Halfway through the 62nd installment of the Berlin Film Festival, no single film has emerged to carry the fest’s top prizes. The international jury, this year’s headed by British director Mike Leigh, will have a difficult time distributing the Gold and Silver bears if the competition fare remains this lackluster. Benoît Jacquot’s French-Revolution drama, Les Adieux à la Reine was the firing shot in a festival year that is taking a hard look

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The radio was on this morning, my train of thought lazily moseying along a conversation between George Clooney and National Public Radio’s Robert Siegel. I’ve always been ambivalent about Clooney, who recently appeared in the Alexander Payne-directed The Descendants. As much as the off-screen Clooney is exceedingly likeable, the characters he plays leave me indifferent. He’s probably epicurean, judging from that house by Lake Como