The Absence

L'absence

France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom

1992

112 Min

Color

1.66:1

French

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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PROD Paulo Branco, Ulrich Felsberg, Adrian Lipp, Wim Wenders

CAST Bruno Ganz, Jeanne Moreau, Arielle Dombasle, Alex Descas, Evgen Bavcar, Luc Bondy

ED Peter Przygodda, Catherine Quesemand

MUSIC Leo Mariño, Jean-Paul Mugel

Venice (Competition), Stockholm (Competition)

Synopsis

The film is like a tale in which the settings are clear and labyrinthine, concrete and fabulous. Four anonymous characters, on the verge of hypostasis, leave their daily surrondings. The old man, who guides them in their wanderings, the young woman, the soldier and the gambler all set off and discover, through the continents, a fantastic geography. They each meet one another and form a group which moves like an expedition, fleeing whatever forced them to leave. Their conversations, their words, monologues and dream-like visions tell their story. The end of the journey, as incidental as the start, separates the group gathered by the visible and returns each of these travellers to their initial loneliness. The “guide” that led them is perhaps absence itself. What they share is wat they’ve seen. –uniFrance

Director

Peter Handke

Peter Handke (born Dec. 6, 1942, Griffen, Austria) Austrian writer. He studied law before beginning to write seriously. He earned an early reputation as a member of the avant-garde with plays such as Offending the Audience (1966), in which actors analyze the nature of theatre and alternately insult the audience and praise its “performance,” and Kaspar (1968). His novels, mostly ultraobjective, deadpan accounts of characters in extreme states of mind, include The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1970) and The Left-Handed Woman (1976). A dominant theme of his works is the deadening effects and underlying irrationality of ordinary language, everyday reality, and rational order. —Britannica