03/09/2002 - Discover the mysteries of passion and sex in Doris Dörrie's intimate look at relationships between men and women

Nackt (Naked) by German director Dorris Dörrie, in competition at Venice 59, is based on the premise that “love makes the world go round.” It is a return to familiar territory, for Dörrie, whose 1985 feature, Men was also selected for competition Venice: love, sex and human sentiments. Nackt is the story of three couples facing a major crisis in their lives, “I love making films about the emotions. After all, finding the person who understands our fragility and accepts it makes our lives worth living.” Dörrie, one of Germany’s finest filmmaking talents, won international recognition when a film of hers entitled Happy Birthday, based on “Io e Lui” by Alberto Moravia, was released in the United States. Dörrie describes her characters by means of extenuating re-evocation of her own and other people’s most intimate experiences and uses a very colourful filmmaking style. “This is a film based on love and sex, so I used sets that are full of light and brilliant colours, and a screenplay that does not explore the sentiments too closely.” As she did in Men, Dörrie uses the film camera to record her characters’ often excessively verbose deliberations about the illusive nature of true love and material wealth. “Love was once the cherry on the cake. Now it’s the cake”.

(Translated from Italian)