he is kidnapped
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Talented lineup: Tilda stars as as both Thora and Thessaly Thacker - twin rival gossip columnists while newcomer Alden plays Hobie Doyle, an actor and one of Mannix's clients
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Honour: The film will open the 66th annual Berlin Film Festival on Thursday evening
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Acclaimed duo: Ethan (centre) and Joel Cohen (far right) lined up with their stars
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Smile! Despite taking part in a hectic promo schedule for the film this month George and the rest of the cast looked in great spirits

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11 February 2016 - 19H05
Clooney opens Berlin film fest with spotlight on refugees

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 US actor George Clooney (R) and British actress Tilda Swinton promote the film "Hail, Caesar!" screened as opening film of the 66th Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin on February 11, 2016
BERLIN (AFP) -

George Clooney opened the Berlin film festival Thursday with Europe's refugee influx in the spotlight, saying he would meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel about lending star power to help with the crisis.

The 11-day Berlinale, one of the top three cinema showcases in Europe along with Cannes and Venice, kicked off with a screening of "Hail, Caesar!", Joel and Ethan Coen's send-up of Tinseltown's 1950s golden age.

Clooney came to the German capital with his wife Amal, a Lebanese-born human rights lawyer, and co-stars Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton and Josh Brolin.

He told reporters he would meet Merkel and, separately, a group of asylum seekers Friday "to talk about and ask what messages and what things we can do... to help".

Although the Berlinale is spotlighting around a dozen films focused on refugees, Clooney admitted it would take time before Hollywood would turn its attention to such stories.

"The unfortunate thing about the film community is we react to situations much more than we lead the way. News stories have to continue to happen and then scripts are written and it takes a couple years before people are actually making films about it," he told reporters.

"It's also very difficult to just make a subject film. You have to have a reason -- a character and a reason to make it."

- Why make movies -

When asked a critical question about Hollywood escapism after a press screening of "Hail, Caesar!", a light-hearted romp, Joel Coen said filmmakers were under no obligation to deal with the most pressing issues of their time.

"To point the finger and say, you should be telling this particular story -- it's a misunderstanding about how movies get written and made. Are those stories important? Yes. Does it make sense to sort of say, 'you're a public figure, you tell stories, why aren't you telling that story?' is a funny question, frankly."

However he noted that he and Ethan Coen as presidents of the Cannes film festival jury last year awarded the top prize to the French movie "Dheepan", which offered an unflinching look at the plight of three Sri Lankan refugees in a violent Paris suburb.

"I think it had a lot to contribute to that discussion," he said.

Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep is serving as president of the Berlin prize jury, leading a panel including British actor Clive Owen. They will award the Golden Bear top prize to one of 18 contenders from around the world on February 20.

Owen said they would aim to "champion somebody who we think will benefit hugely from (the award) and could make a huge difference and further their career and give them the opportunity to make more good important films," he said.

Last year top honours went to Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi for "Taxi", which he had to make in secret.

- Tickets for asylum seekers -

As Europe endures the largest refugee influx since World War II, with 1.1 million asylum seekers arriving in Germany last year, the theme of migration will dominate the festival.

Italian documentary director Gianfranco Rosi, who won at Venice three years ago, will enter the competition with "Fire at Sea" about Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island on the front line of the crisis.

And off screen, hundreds of tickets have been set aside for asylum seekers at the festival accompanied by volunteers and cinema-goers are being encouraged to donate money to refugee causes.

Among the world premieres generating buzz ahead of the start is a new adaptation of the international bestseller "Alone in Berlin", Hans Fallada's 1947 novel based on a true story.

The Nazi-era thriller sees Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson play a German couple who risk their lives to mount a resistance campaign against Hitler after losing their only son in the war.

Big crowds are also expected for "Genius", the feature debut by British theatre director Michael Grandage starring Colin Firth as literary editor Max Perkins, who published some of the 20th century's greatest American writers.

Jude Law plays Thomas Wolfe, Nicole Kidman his lover and muse Aline Bernstein, with Dominic West portraying Ernest Hemingway and Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
by Deborah Cole

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Friday, 12 February 2016, 12:22:48 am

 
The Coens and Clooney clan open the Berlinale gutting fondly Hollywood
11/02/2016

Berlin, Feb 11 (EFE) .- The brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, plus George Clooney, today opened the Berlinale with "Hail, Caesar!" A film out of competition gutting the Hollywood witch hunt with the characteristic sense mood of its directors, this time more loving it becomes the trademark.

"We can not be nostalgic, do not live that time. But there is a kind of tender admiration for the Hollywood" he admitted Joel Coen about a film that binds each of the topics of the great dream factory with its corresponding joke or irony .

"I submit that these two guys laugh at me," he told her Clooney hand over the papers tend to award the brothers - "actually, cousins ​​frontline" teased from individual witted, like actor who plays now.

Clooney, in his role very, jokes alternated with compliments in the press conference: "Do you flirting with me is I'm now a married man," cut to a long question from a Polish journalist.

It also became more serious, to the insistent questions about the commitment of the film people to the plight of refugees, and said that this will be an issue to be addressed tomorrow at a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He took refuge in evasive when asked about his alleged inclination to communism - "I will not answer that .." - said in a conference before the media where more laughter and applause were heard in the screening of the film for press.

"Hail, Caesar!" It is, as Ethan Coen, a tender film about the background of a Hollywood where everything is plasterboard lie, unless witch hunts of McCarthyism said.

Above Clooney role is that of Josh Brolin, "a man for all" in the service of his hollywoodiano study should as soon resolve the pregnant actress, as the kidnapping of an actor by a group of writers turned to communism under Marcuse's leadership, in a villa in Malibu.

Clooney plays the star than in Germany is called a "Sandalenfilm" -movie in sandals or Romans and Christians, who do not get rid of that uncomfortable footwear and other props throughout the film, and capturing two other extras also in sandals.

There are also unable to utter a sentence if removed from the western to place it in a film room, plus all kinds of prototypes of the genre films, such as Scarlett Johansson turned into siren in the Esther Williams Actor-cowboy (Alden Ehrenreich).

The Coen and his team acted like the perfect clan to open the festival with an overdose of stardom in addition to those mentioned, they attended the event Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatun- with the sole judgment of the absence of Johansson.

A Clooney, among the most faithful visitors to the Berlinale since taking direction Dieter Kosslick, in 2001, he was received like a friend's house.

So did the Coen, directors of worship at a festival in which they presented "The Big Lebowski" in 1998 and "True Grit" in 2011, and also with Swinton, almost as assiduous as Clooney to a contest whose jury presided in 2009 .

He lamented that the Coens have tamed a little black humor. But it was definitely the film that needed to open a Kosslick Berlinale competition in which there will be more committed to political cinema stars.

To compensate for shortcomings comes in handy to the festival the presence of Meryl Streep, who debuts as president of the jury and was received as a great lady is mixture of humor, intelligence and social commitment stage.

Streep garnered virtually all flashes in the presentation of the jury, which is also part of fellow Brit Clive Owen.

Your team and the Coen be given the first red carpet at the opening gala night.

Tomorrow will begin the parade of 18 would-be bears, which will open the Tunisian "Inhebbek Hedi" and they will follow a selection of films that includes new names as consecrated.

Among the latter, it looks forward to the French André Téchiné, the Danish Thomas Vinterberg, Serbian Danis Tanovic and Iranian Rafi Pitts, director of the Franco-German-Mexican, "I am Nero," only with Latin American participation in competition .

By Gemma Casadevall

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El clan Coen y Clooney abren la Berlinale destripando con cariño Hollywood

Portada secciones Farandula


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Fuente: EFE
02/11/2016

Berlín, 11 feb (EFE).- Los hermanos Joel y Ethan Coen, más George Clooney, abrieron hoy la Berlinale con "Hail, Caesar!", un filme fuera de competición que destripa el Hollywood de la caza de brujas con el característico sentido del humor de sus directores, esta vez más cariñoso que lo viene a ser la marca de la casa.

"No podemos ser nostálgicos, no vivimos esa época. Pero sí, hay una especie de admiración tierna por ese Hollywood", admitió Joel Coen sobre una película que encadena cada uno de los tópicos de la gran fabrica de sueños con su correspondiente chiste o ironía.

"Me someto a que estos dos tipos se rían de mí", explicó a su lado Clooney, sobre los papeles que suelen adjudicarle los hermanos -"en realidad, primos en primera línea", bromeó- de individuo de pocas luces, como el actor al que interpreta ahora.

Clooney, muy en su papel, alternó los chistes con las galanterías en la rueda de prensa: "¿está usted flirteando conmigo? ahora soy un hombre casado", cortó a una larga pregunta de una periodista polaca.

También se puso algo más serio, ante las insistentes cuestiones sobre el grado de compromiso de la gente del cine ante el drama de los refugiados, y dijo que ése será un tema que abordará mañana en una reunión con la canciller Angela Merkel.

Y se refugió en las evasivas al ser preguntado sobre su presunta inclinación al comunismo -"no voy a responder a eso.."-, en una conferencia ante los medios donde se escucharon más carcajadas y aplausos que en el pase de la película para la prensa.

"Hail, Caesar!" es, como dijo Ethan Coen, un filme tierno sobre el trasfondo de un Hollywood donde todo es cartón piedra y mentira, menos la caza de brujas del maccarthismo.

Por encima del papel de Clooney está el de Josh Brolin, un "hombre para todo" al servicio de su estudio hollywoodiano que tan pronto debe resolver el embarazado de una actriz, como el secuestro de un actor por un grupo de guionistas convertidos al comunismo bajo el liderazgo de Marcuse, en una villa de Malibú.

Clooney interpreta a la estrella de lo que en Alemania se denomina un "Sandalenfilm" -película en sandalias o de romanos y cristianos-, que no se librará de ese incómodo calzado y demás atrezzo en todo el filme, y al que captura otros dos extras también en sandalias.

Ahí están también el actor-cowboy (Alden Ehrenreich) incapaz de pronunciar una frase si le sacan del western para colocarlo en un filme de salón, más todo tipo de prototipos del cine de género, como Scarlett Johansson convertida en sirena a lo Esther Williams.

Los Coen y su equipo se comportaron como el clan perfecto para abrir el festival con una sobredosis de estrellato -además de los mencionados, acudieron a la cita Tilda Swinton y Channing Tatun-, con el único fallo de la ausencia de Johansson.

A Clooney, entre los más fieles visitantes de la Berlinale desde que asumió su dirección Dieter Kosslick, en 2001, se le recibió como a un amigo de la casa.

Lo mismo ocurrió con los Coen, directores de culto en un festival en el que presentaron "The Big Lebowski" en 1998 y "True Grit" en 2011, y también con Swinton, casi tan asidua como Clooney a un certamen cuyo jurado presidió en 2009.

Se lamentó que los Coen hayan amansado un poco su humor negro. Pero fue sin duda el filme que precisaba Kosslick para abrir una Berlinale en cuya competición habrá más cine político o comprometido que estrellas.

Para compensar carencias viene como anillo al dedo al festival la presencia de Meryl Streep, quien se estrena como presidenta del jurado y a la que se recibió como la gran dama que es, mezcla de sentido del humor, inteligencia escénica y compromiso social.

Streep acaparó prácticamente todos los flashes en la presentación del jurado, del que asimismo forma parte su colega británico Clive Owen.

A su equipo y al de los Coen se les brindará la primera alfombra roja, en la gala inaugural de la noche.

Mañana empezará el desfile de las 18 aspirantes a los Osos, que abrirá la tunecina "Inhebbek Hedi" y a la que seguirán una selección de películas que incluye tanto nombres nuevos como consagrados.

Entre éstos últimos, se espera con expectación al francés André Téchiné, el danés Thomas Vinterberg, el serbio Danis Tanovic y el iraní Rafi Pitts -director de la franco-alemana-mexicana, "Soy Nero", única con participación de América Latina a concurso.

Por Gemma Casadevall