Berlin street art

Again a project I’ve started already months ago, but that hasn’t made it to the blog yet. Until now.

Berlin is famous for its street art and bohemian/artistic way of life especially in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. In Helsinki, most of the “urban art” is mainly just tags, which I personally find just ugly and see as not much more than just clutter. Of course, Berlin certainly has its fair share of tags and like, too, but there’s also lots and lots of really cool graffiti and other forms of street art. Helsinki has taken (or tries to take) an idiotic zero tolerance line with graffiti, which is probably why few bother to make really cool pieces, as they will be wiped away before long (yes, an essential part of urban art is that it’s not permanent yadda yadda, but new graffiti replacing older ones is quite another story than everything being hysterically washed away the next day).

Berlin is much more relaxed with the matter and, as said, has gained a notable reputation. My oh-so-original project is to document urban art in Berlin. I won’t photograph the most famous graffiti, because that’s already been made several times by much more skilled photographers and their equipment. Instead I’ve focused on smaller-scale “Berlin-spotting”, and it’s not even strictly urban art, but all sorts of cool/funny things I’ve come across on the streets of Berlin. Hence the tag “street art” is a bit misleading, but maybe we can live with it.

So, on to the first batch:

An elephant on a water post in Reuterstraße, Neukölln.

Greenface. Köpenicker Staße, Kreuzberg.

Birds in Reuterstraße, Neukölln.

Uga uga. Revaler Straße, Friedrichshain.

Birds near Görlitzer Park, Kreuzberg. They are saying in French “No, no, don’t go crush the little cat”(?!)

Revaler Straße, Friedrichshain.

Mag ins Kino gehen!

Good news for those Berliners who dislike (or even despise, hate and loathe) films dubbed in German, but love to go to the movies: nowadays, amazingly many theatres show films with the original soundtrack and German subtitles :) A fact that somewhat heals my wounds for missing Berlinale despite LIVING IN THIS GODDAMN CITY, and on top of it all, it hadn’t need to be so. Oh well, it’s a long story and next year I have a good reason to visit Berlin in February.

So far I’ve seen The Howl, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Swan, King’s Speech and yesterday I went to see 127 Hours. Every film has been surprisingly good, not one single did I think was crap or even mediocre. Can recommend each and every one! I’ll maybe write a review on them one day, or then maybe procrastination will get a hold of me again. We’ll see.

The theatres I’ve been to have mostly been small and cosy: Babylon Kreuzberg (Dresdener Straße 126), Central (Rosenthaler Straße 39), Hackesche Höfe (Rosenthaler Straße 40/41, the entrance is right next to Central’s, so make sure you’re in the right place!) and Rollberg Kino (Rollbergstraße 70). Only Hackesche Höfe I cannot recommend, at least not room 1: it’s absolutely lousily planned/built, the room doesn’t rise especially much at least at the back and the chairs are positioned in such a manner that if you get unlucky (which is quite likely, in this case), you’ll end up staring at somebody’s head instead of the screen. Money well spent and a splendid movie experience.

Going to the movies is apparently not that devout an event as it is in Helsinki. Particularly in Orion, which is specialised in classic, not-that-mainstream (argh, I hate defining anything through “mainstream”, but here we go) films, it is at worst a mortal sin to breathe too loudly, not to mention rustling with your candy bag, if you’re unsophisticated enough to bring candy to the Sacred Place. Grown-ups don’t need candy in order to enjoy their films, and most certainly do not ruin the pleasure of others due to their infant desires.

Well, believe you me, not to worry that you’ll encounter any sort of behaviour or attitude pictured above... On the contrary, you can almost be sure that you’ll get at least a dozen of kicks in the back of your chair, your fellow viewers are certainly not shy about eating or drinking (with all the appropriate noises, of course), and they’ll at the very least make commentaries on the film in not-that-lowered-a-voice, quite probably just talk about the everyday stuff you normally go through with your friends, accompanied by giggles and snorts, etc etc. Yay, it’s like going to the movies with the kindergarten shift!

Ok, I’m really not as pissed off as one could interpret, but it indeed has been somewhat of a culture shock after being used to the Finnish custom. It doesn’t have to be as Naz...uh, strict as it is in Orion at worst, but people could be a bit more considerate...

But it’s a small price considering that I have the possibility to go to the movies in the first place! I really expected this to be a more or less filmless year, which made my heart ache quite a bit. But as said, there are loads of films screened with the original soundtrack, and the theatres are nice and there are many of them :) A good search engine for films is e.g. Tip Berlin’s. Choose your day at Kalendersuche on the right, then type in your search term (“Stichwort”) or choose your other search criteria (e.g. area or time of day), and make sure you have chosen “Originalfassung mit Untertiteln” (original with German subs) or “Originalfassung” (original) in the “Fassung” (soundtrack) drop-down menu.

The prices are very affordable, from 5 to 7 Euros, with an extra charge of 0.50–1.50€ for long films (120 min.->). I assume you’d have the opportunity to pay for tickets in the Finnish price class (13€) for fancy 3D screenings at e.g. Potsdamer Platz, but I am very happy with these more moderate and homely places. They btw don't have seat tickets, so you'll want to be quite early if you want to be sure to have a good seat. However, normally there's not that huge an audience and thus there is plenty of room, so it's not the biggest stress in the world.

What I do miss, however, is an Orion-like theatre that shows (also) other than just the latest and hottest films. One possible candidate could be fsk Kino (Segitzdamm 2) at Oranienplatz (very near me, in other words!). I’ll have to familiarise myself a bit more with the programme, but it seemed promising at a quick glance. Recommendations on other similar theatres are naturally warmly welcome :)