Another View 2014 / Still Life / United Kingdom 2013
Awarded at the Venice IFF, Still Life tells the story of inconspicuous loner John May, who organises funerals for those who have no friends or relatives to take on the responsibility. A persuasive film which excels in its sensitive portrayal of life’s bleaker moments, without resorting to pathos.
Inconspicuous loner John May is a council official doing a job few would find rewarding. His duties involve organising funerals for "clients” who have no-one to care for them after their demise. His profession, the only thing which gives any meaning to his monotonous and reclusive existence, nevertheless soon starts to complicate his life. Following the death of a neighbour, May puts all his efforts into solving what will probably be his last official case: he needs to find the family and close friends of the deceased to allow them to say their final farewells. The film, inspired by real events, takes a highly sensitive and empathetic view of the phenomenon of solitary death, a subject Western civilisation chooses to neglect. This leisurely paced film possesses an inner strength facilitated by the collaboration of remarkable directing talent Uberto Pasolini and leading British actor Eddie Marsan, who gives a highly credible performance as the withdrawn funeral officer.
87 min / Color, DCP
Director Uberto Pasolini
/ Screenplay Uberto Pasolini
/ Dir. of Photography Stefano Falivene
/ Music Rachel Portman
/ Editor Tracy Granger, Gavin Buckley
/ Producer Uberto Pasolini, Felix Vossen, Christopher Simon
/ Production Redwave Films
/ Coproduction Embargo Films
/ Cast Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt
/ Contact Beta Cinema GmbH
Uberto Pasolini (b. 1957, Rome) is a descendant of the eminent Italian director Luchino Visconti. He began his career as an investment banker in London and only turned his attention towards film twelve years later. He worked for 20th Century Fox in its marketing department, also for David Puttnam’s Enigma Productions, where he acted as location scout for the award-winning film The Mission (1986), and he was also producer on a number of projects in Europe and Hollywood. It would be many years before he directed his first film. His debut Machan (2008), screened in its world premiere at the Venice IFF, touches on the sensitive issue of immigration via a group of Sri Lankan boys who dream of a life in Germany. Still Life, his latest film, was very well received at Venice.
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Uberto Pasolini
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