Things I Never Told You

Love! What is it? A fatal illness? A chemical reaction? Or is love proof that God has a sense of humour? Ann, Don, Paul and Diane wonder. Ann works in a photographer's shop and her boyfriend is across the Atlantic. Don is an estate agent but is chiefly interested in the well-being of people around him, spending his evenings as a ''fellow human being on call''. Paul works for a delivery firm and modifies his work ethics if a particularly interesting package turns up. You are left wondering what is in the packages. Diane repairs TV sets and has just had a sex change. They live in an American small town and are trying to get their lives together. Their paths cross in their search for the meaning of love. There is a fair share of trouble on the way. The question is, of course, where you can find the answer to the mystery of love. Maybe you can try the Church? A welfare officer? Your pals? In coffee-flavoured ice-cream? The Camera? You must be able to find a tiny bit of love somewhere! And when you've finally found love, what can you do when you suddenly get dumped, on the phone?! There are plenty of formulas, but to start with you can try to swallow a bottle of nail-varnish remover, stuff yourself with ice-cream, or why not try explaining yourself to a video camera. Then there is everything you wanted to say but never said, those words you think of a few hours after you needed them. They have to end up somewhere: the endlessly repeated phrases when you're alone in front of the TV, your thoughts when stuck in a traffic jam, as usual, what is left unsaid when you finish a conversation by blaming premenstrual tension. Maybe all of those unspoken thoughts take-off and fly across the Atlantic, or are kept securely by a ''fellow human being on call'', or does everything end up at the neighbours eventually? Isabel Coixet's film relates in a humouristic, gentle and open way our everyday frustrations with love. Using a clean and simple visual language, she tells of the creeping desperation when the coffee-flavoured ice-cream runs out, the frustration of strolling a TV screen, the consolation to be found in a listening video camera (cheaper than the therapist), and how practical it is to ask your pursuer to carry the shopping home. Things I Never Told You makes you both laugh and gives you cause for reflection. IS

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
Lili Taylor, Andrew McCarthy, Alexis Arquette: Producent
Dora Medrano & Javier Carbó: Manus
Isabel Coixet: Foto
Teresa Medina: Musik
Alfonso Vilallonga: Talat språk
English