FILM: ATTENBERG – SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL SERIES
Review By Duncan McLeod
Director: Anthia Rachel Tsangari
Cast: Ariane Labed, Vangelis Mourikis, Evangelia Randou
Synopsis: Born and raised in an abandoned mill town, uniformly built around a single high-rise apartment building, Marina (Ariane Labed) has fallen in love with a failed architectural experiment and forgotten all about the people who were supposed to live in it.Built sometime in the sixties, Attenberg was never meant to harbour human warmth in the first place. Its sole purpose was to procure obedient workers for the nearby aluminum factory, offering a colorless life to go with the regulation outfit. Hardly the stuff dreams are made of. The only romance that ever blossoms amidst the white-washed walls of this ghost town is of the fleeting variety, here now and gone tomorrow, as Marina’s promiscuous friend Bella (Evangelia Randou) would readily attest to.The only long-standing engagement is the one between Marina’s father—one of the project’s leading architects—and the city. Eternally bound to his concrete mistress, he now follows her downward spiral, as his cancerous innards are decaying in synch with the building’s ancient plumbing. No wonder his daughter never learned how to love. She finally gets a chance to break free when a handsome stranger arrives in town on business, but will she take the opportunity or is it too late?
Review:
“I like women’s breasts” – Marina
It starts with a kiss. This is a suburban film. In the mundane there is madness. In the ordinary there is intrigue, not always but at the hands of Director Athina Rachel Tsangari, this is life in full swing.
Two close friends Marina and Bella are travelling through life. One is infinitely more worldly and experienced than the other. Marina has taken it upon herself to inform Bella about life, specifically men and sex. They spar throughout the film and the audience gets the impression that they are both learning from each other in different ways.
Marina’s relationship with her father Spyros is awkward. As Spyros is being treated in hospital the relationship with his daughter seems to grow closer. However there is still a distance between them and a lack of authentic father-daughter connection. This establishes the social awkwardness that Bella feels with all men.
The dynamic between these three characters interchanges between interesting and just plain odd. There is a latent sexual chemistry between Spyros and Bella and between Marina and Bella. This makes for interesting viewing and anticipation of the next move.
We learn early on that these girls have been lifelong friends. They behave as though they’re in their own world when they are together.The have retained that fanciful ability to escape that most of us has as children but tend to discard when we come of age.
There is an oddly appropriate musical moment between them, that is cleverly used almost as a cinematic ‘chapter change’ in the film.
This film is very much about love, discovering it and the awkwardness of how it develops. Tsangari also wrote the film. Whilst her script explores the awkward conversation of naive women and ailing men with great enthusiasm, her talents lie behind the camera. There is an overbalance of awkward silence to dialogue ratio that makes the script seem amateurish.
The use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound is well handled. After the second musical interlude the viewer becomes aware as expected that it is a musical cue for a chapter change. Whilst this might be a welcome inclusion for some, it makes assumptions that the audience cannot follow the mood of the film and understand where the tone shifts.
Tsangari and her cinematographer have worked together before. They frame Greece in a realistic manner that does not make it overly attractive or slumlike. The film looks natural, not commercial or overly grimy, a testament to the vision of these two to present some realm of truth.
That is despite the central pairing of Bella and Marina having a whimsical off-beat surreal relationship.
As is assumed by the title the film incorporates the work of Sir David Attenborough. There is a particular moment between Spyros and Marina when they are imitating silverbacks that deserves a mention, not only given the name of this website but because it is also perhaps the most tender moment in the film.
Despite what our two leading ladies learn during the course of the film, it affirms that human relationships are messy, awkward and are probably best avoided at all costs. If you become emotionally invested however, like with great cinema, enjoy the ride and don’t let logic get in the way of a good story.
