Stephanie in words by Maximiliano Gerscovich
The main idea of Stephanie was, in a beginning, an austere formal find: to make a Copernican twist in the off voice, showing it not from the point of view of the narrator, but from each one of the characters who listen to it (the four remaining players in a game of poker), in such a way that in that editing of “imaginations” it would remain only unalterable the image of the narrator (embodied by just one actor, role that would be played finally by Antonio Birabent) and would vary -slightly- the locations and the characters that interact with him in his story (that is why the character who gives the name to the movie is played by four actresses).
So, Stephanie, from a blurred border between the psychological thriller and the drama, joins that special territory of cinema that investigates the point of view, lead by paradigmatic titles such as Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950), L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961), Elisa, vida mía (Carlos Saura, 1977), The Limey (Steven Soderbergh, 1999) and the cornerstone of this school (and filmmaking in general) of 1941, which a reasonable modesty prevents to mention.
Stephanie is one of the first movies shot in Professional High Definition (1920x1080) in Argentina. Produced in an independent way, without any public nor TV founds, not even the support of any festival nor foundation, local or international, it was made in just eight days in locations of Buenos Aires city, at the end of 2004. Since then, the editing was changing, new possibilities of enrich and clarify at the same time the narration were appearing, unexpected aspects were revealed, even though for the ones who had conceived it: the main character asked being well listened, new cause-effect relations in the plot came up, in the course of time some edges were polished up and the movie remade itself.
Destiny wanted -wisely and ironically- that Stephanie was an “Exquisite Corps” in all possible senses of the term.
Maximiliano Gerscovich
Stephanie in words by Miguel Machalsky
In any case, it is interesting what happens through the days after seeing movies. As a matter of fact, I distrust of first impressions: more than once I have come out of a movie thinking that it wasn’t so bad, to find out later that, in fact, it didn’t remain a great thing. And, inversely, as I’m feeling about “Stephanie”; something there is reverberating in my head: images, atmospheres, fragments of dialogues…”.
Machalsky is reader and consultant for: StudioCanal Plus, Wild Bunch, FR3, Gaumont, Initiative Films, ACE, Produire au Sud, Biarritz Film Fest, Amiens Film Fest, Svensk Filmindustri, Pandora Cinema; Script analyst on projects such as: Femme Fatale (Brian de Palma), Spider (David Cronenberg), The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Terry Gilliam), The Interpreter (Sydney Pollack), Saraband (Ingmar Bergman), Mar Adentro (Alejandro Amenábar)
