(Berlinale Street Food on February 6, 2019 with Lauren Lee and Dieter Kosslick, © Lindsay Bellinger 2019) 

Director Kosslick was leaving all that taste tests to his colleague Struck who really didn't seem to mind. Kosslick did partake in some Korean hot ginger tea, which was just what the doctor ordered. Somehow among the swarm of German journalists and photographers snapping away I didn't quite catch why it was exactly that Kosslick couldn't eat any samples, it might have been that he was just too amped up or perhaps for some health reasons. My German listening skills were put to the test and with the loud noise of the snapping of cameras I failed miserably. I feel like I still understood enough of the chitchat between Kosslick and each food truck owner.

The first press event of the current 69th Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) was a morning press conference with the new International competition jury presided over by alluring French movie star Juliette Binoche. now 54. None of the other jurors were celebrities of note so the main attraction of this crowded press event was the presence of La Binoche herself.  Although in her recent films she still retains much of her classic Gallic beauty today at the press conference the actress was nearly unrecognizable in a conservative, almost austere hairdo parted in the middle, and a generally deglamourized look. She speaks flawless English and seems to be going now for a more serious perception of her public image.

Binoche has been seen many times on Berlinale screens and won a Silver Bear award here for her role in The English Patient, in 1996 and an Oscar for the same film.  She won the Cannes best actress award in 2010 starring in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy.  A major international hit in her brilliant repertoire was Kieslowski's  Bleu, of the three colors trilogy.  It was a typically smart move by departing festival director Dieter Kosslick to sign up an international star of Juliette Binoche's stature to preside over his final jury.