Cannes. Counterparts.

"An extraordinary performance by Austrian-born actress Victoria Trauttmansdorff, as an almost schizophrenic wife from hell, is the main reason for watching Counterparts [Gegenüber], a grim, occasionally black comic drama of a middle-age couple locked in a cycle of love and abuse," writes Variety's Derek Elley, who sees "a kernel of filmmaking talent" in Jan Bonny's debut feature, but that's about it.

European-films.net editor Boyd van Hoeij agrees: "Generally speaking, Gegenüber is bleak without being poignant, and the film's attempts at absurd and black humor push the already not very developed characters into the realm of cliché."

This Directors' Fortnight entry "may be of some interest to sympathetic psychoanalysts dealing in Freudian hang-ups but won't go far with audiences at large," suggests Dan Fainaru at Screen Daily.

---

Cannes @ 60. Index.

---

Posted by dwhudson at May 29, 2007 4:57 AM