Un lac (2008)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Philippe Grandrieux

Writer:

Philippe Grandrieux (written by)

Release Date:

18 March 2009 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The story takes place in a country about which we know nothing: a country of snow and dense forests somewhere in the North...

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Dmitry Kubasov	...	Alexi
Natalie Rehorova	...	Hege
Alexei Solonchev	...	Jurgen
Simona Huelsemann	...	Liv
Vitaly Kishchenko	...	Christian
Artur Semay	...	Johannes

Also Known As:

A Lake (Europe: English title) (festival title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Mandrake Films

A Film of a Winter's Mind - Perhaps

This picture is thought provoking, but not too interesting when first you shake off the tense mood of the movie created by an extensive use of hand-held, non-focus/focus combinations, close-ups, intense darkness, cold whiteness and sparse saturation.

It sets out in an frozen, timeless universe of the deep mountains, an isolated place, the only connection to a possible outside world (never exposed) being a lake.

Form the beginning the movie makes itself prone to numerous sorts of psychoanalytical interpretation frames (and, indeed, to possibilities for over-interpretation): the fight of the super-ego against ego and id, liberation of the id, completion of the sexual self, mother complexes, father complexes, and so forth.

This psychological is not necessarily a strength, but possibly a necessity for the plot to work. We are talking topics like quasi-incestuous relations, possible schizophrenia, the fear of the unknown ways of adult life and so on.

Altogether, this movie is overloaded with symbolic possibilities, but the cinematic work is excellently simplistic. For those who have the patience to take in the seriously slow pace of the film, it is well worth the inevitable annoyance.