La Presse at the 74th Berlinale | A lackluster Interstellar

(Berlin) Spacemanwhich will be on Netflix on 1^er March, is not a film about ex-Expos pitcher Bill Lee. This one was made in 2016 and starred Josh Duhamel. This Spaceman-this is an adaptation of the Czech novel An astronaut in Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař, published in 2017 and presented in special selection on Wednesday at the Berlinale. It’s the story of a Czech astrophysicist, Jakub (Adam Sandler, not Czech at the latest), in orbit around Jupiter, who tries to elucidate the mystery of a cloud of cosmic dust visible from Earth.

Jakub encounters a giant spider-shaped alien who appeared on his ship out of nowhere after six months of solo travel. This creature, which he calls Hanus (the voice of Paul Dano), will be of valuable advice to Jakub so that he can manage his marital problems with Lenka (Carey Mulligan, not Czech either).

If you thought Hanus seemed more like an imaginary friend Jakub invented as a cure for his loneliness than a doctoral candidate in interstellar psychology, think again. Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck (director of the series Chernobyl) clarified at a press conference on Wednesday that this hairy HAL 9000 was not a fantasy. If you insist, Johan, I thought, my t-shirt with the HAL 9000 logo on the back.

“I’m not really a movie guy. I read books. This is where I get inspiration. I choose not to be influenced by other films,” Renck added when asked what his favorite sci-fi film was. Not a movie guy. You surprise me.

There’s not an original cinematic idea in this couples therapy-made sci-fi film about a selfish workaholic and a pregnant woman who decides to dump her man via video message while he’s at home. 500 million kilometers away. I guess it’s less cruel than texting.

Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan do well, as always. But the tedious parallel montage of Jakob in weightlessness and the couple’s hazy memories of happier times does not help this repetitive and boring film. In this Interstellar without brilliance, science fiction is only a useless accessory to a thwarted love story, which stretches into an interminable juice-sucking ending.

“We had a lot of fun on the film set listening to music on the boom box that Adam brought. We were listening to Celine Dion. It wasn’t Adam who chose to listen to Celine Dion, it was me! “, said at a press conference Carey Mulligan, who will be a finalist for the Oscar for best actress on March 10 (not for SpacemanFor Maestro). I sincerely hope they had more fun making this movie than I had watching it.

Rocco and his brothers

No, there’s not only good things at the Berlinale. I saw Wednesday Supersexan Italian fiction series also intended for Netflix (March 6), about the life and work of porn stud Rocco Siffredi. Miseria. Scenes from soft porn in slow motion, questions about his love and career choices, interspersed with back and forth to a bittersweet childhood in the 1970s, with melodramatic music to support.

At the heart of this hyped project by screenwriter Francesca Manieri (The immensity), there is this main idea: surrounded by his brothers like Alain Delon in Visconti’s film, a bit of a thug like Delon in the role of Roch Siffredi in Borsalino, Rocco discovers an idol. This superhero is neither Batman nor BatteMan (sorry), but Supersex, and his superpower is to have star seed.

In seven episodes we are told how sex and money run the world – and why Rocco didn’t become a priest as his mother wanted. I had enough after an hour. To see the real Rocco in the cinema, in every sense of the word, there is notably Romance And Anatomy of Hell by Catherine Breillat, as well as the award-winning films he has directed, Who Fucked Rocco? And Ass Collector. But I warn you: this is neither Federico Fellini nor Marcello Mastroianni.

Cinderella’s violins

In the same Italian and syrupy register, Gloria! by Margherita Vicario, a painful and extremely predictable melodrama, was presented in competition on Wednesday (which has nothing to do with Cassavetes’ classic). In an orphanage in Venetia at the beginning of the 19th century^e century, Teresa, a servant, discovers a passion for the pianoforte. She has perfect pitch, but no training. Also, the instrument is forbidden to him by a mean old maestro lacking inspiration, who agreed to compose a work to welcome Pope Pius VII. Not to mention that she is tormented by four musicians from the orphanage orchestra who treat her like Cinderella before the ball and the glass slipper. Which does not prevent him from magically and surreptitiously composing pop songs worthy of Olivia Rodrigo without the slightest false note thanks to perfectly smooth playing, like this first feature film steeped in good feelings. I can already imagine Hollywood thinking about remake that we could get from it.

Accommodation costs were paid by the Berlinale and Telefilm Canada.