This blog has been orphaned again; I have promised myself to write more and shorter memos. I hope, I will eventually defeat my laziness.
Before all a big THANK YOU or rather MERCI BEAUCOUP to the Film Festival in Aubagne, who generously opened the films in the main competition for online viewing. Maybe I can be there next year for real and not just online.
De Patrick is a kind of deadpan existentialist comedy. It is up to the viewer to make the ends meet.
In the first shot we see a bulky middle-aged man floating as "dead man" in a lake. Patrick is relaxing. He is janitor in a naturist camping. While everybody greets Patrick, he is avoiding eye contact. Patrick is already 38 years and still living with his parents, a blind mother and a very sick father. The condition of the father gets worse and he dies eventually. At this time Patrick discovers, that a hammer is missing from his set of tools. Patrick is actually a gifted carpenter and designs chairs. - Instead of sorrowing, Patrick tries to find that tool. The father is gone for good, but he might be able to retrieve the hammer.
Of course the guests in the naturist camp are naked. Nudity does not create equality among the guests at this site. This place with naked people is far from being a restoration of lost nature or paradise. On the contrary, they are scheming and plotting. Especially Herman sees a chance to get his fingers at the site.
Nudity in De Patrick is not at all erotic, but rather a functional gimmick to make the story work. This is a genre-bending coming of middle age film, which is absolutely worth a watch.
7/10
Before all a big THANK YOU or rather MERCI BEAUCOUP to the Film Festival in Aubagne, who generously opened the films in the main competition for online viewing. Maybe I can be there next year for real and not just online.
De Patrick is a kind of deadpan existentialist comedy. It is up to the viewer to make the ends meet.
In the first shot we see a bulky middle-aged man floating as "dead man" in a lake. Patrick is relaxing. He is janitor in a naturist camping. While everybody greets Patrick, he is avoiding eye contact. Patrick is already 38 years and still living with his parents, a blind mother and a very sick father. The condition of the father gets worse and he dies eventually. At this time Patrick discovers, that a hammer is missing from his set of tools. Patrick is actually a gifted carpenter and designs chairs. - Instead of sorrowing, Patrick tries to find that tool. The father is gone for good, but he might be able to retrieve the hammer.
Of course the guests in the naturist camp are naked. Nudity does not create equality among the guests at this site. This place with naked people is far from being a restoration of lost nature or paradise. On the contrary, they are scheming and plotting. Especially Herman sees a chance to get his fingers at the site.
Nudity in De Patrick is not at all erotic, but rather a functional gimmick to make the story work. This is a genre-bending coming of middle age film, which is absolutely worth a watch.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment