ODETE (Two Drifters) - João Pedro Rodrigues

Dienstag 18.12.2012

20.30 Uhr

vorgestellt von Jan Künemund

ODETE (Two Drifters) | Portugal 2005 | 98 min, 35mm color, 1.85:1 | directed by João Pedro Rodrigues | written by Paulo Rebelo, João Pedro Rodrigues | starring Ana Cristina de Oliveira, Nuno Gil, João Carreira, Teresa Madruga, Carloto Cotta | cinematography by Rui Poças | editing by Paulo Rebelo | original music by Olivier Bombarda | set decoration and costume design João Rui Guerra da Mata | produced by Maria João Sigalho

Inhalt

Die Supermarktangestellte Odete erklärt, von ihrem tödlich verunglückten Nachbarn Pedro schwanger zu sein. Eine Behauptung, die den Schmerz von Pedros schwulem Liebhaber Rui vertieft und ihn in große Verwirrung stürzt.

Trailer
 

„Less dirty but even more perverse, Mr. Rodrigues's new movie, "Two Drifters," is another head trip through the landscape of desire. Generically it is a melodrama, albeit of a strange sort capable of accommodating pastiche, parody, hysterical pregnancy and the transmigration of souls. Rich in ambiguity, it unequivocally confirms the arrival as a major and audacious new talent.”
(Nathan Lee, New York Times)


“Der Gedanke an eine Heilung hat in Rodrigues’ Zwischenwelt etwas gänzlich Abwegiges. Er ist mit einer normativen Vorstellung von Normalität verbunden, gegen die diese Filme mit aller Macht ankämpfen. Ideen und Fantasien werden in ihnen eben nicht nur im Kopf geboren. Sie sind keinesfalls nur Ausdruck bewusster und unbewusster Prozesse in der menschlichen Psyche. Auch der Körper, das Fleisch, hat seine ihm eigenen Fantasmen.
Die Idee des „Neuen Fleisches“, der David Cronenberg solange in seinen Filmen nachgegangen ist, erlebt in den Arbeiten João Pedro Rodrigues’ seine Metamorphose. Aus den aus dem Geist der modernen Wissenschaft und Technik geborenen SciFi- und Horror¬szenarien des kanadischen Filmemachers werden im ursprünglichsten Sinne melo-dramatische Fiebervisionen. Die Gesellschaft mag ihre eingefahrenen und oft auch festgeschriebenen Vorstellungen haben. Doch in Wahrheit sind sowohl das Geschlecht und der Körper eines Menschen als auch das, was gemeinhin als Identität gilt, nahezu unendlich wandel- und verwandelbar. Das Flüchtige und Unbeständige des nur scheinbar Festen nährt ein überwältigendes, namenloses Begehren, in Sérgio wie in Odete und Tonia. Es ist eine Sehnsucht nach Freiheit jenseits der Grenzen des Vorbestimmten.“
(Sascha Westphal, Sissy)


„The film is an exuberant and decidedly Eurotrashy take on obsession which takes joy in nullifying the romanticized, politically-correct trends in contemporary queer cinema.” (Joe Bowman, Fin de Cinéma)


Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.
(Moon River, Lyrics: Johnny Mercer)


“Lisbon, the 21st Century. A film close to everyday reality. The supermarket staff move on roller skates. People do everything over their cell phones: make dates, say they love one another, separate… small stories start at the incessant beat of music… I set my characters in this dizzying world. Can we overcome the loss of our loved ones by nourishing our dreams? Are these dreams not the reflection of situations we ourselves create? I wanted to capture these acts of love and pain.” (João Pedro Rodrigues)


"In Two Drifters, Rodrigues drives his passion for cinema to the furthest limit, almost in a form of osmosis with his heroine’s obsession with motherhood. This passion is expressed in the extravagant screenplay, which draws on fantasy and magic rather than on psychology and psychoanalysis."
Olivier Pére, Artistic Director, Locarno Film Festival 


Like O Fantasma, perhaps the scariest and finest film ever made about the compulsion of gay desire, Two Drifters' sensual-spiritual plumbing is totally off-the-map; one film charts the topography of desire, the other scopes the limits of our grief. Except for a scattered pan here and there—the most gripping is a Godardian my-life-to-live swipe of Odete, ostensibly pregnant with the dead Pedro's child, rolling a baby carriage to the cemetery where Pedro slumbers—Rodrigues's camera is mostly static, framed strikingly along every up-down-diagonal plane imaginable, evocative of his characters' crash-into-me anxieties. When it rains it pours, and when the wind spills through Odete's window it is to lead her to Pedro's wake, which invokes the Calvin Klein-mode of asymmetrical symmetry Mark Romanek uses in his music videos. After O Fantasma, this is a definite upgrade for Rodrigues, who continues to work on an almost elemental level but whose supposition of nature as a conduit for communication between people delves into deeper emotional terrain. He's not just getting physical now, but also mystical. 
(slantmagazine)


I don't get it.
(rotten tomatoes) 


Auszeichnungen / Festivalteilnahmen 

Winner "Cinemas De Recherche – Special Mention" 58. CANNES International Filmfestival
Winner "Bronze Precolumbian Circle" Bogota Film Festival
Offizielle Auswahl "Quinzaine Des Réalisateurs" 58. CANNES International Filmfestival