Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013)

11/18/2023

Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013) - A chubby teen camp meets the Seidl eye

♥♥♥

Three large young women sit awkwardly on a gym bench on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope

Melanie is an overweight teenage girl who is sent away to a camp for girls like herself for a time to alter her lifestyle.

Paradise: Hope is written by Veronika Franz (Kern (2012, documentary)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 3rd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, also consisting of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Faith (2012). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

We follow Melanie's camp stay, which Seidl investigates without much of a direction with the added label 'Hope', which also doesn't seem to say much about the characters here. They are young; yes, hopeful; perhaps. - But we never learn where they end up. There are still fine and unusual scenes in Paradise: Hope, but it is the weakest in the trilogy and fundamentally it is missing something.

Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) - Strong Catholic faith through Seidl's lens

Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari fertile ground for Seidl drama

Watch a teaser for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 457k $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.25 times its cost)

[Paradise: Hope premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Austria. The film opened #75 to a 2k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, spreading to 3 theaters but unable to gain a higher rank, grossing 6k $ (1.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 189k $ (41.4 %), Austria with 168k $ (36.8 %) and Spain with 44k $ (9.6 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. Seidl returned with In the Basement/Im Keller (2014, documentary). Melanie Lenz (Paradise: Love (2012)), who plays Melanie, did not return to the screen after the film. Paradise: Hope is fresh at 88 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Paradise: Hope?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

11/18/2023

Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013) - A chubby teen camp meets the Seidl eye

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