As an ageing institution (58 years) Berlin's International FIlm Festival or Berlinale, underway since last week, finds itself fittingly defined this year by a crowd of Anglo rock stars of yore hawking their career-defining documentaries to an adoring audience of internationals. Patti Smith, America's first female punk president, has been in town since Sunday -- visiting the grave of German playwright Bertolt Brecht on his 110th birthday -- to attend the premier of her own biographical docu, Dream of Life.

Neil Young broke a million hearts of gold and made the headlines last week at the Berlinale when he told reporters that it would be "naive" to think that music can change the world. Yesterday, in a statement, he scaled back the harsh to the effect of: even if a song can't change the world that doesn't mean you should stop singing it.

Last week on Day 1 of the festival, Martin Scorsese revealed he had formed an unholy alliance with zombies, er, the Rolling Stones with his modern day concert film shot with 26 cameras, Shine A Light.

Today: unleash the hounds of hype, Madonna is in town with her own special movie about "a Ukrainian immigrant who finances his dreams of rock stardom by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix, and his two female flatmates." Now that sounds like a Berlin movie.