Reviews

I saw this at the Film Festival of Angoulême. Although I have not seen the original - I had heard good things about it - I decided to give this a chance. The starting point is very original and promising. Father and son, both acclaimed orchestra conductors, have always had a bad relationship and when the father is invited to conduct the Scala in Milan, he becomes insufferable. Except that a mistake was made by an assistant and it was not the father who has been given this prestigious task but the son. There is no way the son can look his father in the eye and tell him this. So he lets him believe for a while that he is still going to Milan. This will lead to a painful confrontation when the father finds out.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't manage to fully explore the relationship between father and son. The film is too short; a good half an hour extra would have done the story good. Now it feels rushed.

Pierre Arditi is formidable as the father, but Yvan Attal is not of the same caliber. He has a lot of close ups while his facial expression is very limited.

All in all, while I can criticize some choices in directing and also cinematography, the film is not bad and worth while giving it a chance.

Saw this at the Film Festival of Angoulême. The beginning scene is a baroque outburst of violence filmed in slow-mo. We see a woman attacking her mother while two men are trying to contain her. Of course you expect to discover later on why this person did that, but no, it is never explained in the film which is absolutely unforgivable. We don't have a crystal ball. What on earth happened? You don't attack someone violently like that for no reason. Unfortunately, it's exactly what the film is telling us. The woman has a violent temper and the reason why the film was made in the first place is to show that women can be violent as well, and I'm quoting the director here. Well, if this is the way, you want to show it, then maybe you should think twice. And maybe, just maybe, write a proper script first. There is zero psychology, hence zero character development.

The actors weren't bad, except for Bruni-Tedeschi. She has been playing the same role for the last 10 years. Can't see her anymore.

The only good thing about this film is the technical achievement, that's why the two stars were given. Good camera work and good editing. But of course that is not enough. How this got funding in the first place and made it to the official competition in Berlin is beyond me. Ursula Meier is a very overestimated director.