Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- Oskar Roehler has shunned a literal page-to-screen film adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's controversial 1998 novel "The Elementary Particles". Instead, using characters and story lines from the French writer's book, the German filmmaker follows two half brothers as they struggle with horrific intimacy issues in an often compelling though uneven tale of fate, fortune and self-destruction. Elements of the characters' sexuality, which scandalized some readers, have been retained but in a toned-down form, so the film stays sharply focused on character.
Nevertheless, these characters prove elusive, slippery sorts, who are tormented by demons that seem a little too convenient. Featuring a starry German cast that includes Martina Gedeck ("Mostly Martha") and Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente from "Run Lola Run", "Particles" should do well in European cinemas. The film also could attract a U.S. distributor for an art house release.
"Particles" introduces the two brothers as each hits a crossroads in his life. While they share the same mother, their differences are extreme. Michael (baby-faced Christian Ulmen), an introverted molecular biologist, cuts himself off emotionally from people. He has just quit a prestigious job to return to his beloved research, perhaps even taking up a project involving asexual reproduction -- the symbolism isn't too heavy, is it? -- that he abandoned three years earlier.
Bruno (Bleibtreu), a high school literature teacher with an unfortunate eye for coeds, has seen his life fall apart. Sexual fantasies have destroyed his marriage, depriving him of a chance at fatherhood, and his own writing is too racist and reactionary for even a sympathetic publisher to touch.
Flashbacks in a deeply saturated imitation of Technicolor fill in the details of the brothers' pasts: a terrible, selfish mother (Nina Hoss) who abandoned them to be raised by different grandparents so she could pursue a hedonistic lifestyle; their meeting as teens, neither being aware of the other's existence until that moment; and Michael's childhood friend, Annabelle, who has loved him since they were 5 yet could never induce Michael to touch her.
Bruno's mental breakdown, after exposing himself to a female student, allows a shrink (Corinna Harfouch) to explore this Freudian minefield further. But even here a viewer grows wary: Surely, a bad mother can't explain and excuse all the sexual frustration and psychological damage. It's too pat and easy, and doesn't allow these grown men to take responsibility for their own lives.
The need to relocate his grandmother's grave brings Michael Back to his hometown and to a surprising face-to-face encounter with Annabelle (Potente) after two decades. Later, over dinner at her Berlin flat, she seduces him, which turns out to be the first time he has slept with a woman.
Released from a psychiatric clinic, Bruno takes off for a nudist camp, where even free love eludes him as the aging feminists scorn his nervous sensitivity and crude machismo. Then he connects, in a hot tub, with Christiane (Gedeck), a lovely woman whose own neuroses and bad relationships equal his. They fall in love and into a lifestyle of swingers' clubs and partner-swapping in which both thrive.
The schematic plotlines insist that both women fall seriously ill so we can see how the brothers handle each situation. It's pretty predictable since the authors -- the tag team of Houellebecq to Roehler -- display a heavy hand. Indeed, these characters suffer less from a bad mother than the authors' preordained approach to their lives.
Roehler's direction is erratic. He sustains superb performances from actors, especially Bleibtreu as the emotional wreck who evokes sympathy and Gedeck, who makes us understand the amount of neediness and vulnerability that goes into a passion for group sex. But then Roehler allows melodrama to intrude, almost crudely so, as his directorial hand proves even heavier than his literary one. He overreaches the greatest at the conclusion of the ill-fated Bruno-Christiane relationship.
Technical credits on this Bernd Eichinger/Oliver Berben production are excellent, including Carl-Friedrich Koschnick's inventive cinematography, Manfred Banach's lively score and Ingrid Henn's sets that speak volumes about the characters' lives. n
THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
Constantin Film presents a Bernd Eichinger/Constantin Film production in association with MOOVIE -- the art of entertainment
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Oskar Roehler
Based on the novel by: Michel Houellebecq
Producers: Bernd Eichinger, Oliver Berben
Director of photography: Carl-Friedrich Koschnick
Production designer: Ingrid Henn
Composer: Manfred Banach
Costume designer: Esther Walz
Editor: Peter R. Adam. Cast: Bruno: Moritz Bleibtreu
Michael: Christian Ulmen
Christiane: Martina Gedeck
Annabelle: Franka Potente
Jane: Nina Hoss
Bruno's father: Uwe Ochsenknecht
Dr. Schafer: Corinna Harfouch
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes...
BERLIN -- Oskar Roehler has shunned a literal page-to-screen film adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's controversial 1998 novel "The Elementary Particles". Instead, using characters and story lines from the French writer's book, the German filmmaker follows two half brothers as they struggle with horrific intimacy issues in an often compelling though uneven tale of fate, fortune and self-destruction. Elements of the characters' sexuality, which scandalized some readers, have been retained but in a toned-down form, so the film stays sharply focused on character.
Nevertheless, these characters prove elusive, slippery sorts, who are tormented by demons that seem a little too convenient. Featuring a starry German cast that includes Martina Gedeck ("Mostly Martha") and Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente from "Run Lola Run", "Particles" should do well in European cinemas. The film also could attract a U.S. distributor for an art house release.
"Particles" introduces the two brothers as each hits a crossroads in his life. While they share the same mother, their differences are extreme. Michael (baby-faced Christian Ulmen), an introverted molecular biologist, cuts himself off emotionally from people. He has just quit a prestigious job to return to his beloved research, perhaps even taking up a project involving asexual reproduction -- the symbolism isn't too heavy, is it? -- that he abandoned three years earlier.
Bruno (Bleibtreu), a high school literature teacher with an unfortunate eye for coeds, has seen his life fall apart. Sexual fantasies have destroyed his marriage, depriving him of a chance at fatherhood, and his own writing is too racist and reactionary for even a sympathetic publisher to touch.
Flashbacks in a deeply saturated imitation of Technicolor fill in the details of the brothers' pasts: a terrible, selfish mother (Nina Hoss) who abandoned them to be raised by different grandparents so she could pursue a hedonistic lifestyle; their meeting as teens, neither being aware of the other's existence until that moment; and Michael's childhood friend, Annabelle, who has loved him since they were 5 yet could never induce Michael to touch her.
Bruno's mental breakdown, after exposing himself to a female student, allows a shrink (Corinna Harfouch) to explore this Freudian minefield further. But even here a viewer grows wary: Surely, a bad mother can't explain and excuse all the sexual frustration and psychological damage. It's too pat and easy, and doesn't allow these grown men to take responsibility for their own lives.
The need to relocate his grandmother's grave brings Michael Back to his hometown and to a surprising face-to-face encounter with Annabelle (Potente) after two decades. Later, over dinner at her Berlin flat, she seduces him, which turns out to be the first time he has slept with a woman.
Released from a psychiatric clinic, Bruno takes off for a nudist camp, where even free love eludes him as the aging feminists scorn his nervous sensitivity and crude machismo. Then he connects, in a hot tub, with Christiane (Gedeck), a lovely woman whose own neuroses and bad relationships equal his. They fall in love and into a lifestyle of swingers' clubs and partner-swapping in which both thrive.
The schematic plotlines insist that both women fall seriously ill so we can see how the brothers handle each situation. It's pretty predictable since the authors -- the tag team of Houellebecq to Roehler -- display a heavy hand. Indeed, these characters suffer less from a bad mother than the authors' preordained approach to their lives.
Roehler's direction is erratic. He sustains superb performances from actors, especially Bleibtreu as the emotional wreck who evokes sympathy and Gedeck, who makes us understand the amount of neediness and vulnerability that goes into a passion for group sex. But then Roehler allows melodrama to intrude, almost crudely so, as his directorial hand proves even heavier than his literary one. He overreaches the greatest at the conclusion of the ill-fated Bruno-Christiane relationship.
Technical credits on this Bernd Eichinger/Oliver Berben production are excellent, including Carl-Friedrich Koschnick's inventive cinematography, Manfred Banach's lively score and Ingrid Henn's sets that speak volumes about the characters' lives. n
THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
Constantin Film presents a Bernd Eichinger/Constantin Film production in association with MOOVIE -- the art of entertainment
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Oskar Roehler
Based on the novel by: Michel Houellebecq
Producers: Bernd Eichinger, Oliver Berben
Director of photography: Carl-Friedrich Koschnick
Production designer: Ingrid Henn
Composer: Manfred Banach
Costume designer: Esther Walz
Editor: Peter R. Adam. Cast: Bruno: Moritz Bleibtreu
Michael: Christian Ulmen
Christiane: Martina Gedeck
Annabelle: Franka Potente
Jane: Nina Hoss
Bruno's father: Uwe Ochsenknecht
Dr. Schafer: Corinna Harfouch
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes...
- 2/13/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- Oskar Roehler has shunned a literal page-to-screen film adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's controversial 1998 novel, "The Elementary Particles". Instead, using characters and story lines from the French writer's book, the German filmmaker follows two half-brothers as they struggle with horrific intimacy issues in an often-compelling though uneven tale of fate, fortune and self-destruction. Elements of the characters' sexuality, which scandalized some readers, have been retained but in a toned-down form so the film stays sharply focused on character. Nevertheless, these characters prove elusive, slippery sorts, who are tormented by demons that seem a little too convenient.
Featuring a starry German cast that includes Martina Gedeck ("Mostly Martha") and Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente from "Run Lola Run", "The Elementary Particles" should do well in European cinemas. The film could also attract a U.S. distributor for an art-house release.
"Particles" introduces the two brothers as each hits a crossroad in his life. While they share the same mother, their differences are extreme. Michael (baby-faced Christian Ulmen), an introverted molecular biologist, cuts himself off emotionally from people. He has just quit a prestigious job to return to his beloved research, perhaps even taking up a project involving asexual reproduction -- the symbolism isn't too heavy, is it? -- which he abandoned three years earlier.
Bruno (Bliebtreu), a high school literature teacher with an unfortunate eye for coeds, has seen his life fall apart. Sexual fantasies have destroyed his marriage, depriving him of a chance at fatherhood, and his own writing is too racist and reactionary for even a sympathetic publisher to touch.
Flashbacks in a deeply saturated imitation of Technicolor fill in the details of the brothers' pasts: a terrible, selfish mother (Nina Hoss), who abandoned them to be raised by different grandparents so she could pursue a hedonistic lifestyle; their meeting as teens, neither being aware of the other's existence until that moment; and Michael's childhood friend Annabelle, who has loved him since they were 5 yet could never induce Michael to touch her.
Bruno's mental breakdown, after exposing himself to a female student, allows a shrink (Corrinna Harfouch) to explore this Freudian minefield further. But even here a viewer grows wary: Surely, a bad mother can't explain/excuse all the sexual frustration and psychological damage. It's too pat and easy, and doesn't allow these grown men to take responsibility for their own lives.
The need to relocate his grandmother's grave brings Michael Back to his hometown and to a surprising face-to-face encounter with Annabelle (Potente) after two decades. Later, over dinner at her Berlin flat, she seduces him, which turns out to be the first time he has slept with a woman.
Released from a psychiatric clinic, Bruno takes off for a nudist camp, where even free love eludes him as the aging feminists scorn his nervous sensitivity and crude machismo. Then he connects, in a hot tub, with Christiane (Gedeck), a lovely woman whose own neuroses and bad relationships equal his. They fall in love and into a lifestyle of swingers' clubs and partner swapping in which both thrive.
The schematic plotlines insist that both women fall seriously ill so we can see how the brothers handle each situation. It's pretty predictable since the authors -- the tag team of Houellebecq to Roehler -- display a heavy hand. Indeed these characters suffer less from a bad mother than the authors' preordained approach to their lives.
Roehler's direction is erratic. He sustains superb performances from actors, especially Bleibtreu as the emotional wreck who evokes sympathy and Gedeck, who makes us understand the amount of neediness and vulnerability that goes into a passion for group sex. But then Roehler allows melodrama to intrude, almost crudely so, as his directorial hand proves even heavier than his literary one. He overreaches the greatest at the conclusion of the ill-fated Bruno-Christiane relationship.
Technical credits on this Bernd Eichinger/Oliver Berben production are excellent including Carl-Friedrich Koschnick's inventive cinematography, Manfred Banach's lively score and Ingrid Henn's sets that speak volumes about the characters' lives.
THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
Constantin Film presents a Bernd Eichinger/Constantin Film production in association with MOOVIE – the art of entertainment
Credits: Writer/director: Oskar Roehler; Based on the novel by: Michel Houellebecq; Producers: Bernd Eichinger, Oliver Berben; Director of photography: Carl-Friedrich Koschnick; Production designer: Ingrid Henn; Music: Manfred Banach; Costumes: Esther Walz; Editor: Peter R. Adam.
Cast: Bruno: Moritz Bliebtreu; Michael: Christian Ulmen; Christiane: Martina Gedeck; Annabelle: Franka Potente; Jane: Nina Hoss; Bruno's father: Uwe Ochsenknecht; Dr. Schafer: Corinna Harfouch.
No MPAA rating, running time 111 minutes.
BERLIN -- Oskar Roehler has shunned a literal page-to-screen film adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's controversial 1998 novel, "The Elementary Particles". Instead, using characters and story lines from the French writer's book, the German filmmaker follows two half-brothers as they struggle with horrific intimacy issues in an often-compelling though uneven tale of fate, fortune and self-destruction. Elements of the characters' sexuality, which scandalized some readers, have been retained but in a toned-down form so the film stays sharply focused on character. Nevertheless, these characters prove elusive, slippery sorts, who are tormented by demons that seem a little too convenient.
Featuring a starry German cast that includes Martina Gedeck ("Mostly Martha") and Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente from "Run Lola Run", "The Elementary Particles" should do well in European cinemas. The film could also attract a U.S. distributor for an art-house release.
"Particles" introduces the two brothers as each hits a crossroad in his life. While they share the same mother, their differences are extreme. Michael (baby-faced Christian Ulmen), an introverted molecular biologist, cuts himself off emotionally from people. He has just quit a prestigious job to return to his beloved research, perhaps even taking up a project involving asexual reproduction -- the symbolism isn't too heavy, is it? -- which he abandoned three years earlier.
Bruno (Bliebtreu), a high school literature teacher with an unfortunate eye for coeds, has seen his life fall apart. Sexual fantasies have destroyed his marriage, depriving him of a chance at fatherhood, and his own writing is too racist and reactionary for even a sympathetic publisher to touch.
Flashbacks in a deeply saturated imitation of Technicolor fill in the details of the brothers' pasts: a terrible, selfish mother (Nina Hoss), who abandoned them to be raised by different grandparents so she could pursue a hedonistic lifestyle; their meeting as teens, neither being aware of the other's existence until that moment; and Michael's childhood friend Annabelle, who has loved him since they were 5 yet could never induce Michael to touch her.
Bruno's mental breakdown, after exposing himself to a female student, allows a shrink (Corrinna Harfouch) to explore this Freudian minefield further. But even here a viewer grows wary: Surely, a bad mother can't explain/excuse all the sexual frustration and psychological damage. It's too pat and easy, and doesn't allow these grown men to take responsibility for their own lives.
The need to relocate his grandmother's grave brings Michael Back to his hometown and to a surprising face-to-face encounter with Annabelle (Potente) after two decades. Later, over dinner at her Berlin flat, she seduces him, which turns out to be the first time he has slept with a woman.
Released from a psychiatric clinic, Bruno takes off for a nudist camp, where even free love eludes him as the aging feminists scorn his nervous sensitivity and crude machismo. Then he connects, in a hot tub, with Christiane (Gedeck), a lovely woman whose own neuroses and bad relationships equal his. They fall in love and into a lifestyle of swingers' clubs and partner swapping in which both thrive.
The schematic plotlines insist that both women fall seriously ill so we can see how the brothers handle each situation. It's pretty predictable since the authors -- the tag team of Houellebecq to Roehler -- display a heavy hand. Indeed these characters suffer less from a bad mother than the authors' preordained approach to their lives.
Roehler's direction is erratic. He sustains superb performances from actors, especially Bleibtreu as the emotional wreck who evokes sympathy and Gedeck, who makes us understand the amount of neediness and vulnerability that goes into a passion for group sex. But then Roehler allows melodrama to intrude, almost crudely so, as his directorial hand proves even heavier than his literary one. He overreaches the greatest at the conclusion of the ill-fated Bruno-Christiane relationship.
Technical credits on this Bernd Eichinger/Oliver Berben production are excellent including Carl-Friedrich Koschnick's inventive cinematography, Manfred Banach's lively score and Ingrid Henn's sets that speak volumes about the characters' lives.
THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
Constantin Film presents a Bernd Eichinger/Constantin Film production in association with MOOVIE – the art of entertainment
Credits: Writer/director: Oskar Roehler; Based on the novel by: Michel Houellebecq; Producers: Bernd Eichinger, Oliver Berben; Director of photography: Carl-Friedrich Koschnick; Production designer: Ingrid Henn; Music: Manfred Banach; Costumes: Esther Walz; Editor: Peter R. Adam.
Cast: Bruno: Moritz Bliebtreu; Michael: Christian Ulmen; Christiane: Martina Gedeck; Annabelle: Franka Potente; Jane: Nina Hoss; Bruno's father: Uwe Ochsenknecht; Dr. Schafer: Corinna Harfouch.
No MPAA rating, running time 111 minutes.
- 2/12/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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