"a lovely film"

SYNOPSIS

The biggest solar storm since records began hits the earth causing power surges and blackouts. A far greater storm rages within the soul of Regina, a morose and lonely spinster dubbed “Fraulein”, after a mysterious visitor around sixty years old, lost and childlike, passes the gates of her hotel that has been closed for years. What was supposed to be a shortlived one night “clash”, soon turns out to be a turbulant and surprising coexistence.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

Fräulein is the story of an unwanted encounter – and therefore a “collision”- between two closed-off, lonely people, who overcome their initial mistrust and learn, progressively, to accept, and then because of this, to help, one another. The film is essentially a ‘coming-of-age’ story, but the people doing the growing up are not a pair of kids, but two people that we would consider adults. There is serious drama at its heart, but the plot essentially unfolds in a positive way, and it is because of this that I feel the need to employ a specific tone of comedy in the film, one that is lighthearted and profound, funny and dramatic at the same time. I had in mind films like “Secret and Lies” by Mike Leigh or “Harold and Maude” by Hal Ashby which are neither completely comic, nor dramatic, but instead continually oscillate between the two registers, mirroring the same oscillation between the comic and tragic that we experience in relation to our own lives. The wintery setting is essential for this type of plot, because allows me to play with the idea of Regina’s ‘frigid’ state on a metaphorical level, followed by her progressive ‘melting’ and holding out the possibility that she may also ‘blossom’. The snow, the cold, the icy lake are featured throughout the film, and at the same time, they can be seen as temporary states of transition that lead the way for the coming of spring. The town comes to occupy a progressively more important role in the story because it brings Walter and Regina closer, and reflects the development of the two protagonists. I would like to involve the town’s inhabitants in the crowd scenes and the two languages (Italian and German) spoken in this place will also play an important role in the film. Telling a story in a small place on a border will certainly be a challenging task, but one that will also have special value, since it will be possible to create a film that is both universal and unique at the same time.

BIO

CATERINA CARONE
Born in Ascoli Piceno in 1982. From 2004 to 2007 she attended the Bolzano “ZeLIG – school of documentary, television and new media”, from which she graduated with a degree in production and directing.

Filmography

VALENTINA POSTIKA WAITING TO LEAVE 2009 (73’)
• Solinas Award for Best Cinema Documentary 2008
• Best Italian Documentary Turin Film Festival 2009
• Nominated for the David di Donatello Best feature length documentary 2010

THE KEYS TO PARADISE 2007 (49’)
• Special Mention Visioni Italiane 2008
• Istanbul International Film Festival 2008
• Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival 2008, Estonia

DUST 2006 (29’)
• Special Mention, International Film Festival Corto in Bra, Piedmont, 2006
• Special Mention, International Film Festival Periferia Immaginaria, Naples, 2006
• Special Mention, Film in competition IFF Etiudia&Anima, Krakow, Poland, 2006

CAST

Fräulein LUCIA MASCINO
Walter CHRISTIAN DE SICA
Hanna THERESE HAEMER
Nina IRINA WRONA
Postino MAX MAZZOTTA
Max ANDREA GERMANI

INTERNATIONAL SALES

Festival