Fidelio
This daring and subtle drama about a female engineer on board a large freighter plays with conservative notions about female desire in a male-dominated environment. Director Borleteau builds up this complex tale from body language rather than dialogue, which is sparsely used. Fidelio is screened in EYE’s Previously Unreleased programme.
Lucie Borleteau challenges traditional gender roles in her film about a sexually liberated female engineer among a lustful crew – including the handsome captain, with whom she was romantically involved in the past – while her faithful partner anxiously awaits her return.
Alice is like a mermaid, who becomes a different person at sea. When she is ashore with her husband, Alice is a passionate and thoughtful, almost girlish woman. But when duty calls and she is out on the ocean, she has to work hard to survive as the only woman on board an enormous freighter called Fidelio – an allusion to the theme of fidelity that is woven into the film.
Alice assumes her place as an engineer among sex-starved men, routinely rebuffing their snide witticisms and indecent proposals. Then she finds in her hut the candid diary left by her predecessor. The emotionally complex and daring film is full of subtle signals. Borleteau relies more on body language than on spoken dialogue, which is better suited to this closed world with its constant white noise of the waves and the rumble of engines in the background.
The film has not been released before in the Netherlands and is now showing in EYE.
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