Interruption

'Interruption' is by far the worst film screening at this year's 72nd Venice Film festival.

As the movie begins, a man steps onto a theater stage announcing that 'tonight, the audience will make up the characters and story of the performance'. And yet, the film never settles on a choosing what story it wants to tell. A tour-de-force of slow rack focuses, painfully boring moments of silence, and quite awkward false endings. One after the other. It is arrogant in the way it thinks highly of itself- 'artsy' just for the sake of being artsy. It offers no real thoughts or new ideas, yet it demands two hours of the audience's time.

I'd respect the film if it was trying to create unique experimental filmmaking. Unfortunately, it's nothing more than a cheap imitation of it. In the movie's final scene, the theater's audience claps loudly at the performers on stage, once the show is over. In the screening room, the lights go up, and the audience leaves in confused silence.

Interruption is a film taking place in a theatre which scenography is an art installation. It's a masterpiece without any doubts. The film atmosphere is constantly built and viewer is getting more and more curious what is going to happen next. The more we watch the more anxious we get. But still we can't look away, because it's such a beautiful film. Cinematography, editing, sound, acting, every aspect of the film is just perfect. Central composition of shots, shots from audience perspective to suggest to viewer that he's in theatre in the film. So even if we leave the cinema, we would do it as part of the audience.

To conclude - this film is intermediality and intertextuality piece of art. Every single aspect of it is built in a very specific and aware way. It's a intellectual, audiovisual, meaningful masterpiece, which shows how modern art can connect and develop different media into one brilliant modern work.

Interruption is not a simple movie. It's an experience that blows your mind. What seems to be a modern representation of the Orestea from Eschilo is much much more. There are a lot of layers, themes and deep meanings that may make this movie complicated and unacceptable but also if you can't understand you can feel it. You can feel that you are looking at something amazing, beautiful in each of it's aspects. The ingenious direction is accompanied by a beautiful photography and the actors did an incredible job!

Watching it a lot of questions will come up to your mind and there will be no answers, because everyone is free to give their own interpretation such as in life everyone sees what they want to see.

Like it or not, is a masterpiece that absolutely needs to be seen, as an example of how strong cinema can be.

Before we went in I said to my wife that this will either be very good or very bad. It was very bad. The conceit is not necessarily a bad idea but the whole thing is executed in such ponderous way that it becomes pointless. Then problem is that Greek tragedy is its own justification, so even a modern dress variation is asking for trouble. but this wanted to go much further and ended up not going anywhere at all. We lasted 45 minutes before walking out but how we managed that much is beyond me. The script was about as leaden as a script could be, and the directing ponderous. The acting was not bad, but the problem, was that this meant that we were treated to a realistic depiction of ordinary people's not very extraordinary thoughts. Hopeless.

"Interruption" is one of the best film I have seen in last years. Disturbing and mind-blowing game with our habits, myths and democracy in modern world is something very rare those days. Between the philosophical aspects of free choices and ancient therms of destiny the director build a film experience, that cannot be confused with any other films. In this sense the film is a little bit like a classical tragedy. It has the same magnificent weird power like Yorgos Lanthimos famous movies, but it take also a different kind of narrative perspective that makes film unique. Georgios Zois has it's own voice in Greek cinema and I think it will get even stronger.