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"A work of exaltation and profound vision, it deserves to move Green to the front ranks of European auteurs." – RogerEbert.com
Cinema dances to architecture in the wonderful new film from Eugène Green (The Portuguese Nun, MIFF 2010; Le Pont de Arts, MIFF 2005), a reflection on art and life that's visually arresting, wryly amusing and ultimately sublime.
At a loss for inspiration, a renowned architect and his wife travel to Rome to explore the work of the great designer Francesco Borromini. Invigorated by a chance meeting with two young architecture students, the couple rediscovers their joie de vivre among the timeless splendour of the city.
Proving that if it ain't baroque, don't fix it, Green's typically ornate compositions and embrace of the artificial evokes our unusual relationship to the art around us, revealing a film about the power of classical beauty in the face of society's corroded modern soul.
"The movie is an unapologetically rarefied undertaking and at the same time a gracious and inviting film. And it embodies an elegant and melancholy paradox: What looks like tourism is really the pursuit of truth and beauty, and vice versa." – The New York Times