MovieChat Forums > La migliore offerta (2014) Discussion > The story took place in a strange undefi...

The story took place in a strange undefined multi-dimensional limbo

posted 9 years ago by met76
9 replies | jump to latest

Basically where the story and film was set was so undefined, off-hook and contradictory, it really got on my nerves.

Someone here suggessted it took place in Italy, because that's where the villa is, but as you may or not know, everything else clearly points to Austria as the location, because all cars had fitting license plates, and many other Austrian elements were shown. Yet every character spoke native English, even the young guys at the pool table, they sounded like kids from Brooklyn or something. And Virgil and Claire were quite obviously British, as Virgil even was the archetype of the upper class British gentleman, yet it's never explained why Virgil lives in - what appears to be - Vienna, why he has his apartment there, etc.

So my suggestion to the director, and I'm sure he'll check on the IMDB boards, for the future, is to make clear where your films' plots are located in, and implement it with consistency. Because this film felt like it was set in a weird parallel universe or a place with an alternate timeline, very similar to that Star Trek episode where there is an alternate timeline.

[–] readwell 9 years ago

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[–] LilyDaleLady 9 years ago

I agree. I thought it was LONDON (though the house is clearly not a London home). The auction house is clearly English and all the employees speak British English. Virgil is English. The Jim Sturgess character is English. The BAR is an English bar that serves TEA. Even the dwarf is English. Even the groundskeeper at the house is English!

(BTW: nobody mentions he has to be in on the whole thing too; he claims to have worked for the family for years. He didn't notice the dwarf daughter sitting in the window of the bar RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET?)

I agree the movie is not FILMED in London, but I believe the intent is for you think it is set there -- the way US films are made in Canada and elsewhere, but tell you the setting is New York City.

[–] korbendallas-2 8 years ago

Er... "nobody mentions he has to be in on the whole thing too"? Really?

It was mentioned immediately and many times already. It is obvious he's in on the whole thing and the movie deliberately makes it obvious: the episode when Virgil finds a tracking device in his car is an implicit reference to the previous episode when the groundskeeper deliberately obtains Virgil's car keys from him.

(A cheaper movie would've inserted a flashback there, but this movie is a higher grade material.)

[–] Clemencedane 9 years ago

I was sure we were in Vienna. I even thought I recognized a couple of famous locations.

[–] david-CD 9 years ago

I would also assume it is Vienna for the most part.
He once dinned in the Steirereck, a very famous viennise restaurant and behind the bar counter of the pub in front of the villa you see a Gösser sign, which is an Austrian beer company.

[–] mel2000 9 years ago

As usual, movie verisimilitude creates problems only for people who know too much. As an American I had no problem assuming that the story took place in England.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] zaccaria 8 years ago

I think that setting it up in a multi-dimensional limbo was intentional. The director had no problems to mention and show many towns in the movie, but the identity of the main town is always confusing.
For many details this is Vienna (the phone number of ambulance, the colors of police car, police uniforms), but everybody not only speaks English, but has English names, passports, even the menus in the bar are written only in English. The villa instead looks typically Italian, and they mention a Central Park that in Vienna doesn't exist.
And also the landscape surrounding the villa is modified to represent a non-place, by special effects that are unexpected in this kind of movie, and probably only locals noticed:
The real villa (Villa Mainardi) is in the countryside, but in the movie there is a central street in front of it (Trieste, via Corsi).
When he walks in the villa's garden, modern buildings are seen, which are neither surrounding the real villa, neither the Trieste's settings.
I think that Tornatore's decision of putting this town in a non-place and of filming in Trieste is not a coincidence.
There's even a book by the the Welsh writer Jan Morris entitled "Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere": a town that is Italian, but having being part of Austria for still centuries, has a typical Austrian heritage and architecture and, unfortunately not for long, an unprecise cultural identity.