Twentynine Palms (film)

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Movie
German title Twentynine Palms
Original title Twentynine Palms
Country of production USA , France , Germany
original language English , French
Publishing year 2003
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Bruno Dumont
script Bruno Dumont
production Rachid Bouchareb ,
Jean Bréhat
music Takatomi Sunset
camera Georges Lechaptois
cut Dominique Petrot
occupation

Twentynine Palms is a romantic drama with horror film elements directed by Bruno Dumont , the location of which was filmed in 2003 in Joshua Tree National Park , California . It was not until 2007 that the film was released in German cinemas in its original version with German subtitles. In September 2009 a synchronized version was shown on 3sat on German television .

action

The photographer David leaves Los Angeles with his Russian girlfriend Katia to look for motifs for a photo shoot in California. From the community of Twentynine Palms , they roam the desert near Joshua Tree National Park in their lobster on lonely slopes and enjoy the beauty of the landscape. Since Katia hardly speaks English and David does not speak Russian, they communicate in French, which both of them have only a rudimentary command of; Their verbal communication is accordingly limited . Their non-verbal communication , on the other hand, is more intense : they often argue with each other, but soon reconcile themselves by having (naturalistically filmed) sex - until their relationship comes to an abrupt end one day. Three men attack the couple in the desert. David's head is smashed with a baseball bat and one of the men rapes him afterwards, while Katia, being held by another man, has to watch. When they return to the motel, Katia is killed by David with numerous knife stabs. Then he returns to the desert to die.

backgrounds

Extremely long camera shots of the car journeys alternate with equally long shots during occasional walks, during sex and when staying in the motel and the swimming pool.

Apart from the occasional country songs by Takatomi Sunset that are played on the car radio, there is no film music to be heard in the classical sense. In return, some noises are accentuated and partially take over this function.

The director Bruno Dumont in an interview with the weekly newspaper der Freitag about the desert as a location: “The desert is a place of grace, where one can move freely and naked. It is paradise, the source of passion, desire, love. And at the same time, it's a hostile place. There is something corrupt in it. I think this ambiguity is great. Nowhere else do you feel how inseparably love and death are linked. "

Reviews

Die Zeit commented: "That cinema cannot destroy, but can still disturb, that individual images can still develop an infectious force even among hundreds of films" and added:

“One could read Twentynine Palms as a theological attempt that tells of the expulsion from paradise. Because the withered Garden of Eden of this naked couple is deeply profane and aggressive, the expulsion must be all the more terrible. "

The Berlin taz described the film as "a shock cinema: the French director Bruno Dumont sends a communication- disturbed couple into the desert in Twentynine Palms " and commented:

“The threat Dumont felt in the vastness of the American West was already present in his French provincial dramas. In Twentynine Palms it makes itself felt as a vague hunch, also because Dumont's penchant for bloody twists is now known. But there is also tension between the photographer David (David Wissak) and his Russian girlfriend Katia (Katia Golubeva). The woman seems a bit unstable and her communication problem makes the relationship even more difficult: They have to converse in French, a language that both of them only have a rudimentary command of. Early in the film there is a dialogue between them that is almost comical - until you are disappointed to find that it encompasses the essence of Dumont's film. David complains angrily that their conversations don't make sense, that he can't follow Katia's logic. The mood between the two threatens to change, until Katia giggles him with the words I love you! interrupts. Then they go to the motel room and fuck - loudly, quickly, mechanically. The cycles of long, uneventful car journeys and the animal grunts and moans of the two main actors give Twentynine Palms a loose structure. "

In the Berliner Tagesspiegel it was said:

“There are moments of tenderness in this horror film, there are Katia smiles and David's relaxed coolness. Sometimes they have fun, not exactly during sex, it is physical and desperate and loud, but for example when they take turns at the wheel off the asphalt roads and Katia does her first driving exercises. And sometimes they feel tired in the evening on the hotel bed, painting toenails or licking pizza out of the disposable cardboard. "

Awards

The film took part in the competition at the Venice International Film Festival in 2003 , but did not receive any awards.

Trivia

In 2002, a grotesque thriller by Leonardo Ricagni was released under the title 29 Palms .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Twentynine Palms . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2007 (PDF; test number: 111 308 DVD).
  2. ^ The Friday of April 20, 2007
  3. ↑ Katja Nicodemus in Die Zeit from September 12, 2003
  4. ↑ Andreas Busche in the taz of April 12, 2007
  5. ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala: “Moral disgusts me.” Wild cinema: The French director Bruno Dumont and his film “Twentynine Palms”. In: Der Tagesspiegel from April 11, 2007