Country: Mauritania
Year: 1993
Duration: 15'
Three figures, two women and a man, appear at the doorway of an old country house that is nestled in a wild, overgrown garden, In a "timeless" moment the figures are stationary, yet a gentle breeze stirs the leaves of the trees... Before the break of dawn Valpredo enters the house and places a bouquet of white roses into a vase and leaves through the door leading to the garden. The roses are for Vidya. Little does he knows that she is non longer alive. The day advances, and with it pass perhaps years... and evening begins to fall along with the rain, along with petals of Valpredo's Iong overripe white roses...
"Brief Gardens is intended as a requiem, an elegy, on the passing of lives. The film is set in a country house and garden on one single day, from sunrise to sunset. And yet, though the story takes place on one day, at the end of the film the characters are long gone the sitting room is empty, the petals are dropping from the overripe rose. Outside, in the garden, the breezes tousle the leaves, the clouds scud the sky the fight shifts everything is changing, in constant motion, time is fleeting. The house itself is a static receptacle, witnessing passively the lives, the dramas, the vanishings... of the people to whom is has offered refuge. The fight (daylight) is the main character of the film. It is in constant movement, from dawn to dusk. It is Time, driving us relentlessly toward change and death." (Nora Hoppe).
Biography
film director
Nora Hoppe
Nora Hoppe was born in New York City, also grew up in Suriname. Studied art and theatre at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and film editing in New York. She then lived in London, Rome, Munich, Paris, Rotterdam, Berlin where she worked in various areas of film productions. In Rome she was Lina Wertmüller's assistant for four years. Has written numerous screenplays. Brief Gardens is her first completed film, which she prepared, shot and finished in St. Petersburg, Russia.
FILMOGRAFIA
Brief Gardens (cm, 1993).
Cast
& Credits
Director and screenplay: Nora Hoppe.
Director of photography: Alexander Burov.
Art director: Marina Abrasimova.
Editor: Leda Semenova.
Sound: Sergei Moshkov.
Cast: Anna Grigorievna Lisianskaya, Olga Dmitrievna Straumit, Viktor Sergeievitch Gogolev, Misha Gendelmann, Zaika.
Director of Production: Tamara MogiInikova.
Production company: Foundation Argus (Amsterdam), con la collaborazione di North Foundation (St. Petersburg) e Rotterdam Arts Council.
Foreign sales agent: Argus Film, P.O. Box 18269, 1001 ZID Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel. +31206254585, fax +3120 6272925.
Director of photography: Alexander Burov.
Art director: Marina Abrasimova.
Editor: Leda Semenova.
Sound: Sergei Moshkov.
Cast: Anna Grigorievna Lisianskaya, Olga Dmitrievna Straumit, Viktor Sergeievitch Gogolev, Misha Gendelmann, Zaika.
Director of Production: Tamara MogiInikova.
Production company: Foundation Argus (Amsterdam), con la collaborazione di North Foundation (St. Petersburg) e Rotterdam Arts Council.
Foreign sales agent: Argus Film, P.O. Box 18269, 1001 ZID Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel. +31206254585, fax +3120 6272925.