“Virtual Cinema” Panel at the Berlinale Talent Campus

Tom Tykwer and Kees Kasander explore virtual worlds

These days, no other stories do as well in the cinemas as stories set in fantastical worlds or that take audiences on a journey into the past. Elaborate adventure-fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and opulent historical epic dramas like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Kingdom of Heaven are among the biggest box-office winners. A similar development can be observed in the gaming world. Here, online role-playing games are media trendsetters whose growing number of followers can create a “second self” in virtual realities like “World of Warcraft” and “Second Life”.

“Virtual Cinema” is the title of the Campus panel that, on February 11, 2007, will investigate the course of this media fascination in virtual worlds and time travel. To what extent is this human fascination in “the uncanny” an inherent element of the media productions that have recently seen so much success? What are possible explanations for the parallels in the development of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, and how closely do film producers and games developers already work together? The podium discussion will include director Tom Tykwer, whose adaptation of the bestseller “The Perfume” by Patrick Süskind recently had a successful run in European cinemas, and producer Kees Kasander (Prospero’s Books, Ken Park). Kasander’s current film Crusade in Jeans, the story of the young Dolf’s travel through time, will have its German premiere in the section Generation Kplus at the Berlinale. The panel will be moderated by Professor Ian Christie, a Scottish film specialist and expert on “the uncanny”. (Feb 11, 2007, HAU 1, 17.00 -18.30h, open to the public, in cooperation with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg)