Sue (1997)

Director:

Amos Kollek

Writer:

Amos Kollek (writer)

Release Date:

10 September 1998 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An unemployed ex-office worker (Anna Thomson) searching for work floats a fragile line of sanity as she struggles to find friendship and companionship...

Plot Keywords:

Restaurant | Financial Problem | New York City | Park Bench | Female Bonding

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Anna Levine	...	Sue (as Anna Thomson)
Matthew Powers	...	Ben
Tahnee Welch	...	Lola
Tracee Ellis Ross	...	Linda
John Ventimiglia	...	Larry
Edoardo Ballerini	...	Eddie
Matthew Faber	...	Sven
Robert Kya-Hill	...	Willie
Austin Pendleton	...	Bob
Michael Worth	...	Man in Gallery
Alice Liu	...	Lisa
Susan Huffaker	...	Young Mother
Tom Cappadona	...	Stanley
Lázaro Pérez	...	Pedro / Phil
Joshua Kaplan	...	Sydney

Also Known As:

Sue Lost in Manhattan (Canada: English title) (TV title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Ontario) | France:U | Spain:13 | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

AMKO Productions Inc.

Desperation - Incapability - Chance - Resignation - Hope!

I saw this movie at the Viennale - a film festival in Vienna. For me it was really a very impressing, but at the same way very depressing movie. It shows the needs and the incapability of people to handle human relations especially in big cities as New York. In this city that never sleeps and no one ever is alone so many people are lonely. The search for human nearness is such a central point in life but if it is getting real we often do not know what to do. That's why we often reject people who are starting to be close to us.

The movie is about a desperate woman, who has no job, no friends, and a big scare in her heart to be with out one. That's why she tries to hold on every man she meets, but not able to open herself - knowing her problems, but not actually wanting or being capable to make a change.

For me it was a very realistic movie, because I had vistited NY this very summer before, and I know the scenery in which the movie took place. The "Madison Square Park" in which finally everything ends. And exactly in this park I saw this summer a person also totally desperate and close to the end. I did not do anything. What should I? However, that's why I think it is not only a movie, or a story, but also an image of the real life.

After the movie I had the luck to ask Mr. Kollek himself about his own point of view according to some special scenes. For me it was a kind of pessimistic situation which was described by him, but he said, that he does not think that it is pessimistic, but only realistic. It is up to everyone himself to change his situation. But to be honest I have got to admit, that I did not really understand his attitude versus this point, because I think in a live there are some many dependencies that sometimes your are not able to make such a big change on your own (alone or lonely) But this might be a result of mutual mistunderstanding. And so what I wrote Mr. Kollek said have not been his words but only how I understood him. I don't want to quote him the wrong way.

After all it was a real great movie. And perhaps everybody else will see other things in it. But isn't it that, what great cinema is made of. Interpretations are always part of a movie.