So Pretty

Forum 2019

The lovers are reunited at the airport and soon they’re together in the white bedroom. The camera glides through the space, passing by desk, wardrobe, window and two bodies entwined, the first wonderfully languid pan in a film full of them. One reads to the other, in German, from Ronald M. Schernikau’s novel “So schön” and the passage could almost be describing this very scene, although it’s New York in 2018 rather than West Berlin in the 80s, and Franz and Tonio have become Franz and Tonia. The rest of the adaptation is in English and exposition is provided by other sections of the text, delivered at a reading attended by the modest cast, put on in the park beside the river, below the metal bridge. Between those events written down, life consists of nights out, political demonstrations, hopeful couplings, conversations at home or on the street, talk of translation, transposition and transition, in character or otherwise. Today’s battleground is gender, not sexuality and the target of protest has shifted accordingly, even as the problem of organising love persists. “and when the prince danced with the coachman, they were so pretty that the whole court swooned”. A utopian film.

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by Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli
with Edem Dela-Seshie, Thomas Love, Rachika Samarth, Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli, Phoebe DeGroot, Arlene Gregoire USA / France 2019 English, German 83’ Colour

With

Edem Dela-Seshie (Paul)
Thomas Love (Franz)
Rachika Samarth (Erika)
Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli (Tonia)
Phoebe DeGroot (Helmut)
Arlene Gregoire (Gera)

Crew

Written and Directed by	Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli inspired by the novel by Ronald M. Schernikau
Cinematography	Bill Kirstein
Editing	Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli
Music	Rachika S
Sound Design	Kenny Kusiak
Sound	Anastasia Clarke
Production Design	Miwa Sakulrat
Producers	Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli 100 Year Films, Bill Kirstein 100 Year Films, Judith Lou Lévy Les Films du Bal, Anne Coburn, Eve Robin Les Films du Bal