Longing (2006) Sehnsucht

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Longing (2006) Sehnsucht

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The ability of the movie of keeping its audience interested right up to the end by constructing the movie almost entirely out of slow, long, lingering shots reflects the brilliance of the director. Very few directors have this ability. Wong Kar Wai is one that comes to mind. Gus van Sant on the other hand has been fairly erratic: Elephant was good but Last Days lulled me to sleep. So it is refreshing to see a director having the grasp and control of production.

Coming back to the film, it is a simple story of a married couple where the man has a brief fling with a woman in a different town, which is resolved eventually. It may also get fairly predictable, although it wasn't for me.

It is clear that the director is having fun with the audience by using intelligent shock tactics. However, ironic as it may sound, this is a perfect film for people who wish to wish to watch a movie to relax and enjoy good cinema. A few of the people may not like the epilogue, but to me it was revealing and it was an interesting variation to regular cinema. So it doesn't really matter whether we like it or not, it is a unique experience that I haven't seen in movies before.

The acting is also excellent with all the performers giving a heartfelt and honest performance.

So kudos to the director and we hope she comes up with more such stuff in the future.

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Longing (2006) Sehnsucht

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