Both very sly and very daring, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s long-awaited follow-up to The Strange Little Cat (VIFF 2013) is largely set in a spacious bohemian apartment, as tenant Mara (Henriette Confurius) and various friends and family gather to help Mara’s longtime roommate, Lisa (Liliane Amuat), move out. But the story here takes a backseat to the mise-en-scène: this often-funny film choreographs the characters and camera movements with the precision of a ballet. It is a film about looks and the meaning behind them (one realizes quickly that almost all interactions between two characters are observed by a third, off-camera), about how people perceive themselves, and about how they are seen by others. There is a heightened stylization to the intensity of the characters’ interactions that gives the film a tangible erotic frisson and a hallucinatory quality—indeed, one critic wondered if all involved had been microdosing LSD during production—which translates into pure cinematic pleasure for the viewer.

Monday, October 4
Doors 8:30 pm | Movie 6:15 pm *Please arrive on time.