There Marlene-Dietrich-Platz Luigi Noera

(from Berlin Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Maria Vittoria Battaglia and Vittorio De Agrò of the editorial staff Ground floor– The photos are published courtesy of the #BERLINALE)

The first of the Italians in the competition, although very refined, is not convincing!

Synopsis: Sal's empty eyes reveal that he lives only on memories since he lost the love of his life, Zoe. Memories like fragments of a shattered mirror that cannot be put back together. Observing the brother with growing concern, Sal's sister, Place, suggests he try “Another End”, a new technology that promises to ease the pain of separation by briefly bringing a dead person's consciousness back to life. This way Sal finds Zoe again, but in the body of another woman. It is a body that he does not know but in which he mysteriously manages to recognize his wife. What was broken suddenly seems to be fixed. Indeed, “Another End” gives Sal time to share a little more life with Zoe, to love her again, to be loved by her and, finally, to say goodbye to her. But this is a fragile joy, ephemeral and insidious. When Sal reaches the end of the program, he has no intention of standing by and smugly watching his love dissolve in the definitive loss of his wife.

#AnotherEnd by Piero Messina | with Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo, Olivia Williams, Pal Aron Italy 2024 |WP was presented at the #BERLINALE in #Competition

Review:

Contrary to the synopsis, this authorial essay chosen to represent us in Berlin begins in an incomprehensible way with an elderly woman who asks her neighbor to help her with a small home repair. The husband of the woman immobile in the armchair is unable, according to him! But to complicate the story, The employees of an organization arrive at the woman's house to recover the inanimate body of the elderly man.

With these premises, there is a lot to untangle from a screenplay that proves to be difficult right from the start. The only certain thing is the greenish tone of photography so dear to the Germans.

The action of this psychological thriller takes place in a truly existing futuristic city.

The young neighbor Sal lives with Zoe, a couple like many others who have their problems putting up with each other, especially in the bedroom. We need to elaborate on the feelings of guilt in the case of young Sal for having let Zoe go ahead in the argument that occurred with the accident (we discover the details with an intense flashback) it cost her her life.

So a complicated script which in the first fragments remains undefined almost in suspension and then flows into a science fiction and psychological film.

“A body is just a body, but Sal clings to it!” So he asks his sister to be able to watch the film of Life another time.

In this post-pandemic city, feelings of pain are activated as it is a society dependent on wanting to be happy at all costs! It is a very controversial film that opens windows and closes them immediately.

But here in the second part the mystery that surrounds the whole story is revealed: sister Hebe, played by an enigmatic Bérénice Bejo – interpreter in the film Cut! Zombies against zombies (Cannes), works in the Aeterna Organization (a name that already reminds us of the human being's question about life and death!). This company deals with making our loved ones to whom we have not had time to express our feelings "relive" in other bodies.

Zoe is replaced by a woman (so-called "lessor") which lends itself to the game of replacing her in her daily life but which Sal is initially unable to accept.

The plot moves forward with the spectator increasingly disoriented in a magma between true and false.

This is the most beautiful moment of the film which showcases the duplicity of Cinema.

But we wonder if the director and screenwriter still have some growing up to do, or the film is dedicated to very refined people!

We won't reveal the ending with a twist that gives strength to a film that began quietly with a crescendo of suspense, where in reality the real protagonist is sister Hebe.

luigi Noera