Is it cruel to compare Canberra’s NFSA displays with the Film Museum in Berlin? Does it make ACMI look like a botch-up? While Australian governments can never really shake off the habits of global provincialism, the Germans know that culture is one way to rehabilitate a ruined brand. Dominic Case went to Berlin, and muses on approaches to cinema history.
I was recently in Berlin, but at quite the wrong time for the Berlin Film Festival. Undaunted, I headed for the Berlin Film Museum, located centrally in Berlin in the ultra-modern Sony Centre, a striking edifice of glass and steel. Filmhaus, the part of the centre housing the museum, its Arsenal cinemas and the German Film & TV School is right opposite the Cinestar and Event cinemas, part of Germany’s largest cinema chain, operated by none other than Australia’s Amalgamated Holdings (Greater Union).
