The Other Side of the Moon (2003)

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Movie
German title The other side of the moon
Original title La face cachée de la lune
Country of production Canada ( Québec )
original language French
Publishing year 2003
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Robert Lepage
script Robert Lepage
production Bob Krupinski ,
Mario St-Laurent
music Benoît Jutras
camera Ronald Plante
cut Philippe Gagnon
occupation

The other side of the moon ( La face cachée de la lune ) is a Canadian film drama from the year 2003 . Director Robert Lepage filmed his play of the same name and embodied two different brothers in a double role.

action

Phillippe is middle-aged and works in a call center selling newspaper subscriptions. He has been fascinated by the far side of the moon and space travel since childhood . He often escapes from his dreary reality into a weightless fantasy world in space. Phillippe has a problematic relationship with his opposite, younger, more successful brother André. André is a weather announcer on television and is gay. The mother of the two brothers, whom Phillippe loved, died recently. She leaves a goldfish named Beethoven in a water glass.

One day Phillippe happens to be on the phone with his ex-girlfriend Nathalie, who is now married and has a young son. She doesn't want to order anything. Phillippe's boss observes his private conversations critically. This is the only reference in the film to Phillippe's social relationships - other than that with his brother.

Review: As a child, Phillippe had a tumor in his head and was given chemotherapy. He collects colored stones and lays them around the sun like planets. There is bitterness between the brothers. At the age of 15, Phillippe experiments with LSD and puts his unconscious brother in the drying machine, which looks like a space capsule, which the mother summons.

A television program is looking for videos from viewers to send them into space. Phillippe sends in his self-made video in which he presents himself to the aliens as an example of a human being. His doctoral thesis on narcissism as a driver of research programs is rejected for the second time. He hears a day before the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonow , who participated in the Soviet lunar program . Phillippe wants to discuss his doctoral thesis with him, but a planned meeting in a hotel bar does not take place because Leonow is leaving Canada prematurely because of a popular snow storm. But Phillippe is invited to a conference in Moscow by the Tsiolkovsky Institute. His brother is now supposed to take care of the goldfish, which Phillippe discusses with him on the phone while working in the call center. Phillippe loses his job because of this private conversation while on duty.

Shortly before he flies to Moscow, a doctor informs him that the mother has probably committed suicide. The mother was amputated because of diabetes and suffered from kidney failure, which is why she had to go on dialysis. She died from drinking a large glass of water regardless of her kidney disease. Phillippe is very shocked that his mother obviously chose suicide. He had looked after her until her death. He flies to Moscow sadly, he cries on the plane. In addition, he forgets to change his watch to Russian time after landing in Moscow and oversleeps his appointment at the conference in his hotel room under the dreams of space capsules. When he arrives at the conference venue, everyone is gone, except for the translator. This does not agree with Phillippe's theory.

The goldfish freezes to death at home because the power has failed. André tells his brother on the phone and they talk to each other about the mother's suicide. André reads a letter to Phillippe from the United States informing Phillippe that his video message has been selected and will be broadcast into space. André proposes to celebrate and he will pick up Phillippe from the airport.

Phillippe is waiting at Moscow Airport in front of a large poster of cosmonauts. Suddenly his glasses begin to float. He himself rises weightlessly in front of the starry sky on the poster and flies further and further up into space and finally to the other side of the moon.

Reviews

  • The lexicon of international films wrote about the "philosophizing comedy" : "Director Robert Lepage creates the thematically and formally varied portrait of a life-disappointed philosopher whose existential questions he devotes himself seriously and at the same time full of sense for the absurdities of being" .
  • Cinema described the film as a “portrait of a lovable outsider, by (and with) avant-garde director Robert Lepage” and as “bizarre and funny” .

Awards

  • 2004 won Robert Lepage at the International Film Festival in Berlin the FIPRESCI Prize in the Panorama section.
  • In 2004 Lepage received a Genie Award for best adapted screenplay. There were also three nominations, namely for Lepage as best leading actor and best director and for producers Bob Krupinski and Mario St-Laurent for best film.
  • In 2004 Brigitte Bilodeau won the Prix ​​Jutra for the best make-up.
  • In 2004 Lepage received the Golden Bayard for best film at the Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film.
  • In 2004 Lepage was nominated for the Golden Spike at the Valladolid International Film Festival .

Background information

The film was shot in Montreal and the city of Québec . The budget was approximately 1.6 million CAD . The film was Canada's official nomination for an Oscar in 2005 for Best Foreign Language Film , but it was not nominated.

The English film title is The Far Side of the Moon .

The film was released on September 9, 2003 at the Toronto Film Festival . Then it ran on February 8, 2004 at the International Film Festival in Berlin. The launch in four cinemas in Germany took place on June 22, 2006. On November 24, 2006 DVDs were released in German and French. The French original version with German subtitles was shown on German television.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Other Side of the Moon . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 412 K).
  2. ↑ The other side of the moon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ A review of Cinema