Antares

Solid believable acting and good production values ...but I couldn't care any less about any of the characters. The plot is jumbled, superficial and not very engaging. Nothing gets resolved and the ending was very disappointing ...but by then; I was glad it was over.

This film tells three intertwined stories of the residents of an apartment building. This style of filmmaking has become popular of late, following the early success of Robert Altman ("Nashville" and "Short Cuts") and Alejandro Inarritu ("Amores Perros" and "Babel"). This one, however, falls far short of those films. Of the three episodes, the first one is the most interesting, featuring a nurse in a loveless marriage having a brief affair. The other two episodes concern low-lifes making each other's lives miserable. Neither the characters nor the stories are particularly interesting. Of course everything comes together in a predictable finish.

Some solid performance and quality for 2004 Austrian cinema. the plot is simple straight forward about 3 stories which are connected to each other. A good movie but ending is not very satisfied / un-finished.

some sex scenes are very hot. seems like unsimulated one.

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the 1st story about couple seems completed, about a cheating wife who lacks passion or desire from husband , so she goes for other man. and in the end. husband wants her back?.... simp..

2nd is not completed , about a gf who faked are pregnancy and her cheating bf. in the end she is ok with bf even she knows he is cheating ? .

3rd story is kinda completed , about abusive husband, karma hit him in end.

Antares is one fine example how the accomplished director Götz Spielmann could weave the delicate cobwebs of the intricacies of human emotions so beautifully on the screen. Spielmann possesses the distinct way of story-telling which doesn't require flamboyant camera-tricks or racy scenes to spice up his story. There the characters evolve slowly and steadily but give you opportunity to learn a thing or two about the complexity of human nature. In Antares, the story loosely follows the lives of three women, crossing one another's paths couple of times. One has a fine family and job yet indulges into passionate affair with a secret taciturn lover. Another desperately wants to get married with her boyfriend, but is very insecure about him. While the third one trying hard to get rid of her violent and abusive ex-husband who could yell at her, beat her but couldn't stop seeing her! But in all stories the core theme is passion and ambiguity of human nature. Here the characters are provided with two options of more, but it's never so simple to choose one of them! Antares tries to explore the complexities of relationships and hence the lives of variety of people trapped into their own emotional webs, the urban way of living has to offer! Antares is all about the unflinching passion and endless yearning inherent to human nature. the director manages to stitch the three parallel stories seamlessly and the characters are left echoing in viewer's mind for long after the movie is finished.

With little budget (as the Austrian movie "industry" unfortunately has) obviously a director has to walk with different shoes than Hollywood. "Antares" is a good example of how to make the best of it.

In my point of view very often certain narrative concepts become so much in the thick of things, that characters turn secondary (I don't mean to say I don't like pictures which walk that way). IMO it is refreshing to see movies which succeed not to abstract too much, movies which do not take away too much from their characters because for example various storytelling concepts are requiring it.

With "Antares" for ~115minutes you get insight into various living conditions in Austria before something crucial happens. You see how people are, what their main problem is. And yes of course there is a clear idea behind this picture, but as I said before this idea is not imposed on the viewers. Solitude and isolation are crucial topics in "Antares". The entanglement of life's is another.

No doubt in a way several directors in this world have dealt with these very human aspects already. Only I haven't seen any other dealing with it in such genuineness like Spielmann - especially I haven't seen many other films from my country which managed to do that !

In a short: Authentic and real characters. Terrific writing and terrific acting. I especially enjoy the cynicism.All adds up to a real good austrian movie.