One of my gifts is my ability to network without putting in any effort. It has been wonderful for getting recommendation letters and even jobs, but it can also be a bit uncomfortable and awkward. The strangest thing is that it happens again and again and again, whether it's meeting a Berlin family who had been looking for an English native speaker to talk to their kids at dinner during my family vacation in the Harz Mountains (which reminds me, they never called me), knowing administrators who happen to be looking for another student to help out in the office, or knowing just the right combination of professors and administrators who were willing to fight for my ability to use my scholarship abroad. (Thanks again! It was a great semester!)
Several weeks ago, I babysat Dumpling and one of his friends while their mothers went to a film premier party. The mother and kid came back to visit the following week, which happened to be the first week of the Berlinale. I casually mentioned that I had tickets to The Guard and wanted to see another documentary film, and she said, "Oh, I recommended The Guard on my show! I don't know why you want to see (the other film), though..."
Long story short, the mother is a film critic, and she is invited regularly to film premieres and film festivals. My friends and I ended up watching the documentary for free, and she invited me to the Berlin premiere of "Mein Kampf" last night.
I got to see the red carpet, the "paparazzi" (almost non-existent, which should have been a clue about the quality of the film), and literally bumped into the actor who played young Hitler. Another bonus to being a press person is the free drinks! I snagged a free Bionade before the movie, and Redakteurin (as I will now call her) handed me prosecco after the film, possibly to wash away the memories of the film. You could also grab free soup and rolls.
Let me stop here and say that all of these perks made the evening somewhat enjoyable. Unfortunately, the movie itself was less than enjoyable, and not just because the characters spoke in Austrian dialect. To put it nicely, German-speaking Europe does not have a Mangel an Hitler films, and the world is not a better or more enlightened place after the production of this film. As Redakteurin ranted, the film couldn't decide whether it was going to treat the subject (Hitler's adolescence and "acquaintanceship" with some Jewish men) seriously or comedically. It ended up failing on both parts. It might have helped if the film had explicitly said that it mixes incredibly fictionalized scenarios (e.g. Hitler falling asleep on a patterned pillow and waking up with a swastika on his face? Hitler trying to hang himself but tying a crappy knot and getting it stuck around his stomach?) with a few actual events, but even that is doubtful.
A moment of hilarity from after the film: Redakteurin was talking with a German author about the age (and, therefore, cultural) gap between the three of us. Somehow, they got on the topic of Woody N., a very famous American director. They were flabbergasted when I admitted that I had never heard of this Woody N. guy; apparently, he's really well-known in Germany. Redakteurin stepped in and said that a lot of Woody N.'s films never made it to the theaters in the US, but they were picked up in Germany, so maybe that's why I had never heard of him. On the U-Bahn home, I finally realized that they were saying Woody Allen and mispronouncing his last name. Probably should have thought of that earlier; there aren't many people named Woody running around...
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