“From the director of Dogtooth” — that’s all that I really needed to know.  Just for shits and giggles, I tell my one-year-old his bottle is a car, his food is a monkey, and the TV is naptime — just for some Dogtooth hilarity. *Note to Child Services – I’m kidding.  You may have read my praise for the Academy Award nominated foreign film earlier this year. You can check it HERE. If you’ve seen Dogtooth, then you’ll understand why anything Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos is intriguing.  If anyone can balance disturbing charm, this man can do it.

His next film, Alps, is set for an October date and is promised to be “darker, stranger, and funnier” than Dogtooth.  Stranger, huh? The synopsis:

A Nurse, a Paramedic, a Gymnast and her Coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends, or colleagues of the deceased. The company is called Alps while their leader, the Paramedic, calls himself Mont Blanc. Although the Alps members operate under a discipline regime demanded by their leader, the Nurse doesn’t.

The teaser after the jump is great. Without the above synopsis, you have no clue what you are seeing. On the surface, it’s a bunch of nonsense. The music played is “O Fortuna”, which has dominated MANY film trailers (Waterworld, A Clockwork Orange, and more) and films (The Doors, The Hunt For Red October, and more) of the past and present. It’s essentially an awards bait tune. And this trailer thumbs it’s nose with a great sense of humorous parody.

Check out the head scratching trailer after the jump. And if you haven’t seen Dogtooth yet, do yourself a favor and disturb yourself this weekend. Queue it up on Netflix — you can also stream it!

To further push the strange, the press kit for the film also includes the “Rules of the Alps.”

THE 15 RULES OF THE ALPS
Alps members:

• 1. Must declare in advance the things they are unwilling to do by filling out Form (e.g. kissing, lifting weights, travelling etc.)
• 2. Must declare in advance the things they are good at by filling out Form (e.g. dancing, waterskiing, discussing etc.)
• 3. Must have some basic knowledge of psychology and sociology.
• 4. Are obliged to support, under all circumstances, the interests of the Alps group.
• 5. Must respect each other.
• 6. Have the right to change their nickname only twice. They cannot choose a nickname belonging to another Alps member. The nickname must strictly be the name of a mountain in the Alps, and not something general or irrelevant (e.g. Blonde, Master, Dragon etc.)
• 7. Can never talk about Alps activities with non-Alps members.
• 8. Are obliged to take the Gymnastics Club Test, if necessary.
• 9. Must be over 14 years of age.
• 10. Should always be smart, clean, punctual, and in complete control.
• 11. Must never get emotionally involved with clients, or have intimate relations with them.
• 12. Cannot change their physical appearance without the Leader’s permission (e.g. dye hair, lose or gain weight, wear coloured contact lenses etc.)
• 13. Must be able to make convincing facial expressions (sadness, happiness, despair etc.)
• 14. Must honour the title of their membership, and be ready to kill or die for it.
• 15. Must never attack one another, and must believe in teamwork.

Mont Blanc, Leader of the Alps group
January 2008

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