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VIOLANTA, 1977
"VIOLANTA is a movie of classical beauty..." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Bizarre, Byzantine, opaque, operatic, ludicrous and ecstatically beautiful."
Douglas Edwards, Filmex |
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| Production: |
P. C, Fueter, Condor Film; Eric Franck, Artco Film |
| Director: |
Daniel Schmid |
| Screenplay: |
Wolf Wondratschek, Daniel Schmid; after C. F. Meyer's novel "Die Richterin." |
| Photography: |
Renato Berta |
| Sound: |
Florian Eidenbenz |
| Art director: |
Raúl Gimenez |
| Music: |
Peer Raben |
| Editing: |
Ila von Hasperg |
| Cast: |
Lucia Bosé, Maria Schneider, Lou Castel, Ingrid Caven, Gérard Depardieu, Francois Simon, Raúl Gimenez, Luciano Simioni, Marilu Marin |
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'VIOLANTA' draws on a nineteenth-century Swiss classic that deals with incest, murder, suicide, and ghosts in the very sort of mist-shrouded valley on the Italian border where Daniel Schmid grew up, wandering the halls: of a hotel peopled with its past. "That is: why in Violanta the ghosts are more tangible, more highly colored, than the living," he explains. The tale turns on Violanta, a judge who has brought peace to the valley but who lives a lie. Violanta's personal ghosts, a slain husband and lover, return to take part in the action, while her daughter and stepson, guilty lovers, seem to be repeating the patterns of Violanta's own past. Tragedy à la Schmid eschews catharsis: he present offers No Exit from the past. Dissecting the soap opera by over-indulging it, he employs the proverbial- all-star cast (including the wonderful Italian actress Lucia Bosé as Violanta) in dramatic ritual, shoots outdoors only to make the natural surroundings look somehow studio-shot. Filmex's Douglas Edwards called Violanta "bizarre, Byzancine, opaque, operatic, ludicrous, ecstatically beautiful." "I love legends, they're what remain at the very end, and no one cares about the real truth."
Daniel Schmid |
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