2004. Germany & France. Directed by Angela Schanelec. With Maren Eggert, Emily Atef, Alexis Loret and others.
“Evening. Wanted to take the bus to Canebière but got off halfway again because of the market. Can’t get past this market: sneakers, jeans, soap, hair clips, toys, fruit, fish, bread, cosmetics, everything is bought and sold here. They set up the tables in the morning and take them down again in the afternoon, every day the same. It’s not that I wanted to buy anything, but the mere fact that I could buy something, like everyone else, makes me less foreign.”
This diary entry is from Angela Schanelec’s own trip to the French port city of Marseille in 2002 and might provide the clearest impression of the film’s content and feel. Marseille tells the story of Sophie, a photographer who has swapped apartments with a student in the titular city in order to momentarily flee her life in Berlin. But the narrative is largely a pretext for Schanelec to train both her and Sophie’s lenses on everyday objects and settings, far from the popular Old Port on the Canebière, and linger over moments of seeming inconsequence. Edited and shot in a manner that conceals as much as it reveals, the film explores the feelings of disorientation and foreignness that accompany travel, sensations that adhere to Sophie even after her return to Berlin. And Schanelec’s characteristically restricted frame leads the viewer to ponder over the stories that might be playing out at the edges of the image.
Screenings organized by the Deutsches Haus Film Faction are free and open to the public. The film will be in German with English subtitles. A moderated discussion will follow the screening.
