Cadences obstinées

Architect Furio is offered an attractive commission: to turn an old mansion into a hotel. His devotion to his work affects his relationship with his wife, who gave up her career as a successful cellist for his sake and now feels abandoned. The passionate and explosive Margo shares traits with the women Fanny Ardant has portrayed on numerous occasions over the course of her career. She entrusted the role of Margo to the physically- similar Asia Argento, giving the part the vulnerability (bordering on hysteria) of women who blindly surrender to their men: such women are prepared to sacrifice everything for love, and then despise themselves for being so weak. The atmosphere of the individual scenes, progressing from exalted drama to scathing irony, can scarcely be gauged in terms of realism. Everything is here shifted beyond reality: the bizarre setting of the unfinished building with its windswept rooms, the music, occasionally the unsettling, stifling interiors, the theatrical gestures of the characters – everything is subordinate to the rhythm the screenwriter and director adopted for this, her third film. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)