I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012. The announcement text on the festival website talked (too) much about the format. Alas, I ignored the warning signs and booked tickets, which in hindsight I should not have done. This film is (a) long winded, (b) boring throughout, (c) overly pretentious, or (d) all of the above. The only positive comment I have is the music that popped up some of the time.
With respect to (a) and (b): In my opinion, the initial music salon scenes (half an hour of our time wasted) could easily be condensed into 5 minutes, without loosing any contents. Alternatively, the whole proceedings could as well start from the restaurant scene.
Similarly, the passages that are read by our "guide" add nothing, only pretenses. Ditto about the stage-like decor, only serving to emphasize what we already knew, namely that we have to do with a play within a play (a so called Frame Story).
During the final Q&A there was a question about the reasons behind the classical stage play setup. From the given answer I could derive no real justification, so the above negative comments stand.
6.2Keywords: woman director
Plot summary
Roberto is a dandy!An unmoved, inscrutable and thus enigmatic man. He enjoys the aristocratic amusement of astonishment.Women, whom he knows full well in all sorts of styles and races, can no longer surprise him.The truth is that Roberto feels the intimate tedium of those who have exhausted all the delights and pleasures of this life.Yet... One evening,he is intrigued by a woman who reminds him of someone.That night, of descent into heaven and rising to hell, this woman discloses the peculiarity of the life that has become hers.And amidst the terrible overwhelming, Roberto witnesses the sublime horror into which that woman has dropped.He leaves closed within himself,unsettled by the glimpse of a certain love that,after all,he never has lived.
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