Le acrobate
Italy / Switzerland,
1997, 120 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Silvio Soldini
- prod
-
Daniele Maggioni
- scr
-
Silvio Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Laura Bosio
- cam
-
Luca Bigazzi
- editor
-
Claudio Cormio
- cast
-
Licia Maglietta, Valeria Golino, Mira Sardoc, Angela Maraffa, Fabrizio Bentivoglio
- source
-
Intra Films SRL,Via E. Manfredi, 15, 00197 Rome, Italy. FAX: 39-6-807-6156
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Silvio Soldini and Licia Maglietta in person.
OTHER
When we first glimpse Elena, she is standing on a balcony, weeping silently. From inside we hear a woman's voice and naturally assume it is a mother or sister or lover or friend—either the source of Elena's anguish, or someone come to comfort her. But it is just a real estate agent, oblivious to Elena's private torment and focused only on the potential sale. We can see the influence of Antonioni on Silvio Soldini's latest film, an exploration of a nameless anguish that settles over comfortable bourgeois lives. Elena is a paragon of success, with a successful career, an attentive lover—even an ex-husband who provides her with free dental care. One rainy night, she knocks down an old woman with her car. Luckily, there is little harm done, but she finds she cannot get Anita out of her mind. Despite some nasty rebuffs, Elena tries repeatedly to help her—a sign of both generosity and the essential emptiness of her life. The third part of a trilogy that includes The Serene Air of the West and A Soul Divided in Two, this film is the most hopeful. Elena's quest, filmed with a skillful lyricism by Luca Bigazzi, ends at the foot of Switzerland's Mont Blanc—Percy Shelley's great beacon of hope and meaning. Perhaps she is a changed woman, perhaps not, but for a moment at least, she has escaped.
—Robert Landon
FACTOID #33
French New Wave actress Jeanne Moreau’s 1974 Festival tribute, called “a veritable orgy” for her fans by the Examiner’s Stanley Eichelbaum, included screenings of four films (The Lovers, Jules and Jim, Bay of Angels and Diary of a Chambermaid), an onstage interview with Moreau and an additional two hours of clips. Running nine to 11 hours (depending on the source), the tribute was the longest recorded at the Festival.
