A gay couple, whose relationship reached the stage where every conversation ends up with a quarrel; a french director, who takes on an intimate project that turns out be very personal; a young girl, whose constant attempt to test the water and limit lands her in troubles.
This feature is more a collection of various intimate scenes rather than a one coherent plot. More of food for thoughts rather than a story with a satisfying end.
Interestingly the director takes the approach of gazing from a distance for these subtle and intimate scenes. Mostly austere and white washed interiors, very much flat, more painting/photo like compositions, and camera that never gets too close to the character even in the moment of high emotion... encourage the viewers to simply gaze and observe rather than emotionally involve.
Even the character of Boris played by the director himself has 'let it be, and let's get on' attitude in contrast to his partner, who seem to want to dig deeper into his own fear and insecurity or indeed the french director who seem to want to understand what happened to her own relationship through her new project.
The result is charming and interesting but bit ambiguous and vague. I suspect the director, Stumm himself didn't exactly know what he wanted to say in the end. A director who pushes his message too hard can be tiresome, but a director who simply hopes his audiences make their own conclusion can be also bit frustrating. I admired the power of observation and calm approach of Stumm, but I hope he commands a bit more direction for his next project.
This feature is more a collection of various intimate scenes rather than a one coherent plot. More of food for thoughts rather than a story with a satisfying end.
Interestingly the director takes the approach of gazing from a distance for these subtle and intimate scenes. Mostly austere and white washed interiors, very much flat, more painting/photo like compositions, and camera that never gets too close to the character even in the moment of high emotion... encourage the viewers to simply gaze and observe rather than emotionally involve.
Even the character of Boris played by the director himself has 'let it be, and let's get on' attitude in contrast to his partner, who seem to want to dig deeper into his own fear and insecurity or indeed the french director who seem to want to understand what happened to her own relationship through her new project.
The result is charming and interesting but bit ambiguous and vague. I suspect the director, Stumm himself didn't exactly know what he wanted to say in the end. A director who pushes his message too hard can be tiresome, but a director who simply hopes his audiences make their own conclusion can be also bit frustrating. I admired the power of observation and calm approach of Stumm, but I hope he commands a bit more direction for his next project.
