Winter Warmers (5): Movie Magic

Even if you are not old enough to be nostalgic about drive-in movies, or remember watching Cary Grant on the big screen through the windshield of a bright pink Chevy, you'll still love the idea of British video artist Phil Collins to bring the drive-in experience to an installation in Berlin's Temporäre Kunsthalle (Temporary Art Musuem).

 

Photo: copyright, Getty Images

Cars with Character

Collins (no relation to the ex-Genesis singer/songwriter), has transformed Berlin's temporary art museum on the Schlossplatz into an indoor drive-in movie theater. Not for Collins the glamor of Hollywood films, nor the iconic cars of 1950s America. Instead, Collins concentrates on German and experimental films, and he has hand-picked a fleet of 15 second-hand cars from a car-dealer on  Köpenick Strasse in Kreuzberg. They come in different flavors: cosy Citroen, Peugot and Renault; roomy Ford, Nissan and Opel-Corsa; swanky BMW, Audi and Mercedes; and always, leather seats preferred.

"I wanted cars with character, with a Berlin past," says Collins. "I wasn't looking for Chevys, but rather for cars we were not at all nostalgic about -- practical cars like VW and Opel."

Himmel über Berlin

For the showings each evening till March 14, Collins has chosen 111 films, among them German productions from the 1930s and 40s to the present day, including melodramas produced by Ufa (Universum Film AG, the principal film studio during the Weimar Republic and through World War II) and Defa (Deutsche Film AG, the main film studio of the German Democratic Republic). "Auto-Kino!" covers a range of forms: experimental and essay films, art videos, documentaries, thrillers, classic who-dun-its, Japanese art and graphic art films. Most film classics are shown in their splendid original 35 mm. version.

"I wanted to create a spectrum as wide as the Himmel über Berlin," says Collins, referring to the German title of the Wim Wenders film "Wings of Desire." As an artist, he is interested in the various forms in which media is presented, and fascinated by the power of film to manipulate but also to shape the search for identity of a place or community. 

Passion Pits

Drive-in movie theaters, called "Passion-Pits" by the watchful moral guardians of 1950s America, never really caught on in Germany -- perhaps because here, small and mid-size local theaters provided the kind of living-room atmosphere sought by romantic couples. Collins' installation, however, has had a successful run since it opened, and many showings are sold out early. Either romance is in the air, or the unforgiving winter has enhanced the lure of leather seats in which you can hunker down.

As winter 2010 shows no sign of loosening its icy grip, Berliners have warmed to "Auto-Kino!" Ditching their downloaded films on PCs and I-Pods for a while, they have reverted to watching cinema in an intimate, companionable setting. Safe in their VW station wagon, they don't have to worry about a sibilant "Shhh!" from the back row if they make a remark or rustle a bag of chips. 

"Auto-Kino!" takes place every day from 2 pm to 9 pm till March 14 at the Temporäre Kunsthalle, Schlossplatz (Mitte), 10178 Berlin. Entrance is free. Call to make a reservation as there are only 30 seats available. T. +49 (0)30 2060 5512. Public Transportation: S and U-Bahn Friedrichstrasse or Bus 100 or 200 to Lustgarten on Unter den Linden. The complete program is available at www.kunsthalle-berlin.com

"Auto-Kino!" is made possible by a grant from the DAAD and was included as one of the venues in the "Forum Expanded" section of the Berlinale, Berlin's International Film Festival, in February.