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The German Film Festival Pictures
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The German Premiere - Film Festival Pictures
From a group of fans who attended the Premiere in London
(thanks for the report, Joanna!)
7.20 - A moment to last!
An unassuming car pulls up right in front of us. We’re still looking down the road to a
following limo. However, suddenly Leo seems to have appeared in front of us!!!!!! I
can barely describe how he was - 'indescribable' is something that struck us all - he
glowed. There was a golden aura, he almost seemed to shimmer. We are lost for words
- beauty! To be face to face ........well.......
He looked very happy and fresh. He stood and waved to the crowds. He laughed at
one of the signs. He looked over at us and smiled. He walked a short way up the road
to wave to the crowds. He went back to pose for photographers. He then turned
straight back towards us before going in and waved to us. Then...he was gone - a
moment of pre magic!!!!!!
The Hollywood Premiere - from a group of fans in attendance (thanks for the report Lenise) - Five minutes before the movie was due to begin, a very nice black limo pulls up. I spotted it through my binocs (knowing he had to be here soon, or he'd miss the thing!) and indeed it was the man himself. First Jerry Swindall got out who plays Sammy, and then right behind him was Leo. I still can see the scene, he got out...itched his nose, hugged a man standing near the limo door briefly and then was off! Jerry seemed to disapear for the red carpet interviews, but Leonardo was all smiles and talked to them all. As he stepped on to the carpet all you heard was "Leo, Leo, Leo", look this way. Photographers must have trampled each other to get a shot of him. He seemed very calm though. I think as he reached the entrance he knew he had to get his butt into that show! He came to the corner where his fans were standing, glanced at some signs they were holding, blew them a kiss and hurried into the theatre. As quick as it happened it was over.
Paris daily newspaper "Le Parisien" 17 Feb. 2000
A CROWD ON "THE BEACH"
Yesterday afternoon, in spite of inclement weather, cold and rainy and even snowy, a large number of spectators went to "The Beach". British director Danny Boyle's film starring Leonardo DiCaprio backed up by 'Frenchies' Virgine Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet and Hélène de Fougerolles, pulled in more than 24,000 viewers in the Paris metropolitan area (52 screens) in its first two screenings. In the provinces, in both the big and middle-sized cities, there were also a lot of spectators to see DiCaprio in his adventures in Thailand.
A PUBLIC OF TEENAGERS
Proof that the young American actor is still enormously popular in France, two years after "Titanic," the score of the first two screenings in Paris was higher than at the release of the James Cameron film on 7 January 1998.
The public, particularly teenagers, and young people in general, due to the school vacation, flocked to see "Leo," the backpacker in search of an earthly paradise.
Obivously, this exceptional start can also be attributed to the enormous media hype (both by press and TV) surrounding the star's visit to France this week. What remains to be seen is whether word of mouth will keep up the business. That will become clear in a few days. In any case, for the moment "The Beach" is not about to be washed away...
Thank you, Kerouac
From the Bangkok Post
Thousands of German teenagers spent Saturday and Sunday swarming around Berlin's sparkling new movie-house complex on the Potsdamer Platz in the hope of catching a glimpse of Hollywood super-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Berlin's 50th international movie jamboree is now in full swing after its glittering launch Wednesday. But it is the handsome DiCaprio who has so far been grabbing all the attention from fans.
"Leo... Leo... Leo," they scream, pressing themselves against steel barriers and jumping up and down in excitement each time Hollywood's lates box-office idol is glimpsed or heard uttering a few words.
When his boyish face flashes on a giant coloured screen adorning the lofty movie-house facade, there is another explosion of frenetic squeals from youngsters below.
DiCaprio is in town for the in-festival showing of the Danny Boyle-directed movie The Beach, in which he stars alongside Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle and Virginie Ledoyen.
After the festival showing of the movie, the co-stars smiled somewhat thinly as Leonardo became the main focus of media attention, with swarms of photographers fighting to get shots of him.
He said that the movie, which was shot in paradise locations in Southeast Asia, wasn't unduly strenuous to make. "More a case of getting our of the water, rehearsing your lines, doing your scenes, and going back into the water again," he quipped.
Festival chief Moritz de Hadeln interjected at The Beach press conference, saying somewhat tersely that DiCaprio was not the only member of the cast present. Perhaps, he suggested, journalists might like to ask them some questions?
A plea promptly ignored by a burly American movie critic who asked the star, "Just how difficult was this role for you Leonardo?"
The Beach is a movie about backpackers in Thailand who set up an idyllic community on a deserted beach, only to see their venture end in Lord of the Flies-style disaster.
Last week British author Alex Garland's best-selling debut book of that name, on which the movie is based, sold its 700,000th copy in Britain, making him one of Penguin Books' top authors ever.
While the movie is bound to become a blockbuster at the box-office, it probably will not scoop the top Golden Bear prize in Berlin, due to the festival's nervousness about honoring movies already heavily lined up for awards elsewhere.
The Beach will open in Thailand March 10.
"For a while we were untouchable in our happiness"..
"I thought we'd have to talk about our positive energies a lot, kiss the earth every morning and recycle our waste products by some unspeakable mechanism. Fortunately not, it really was some kind of paradise!"
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