Revanche

(Austria, 2007, 121 mins)

35mm

Selected Filmography:  

PRODS: Mathias Forberg, Heinz Stussak, Götz Spielmann, Sandra Bohle
SCR: Götz Spielmann
CAM: Martin Gschlacht
ED: Karina Ressler
Cast: Johannes Krisch, Ursula Strauss, Andreas Lust, Irina Potapenko, Hannes Tannheiser

• www.revanche.at

Anyone who’s seen director Götz Spielmann’s Antares (VIFF 04) knows he’s a director with a style that foregrounds analytical precision, both visually and in the way his plots unfold. Revanche (“revenge”), which garnered Spielmann the Best European Film award in the Panorama sidebar at Berlin, is a perfect vehicle for his unique talents--a suspense-filled thriller, full of jarring angularities, perfectly composed scenes and dollops of steamy sex.

Alex (a stellar Johannes Krisch) is a disgruntled, tightly wound ex-con working in a Viennese brothel. His only respite is his love for Ukrainian prostitute Tamara (Irina Potapenko) who reluctantly plies her trade in the same brothel. Out in the sun-dappled countryside, couple Susanne (Ursula Strauss) and inexperienced cop Robert (Andreas Lust) have just moved into their new home. Two couples in seemingly diametrical opposition are brought into one another’s spheres after a deadly botched robbery sets Spielmann’s taut tale in motion... The pleasures here are threefold: the intelligently constructed screenplay that never tips its hand to the viewer; the gorgeous compositions and rural locations filmed by Spielmann and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht; and, above all, the performances of Krisch et al., who ground their characters in the milieux they have found themselves in, make them human and believable, and then demonstrate that insurmountable differences are not necessarily so.

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