cyberalpine

Paul keeps receiving wonderful red roses bouquets and wonders who sends them. But the mystery won't ever be lifted.

The complexity of feelings is hinted rather than spread out, the sequence of events is suggested rather than shown. The unsaid prevails, concealing the characters' emotional depth, which leaves a lot to the spectator's imagination. Unlike Anglo-Saxon movies it is not overacted, loud, vulgar and stuffed with sex. Also the casting is excellent, all the patients and inhabitants of the region are more real than in real life.

My only criticism would be about too much music. Silence, as in most Ingmar Bergman films, has my preference. This is the reason of my 9 out of 10 stars.

Ambiguity is the key world of this film. You are the major actor in the sense that your interpretation makes the film. Each scene is so ambiguous that you can always interpret it in various manners so in the end _you_ are the director. When Maria and Val work on the text, rehearse the play, the feelings are so mingled that you are the one who decide if they are those of Helena- Sigrid or rather Maria-Val. Reality is entangled. I loved the Alps hiking shots and overall the mysterious Maloja snake. I would have rated it a 9 to the Writer-Director Olivier Assayas but reduced it to a 8 because I was disappointed in Juliette Binoche's performance. She is usually better than in this film, it is as if she didn't feel like acting this character, a bit like what happens in the film itself. At several occasions her laugh is artificial and fake. She is obviously ill at ease in this character, which proves what I wrote before about entangled reality between the film itself and the play prepared in the film. I'm not sure I am very clear but those who have seen and felt/perceived the movie as I, will understand.