Thursday, April 25, 2013

Still Immune to Desperate Living

Paradise: Hope (2013) - Seidl
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This is more traditional. A diet camp. Crush on much older camp doctor. Heartaches. Obviously Seidl couldn't subject his thirteen year old actors to an orgy scene. The doctor leads Melanie (Melanie Lenz) on for uncomfortably long time, but it doesn't go extreme like in his other films. Like the other two in his Paradise Trilogy, Seidl here achieves that intimacy with young actors, but more tender and subtle. The banality of pre-pubescent life is still somewhat immune to Seidl's depiction of desperate living of the adults. Does hope exist only in childhood or is Seidl being ironical just like naming the trilogy Paradise?

Teresa, Annamaria and Melanie, the protagonists of the trilogy, grapple with the society where they (themselves included) are viewed in a certain way. They look for paradise in all the wrong places. Wait for some answers as I get to interview Seidl and ask him questions later this week!

Seidl will be present at FSLC special screenings of the Paradise Trilogy by Film Comment Selects this weekend. Paradise: Love starts its theatrical run concurrently. For more information, please checkout FSLC website.

Review of Paradise: Love


Review of Paradise: Faith

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