Home (2008 Swiss film)

Home is a 2008 Swiss drama film directed by Ursula Meier and 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]

Home
Film poster
Directed byUrsula Meier
Produced byDenis Delcampe
Written byUrsula Meier
Antoine Jaccoud
StarringIsabelle Huppert
Olivier Gourmet
CinematographyAgnès Godard
Edited bySusana Rossberg
Production
company
Box Productions
Archipel 35
Need Productions
France 3 Cinéma
Distributed byFilmcoopi Zürich AG (Switzerland)
Diaphana Films (France)
Release date
  • 18 May 2008 (2008-05-18) (Cannes)
  • 29 October 2008 (2008-10-29) (France)
Running time
98 minutes
CountrySwitzerland
France
Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget€5.7 million[1]
Box office$2.5 million[2]

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. After living for ten years close to the highway, 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. Instead of leaving the house, the family stay, despite noise from passing traffic. 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, she decides to leave home. Returning after a period, accompanied by a man who is apparently her boyfriend, she finds the house bricked-up and, after an unsuccessful attempt to find an entrance, leaves again. The remaining family had sound-proofed the house. This includes 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, they break out of 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

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 Festival Category Recipients and nominees Result
Bratislava International Film Festival Grand Prix Ursula Meier Nominated[8]
César Award Best Cinematography Agnès Godard Nominated[9]
Best First Feature Film Ursula Meier Nominated[9]
Best Production Design Ivan Niclass Nominated[9]
Flying Broom Women's Film Festival FIPRESCI Award Ursula Meier Won[10]
Lumières Awards Best Cinematography Agnès Godard Won[11]
Mar del Plata Film Festival Best Actress Isabelle Huppert Won[12]
ADF Cinematography Award Agnès Godard Won[12]
Best Film Ursula Meier Nominated[12]
Reykjavík International Film Festival FIPRESCI Award Ursula Meier Won[13]
Swiss Film Prize Best Emerging Actor or Actress Kacey Mottet Klein Won[14]
Best Film Ursula Meier Won[14]
Best Screenplay Ursula Meier and Antoine Jaccoud Won[14]

See also

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. "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. 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. "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. "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. "Swiss Films: Home". swissfilms.ch. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
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