Off Season (1992 film)

Off Season (French: Hors Saison) is a 1992 comedy film by Daniel Schmid, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Martin Suter. The film is semi-autobiographical for Schmid, who re-imagines the hotel he grew up in the Swiss Alps. The French-Swiss-German co-production premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 1992, followed by a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 1992. The film was the Swiss submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.[1][2]

Off Season
Promotional poster
Directed byDaniel Schmid
Written byDaniel Schmid
Martin Suter
Produced byMarcel Hoehn
Christoph Holch
Luciano Gloor
Martine Marignac
StarringSami Frey
Maria Maddalena Fellini
Geraldine Chaplin
Marisa Paredes
Ingrid Caven
CinematographyRenato Berta
Edited byDaniela Roderer
Music byPeer Raben
Release date
  • 10 February 1993 (1993-02-10) (France)
Running time
95 minutes
CountriesFrance
Switzerland
Germany
LanguageFrench

Plot

edit

Adult narrator, (Sami Frey) recalls his mysterious childhood at a mountainside hotel which he shared with his mother, grandmother and the hotel's guests. The hotel is host to a series of interesting guests, from the actress, Sarah Bernhardt (Paredes), an anarchist assassin (Chaplin), torch singers and seductive women.[3]

Cast

edit

Reception

edit

The film was well received by Variety, "Hors Saison is an unabashed cinematic circus populated by a Fellini-like cast of caricatures. It is irony and good humour make it high-class, entertainment for family audiences as well as the director's art house fans."[3] David Robinson wrote in The Times that the film offers "rich nostalgia" and that it "delights in the colourful ghosts of the place [hotel]".[4]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  2. ^ "Foreign Oscar entries submitted". Variety. 3 December 1992. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b ZWISCHENSAISON/HORS SAISON (OFF SEASON), 1992 Variety. 22 August 2011
  4. ^ Robinson, David. Debutants try their luck abroad. The Times. 20 August 1992
edit