The Berlin Film Festival is “unterwegs” (underway) as they say, and the press is already moaning. While journalists are never slow to whinge about anything and everything, they have some justification this time around.

The annual Berlinale, which historically struggles to land the big stars on the red carpet for the crucial opening night film, managed to secure the Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese this time around. So far so good.

Predictably, the director’s concert documentary “Shine a Light” was one that every reporter wanted to see and write about. So why did the organisers hold the main press screening in one of the smallest venues?

A huge crowd gathered 40 minutes before it started, and tempers quickly frayed as people realised they may not get in. One journalist, whose name I didn’t catch, attacked another grabbing his hair and yanking his head violently, uttering a few loud expletives for good measure. This was a bad way to start the 11-day movie marathon.

Then at a screening of Oscar-nominated “There Will Be Blood”, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, the sound went wobbly for 20 minutes or so, grating on the ear and prompting several fed-up hacks to walk out. Others slow-clapped to try and get the projectionist’s attention, while one stood up at the back of the theatre and shouted “Stop the film! This is not human!” Well, it was bad, but it wasn’t THAT bad.