Jumper, Justin Anderson’s first short, opened on a naked man bathing in a pool. Conceived in 2014 for the tenth anniversary of British fashion designer Jonathan Saunders, the film was a riff on Pasolini’s Teorema; it followed a lunar stranger who shows up uninvited at a luscious Spanish villa and upends the frigid lives of its tenants. Ten years later, the same idea and shot survive more or less intact in Anderson’s feature debut, Swimming Home, based on a 2011 Man Booker-shortlisted novel by Deborah Levy. Except this time the setting is a summer home on an unidentified Greek island, the nude intruder a young woman, and her target is not a whole family but its taciturn, haunted patriarch.
His name his Josef (Christopher Abbott); hers is Kitti (Ariane Labed). He’s a poet and she’s a botanist––but this is his story, not hers, and for all...
His name his Josef (Christopher Abbott); hers is Kitti (Ariane Labed). He’s a poet and she’s a botanist––but this is his story, not hers, and for all...
- 2/12/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
There’s a luxuriantly sensuous quality to the prose of British novelist Deborah Levy — a tactile grasp of land, weather and flesh — that feels intensely cinematic while reading it, as well as an elliptical, concentrated interior psychology that feels liable to trip up any potential adapters. Those rewards and risks hold true in “Swimming Home,” a seductive but opaque adaptation of Levy’s Man Booker-shortlisted novel of the same name, in which the author’s knack for epigrammatic character portraiture and hothouse emotional conflict yields more superficially enigmatic results on screen. In his feature directing debut, British video artist Justin Anderson carries over a chicly serrated, off-kilter audiovisual sense from his commercials and short-form work; his scripting is less assured, as is his command of a fine but under-tested ensemble led by Christopher Abbott, Mackenzie Davis and Ariane Labed.
Recently premiered in competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival, “Swimming Home...
Recently premiered in competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival, “Swimming Home...
- 2/3/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Marriage Story: Justin Anderson Serves Up An Enigmatic Challenge Is His Feature Debut
A marriage in crisis cooks under the summer sun in filmmaker Justin Anderson’s enervating feature debut Swimming Home. Stripping away the narrative thrust and many of the characters in his adaptation of Deborah Levy’s excellent acclaimed novella, the director attempts to grapple more directly with the enigmas at its haunted core. But saddled with deliberately alienating and obfuscating symbolism, the resulting effort is a tedious, overly earnest po-faced slow burn.
Vacationing in a luxe villa in the Greek countryside, Joseph (Christopher Abbott), his wife Isabel (Mackenzie Davis), and their teenage daughter Nina (Freya Hannan-Mills) have barely had time to welcome the arrival of family friend Laura (Nadine Labaki) when the mysterious Kitti (Ariane Labed) is found pleasantly floating naked in their swimming pool.…...
A marriage in crisis cooks under the summer sun in filmmaker Justin Anderson’s enervating feature debut Swimming Home. Stripping away the narrative thrust and many of the characters in his adaptation of Deborah Levy’s excellent acclaimed novella, the director attempts to grapple more directly with the enigmas at its haunted core. But saddled with deliberately alienating and obfuscating symbolism, the resulting effort is a tedious, overly earnest po-faced slow burn.
Vacationing in a luxe villa in the Greek countryside, Joseph (Christopher Abbott), his wife Isabel (Mackenzie Davis), and their teenage daughter Nina (Freya Hannan-Mills) have barely had time to welcome the arrival of family friend Laura (Nadine Labaki) when the mysterious Kitti (Ariane Labed) is found pleasantly floating naked in their swimming pool.…...
- 1/29/2024
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- IONCINEMA.com
Award-winning artist Justin Anderson’s debut feature “Swimming Home” has its world premiere in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam. Variety has secured access to the first clip from the film.
The film, an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel, centers on poet Joe (Christopher Abbott) and war photographer Isabel (Mackenzie Davis), whose marriage is dying when Kitti (Ariane Labed), a naked stranger found floating in the pool at their sunny holiday villa in Greece, is invited to stay. Oscar nominated Lebanese actor-director Nadine Labaki plays a significant role in the film as does emerging actor Freya Hannan-Mills.
In 2014, Anderson directed “Jumper,” a short inspired by Pasolini’s “Teorema,” about a man emerging from a pool and standing naked in the window during a family dinner. A friend saw the film and suggested that he read Levy’s novel. The book resonated with Anderson and he contacted Levy.
The film, an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel, centers on poet Joe (Christopher Abbott) and war photographer Isabel (Mackenzie Davis), whose marriage is dying when Kitti (Ariane Labed), a naked stranger found floating in the pool at their sunny holiday villa in Greece, is invited to stay. Oscar nominated Lebanese actor-director Nadine Labaki plays a significant role in the film as does emerging actor Freya Hannan-Mills.
In 2014, Anderson directed “Jumper,” a short inspired by Pasolini’s “Teorema,” about a man emerging from a pool and standing naked in the window during a family dinner. A friend saw the film and suggested that he read Levy’s novel. The book resonated with Anderson and he contacted Levy.
- 1/26/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie, will be among those taking part in on-stage talks at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which runs Jan. 25 to Feb. 4.
Harry narrates the latest film by Amanda Kramer, “So Unreal,” an essay-documentary about the relationships between cinema, humanity and technology. On Jan. 27, the two will give an IFFR Talk discussing their work as artists with distinctive esthetics whose careers have developed across film and music.
As previously announced, other speakers in the IFFR Talk program include actor Sandra Hüller, and directors Anne Fontaine, Marco Bellocchio, Bill Plympton and Billy Woodberry.
Directors attending with their titles in the Limelight section, which is for films from established filmmakers, include Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante with “Lost in the Night,” Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland with “Green Border” and Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania with “Four Daughters,” which is shortlisted for an Oscar.
Fontaine will attend the world premiere of her 19th feature film,...
Harry narrates the latest film by Amanda Kramer, “So Unreal,” an essay-documentary about the relationships between cinema, humanity and technology. On Jan. 27, the two will give an IFFR Talk discussing their work as artists with distinctive esthetics whose careers have developed across film and music.
As previously announced, other speakers in the IFFR Talk program include actor Sandra Hüller, and directors Anne Fontaine, Marco Bellocchio, Bill Plympton and Billy Woodberry.
Directors attending with their titles in the Limelight section, which is for films from established filmmakers, include Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante with “Lost in the Night,” Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland with “Green Border” and Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania with “Four Daughters,” which is shortlisted for an Oscar.
Fontaine will attend the world premiere of her 19th feature film,...
- 1/16/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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