Winter Song
Description
In this affecting and acrobatic film that ping-pongs between stories and even time periods, the tenants of an apartment building are everywhere at once, galvanized around a beloved old concierge. They include his anthropology-obsessed friend (noted actor/filmmaker Pierre Etaix), as well as assorted aristocrats and youngsters in love and at war with local police who are bent on evicting homeless people. Also on hand is a band of roller-skating purse snatchers who thread the streets of Paris like mischievous fairies redistributing objects and helping us see what matters: friendship and a roof over one’s head. Mingling tragedy and comedy, satire and surrealism in his own inimitable way, Iosseliani shows how the search for happiness is often stymied by bureaucrats and public officials. There are times when a mysterious door in an alleyway wall presents itself to characters, leading to a magical garden where they can take repose. Winter Song, with its grace and elegance, offers viewers a similar gateway to its garden of earthy delights.
Georgian director Otar Iosseliani has been making films in France for several decades now, but what Albert Johnson wrote about his early classic Pastorale (1975), set in a Georgian village, is certainly an apt description of Winter Song, set in Paris today: “Iosseliani’s sharp perceptions are constantly aimed toward sardonic juxtapositions, in the subtlest sense, to establish those wistful ironies of human behavior that exist when cultural patterns coexist behind invisible barriers.” Other festival favorites by the director include Brigands, Chapter VII (SFIFF 1997), Gardens in Autumn (SFIFF 2007) and Chantrapas (SFIFF 2011).
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/160932922?autoplay=1Film Details
Language French
Year 2015
Runtime 117
Country France
Director Otar Iosseliani
Producer Otar Iosseliani, Martine Marignac
Writer Otar Iosseliani
Editor Otar Iosseliani, Emmanuelle Legendre
Cinematographer Julie Grünbaum
Music Nicolas Zourabichvili
Cast Rufus, Amiran Amiranashvili, Pierre Etaix, Mathieu Amalric