The 2022 edition of the Berlin Film Festival kicks off on February 10 with the screening of Peter von Kant, by French director François Ozon, notably with Isabelle Adjani, the organizers announced on Wednesday. “We are particularly happy to welcome François Ozon again to the festival and to open the next edition with his film”, screened in official selection, wrote in a press release the management of the Berlinale, which will take place from February 10 to 16, 2022 in the German capital.
“For the opening, we looked for a film that could bring lightness and momentum in our gloomy daily life”, she explains. Peter von Kant is a “free adaptation” of the film by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder The bitter tears of Petra von Kant. This is, according to the Berlinale,“a cinematic tour de force through the concept of lockdown”, of confinement.
The film notably brings together Isabelle Adjani, Denis Menochet, nominated twice for the César, and the German actress Hanna Schygulla, former muse of Fassbinder. Several films by François Ozon have already been chosen in the official selection of the Berlinale, including Thanks to God, Grand jury prize in 2019, and Eight Women. This film will be screened again this year as part of a tribute to Isabelle Huppert, who will receive an Honorary Golden Bear on February 15.
“It is a great pleasure and an honor to come back to Berlin, to which I associate only good memories, 22 years after the premiere of Drops of water on hot stones, also adapted from Rainer Werner Fassbinder “, greet François Ozon, quoted in the Berlinale press release.
The jury of the biggest European film festival after Cannes and Venice is chaired, for this 72nd edition, by the American director M. Night Shyamalan. The festival takes place this year largely in person, after an online 2021 edition due to Covid-19.