Alps (film)

Alps (Greek: Άλπεις, translit. Alpeis) is a 2011 Greek drama film produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari and Yorgos Lanthimos and directed by Lanthimos.[1] It stars Angeliki Papoulia, Ariane Labed and Aris Servetalis, and was co-written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival where it won Osella for Best Screenplay, and also won the Official Competition Prize for New Directions in Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival in 2012.

For the 2007 American film, see The Alps (film).
Alps
Directed byYorgos Lanthimos
Produced byAthina Rachel Tsangari
Yorgos Lanthimos
Written byYorgos Lanthimos
Efthymis Filippou
StarringAngeliki Papoulia
Ariane Labed
Aris Servetalis
CinematographyChristos Voudouris
Edited byYorgos Mavropsaridis
Production
company
Haos Film
Release date
Running time
93 minutes
CountryGreece
LanguageGreek

Plot

The film centers on a night nurse in a hospital who provides special services to families who have recently lost their loved ones. The nurse is a member of a group called the Alps, whose members offer, for a fee, to play recently deceased during visits of their grieving relatives.

Cast

Production

Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou developed the premise for the film out of the idea of people who allege something which is fabricated, for example via prank calls or by announcing their own deaths. The story took form as they needed a setting which could work well cinematically. Lanthimos considers it the complete opposite of his previous film, Dogtooth, which he says "is the story of a person who tries to escape a fictitious world. Alps is about a person who tries to enter a fabricated world."[2]

The film was produced by Tsangari's production company Haos Film, which had previously produced Lanthimos' 2005 film Kinetta. The budget included funding from the Greek Film Center.[3] Filming started in October 2010.[4] Some scenes were added on the set and parts of the dialogue were improvised by the actors.[2]

Reception

The film premiered on 3 September 2011 in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.[5] Lee Marshall of Screen Daily started by comparing Alps to the director's last film. He called it "a sort of Dogtooth 2", and wrote that "the cultured urban audiences turned on by the sheer kookiness of that film may feel a slight sense of déjà vu here." On the film in its own right, Marshall wrote: "Hollywood might have fashioned a weepie or a thriller out of the same material - and there are echoes here of some of Hitchcock's fascination with surrogates, from the Roger Thornhill/George Kaplan of North by Northwest to the Madeleine/Carlotta of Vertigo. But Alps is so intriguing because of what it refuses to explain. ... It's also a film which manages to juggle absurdist comedy with bleak tragedy, a yearning desire for human warmth with outbreaks of sudden violence, all the while maintaining an impressive control of tone."[6]

List of awards and nominations
Award Category Result
Venice Film festival Golden Osella for Best Script Won
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Nominated
Sydney Film Festival Official Competition Award Won
Sofia International Film Festival Special Mention Won
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References
  1. Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 127. ISBN 978-1908215017.
  2. Staff writer (2011-09-03). "Yorgos Lanthimos • Director". cineuropa.org. Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  3. Proimakis, Joseph (2010-02-03). "Lanthimos heads Film Center's new funding slate". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  4. Lavallee, Eric (2010-10-01). "Ariane Labed and Aggeliki Papoulia Like View From the 'Alps'". Ioncinema. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  5. "Venezia 68: Alpis (Alps) - Yorgos Lanthimos". labiennale.org. Venice Biennale. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  6. Marshall, Lee (2011-09-03). "Alps". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
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