Berlinale
Δευτέρα 12.2.07
Les Témoins
The Witnesses
Die Zeugen
France, 2006, 115 min
Director: André Téchiné
Cast: Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Béart, Sami Bouajila, Julie Depardieu, Johan Libereau, Constance Dollé, Lorenzo Balducci
THE WITNESSES
Manu is 20 years old when he arrives in Paris to look for a job. Initially, he moves in with his sister, Julie, who rents a room in a sleazy hotel. Julie's life revolves around music. She is training to be an opera singer and tries hard to partition herself off from her ebullient brother.
Manu is a night bird. One night he meets Adrien, an extrovert and cultivated gay doctor in his early 50s with whom he strikes up a carefree, platonic friendship.
Adrien soon introduces Manu to his circle of friends. Shortly afterwards, Adrien takes Manu for a boat trip on the Mediterranean with a young married couple: Mehdi, who is a cop, and Sarah, a writer. The recent birth of their first child seems only to have made this unconventional couple even happier together, but appearances are deceptive. For Mehdi, the zealous police inspector, paternity has magnified his tyrannical side and this leads to excessive behaviour both at work and in his sex-life. Meanwhile, Sarah is unable to come to terms with being a mother, feeling that it encroaches on her identity as a woman. Unable to bond with her baby, she immerses herself in her writing in a desperate quest for inspiration.
Manu's arrival in Paris and his intrusion into Julie, Adrien, Mehdi and Sarah's lives creates shockwaves in all their relationships. Unintentionally and unknowingly, Manu forces them confront their true desires. (Η επιστροφή του Τεσινέ ,με πρωταγωνίστρια την Εμανουέλ Μπεάρ σε μια ταινία όπου ενας 20χρονος, ενας γιατρος, ενας μπάτσος κι η γυναίκα του που είναι συγγραφέας γινεται το σιστριγκλο.)
Notes On A Scandal
Tagebuch eines Skandals
USA, United Kingdom, 2006, 92 min
Director: Richard Eyre
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson
Barbara Covett is a domineering, nonetheless lonely teacher who has worked for years at a shabby state school in London. Ruling her class with an iron fist, the only creature to whom she feels an attachment is her cat, Portia. Otherwise Barbara lives alone; she has neither friends nor confidante. All the things that make her happy or sad are committed solely, and more or less faithfully, to her diary.
Then one day a young art teacher named Sheba Hart joins the school. All at once, Barbara believes that, now, at long last, she has found her longed for kindred spirit and intimate friend. Sheba is open-minded, emotional and fragile; married with two children, she seems to enjoy a happy relationship with her husband. She has, it would appear, no need for Barbara's affection. However, Barbara's day dawns when she comes across the art teacher having sex with a 15-year-old pupil named Steven Connolly. At the discovery of this scandalous affair, the two women's friendship takes an alarming turn. Believing herself to have a powerful card in her hand, Barbara foists herself on Sheba's life, demanding that she put an end to her misalliance and transfer her attentions instead to Barbara. When Sheba refuses to meet her de mands, Barbara openly threatens to reveal her secret to the world - and Sheba's husband Richard in particular. A tense psychological battle bet ween the two women ensues ... Τα λόγια είναι περιττά. Ταινία εξαιρετικης ερμηνευτικής δυναμικής που περιμένουμε ανυπόμονα να δούμε.
When A Man Falls In The Forest
Germany, Canada, USA, 2006, 85 min
Director: Ryan Eslinger
Cast: Sharon Stone, Timothy Hutton
This episodic drama embraces the lives of four unlikely heroes - three men and one woman - each consumed in a personal struggle to make sense of their lives that transforms them in ways they never imagined.
Karen tries to create some excitement in her frustrating married life by going on shoplifting sprees as well indulging in other, more dangerous things.
Bill has never been able to interact safely with the world around him. He keeps his distance and prefers to exist in a lacklustre state of self-imposed exile. This is a secret world where his dreams proffer a different sense of self, one where he embraces life, conquers his demons and where his encounters with others are powerful and sensual.
Frozen in a moment in time, Travis is able to reach out to others but not within, since he bears the guilt for a terrible tragedy which has scarred him forever.
Gary is also desperate to make a connection. He strives to bridge the gaps and find what is lost. In one defining moment he makes a startling and irreversible decision which irrevocably and unforgettably transforms him and everyone else.
Karen, the unhappy wife, finds salvation in thrills she knows are forbidden. To her, breaking taboos is empowering. It's all part of a seductive game in which desire leads to obsession and passion - to murder. Η πως τεσσερις αυτοκαταστροφικοι ήρωες προσπαθουν να βάλουν μια ταξη στις ζωές τους.
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