Margot at the Wedding
Noah Baumbach / US, 2007
His satirical portrayal of New York’s artistic circles has earned Baumbach the nickname of ‘the new Woody Allen’. There are plenty of neurotic relationships, too, in Margot at the Wedding, in which Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh play two high-brow sisters getting under each other’s skin in various hilarious ways. The film is screened on the occasion of the premiere of Baumbach’s latest film While We’re Young.
Pauline and Margot are both hyper intelligent and ruthlessly analytical about each other and the rest of the dysfunctional family in which they grew up. When Margot (Nicole Kidman) visits Long Island with her son to attend the wedding of her sister Pauline, all the old hurts and irritations resurface. Pauline”s fiancé, the bungling and impecunious Malcolm (Jack Black), is left speechless as he witnesses the emotional carnage effortlessly wrecked by the elite.
Baumbach apparently based his bittersweet analysis of the relations within a well-to-do New York family on Eric Rohmer”s Pauline à la plage of 1983. Like the French master, Baumbach only filmed in natural light; the camera lenses he used, too, were old, resulting in hazy images and a muted atmosphere.
Details
Director
Noah Baumbach
Production year
2007
Country
US
Original title
Margot at the Wedding
Subtitles
NLD
Format
35mm
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