Home (2008 Swiss film)

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Home
Home2008.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Ursula Meier
Written byUrsula Meier
Antoine Jaccoud
Produced byDenis Delcampe
Starring Isabelle Huppert
Olivier Gourmet
Cinematography Agnès Godard
Edited bySusana Rossberg
Production
companies
Box Productions
Archipel 35
Need Productions
France 3 Cinéma
Distributed byFilmcoopi Zürich AG (Switzerland)
Diaphana Films (France)
Release dates
  • 18 May 2008 (2008-05-18)(Cannes)
  • 29 October 2008 (2008-10-29)(France)
Running time
98 minutes
CountriesSwitzerland
France
Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget€5.7 million [1]
Box office$2.5 million [2]

Home is a 2008 Swiss drama film directed by Ursula Meier, starring Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet. The film was the official Swiss submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, but was not nominated. [3]

Contents

Plot

Marthe (Isabelle Huppert) and Michel (Olivier Gourmet) live with their three children in a house next to an uncompleted highway. They use the deserted road as a recreation area. For example, they put an inflatable swimming pool on it and the son and his friends use the highway to ride their bicycles. As it has been ten years since the highway was abandoned, they believe that it will not be completed. One day, without warning, construction workers begin to upgrade the road and the highway opens to traffic. Despite noise from passing traffic, the family remains in the house. Previously, the father would simply walk across the highway in order to access his car to get to work. This becomes harder as the highway becomes busier. He and his children eventually have to use a tunnel in order to access the outside world.

Their younger daughter, Marion (Madeleine Budd), becomes obsessed about the quality and cleanliness of her surroundings. She monitors the grass as it exhibits the effects of carbon monoxide emissions and is convinced that the family may fall ill or even die prematurely, as a consequence of living in such close proximity to the highway. The elder daughter, Judith (Adélaïde Leroux), continues to sunbathe on the front lawn, despite attracting unwanted attention from passing motorists.

One day, Judith decides to leave home without telling her family. Returning after a period of time, being driven by a man, she finds the house bricked-up and, after an unsuccessful attempt to find an entrance, leaves again. In her absence, Michel had attempted to leave with the remaining children, but Marthe refused to depart. The family then decided to sound-proof the house, which included blocking up all the windows and sealing all the ventilation points. Confined, the pressure begins to take its toll and, in what appears to be a death dream, Marthe breaks open a wall and the family exits the house into the sunlit outdoors.

Cast

Production

Director Ursula Meier searched for a suitable location across Europe, before finding a spot in Bulgaria. [4] The road itself was already under construction and they then built the house next to the then-unused road. [4] Meier wrote the script specifically for Isabelle Huppert before she was cast. [5] Huppert was given the script while she was in Belgium, working on Joachim Lafosse's film Private Property . [6]

Reception

Critical response

Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reported an average score of 67, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [7]

Accolades

Award / Film FestivalCategoryRecipients and nomineesResult
Bratislava International Film Festival Grand Prix Ursula Meier Nominated [8]
César Award Best Cinematography Agnès Godard Nominated [9]
Best First Feature Film Ursula MeierNominated [9]
Best Production Design Ivan NiclassNominated [9]
Flying Broom Women's Film Festival FIPRESCI AwardUrsula MeierWon [10]
Lumières Awards Best Cinematography Agnès GodardWon [11]
Mar del Plata Film Festival Best Actress Isabelle Huppert Won [12]
ADF Cinematography AwardAgnès GodardWon [12]
Best FilmUrsula MeierNominated [12]
Reykjavík International Film Festival FIPRESCI AwardUrsula MeierWon [13]
Swiss Film Prize Best Emerging Actor or Actress Kacey Mottet Klein Won [14]
Best FilmUrsula MeierWon [14]
Best ScreenplayUrsula Meier and Antoine JaccoudWon [14]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Home". JP's Box-Office.
  2. ↑ "Home (2008)". Box Office Mojo .
  3. ↑ "Home - Directed by Ursula Meier". indiewire. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Interview with Ursula Meier". littlewhitelies. Archived from the original on 29 December 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "The New Female Vision: Ursula Meier on her acclaimed first feature Home". birds-eye-view.co.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  6. ↑ "Isabelle Huppert: interview". Time Out. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Home". Metacritic .
  8. ↑ "International Competition of First and Second Feature Films". iffbratislava. Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  9. 1 2 3 "Pelican Films: Home". pelicanfilms. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  10. ↑ "Meier's Home, Damla Sönmez win top prizes at Flying Broom festival". todayszaman. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  11. ↑ Blair, Iain (6 November 2009). "Sixty-five countries vie for Oscar nom". variety.com. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  12. 1 2 3 "23rd Mar del Plata Film Festival". mardelplatafilmfest. Archived from the original on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  13. ↑ "Festival Report: Reykjavik 2008". fipresci.org. Archived from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  14. 1 2 3 "Swiss Films: Home". swissfilms.ch. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
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