SYNOPSICS
Antares (2004) is a German,Croatian,English movie. Götz Spielmann has directed this movie. Petra Morzé,Andreas Patton,Hary Prinz,Susanne Wuest are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2004. Antares (2004) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
A deadly car crash sets off three parallel stories of women at crisis points, faltering behind the doors of the same, plain Vienna apartment block. A bored nurse with a stable, comfortable family life has a wild but almost-wordless extramarital affair with a fashion-conscious traveling salesman, who's obsessed with sex photos. An unstable young Austrian grocery checker lies to hold on to her philandering Yugoslavian boyfriend, claiming she's pregnant. Finally, a recent divorcée whose violent, ex-husband is a King of Denial intent on getting her back. Will the residents' fibs and moral failures save or destroy them ? Can the women safely express their fears ?
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Antares (2004) Reviews
Penetratingly observed, life itself is sufficient to find meaning and differences
Antares gets its name from the ancient Greeks and means Anti-Ares. Ares is, of course, the God of War, also called Mars by the Romans. Antares is linked to the planet Mars because they are both about the same colour and brightness, so it is easy to get them confused. The official site tells us, "The film comprises three interconnected stories that are in a sense three 'Scorpio stories' with intense emotions, both positive and negative: sex, jealousy, violence, crisis and death." If you bear that in mind, it will give you a clue to the substance of this finely observed film, but the movie hooked me before I knew that, making fine comparisons that easily confound moral judgement. Antares begins with a car crash (one that takes us quite unawares) and continues an intense pace for the first third of the movie, including explicit sex scenes. But the first story is that of Eva, a nurse, wife and mother. She becomes involved in an intensely passionate affair. The second story concerns a check-out girl, obsessively jealous of her partner who pastes billboards for a living, and lying to him to ensure his 'love'. The final story concerns a divorced couple where the man will not let go and the wife has started seeing someone else. The three stories fully intertwine only at the end. Each story involves a couple and a third party, none are 'whiter than white'. But there are important differences, not least in how we view and judge them. Using 'truth' as a yardstick gets us nowhere as none of them are particularly honest although the most violent person (the abusive husband of the last story) is probably the least dishonest. In the first couple (a white collar family, listening to Schubert, raising a teenage daughter with love and care), we somehow feel that the infidelity is less 'wrong' than in the later example. It might even be the safety valve, without which the couple (who communicate politely but not very effectively) would have reached breaking point, hurting everyone but especially the child. In the second example, both partners are trying to control the other and we instinctively feel they are more selfish and less sympathetic. A yardstick becomes, who is hurt? What was the intention to hurt or nurture? Their motives to each other seem shallower, their methods more devious, they are less likable. They are also less interesting given that this film will appeal to a highbrow audience, do we judge them worse because they are poor and less intelligent? But then we see the third scenario a brutal, dangerous husband. Can the wife be blamed that she has 'moved on'? the husband is externally convincing, but we learn he has raped and beaten her and she is in fear of him. His 'reality' is a different one to hers. Compared to the billboard-poster, who seemed such a reprobate a minute ago, he is a monster. Notice how our perceptions and judgements of the characters are altered as well by the use of nudity in different ways, by the use of humour (a person seems less 'bad' when they are funny, irrespective of the facts), and by our comparisons with 'better' and 'worse' individuals. Trying to make moral judgements becomes a very confusing affair, but most people will be able to distinguish between the non-violent and almost loving deception of the first couple compared to the violent triangle of the last story. The effective attempt to 'do the right thing' in spite of overriding passions manifests itself differently. If you found movies like Closer intriguing as a moral primer, take Antares on for a more difficult conundrum. It takes someone of considerable skill to weave such a tapestry effectively, and Götz Spielmann distinguishes himself in Antares as a director of profound insight, considerable talent and great artistic integrity.
I love it
Antares is based on secrets and lies in the classic Austrian style, we know from directors Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl. Antares focuses on three women, whose paths cross in a building complex. A married nurse who has a lover that hardly speaks. The lover is only interested in sex and taking nude pictures of her. The sex and pictures are a tad explicit. The other is a young girl who is lying to her boyfriend that she is pregnant. The boyfriend is happy, but that does not stop him from sleeping with the third woman, a divorced woman who has problems getting rid of her ex-husband. The three destinies bond together in a refined way.
authentic !
With little budget (as the Austrian movie "industry" unfortunately has) obviously a director has to walk with different shoes than Hollywood. "Antares" is a good example of how to make the best of it. In my point of view very often certain narrative concepts become so much in the thick of things, that characters turn secondary (I don't mean to say I don't like pictures which walk that way). IMO it is refreshing to see movies which succeed not to abstract too much, movies which do not take away too much from their characters because for example various storytelling concepts are requiring it. With "Antares" for ~115minutes you get insight into various living conditions in Austria before something crucial happens. You see how people are, what their main problem is. And yes of course there is a clear idea behind this picture, but as I said before this idea is not imposed on the viewers. Solitude and isolation are crucial topics in "Antares". The entanglement of life's is another. No doubt in a way several directors in this world have dealt with these very human aspects already. Only I haven't seen any other dealing with it in such genuineness like Spielmann - especially I haven't seen many other films from my country which managed to do that ! In a short: Authentic and real characters. Terrific writing and terrific acting. I especially enjoy the cynicism.All adds up to a real good austrian movie.
Synthetic, but utterly hypnotic
Gotz Spielmann is a true auteur. His film-making style is instantly recognizable, weaving a spell. What's going on in front of the camera can be merely someone shutting a door, a couple having explicit sex, a violent car crash, two people having an argument, but that camera is not moving. This makes you highly aware of everything in the frame and everything is there for a reason. You notice colors, especially white, black and red. Virtually no music, except some smoky sax over the credits. His constant use of medium shots remind you that you are not "there," you are just an observer. The movie portrays a highly contrived, but nevertheless convincing, story on the theme of sexual betrayal. Three couples who live in the same apartment building (but do not know each other) are introduced and their stories are told, one at a time. We meet a very reserved nurse and mother who is having a passionate affair behind her husband's back. Then, a supermarket checkout clerk, not emotionally stable, who has falsely told her Yugoslavian boyfriend that she is pregnant in hopes of hanging on to him. Finally, a divorced woman dealing with a racist and thuggish ex-husband who won't let go. As the movie progresses, odd events get explained. Once, a couple walking in the courtyard hear a woman scream. Later in the movie we see the scene of the screaming woman. The movie generates an enormous amount of suspense as it unfolds. Will the nurse confess to her husband? Will the checkout clerk come clean about her false pregnancy? Will the divorced woman be seriously harmed by her increasingly erratic ex-husband? As the last question, it is answered in a harrowing psychological confrontation that will have you on the edge of your seat. What people are eating and where they eat it also seems to matter. It leave it to others to explain the meaning of the roses in a vase, the dog trainer, the hooker on the corner and other apparent signifiers in the film. If you liked this, be sure to check out Spielmann's "Revanche," which is even better.
Uninteresting
This film tells three intertwined stories of the residents of an apartment building. This style of filmmaking has become popular of late, following the early success of Robert Altman ("Nashville" and "Short Cuts") and Alejandro Inarritu ("Amores Perros" and "Babel"). This one, however, falls far short of those films. Of the three episodes, the first one is the most interesting, featuring a nurse in a loveless marriage having a brief affair. The other two episodes concern low-lifes making each other's lives miserable. Neither the characters nor the stories are particularly interesting. Of course everything comes together in a predictable finish.