House fo the Sleeping Beauties
2006
In what would have to be a major understatement, I'd say that this 2006
drama is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. It is actually a
story about growing old, a German remake of a Japanese movie adapted from
a book by Yasunari Kawabata. Being old myself, I can say they brought out
some interesting aspects of aging, but they sure picked an odd way to get
there. If you don't speak German, you have to be prepared to wade through
a lot of sub-titles, since the movie is fairly "talky", but I still found
it fascinating, and very bizarre.
A successful businessman in his sixties has never gotten over the death
of his wife and daughter years ago. They died in an auto accident, but he
continues to harbor the suspicion that his wife committed suicide; he
misses them both very much, and he is miserable.
A friend suggests a secret house where men can spend an entire night in
bed alongside a beautiful nude young woman. The woman will move, stretch,
roll over, and dream, as anyone does during sleep, but will never awaken
no matter what. He becomes totally seduced by the house and its
inhabitants, but he also becomes obsessed with who the women are, and why
they can't be woken up, to the great consternation of the Madame of the
house. At the same time, he also battles with a conscious that tells him
that this is not a nice thing to do.
Strange as it seems, aside from all the great nudity, this really is a
serious movie about aging, and a very deep character study of an
embittered old man who is also something of a lecher. I can't so much say
that I liked it as that I simply found it strange, fascinating, and very,
very creepy.
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| Babet Mader |
Jacqueline Le Saunier |
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| Linda Elsner |
Maria Burghardt |
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| Sarah Swenshon |
unknown |
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