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Monday Morning
Lundi matin
de/by Otar Iosseliani
France - 2002 - Comédie dramatique/Dramatic comedy - 122 mn - V.O sous-titrée anglais/French with English subtitles
Réalisateur/Director: Otar Iosseliani
Scén./Script: Otar Iosseliani
Avec/With: Jacques Bidou, Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky, Narda Blanchet, Radslav Kinski, Adrien Pachod
Photo/Cinematography : William Lubtchansky
Mus. : Nicolas Zourabichvili
Prod. : Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant, Roberto Cicutto
Société Prod./Prod.co: Pierre Grise Productions
Copro. : Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Mikado
Ventes à l'étranger /World sales: Celluloid Dreams
Distribué en Australie par/Distributed in Australia by: Palace films
Prix/Awards : Prix de la meilleure réalisation au Festival de Berlin 2002/ Award for Best Direction, Berlin Film Festival 2002
 The charmingly eccentric and humorous Monday Morning is Otar Iosseliani's unmistakable homage to Jacques Tati.
Every Monday morning Vincent begins the same monotonous routine - one and a half hours of non-smoking transit to an uninspiring factory job. Back at home, family obligations always interrupt his passion for painting. Vincent can't take another Monday morning! He's had enough of the factory, the wife and kids, life's incomprehensible contradictions and the country village of unexpected eccentricities.
One day, Vincent decides to get out of his repetitive routine and travels to Venice. Maybe he'll find out exactly what's missing from his life...
Vincent's voyage to Italy brings to mind Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday; and a very ordinary day at work could substitute for a deleted scene from Playtime. Despite these unmistakable references, Iosseliani avoids copying his idol's formal stylistics. In fact, there's a greater sense of realism at work here - no sound effects accompany any of the film's endless sight gags and Iosseliani's love of the long shot never calls too much attention to itself.
 Monday Morning isn't overly ideological, but the director is obviously concerned with our enslavement to technology. Iosseliani's remarkable use of silence and overlapping action recalls Tati's fascination with the soulless repetition and drudgery of middle-class living. If Vincent doesn't make for a particularly expressive every-man, the director's playful obsession with everyday events makes his hero's trip to Italy that much more exceptional. This is where Monday Morning excels - its life-affirming, absurdist comedy actually contemplates our freedom from the machine.
Monday Morning was awarded the FIPRESCI prize for best film at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, and Iosseliani received the Silver Bear for best director.
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Georgian Director, Actor & Screen Writer
Born April 2nd, 1934 in Tbilissi (Georgia).
After studying the piano, mathematics and mechanics, Otar Iosseliani decided to focus on cinema at the Moscow Cinema Academy (VGIK). There he directed several short films and a medium-length film (April, 1961) banned by Soviet censors. This mishap was repeated in 1966 with La Chute des feuilles (Falling leaves), his first feature film also being banned.
Since 1982, his career has flourished in France and his unusual work been met with growing success. Indeed almost all the films he has directed since have received prestigious awards : Les Favoris de la Lune (Favourites of the Moon), Et la Lumière Fut (And Then There Was Light,1989), Brigands, chapitre VII (Brigands-Chapter VII, 1996), were each awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Venice Festival, and La Chasse aux Papillons (The Butterfly Hunt, 1992) the Grand Prize of the Berlin Art Academy.
His film Adieu, Plancher des Vaches ! (Farewell, Home Sweet Home, 1999) was selected outside of competition at the Cannes Festival and awarded the Louis-Delluc Prize in 1999. He went back to Cannes in 2000 as the President of the Jury of the Golden Camera Prize.
In 2002, he directed Lundi Matin (Monday Morning), selected for the Berlin Festival.. |
Otar Iosseliani
Réalisateur, Acteur, Scénariste géorgien
Né le 2 avril 1934 à Tbilissi (Géorgie).
Après avoir étudié le piano, les mathématiques et la mécanique, Otar Iosseliani s'oriente vers le 7ème Art au VGIK, l'école de cinéma de Moscou. Il y réalise plusieurs courts-métrages et un moyen-métrage en 1961 (Avril), interdit par les autorités. Une mésaventure qui se reproduit notamment avec La Chute des feuilles en 1996, son premier long-métrage.
Depuis 1982, il poursuit en France une œuvre atypique qui connaît une faveur et une audience croissante[s]. En effet, presque tous ses films réalisés depuis cette date ont reçu les plus hautes récompenses. Ainsi : Les Favoris de la lune, Et la lumière fut (1989), Brigands, Chapitre VII (1996) ont obtenu le Grand Prix du Jury au Festival de Venise ; La chasse aux papillons (1992), le Grand Prix de l'Académie des Arts de Berlin.
La reconnaissance arrive avec Adieu, plancher des vaches !, sélectionné hors compétition à Cannes et lauréat du prix Louis-Delluc 1999. Le cinéaste revient en 2000 sur la Croisette pour présider le jury de la Caméra d'Or.
En 2002, Iosseliani revient avec Lundi matin, sélectionné au Festival de Berlin. |
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