Around The Sun.
Directed by Oliver Krimpas.
Starring Cara Theobold and Gethin Anthony. 78 mins
Interesting. It's an interesting word. If I were to say to you that this bold attempt to create a new genre – the Romantic Philosophical Discussion – in which a man and a woman play out several different versions of meeting up in a deserted chateau in Normandy and conducting a flirtatious discussion of humanity's place in the universe, or universes, all inspired by the 17th century novel by Fontenelle, Conversations on The Plurality of Planets, is “interesting,” would you take that to mean something positive or negative?
At some level, probably subatomic, it is both. Keeping such a minimalist premise spinning is tricky but the two performers are game. I'd say that of the two Cara Theobold is the stronger, does the better job of pulling in the audience, but perhaps that is because she is written that way. In the script, she is the one trying to engage him (and by extension us) in the issues being raised and get some response. She's very appealing yet the film never quite takes flight. For it to really work we need to be convinced that what is happening between them - their meeting, their growing attraction – is momentous in a way that is about more than these two people in this one place. It needs to be like the final scene in Wings of Desire. This film never becomes more than two people walking and talking. There's something pulling it down. I'm not quite sure what, but it isn't gravity.
Directed by Oliver Krimpas.
Starring Cara Theobold and Gethin Anthony. 78 mins
Interesting. It's an interesting word. If I were to say to you that this bold attempt to create a new genre – the Romantic Philosophical Discussion – in which a man and a woman play out several different versions of meeting up in a deserted chateau in Normandy and conducting a flirtatious discussion of humanity's place in the universe, or universes, all inspired by the 17th century novel by Fontenelle, Conversations on The Plurality of Planets, is “interesting,” would you take that to mean something positive or negative?
At some level, probably subatomic, it is both. Keeping such a minimalist premise spinning is tricky but the two performers are game. I'd say that of the two Cara Theobold is the stronger, does the better job of pulling in the audience, but perhaps that is because she is written that way. In the script, she is the one trying to engage him (and by extension us) in the issues being raised and get some response. She's very appealing yet the film never quite takes flight. For it to really work we need to be convinced that what is happening between them - their meeting, their growing attraction – is momentous in a way that is about more than these two people in this one place. It needs to be like the final scene in Wings of Desire. This film never becomes more than two people walking and talking. There's something pulling it down. I'm not quite sure what, but it isn't gravity.
