13/02/2004 - Applause for the French maestro, who won over the public at the Berlin Festival with his Triple agent, set in a tumultuous Paris in the mid 1930s

There was loud applause for Eric Rohmer, who, with his new film, Triple agent, won over the public at the Berlin Film Festival. The film is a realistic reconstruction of a true story, which the French director read in the magazine Historia many years ago. The film is set in Paris, in the mid 1930s, a city shaken by the Spanish civil war and the Popular Front.
A young general in the former Tsar's army takes refuge in Paris, where he has to carry out a complex mission, but his wife is sympthetic to their communist neighbours. "The film is based on a secret. The relationship between husband and wife is linked to the truth, which is intertwined with lies. I interpreted the story, inventing the dialogue and the characters, while at the same time staying faithful to my way of filmmaking. It's not an action film, it's a film of words".

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There was also a positive reaction for Ae fond kiss [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ken Loach, an inter-racial love story (between a young Pakistani man and an Irish teacher) with the predictable consequences, all set in Glasgow. The British director is well known for always making films with strong social themes, but this time he seems to have lost his usual punch in a story that ends up being rather too predicable, although it is well shot and Eva Birthistle and Atta Yaqub give good performances. "Ken chooses actors who he feels are closest to his characters", says the main actress, Eva Birthistle, "his method of working is a great help to us. We developed the story step by step, trying to understand the evolution of the screenplay together as a team".

(Translated from Italian)