Could there be a better queen of the Berlinale than Tilda Swinton? The answer, obviously, is nein.
On a snow-blanketed Thursday night in the German capital, the Oscar-winning Scottish actress wowed the crowd at the Berlin International Film Festival with a powerful statement decrying the rise of authoritarianism around the world as she accepted the event’s Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
A more deserving recipient of the festival’s top honor was hard to recall. Swinton has been a Berlinale regular since her 1986 screen debut, Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio, won the Silver Bear. In the ensuing years, 26 of her films have screened across the Berlin festival’s various sections.
When Swinton sat down with the press to discuss her 40-year career in the movies Friday morning, she had a startling surprise to reveal, though: we won’t be seeing much of Tilda Swinton on movie screens for a while.
When asked by a journalist what unfulfilled dreams she has for the remainder of her career in the arts, Swinton said it’s a question that’s been very much on her mind.
“I can tell you that when I go home on Monday to Scotland, I’m entering a something that I’ve been looking forward to for about 15 years — which is a period of my life when I do something different,” Swinton said. “I can’t quite say what it is, but I can say I’m not shooting a film for the rest of this year. I want more time,” she added.
Describing filmmaking as a “merciless mistress,” the actress said she had been “under the lash for a while,” because of recent changes to the way the types of artistic films she favors are financed and produced.
Referring to the pre-pandemic era as “B.C., or, before COVID,” Swinton said the indie film world used to allow filmmakers ample time to develop projects and prepare artistically. But the artist-friendly rhythms of the past have been replaced by a “smash-and-grab” ugency becasue of “insecurity about finance,” which Swinton said “has been really strenuous for us all.”
“And I need a break,” she added. “So I’m going to have one. I’m going to have some peace and quiet to think and figure out what the next 40 years are.”
For fans fearing the worst — no more Tilda Swinton movie performances — the actress made clear that she’s not fully retiring from the screen.
“I want time to develop projects,” she said. “Some are for the cinema, some are not — but I need time.”
