35-year-old Lyle lives on a farm in Illinois and is trapped in an unsatisfying marriage with the puritanical Amy. When one day a friend from the neighbourhood brings Juliette over for a visit, an unexpected temptation enters Lyle’s life. Even this reserved farmer can’t be indifferent to Juliette for long, and their first fleeting contact at a dance quickly becomes a passion. Thanks to his new lover, Lyle savours sex for the first time in his life. But their secret relationship can’t remain concealed in a small town, and reactions to the affair vary: while Amy burns with jealousy, Juliette’s beau is ready to share in the couple’s intimacy. Their disregard for the rules, however, fills the majority of their neighbours with such indignation that this tale of passionate sexual love can only end in tragedy. The film’s rather simple love story grows into a parable which puts a pressing question: how far can those caught in an overwhelming sexual passion trespass beyond accepted social convention? And how can a closed puritanical society come to terms with such infringement of the rules?
105 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Jean-Marc Barr, Pascal Arnold
/ Screenplay Jean-Marc Barr, Pascal Arnold
/ Dir. of Photography Pascal Arnold
/ Music Irina Decermic, Misko Plavi
/ Editor Brian Schmitt
/ Producer Jean-Marc Barr, Pascal Arnold, Katarina Grandjean
/ Production Toloda
/ Cast Rosanna Arquette, Elodie Bouchez, Jean-Marc Barr, Ian Vogt, Ian Brennan
Jean-Marc Barr (b. 1960, Bitburg, Germany) studied in Los Angeles and then in Paris at the Conservatoire and the Sorbonne. He then trained as an actor at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has acted in theatre and in film, including the historical drama King David (1985), The Big Blue (dir. by Luc Besson, 1988) and in Lars von Trier’s Europa (1991), Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). His debut film was made in line with the Dogma manifesto, a love story appropriately entitled Lovers (1999). Pascal Arnold worked with him on the film as screenwriter and producer, as he did on the next instalment of their loosely planned trilogy about freedom, Too Much Flesh. Arnold, this time as cameraman and co-director, made with Barr the final part of the trilogy, Being Light.
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