Off Season ( Hors saison ) ( Zwischensaison )

Off Season (DVD) (*)

~~$35.99~~ $29.97

Original Title: Hors saison
Alternate Title: Zwischensaison
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Switzerland ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1992 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Daniel Schmid

Written By:
Daniel Schmid
Martin Suter

Actors:
Sami Frey ..... Narrateur
Carlos Devesa ..... Valentin
Ingrid Caven ..... Lilo
Dieter Meier ..... Max
Ulli Lommel ..... Prof. Malini
Andréa Ferréol ..... Mlle Gabriel / Mlle Gabriel Old
Arielle Dombasle ..... Mme. Studer
Maddalena Fellini ..... Grandma
Maurice Garrel ..... Grandpa
Luísa Barbosa ..... Mona
Rosa Castro André ..... Silvia
Marisa Paredes ..... Sarah Bernhardt
Hilde Ziegler ..... Mother
José Pedro Lisboa ..... Son
Béatrice Stoll ..... Couple

Synopsis:

The scene of the action is a closed-down, dilapidated hotel in the Swiss mountains which has been lying empty for some time. The hotel used to belong to the narrator's grandparents, and it was there that he was born and brought up. He visits the hotel for the last tim with the intention of losing himself in memories connected with the old building. 'Swiss director Daniel Schmid grew up in a hotel in the Swiss Alps, one very much like the fictional hotel he portrays in 'OFF SEASON', raised by his widowed mother and grandmother. 'OFF SEASON' re-imagines this grand edifice, drenched in a child's fantasy, as his adult narrator (Sami Frey) flashes back to the colorful and mysterious happenings he was privy to. The boisterous grandmother, played with personality by Federico Fellini's sister Maddalena, is the center of a story that has all the intricacy of a Chinese box. Characters include an anarchist assassin (Geraldine Chaplin) the legendary actress Sarah Bernhard (Marisa Paredes), a magician (Ulli Lommel), a pair of torch singers, and assorted dazzling and seductive women who prowl the corridors with late-night business. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Reader wrote, 'One of the nicest as well as most personal of the movies of Daniel Schrnid is this semiautobiographical reverie, Fellini-like in a good sense. If Stanley Kubrick set nightmares in the Overlook Hotel, Daniel Schmid has only the happiest magical memories to animate his grand hotel nestled in the Swiss Alpes. Hors Saison is an unabashed cinematic circus populated by a Fellini-like cast of caricatures. It is irony and good humour make it high-class, entertainment for family audiences as well as the director's art house fans.

The formerly great Swiss hotel which Valentin's family owned when he was a boy has been emptied and is about to be torn down. He revisits the magical site's empty halls and ballrooms in order to relive his fond memories of the place. As he remembers, flashbacks reveal episodes in the lives of those who populated these lodgings. One of the boy's favorite experiences was hearing his grandmother tell how an anarchist assassinated an enemy at the hotel; another favorite story was about the time the famous French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt seduced the boy's grandfather.

Middle-aged Valentin returns to the hotel his parents owned when he was a boy, which has been sold and is about to be torn down. As he wanders through the empty ballrooms and corridors he remembers the incredible people he knew there.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 07 June, 2011.

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