A Casa

Like its predecessor Few of Us, Lithuanian cult film director Sarunas Bartas's The House is highly abstract and nearly silent but for a pair of narrators. Whereas the first film was primarily centered on life in a remote mountain village in Lithuania and had loose plot, this one pays tribute to a huge, and aging lakeside manor and is plotless. The narrators speak to an unseen mother and the house may or may not be the fantasy or dream of one of its many diverse residents. For much of the film's two-hour running time, these inhabitants, who reflect people of varying races, shapes, sizes, degrees of attractiveness and ages, are seen aimlessly wandering about looking sad and exhausted. Sometimes, some of the prettier female residents will doff their clothing. Meal times are particularly morose as no one speaks or pays each other any mind at all. It is only toward the end of the film that anything substantial occurs. It happens during a masked ball and is a commentary on the Soviet takeover of Lithuania and a heartfelt prayer for the preservation of Lithuanian local cultures. While there is not much of interest in the story, the beautiful cinematography, which utilized a palette of pale colors and natural lighting and employed largely stationary imagery punctuated by the occasional slow tracking shot, helps maintain viewer interest.

Originaltitel: Casa, A
Herstellungsland: Frankreich
Litauen
Portugal
Erscheinungsjahr: 1997
Regie: Sharunas Bartas

Darsteller: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Leos Carax
Micaela Cardoso
Oksana Chernych
Alex Descas
Egle Kuckaite
Jean-Louis Loca
Viktorija Nareiko
Francisco Nascimento
Eugenia Sulgaite
Leonardas Zelcius

Format : AVI at 758 Kbps
Length : 644 MiB for 1h 58min 40s 248ms
Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 606 Kbps
Aspect : 544 x 416 (1.339) at 25.000 fps
Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 139 Kbps
Infos : 2 Kanäle, 48,0 KHz

Language:
French Lithuanian French Sign Language