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80Best known until now for Oscar-winning holocaust drama "The Counterfeiters," Karl Markovics flexes his muscles on the other side of the camera with terrific effect. A fine, moving debut for the new writer/director.
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80An Austrian actor whose Easter-Island mug has graced movies such as the Oscar-nominated "The Counterfeiters" (2007), Markovics shows a keen attention to performers that you'd expect from a thespian-turned-director.
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80The "breathing" of the title becomes a cleverly recurrent motif, and Markovics's script circles around the themes of death and life in thoughtful and elegant ways: it is a well-carpentered screenplay which bears every sign of having been a labour of love, worked on fruitfully over many years.
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75The new film's strongest point is the assured performance by Schubert, who's in nearly every frame. Elegant cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, one of Austria's most sought-after lensers, gives Breathing added depth.
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Aug 30, 201270As a collaboration Breathing owes much to the balanced compositions, lucid imagery and judicious use of color executed by Mr. Gschlacht, who brought a similarly clear gaze to morally fraught work by other Austrian directors (Götz Spielmann's "Revanche," Jessica Hausner's "Lourdes," Michael Glawogger's "Slumming").
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Aug 28, 201260Thoughtfully shot by first-time director Karl Markovics, the only warmth comes from the stiffening cadavers.
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50Can a film be faulted for being too sympathetic toward its characters, for limning a milieu with extraneous humanism?
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Sep 4, 201240A film of unreconciled impulses, Breathing is by turns vaguely sentimental and cooly detached in a manner that's ultimately more off-putting than it is complementary.