Movie review: ‘Attenberg’ depicts young woman’s coming of age - thestar.com
26/01/2011 1:46 μ.μ.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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Movie review: ʻAttenbergʼ depicts young womanʼs
coming of age
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Published On Thu Jan 20 2011
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Learning to kiss: A tongue-wrestling match between Marina (Ariane Labed), and her best, and only, friend, Bella (Evangelia
Randou).
DESPINA SPYROU PHOTO
JASON ANDERSON
Special to the Star
ATTENBERG
(out of 4)
Starring Ariane Labed, Vangelis Mourikis and Evangelia Randou. Directed by Athina Rachel
Tsangari. 95 minutes. At the Royal. 18A
The lead charactersʼ fondness for the nature documentaries of David Attenborough points
to one key question posed by the movie that (nearly) bears his name: Whatʼs so human
about human behaviour?
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Itʼs our animalistic qualities that fascinate the young woman at the centre of Attenberg, a
startlingly original and very engaging Greek feature that has earned much acclaim since its
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http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/925239--movie-review-attenberg-depicts-young-woman-s-coming-of-age
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Movie review: ‘Attenberg’ depicts young woman’s coming of age - thestar.com
premiere at Venice and TIFF last year — it starts a run at the Royal today.
26/01/2011 1:46 μ.μ.
Did historian alter Lincoln document?
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A 23-year-old living with her architect father in a once-futuristic but now decrepit Greek
factory town, Marina (Ariane Labed) regards the rest of her species with a sense of remove
and a degree of curiosity that seems almost scientific.
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In the filmʼs provocative opening shot, Marina practises French-kissing with her best friend
Bella (Evangelia Randou). Itʼs the first of Marinaʼs many efforts to imitate gestures and
rituals she doesnʼt really understand.
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And yet writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari doesnʼt mean to present Marina as if she
were some kind of menacing sociopath or space alien. Instead, the young woman is more
accurately seen as a product of the slightly unreal environment where she was raised, as
well as of the utopian ambitions of men like her father.
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Nor is Marina an emotionally frigid figure. Her closeness with her father Spyros (Vangelis
Mourikis) gives Attenberg great warmth, even if the two occasionally have conversations
using grunts rather than words.
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Spyrosʼ failing health is what spurs on Marina to attain a working knowledge of the world
and prepare for a time when heʼs no longer around. She is drawn to a visiting engineer
(Yorgos Lanthimos), who is understandably confused by her very abrupt efforts at
seduction.
Their love scenes are as awkward and off-putting as that first bout of French kissing. Yet
such moments are also weirdly endearing.
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Thereʼs a spirit of joy and wonder throughout much of the film, never more so than in the
interludes in which Marina and Bella perform a series of silly walks.
by Peter Howell
Like the songs by pioneering electro-rockers Suicide that dominate the soundtrack,
Attenbergʼs sense of humour is not for all tastes. In her eagerness to defy expectations,
Tsangari also refuses to let her movie maintain a single tone for long.
by Martin Knelman
But the film succeeds not only as an idiosyncratic spin on the coming-of-age story but a
wider comment on what it means to be fully human and fully alive in an age of diminished
expectations. (Greeceʼs economic woes are certainly reflected in the grey and grubby
setting.)
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And with its mix of daring and playfulness, Attenberg feels just as alive as its oddball
heroine.
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