Addio terraferma

Here indeed is film-making in its purest art form. Iosseliani has, in this film, the only one of his I have had the greatest pleasure of seeing, manages to evoke such subtle ideas in each pan, in each scene, which in themselves are miniature stories, each one a little jewel, which little by little begin to string along, creating a thread which tells the whole story. And the result is a treasure, something to value for a long time.

To call this film a comedy, is almost an insult: it is far too subtle for such simplistic definition. Here is wit, which is not just for easy laughs; here is wit in its subtlest form, such as the British sense of humour in the fifties and early sixties of the past century. Here is the voice of a visionary who creates unforgettable tid-bits, visual savouries, such that each scene in itself is a suggestive, evokeful treasure, combining to thread together an intelligent story for intelligent viewers. No, one should not try to compare Iosseliani with Almodóvar or Lynch, perhaps a slight influence or comparison with Fellini at times, because the concepts of how to exhibit subtle nuances of wit in exquisite expressiveness, very often with hardly any dialogue, belong to another sphere.

The presence of a great bird, similar to a pelican, as well as the two dogs - a Labrador puppy, and a short-legged variant of the Border Collie, affords that emblematic and enigmatic delicate touch which helps this film to be something else: it is not comical and it is not laughable; this film is cinematography as art.

My vote is much higher than the present average shown in IMDb.

A superb blend of Parisian life akin to Almodovar's in depth analysis of life in Madrid. The surrealism of the Marabou and the end sequence adds the Bunuel touch. For good measure add a series of superb characters who would not have been out of place in any of the Twin Peaks episodes. More Calvados please and another movie as good as this one - a rare visual event.

All members were unique like this : a mother was very busy for her job, a father played with locomotive models all day, a son got along with homeless friends, a seles girl of the cafe whom he had been in a one way relationship with and a dull servant who worked in a house of the mother's lover.

It was similar to a miniature world. I enjoyed watching interpersonal relationships passed by each other and fitting them perfectly! Maybe we circulate in the narrower range than we expect.

I watched it twice. I couldn't follow the progress because, at first, I watched it while having done something. I recommend it to peple like Jacques Tati.

I've just seen this movie last week at the International Film Forum "Arsenals" which takes place in Riga, Latvia.

I think it's a brilliant movie with style, taste and outstanding work of Director and Director of Photography. Acting is great, too. It's a definite must to see for people who like Otar Iosseliani's films and for many others who can appreciate real art of cinema.

I saw this immediately following the same director's Falling Leaves and found it much more accessible. The twenty-odd year gap between the two films and the fact that this one was made in France as opposed to Georgia may, of course, have something to do with it. Again, the Georgian-born director (he made a point of saying he was Georgian and NOT Russian) introduced it - in fluent French yet - and described it as his most complicated film. It's a gently, meandering piece and at least half a dozen times you think, OK, that's it, a logical ending, only to have it spin out yet moor gossamer thread. There's a distant relationship with Renoir's The Rules Of The Game but only around the edges. It's about a disparate group of people whose lives intersect and sometimes, but not always, connect. Bizarre, eccentric, both could be fairly employed to describe some of the characters. Again the director chooses to spin his web around a young male, this time around the scion of a wealthy family who, for reasons best known to himself, works as a dishwasher in a restaurant - and an inept dishwasher at that; he's fired halfway through the film - and chooses friends from among the outcasts of society (again, we could, if we wanted to stretch a point, find a link with Boudu Saved From Drowning). Characters come and go on this patchwork quilt and some we find more interesting than others. None of the actors are well known but most are fairly competent and overall the film holds the attention.