(Berlin) Spaceman, which will be available on Netflix on March 1, is not a film about former Expos pitcher Bill Lee. This was filmed in 2016 and starred Josh Duhamel. “This Spaceman” is an adaptation of the 2017 Czech novel “An Astronaut in Bohemia” by Jaroslav Kalfař, which will be presented in a special selection at the Berlinale on Wednesday. It is the story of a Czech astrophysicist, Jakub (Adam Sandler, not a Czech at the latest), who is in orbit around Jupiter trying to solve the mystery of a cloud of cosmic dust visible from Earth.
Posted at 4:03 p.m
Jakub encounters a giant spider-shaped alien who appears on his ship out of nowhere after six months of solo travel. This creature, whom he calls Hanus (the voice of Paul Dano), will be valuable advice to Jakub to help him deal with his marital problems with Lenka (Carey Mulligan, also not Czech).
If you thought Hanus seemed more like an imaginary friend invented by Jakub as a cure for his loneliness than a graduate student in interstellar psychology, think again. Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck (director of the Chernobyl series, notably) made it clear at a press conference on Wednesday that this hairy HAL 900 was no fantasy. If you insist, Johan.
“I’m not really a film guy. I read books. This is where I get inspiration. I don’t let other films influence me,” Renck added when asked what his favorite sci-fi film is. Not a film type. You surprise me.
PHOTO LISI NIESNER, Portal
Carey Mulligan and Adam Sandler on the red carpet in Berlin
There is no original cinematic idea in this sci-fi film made for couples therapy about a selfish workaholic and a pregnant woman who decides to leave her husband via video message while he is at home. 500 million kilometers away. I think it's less cruel than texting.
Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan do well as always. But the laborious parallel montage of Jacob in weightlessness and the couple's hazy memories of happier times don't help this monotonous and boring film. In this lackluster Interstellar, science fiction is just a useless accessory to a failed love story that drags out into an endless, juice-sucking ending.
“We had a lot of fun on set listening to music on the boombox that Adam brought with him. We listened to Celine Dion. It wasn't Adam who chose Céline Dion, it was me! “said Carey Mulligan at a press conference, who will be a finalist for the Oscar for best actress on March 10 (not for Spaceman, but for Maestro). I sincerely hope you enjoyed making this film more than I enjoyed watching it.
Rocco and his brothers
No, there is not only good things at the Berlinale. I watched Supersex on Wednesday, an Italian fiction series also for Netflix (March 6) about the life and work of porn star Rocco Siffredi. Miseria. Slow-motion soft-porn scenes questioning his love and career choices, interspersed with a back-and-forth to a bittersweet childhood in the 1970s, with melodramatic music as the accompaniment.
PHOTO LUCIA IUORIO, PROVIDED BY NETFLIX
Alessandro Borghi is Rocco Siffredi in Supersex.
At the heart of this hyped project by screenwriter Francesca Manieri (L'immensità) is this basic idea: surrounded by his brothers like Alain Delon in Visconti's film, a bit like a thug like Delon in the role of Roch Siffredi de Borsalino, Rocco discovers an idol. This superhero is neither Batman nor BatteMan (sorry), but supersex, and his superpower is having starseeds.
In seven episodes we learn how sex and money rule the world – and why Rocco didn't become a priest like his mother wanted. After an hour I had enough. To see the real Rocco in the truest sense of the word on film, there's Catherine Breillat's Romance and Anatomy of Hell, as well as the award-winning films he directed, Who Fucked Rocco?. and ass collector. But I warn you: this is neither Federico Fellini nor Marcello Mastroianni.
Cinderella's violins
In the same Italian and syrupy register: Gloria! by Margherita Vicario, a painful and extremely predictable melodrama, was presented in competition on Wednesday. In an orphanage in Veneto at the beginning of the 19th century, Teresa, a servant, discovered her passion for the piano. She has perfect hearing but no training. He is also banned from using the instrument by an evil old maestro who lacks inspiration and has agreed to compose a work welcoming Pope Pius VII. Not to mention that she is tormented by four musicians from the orphanage orchestra who treat her like Cinderella before the ball and the glass slipper. But that doesn't stop him from magically and secretly composing pop songs worthy of Olivia Rodrigo, without the slightest false note thanks to perfectly fluid playing, like this first feature film imbued with good feelings. I can imagine Hollywood thinking about what kind of remake it could make.
The accommodation costs were covered by the Berlinale and Telefilm Canada.