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

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European women enjoy drinks, the ocean and local male attention on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love

Our plus-sized, love-starved heroine leaves her teenage daughter back in their home in Austria to go on a solo vacation to Africa, where the local men simply adore the middle-aged European woman "as they are!" - Or do they now also...?

 

Paradise: Love is written by Veronika Franz (Import Export (2007)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/producer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It it the first film in his Paradise trilogy, also comprised by Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) and Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

Seidl's film about female sex tourism ultimately becomes a reflection of the fundamentally unjust layout of the world, - both as it has become arranged by man but also how it is handed to each one of us from God's or nature's hands. Watching Paradise: Love, I also couldn't help but wonder what might have been different if the film had looked into male sex tourism instead of female. 

Margarete Tiesel (Sargnagel - Der Film (2021)) is without vanity and fear in her lead performance, and Seidl (and cinematographers Edward Lachman (Carol (2015)) and Wolfgang Thaler (Toulouse (2018, TV movie))) capture a lot of absurd comedy with their visual mastering and eye for images, so that the film in periods is also pretty funny. It is also tender, sad, though-provoking and remarkably empathetic. If any of the individuals in the story are to be judged, that job is obviously left up to us.

Paradise: Love is an outstanding film with a couple of scenes that last a really long time, but which in doing so reveal something about the relations between the people involved, which is only possible due to their length. Something about the flux of exploitation in unnatural romantic relations.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 3.6 mil. €, approximately 3.8 mil. $

Box office: 1.7 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.44 times its cost)

[Paradise: Love premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2009 - September 2010 in Austria and Kenya, back-to-back with the other two films in the trilogy. They were initially planned to be one film but the length and other factors made Seidl realize that they should be released as three films. The film opened #84 to a 6k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #78 and in 4 theaters, grossing 24k $ (1.4 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 698k $ (41.1 %), Austria with 448k $ (26.4 %) and Spain with 165k $ (9.7 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to Amour. It was also nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012). Tiesel returned in 2 TV and a short credit prior to her theatrical return in Das Pferd auf dem Balkon (2012). Paradise: Love is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Paradise: Love?

Far from Heaven (2002) - Supreme production and Moore define Haynes' inspired period melodrama

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year 

+ Best Connecticut Movie of the Year + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Julianne Moore & Dennis Haysbert

Julianne Moore in neat 1950s attire makes up the majority of this simple poster for Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven

The Whitakers are viewed as societal pillars in their plush suburban community of Hartford, Connecticut in the 1950s, - but that image of them is about to crack: There are troubles in paradise.

Far from Heaven is written and directed by Californian master filmmaker Todd Haynes (Carol (2015)) as his 4th feature. Featuring both homosexual and racial themes of suppression, racism and bigotry, Far from Heaven is also a celebration of - and an entry in - the melodrama genre, which rides ahead here in sumptuously beautiful images, (cinematography by Edward Lachman (Life during Wartime (2009)).)
The costumes and sets are also top notch, adding to the intense satisfaction of watching the film. It has superb performances from Dennis Quaid (The Alamo (2004)), Dennis Haysbert (Mr. Baseball (1992)) and particularly Julianne Moore (Bel Canto (2018)), who is also divinely beautiful as the really good housewife protagonist.
Elmer Bernstein's (Frankie Starlight (1995)) score is a truly great one, a booming and piercing work of brilliance. SPOILER Far from Heaven doesn't go the last mile with a kiss at the railway station between the miserable, wronged wife and her secret love the colored gardener (Haysbert), which is a shame. Nevertheless this film is a precious treasure that can be seen again and again.

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2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13.5 mil. $
Box office: 29 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.14 times its cost)
[Far from Heaven premiered 2 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 107 minutes. Haynes was inspired by the 1950s melodramas of Douglas Sirk as well as Rainer Werner Fassbinder's melodrama masterpiece Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) in determining the film's style and narrative. Shooting took place in New Jersey in and around October 2001. The film opened #30 to a 211k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 286 theaters, grossing 15.9 mil. $ (54.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 2.6 mil. $ (9 %) and the UK with 2 mil. $ (6.9 %). The film was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actress to Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Original Screenplay to Pedro Almodóvar for Talk to Her, Cinematography to Conrad L. Hall for Road to Perdition and Score to Elliot Goldenthal for Frida. It was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, a European Film award, won 5/5 nominations for Independent Spirit awards, 2 National Board of Review awards, 4 awards in Venice and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Haynes returned with music video Sonic Youth: Disappearer (2004) and theatrically with I'm Not There (2007). Moore returned in masterpiece The Hours (2002), Haysbert in 8 short, video, video game, TV and animated projects before he returned physically in a feature in Jarhead (2005), Quaid in Cold Creek Manor (2003). Far from Heaven is certified fresh at 88 % with an 8.11/1o critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Far from Heaven?

Carol (2015) - Haynes' romance adaptation is a triumph

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+ Best Adaptation of the Year
+ Best Romance of the Year

The nearly eatable poster for Todd Haynes' Carol

Carol is the 6th feature from master Los Angeles filmmaker Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven (2002)), a long in the works and highly anticipated adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's groundbreaking novel The Price of Salt (1952), (later re-titled Carol), written by Oscar-nominee Phyllis Nagy (Mrs. Harris (2005)). It might be the best Highsmith adaptation to date.

Therese is a young woman working in a department store in New York in 1952, when she meets the older woman Carol, who is in the middle of a difficult divorce, and the two fall in love.

Carol is a magnificent film and a first class adaptation, a simply delicious love story that is impeccably accomplished in every aspect. It is curious that two of 2015's best films thus turn out to be spirited romances set in New York in nearly the same period, about young women working in department stores. (The other film, of course, being Brooklyn.)
I first imagined I saw Oscar-nominee Cate Blanchett (Truth (2015)) channeling Joan Crawford here, (which wouldn't have been a bad role-model to channel at all), but I don't think she does. Carol is all her, and she displays a remarkable balance between strength and touching vulnerability in the empowering role. Young Oscar-nominee Rooney Mara (Side Effects (2013)) cements herself as one of the most gifted young actresses around today beside her, and you'll catch yourself falling for her waif-like sweetness in Carol, where she resembles Audrey Hepburn quite a lot. There's a powerful, universal humanity to their relationship in the film that makes it soar and touch us, and perhaps remind some audience members of their lives' past romances.

Rooney Mara is stunning in Todd Haynes' Carol

The structure of the film pays homage to David Lean's great Brief Encounter (1945). The romance is cute SPOILER and platonic for very long, - I was nearly beginning to worry, - but once sex finally enters, it is elegant and tenderly depicted.
The production design, Oscar-nominated costumes, hair, makeup and visual concept, presenting a big palette of strong foundational colors, is striking and sumptuous as could be expected from the maker of the equally delicious, if colder Far from Heaven. It is shot by Oscar-nominee Edward Lachman (I'm Not There. (2007)) on 16 mm film and plays with obscuring its images through reflections, glass etc., which only heightens the sensuous rendition of the story. Oscar-nominee Carter Burwell's (Mr. Holmes (2015)) score is poignant, if not quite as masterful as Elmer Bernstein's (The Shootist (1976)) classical Far from Heaven score.
The supporting cast is superb: Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave (2013)), John Magaro (The Big Short (2015)) and Jake Lacy (Obvious Child (2014)) all bring strong portrayals, and Kyle Chandler (King Kong (2005)) is spectacular as Carol's husband, a desperate and miserable husband and father, who - through Chandler's empathic performance - comes to be more than the monster he otherwise might have been. He is an imperfect man who acts in a time of bigotry and darkness.
Carol is a film you shouldn't for anything miss seeing in a cinema. A rare treat that is bound to live on.

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2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
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Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 11.8 mil. $
Box office: 40.3 mil. $
= Box office success
[Carol premiered May 17 (in competition in Cannes) and runs 118 minutes. Development of an adaptation had been active since at least 1996 and made impossible until now due to lack of willing financiers, scheduling difficulties (a long line of directors have been involved before Haynes assumed the job), rights issues as well as Nagy's stubborn and laudable insistence that the film SPOILER not be turned into a tragical gay story, - which have accounted for most of the major gay stories that have previously attracted the interest of the mainstream. Shooting lasted 34 days in March - April 2014 in Ohio and Kentucky, with 7 months of post in NY. Carol's wide-release, in just 780 theaters, opening weekend came in #15 with 1.4 mil. $ in North America, where it has grossed 12.6 mil. $ (32.3 % of the total gross.) Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been the UK with 3.9 mil. $ (10 %) and France with 2.3 mil. $ (5.9 %). The film received a ten minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere, where it won the Queer Palm Award, and Mara tied Best Actress with Emmanuelle Bercot of Mon Roi. At the Oscars, the film was nominated 6 times, but went home empty-handed, sorely overlooked. There was also controversy over its being left out of the Best Film and Best Director categories. Carol has rated high on countless Top 10 lists of the year and won scores of awards around the world. Carol is certified fresh at 93 % with a 8.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Carol?