It walks a really thin line between eccentricity and full nonsense, but one can't deny it's daring originality and the charms of Marina as a virgin and (possibly) assexual 23-year old.

An odd but real take on self discovery. Maybe we're all the odd ones, not living these childlike fantasy?

Spite of the wirdness plaguin the director's style, this story opens an unseen window to coming-on-age stories, and the result is a hillarious, smart, eccentric, well acted and deeply touching film that, using its original source material as fuel, becomes personal and near for the viewer.

I can understand the director's point but still I was not impressed. Especially not with the problematic situations that hide behind a plot hole (I know the film is surrealist but so what?).

Only the last scene had an impact on me.

No la entendi mucho,no es una peli de mi estilo realmente 5/10

Attenberg might have been the kind of film that I don't really like, because it's too messy and it seems to shot at everything simultaneously...but like Battle in Heaven, it's less of a full-fledged sociological essay but more of an imagination of where an individual stands in his or her time. With comic effect.

A comparison with Haneke is, in my humble opinion, absolutely out of the question. My hypothesis is that Athina Rachel Tsangari comes as a hybrid of Giorgos Lanthimos' Kynodontas (2009) and Chantal Akerman's Les rendez-vous d'Anna (1978), the first one thematically, the second one visually. The thematic connection can be drawn from the condemnation of the 20th Century as a "remnant of toxic modernism of post-Enlightment"; Kynodontas condemns the post-industrialist current reality almost as much as Attenberg does. The concept of a family isolated from civilization and unleashing uncommon behaviors as an integral part of their personalities is another similarity. All of these elements play part in an absorbing environment of dredd and hopelessness. The visual connection, on the other hand, can be found in the loneliness of the characters mirroring the suddenness of Anna's meetings in Akerman's alter-ego character study, with a striking cinematography depicting natural landscapes, industrial scenarios and domestic settings, and portraying sexuality in a timid/experimental way, yet with the erotic curiosity found in Kynodontas. Bottom line is, what fascinates me about cinema is the amount of ways that an idea can find to be expressed throughout the decades, and still maintain its essence. It's like having a visitor at home, and then receiving the same visitor unexpectedly many years later. It doesn't matter how much time has passed, you can still recognize him, because he hasn't changed a bit. 97/100

A in fact coming-of-age/life taking-off story can turn out to be such different, grotesque, absurd when in the hands of Greek films-makers.

The second oddball film in the Greek "Weird" New Wave Cinema, Attenberg is a pale succession to Yorgos Lanthimos' superior Dogtooth. With a dreary fishing town (the titular 'Attenberg') as its backdrop, Attenberg plays eccentricism and sexual perversions to the hilt. Turning what could have been a blackly comic portrait of the banal human condition into a largely nebulous exercise in tedium-dom and pointless provocation.

Art-housish flick of an asexual woman trying to get rid of the a.

Watching Greece Films Was A Good Idea Really :D

Buenas actuaciones (muy realistas y bien planificadas) y con un argumento estructurado que plantea muy a su manera una especie de estudio sobre las relaciones humanas, mostrando en la personalidad de sus protagonista Marina (Ariane Labed) la carencia de estereotipos en lo que refiere a comportamientos, manías, deseos, etc (teniendo en cuenta que estereotipos es lo que sobran hoy en día). Es quizás una película de análisis pero ajena a cualquier elucubración intelectualoide::: Este filme hace parte de una seguidilla de películas griegas que han despertado gran interés por parte de la crítica y espectadores, no en vano su directora Athina Rachel Tsangari hace parte de la nómina que hizo Alpeis y Kynodontas de Giorgos Lanthimos quien a su vez hace un papel menor en esta película. Buena.

I expected to be underwhlemned given some of the reviews, but I found the film very moving, primarily because of the father daughter relationship, which had great depth because of its candor and devotion. It was eccentric, but the father and daughter have very frank conversations which may seem existential, but which are very human as well. This point is brought home when (SPOLIER) the father says to his daughter at one point, "I shouldn't talk to you as though you're my buddy." The daughter answers, "You have no buddies. I am your buddy." Their relationship is close but cloistered, and though the woman is a little late in experiencing the world more fully at the age of 23, the movie seems to suggest she has gained so much in this relationship with her father. From awkward kissing and sex scenes at the beginning to some fearless musing while having sex later, she shows she's in bloom. There's actually quite a bit of growth. So I don't see the characters as sterile at all. They have great depth. I can understand being turned off by the Attenberg metaphors comparing his documentaries on animal behavior to the sideshow snippets (I don't think they are dreams) on eccentric human behavior, but they are easy to ignore, they are humorous, I think, and if you really care about them, it seems to be saying that looking in on this young woman, raised by an eccentric father, is a bit like Attenberg peering in on the primates. Her need to be socialized and all the rituals it entails is a move out of that box. Good film, but I read several poor reviews, and was surprised to find it more moving and even more compelling than I expected.

greek cinema, my new obsession.

Weird and not sure what the overall message is.

An intriguing study of the human condition-- Interesting piece of work!!

(****): [img]http://images.chrc4work.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] A strange, original, and well-directed film. One of 2012's best films.

Wron, wrong, wrong. This movie sucks! Yes, it's a study on humans and their inside world but it's presented awfully! Yes, it's weird for international cinema and extremely brave, but give me a break. We have seen all these things in Dogtooth and better presented. We didn't need this awful ''movie''. We are in a bad situation, already, and we don't need this kind of stupid movies. Only George Lanthimos is good in this ''film''.

The crotch dancing and high kick stomps made me laugh out loud. Going from, will you bang my dying dad with a direct cut to loosing virginity was a bit much. Now can someone explain why a 23 year old kisses like that? Let face it, I'm still confused by this film. Yes it is a film and not a movie!