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Alps

Alpeis

Greece

2011

93 Min

Color

2.40:1

Greek

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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PROD Giorgos Lanthimos, Athina Rachel Tsangari

SCR Giorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou

CAST Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris, Aggeliki Papoulia, Ariane Labed

Venice (Competition): Best Screenplay, Toronto (Visions), London (Film on the Square), Vancouver (Cinema of Our Time), AFI FEST (World Cinema), Rotterdam (Spectrum), Göteborg (Visionärer), Istanbul (What's Happening in Greece?), CPH PIX (3X3), San Francisco (World Cinema), BAFICI (Panorama), Karlovy Vary (Horizons)

Synopsis

A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends or colleagues of the deceased. The company is called Alps. Their leader, the paramedic, calls himself Mont Blanc. Although the Alps members operate under a disciplined regime demanded by their leader, the nurse does not. –Venice Film Festival

Director

Giorgos Lanthimos

Giorgos Lanthimos (Greek: Γιώργος Λάνθιμος; born 1973) is a Greek filmmaker and theatre director. He studied film and television direction at Stavrakos Film School in Athens. Since 1995 he has directed feature films, theatre plays, videodance and a large number of TV commercials. He was also a member of the creative team which designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. In 2009, his film Dogtooth won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. –Wikipedia

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Corriel

4May13

A good idea turned into an unclear, insipid and boring film. That's a pity.

Kijma

3May13

Can't wait.

Mehdi Jahan

30Mar13

This film starts like a riddle and gradually takes the shape of an absurdist tragicomedy of sorts ! If DOGTOOTH was about a personal struggle to escape from a rigidly constructed reality and enter the real world, ALPS is about a group of people who volunteer to leave reality behind and enter a fictitious world to play assigned roles ! It's a reversal of sorts. How much of a bearing these 'roles' have on their own lives ? Will they end up entering a labyrinth of sorts where the roles they play will eventually render their default role of playing themselves insignificant ? In modern times, is it so difficult to play yourselves that we desire to escape from our reality and play the roles of others,thereby entering their realities ? Can the void left by the loss of a person filled by a bad mimic ? Lanthimos asks these pressing questions in his characteristic zany, dour n deadpan style.

raulcld and DT like this

Howard Orr

20Mar13

Bizarre, deadpan take on (over)involvement in the lives and deaths of other people. A miss but mostly hit foray into black absurdism, as if Richard Brautigan had decided to remake Hirokazu Koreeda's "After Life".

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.

Notebook Reviews: Giorgos Lanthimos' "Alps"

By Daniel Kasman on July 14, 2012

Giorgos Lanthimos’ followup to Dogtooth suffers from the same problems as his breakthrough.

read article

Film Comment Selects 2012

By David Hudson on February 17, 2012

“We sort of do the lineup by the seat of our pants.”

read article

Venice 2011. Golden Lion for Aleksandr Sokurov's "Faust"

By David Hudson on September 10, 2011

Silver Lion for Cai Shangjun (People Mountain People Sea). Acting awards for Michael Fassbender and Deanie Ip.

read article

Venice 2011. Performance Studies

By Daniel Kasman on September 5, 2011

Giorgos Lanthimos’ followup to Dogtooth suffers from the same problems as his breakthrough.

read article

Venice and Toronto 2011. Giorgos Lanthimos's "Alps"

By David Hudson on September 3, 2011

“It’d be rash to call it a better film than Dogtooth, but it is, in the relative scheme of these things, a bigger one.”

read article

Review: ALPS Fuses HIgh and Low Culture

By Twitchfilm.com on July 13, 2012

[After a run on the festival circuit, ALPS opens for a theatrical run in New York and Florida on Friday, July 13, so we’re republishing our review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Check

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

Yorgos Lanthimos Is Not The Leader of the Greek New Wave: An Interview With The Director Of ALPS and DOGTOOTH

By Twitchfilm.com on July 13, 2012

In 2009, Yorgos Lanthimos burst onto the international film scene with his cinematic guide to good parenting, Dogtooth. It won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes, was nominated for an Oscar, and there

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

Four Shots From Yorgos Lanthimos' ALPS

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011

When Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos broke through on to the international film scene with 2009’s Dogtooth I doubt even the most fervent early admirers could have predicted the impact the film would have

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

Watch A One-Sided Game Of Tennis In Clip From Yorgos Lanthimos' ALPS

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011

The new film from the director of the Oscar-nominated Dogtooth is about to roll out in Venice and Toronto and while existing fans of Yorgos Lanthimos may have an idea of what they’re getting in to a new

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

The Teaser For Lanthimos' ALPS Declares You Unready For Pop

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011

Should we be surprised that a very odd director has released a very odd teaser for his latest film? I think not.Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos will be hitting both Venice and Toronto with his follow

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

TIFF 2011: ALPS Review

By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011

“There are many types of lighting receptacles, that come in both professional and consumer grades.”“Cold is a word that winter swimmers do not know.” This is the icy-precise line-reading one comes to

→ read on Twitchfilm.com

New Theatrical Teaser For Yorgos Lanthimos' ALPS

By Twitchfilm.com on October 17, 2011

There’s something strange with the state of US film distribution when a director – in this case Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos – can have a film nominated for an Oscar (Dogtooth) and yet have his next film

→ read on Twitchfilm.com