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Jenatsch

1987, Movie, NR, 97 mins

Jenatsch: Review

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A predictable, but nevertheless compelling picture which blurs the line between fantasy and reality as it explores the legend of 16th-Century folk figure Jorg Jenatsch. The film begins with a black-and-white documentary of the excavation of Jenatsch's coffin, which is discovered beneath a church pew. A young journalist, Voita, is assigned to do a feature story on Bouise, the archeologist who discovered Jenatsch's remains. Bouise explains in great detail how Jenatsch, a powerful and vile murderer, was killed by an unknown assailant during carnival time in his village. The only clue to the murderer's identity is a tarnished round bell which Jenatsch snatched from his killer in a last dying grasp. Voita, leaves the archeologist, only to later find the bell in his own pocket. Voita thens heads out to learn more about Jenatsch and his death. Essentially an elaborate "Twilight Zone" episode, JENATSCH rises above the mundane by raising some interesting metaphysical questions about time and space. Schmid argues, through Betti's character, that the only thing that separates the real from the unreal is time. One must therefore share his space with all the others who have previously occupied it. Given this, director Schmid can freely move between past and present. Originally conceived as a period piece, Schmid created the journalist character as a way of uniting the past with the present while still filming a biography of Jorg Jenatsch. (In French; English subtitles.) leave a comment
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