Le mystère d'Oberwald

Antonioni shows a brilliant eye for colour in this film, with effective use of tinting and lighting special effects to attach mood and emotion to certain sequences. There is some good camera-work too, with dolly shots, closeup and zooms all distributed effectively, plus the dissolve editing also is interesting. The interior design and costumes are very striking, but the film is more than just technically impressive. It has ideas about motivation, killing and fate, and it is almost always intriguing, even if the story is rather threadbare and very unrealistic. Some of the shots appear to add little to the film, and some bits of dialogue also appear useless. But even if the film is imperfect, there is still quite a bit to take out of it, and it is almost worth watching just to see what Antonioni can do with colour.

The Mystery of Oberwald is a made of television movie, done in video before being transferred to 35mm. As introduced by Lorenzo Codelli, this movie reunites actress Monica Vitti and director Michelangelo Antonioni since their last collaboration in Red Desert, some 17 years earlier. During this while, Vitti became a fairly successful comedic actress, while Antonioni was like a globetrotter having films made in the UK (Blowup), US (Zabriskie Point) and having a documentary done in China about China on the invitation of the Chinese government of the time. The movie was shot for state broadcast television, which was appealing to filmmakers at that time because it was increasingly difficult to raise funds for theatrical feature films.

And if Antonioni wanted to make a film to dabble with video technology, then perhaps he had achieved that goal. Technically it had employed many tricks of the trade through its cinematography and editing, but what strikes you most is the use of colours in the movie to accentuate mood of its characters, through various changes and transitions, with contrasting hues and tints used which dissolves every now and then. When used at the great outdoors, the generous shots of nature were given a life of its own, and in those terms, makes it a very beautiful film to gawk at.

If only the story could match up to its technical strengths. Based on the play "L'Aigle a Deux Tetes" by Jean Cocteau, it's no wonder that the movie played out exactly like a stage play. To make things worse, the dialogue was excruciatingly painful to sit through, perhaps being a period piece, we have to make do with characters speaking in more elaborate terms and beating around the bush. It could be another case of having its nuances lost in translation, but if that's the case, then the subtitles really did the story no favour. The situations the story unfolded were rather unconvincing, and quite dry. Unfortunately too that Monica Vitti wasn't able to arrest you with the special x-factor that she possessed in the earlier Antonioni movies, and looked rather tired in her role as The Queen, who has rather queer habits.

The story picked up early when a pursued Sebastian (Franco Branciaroli) ended up breaking into the castle at Oberwald to perform an assassination of the Queen, only to have fainted before carrying out his mission. The only saving grace for him, is his resemblance to the late King, and herein lies his ticket to get out with the Queen still nursing a longing, and takes a natural liking for Sebastian. In between an unlikely, unrealistic and unconvincing romance is thick politicking between the Queen and her enemies, chiefly the Archduchess whom we never see on screen. There's much talk about fate and destiny and the likes, but that's only when you can tolerate and get through Act One which happens to be mostly a monologue where the Queen rants to an unconscious Sebastian.

Certainly The Mystery of Oberwald in my opinion is not one of Antonioni's best, nor does it come close to being something quite memorable. This movie currently ranks as my least favourite of all the Antonioni movies watched to date, and elevates my other Antonioni disappointments as masterpieces to be celebrated.

This is not exactly what one would expect from Antonioni. This was probably a way to experiment with his style and his themes, since even in this the great director tells the apparent impossibility for human beings to construct solid and meaningful relationship.

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, these themes don't come out as powerfully as in his previous and more excellent titles, especially the 4 parts of the "Saga of Alienation", as many call it, those same movies starring the main actress of this one, the one and only Monica Vitti, who recently left this world.

This movie reinforcers my belief that she was undoubtedly one of the most excellent actresses who ever lived, and that she gave her best in Dramatic roles like this, rather than in Comedy ones (where she was very good nevertheless, let's be clear on that) Maybe this is not a role as iconic as those she portrayed in the other movies she made with Antonioni, but surely is the best part of the whole picture, managing to transmit perfectly the sense of sadness and determination of a Queen that slowly starts to find a way to start living again, thanks to the peculiar relationship with a young man with a totally opposite character.

This makes me think this is the reason for which Antonioni decided to film this movie, because in this relationship there's evidence of impossibility of communication between two humans that try to complete each other, but are opposed by the rest of the world around them.

I like when a director tries to do something different with its style, but maintaining his themes and identity intact, and in this case I couldn't find them as I thought.

Not a spectacular movie, but worthy especially because of Monica Vitti and her always charismatic spirit. If you want to see it, do it for Her.

The movie has a bit of a lumpy, experimental quality, with Antonioni's customary compositional elegance severely muted and the experiments with the colour scheme variable in their impact. Even when it's striking, such as the bathing of the chief of police in cold grey light, Vitti in warmer colours and the poet somewhere in between, it never seems to move beyond a rather simple colour coding. The extremely dramatic opening music sets a tone of fiery melodrama, and events do develop a modest suspense, which slowly comes to be a distilled version of a standard Antonioni work touching on politics, love, ambiguity of motives and intentions, the unknowable quality of objective truth, and so on. Still, in this form it could hardly carry the impact of some of his greater works. The absence of the world outside focuses attention on the insular, claustrophobic nature of the plotting but basically marks it as a minor exercise.

Think very highly of Michaelangelo Antonioni and most of his films. Maybe not a favourite of mine when it comes to directors, but most of his films range from very good to masterpiece, though a few didn't do much for me, and his importance, appeal and influence is more than understandable. Although he falls more into the appreciate rather than the love category, he is very interesting as is his visual style and his films' themes (some and the way they were explored were ground-breaking).

Re-worked from Jean Cocteau's 'The Eagle Has Two Heads', 'The Mystery of Oberwald' is not for me among his best films. Although better than 'Zabriskie Point' and 'Beyond the Clouds', this was actually, and this is being said regrettably, one of my least favourite Antonioni films. Not a masterpiece, also not a misfire, instead one of those heavily flawed (to me) but oddly fascinating films that is still watchable (don't think any of Antonioni's films are unwatchable).

Starting with what stood out as good about 'The Mystery of Oberwald', it looks great as all Antonioini films do even the misfires. It's beautifully shot, Antonioini was experimenting here and it works, and absolutely love the rich and atmospheric colours, whether cold grey or warm vibrant. The music suits the tone and story well, especially the dramatically fiery opening that alone promises much. There are poignant and modestly suspenseful moments.

Acting is fine despite most of the characters being thin, with the lead performance of Monica Vitti in particular showing heart-breaking vulnerability. The themes do intrigue, not ground-breaking in how they're written but intriguing all the same.

Did feel however that Antonioni wasn't the right director for this. He and Cocteau have very different styles and they are styles that don't go together, Antonioni just comes over as too detached for such "flamboyant" (in a way) material and didn't seem very comfortable. The script is very rambling, tends to over-explain and is rather simplistic and stilted. The story is slight, barely existent even, and does suffer from some limp pacing (not all the time though), over-stretching and not always being realistic.

Nuances and subtlety are gone, as is the flamboyant (almost escapist) energy, are not here enough. Do agree too that the film doesn't open up the material enough so it came over as rather stagy.

Concluding, worth a one time watch but there are far better films and representations of Antonioni around. 5/10