Gambling, Gods and LSD - All information about the film

Peter Mettler, Switzerland, Canada, 2002o

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Capsule reviews 3

Filmmaker Peter Mettler’s quest for transcendence becomes a three-hour trip across countries and cultures. His journey takes him from an evangelical gathering at an airport hotel to a demolition crew in Las Vegas, from the daily routine of trackers in the Nevada desert to urban life in Switzerland and, finally, all the way to India, where technology and spirituality have found a precarious mode of coexistence. But no matter where Mettler goes, he always finds the same deep sense of yearning – for states of ecstasy and for security in an uncertain world.

The Guardian

Veteran Canadian experimentalist Peter Mettler here conducts an ambitious, intriguing and exhaustingly vast personal journey of discovery into liminal states of ecstasy and transcendence, venturing across north America from Toronto to the Nevada desert, and then on to Switzerland and Kerala. (Excerpt)

Peter Bradshaw

Variety

An extended meditation on what humans will do to reach transcendent states, visionary helmer Peter Mettler’s latest effort leaps from Swiss junkies to casino hounds and sexual adventurers in Vegas. The lovingly shot, three-hour pic is probably too leisurely for impatient viewers, but – as in animated Waking Life, which it philosophically resembles – the accumulation of arresting imagery, spooky music, and thoughtful language weaves a hypnotic spell of its own. (Excerpt)

Ken Eisner

FILMO – ExpertInnen-Tipps

Um die drei im Titel genannten Phänomene sowie benachbarte Erscheinungen (Porno, Pudelrennen usw.) zu erforschen, ist Peter Mettler fast zwei Jahre durch die Welt gereist und zieht bei der Verarbeitung seines Materials alle audiovisuellen Register: Bilder, Töne, Musik werden übereinandergeschichtet, verdichtet, zerdehnt und verfremdet, um unsere Wahrnehmungsgewohnheiten aufzulösen. Die spirituelle Sinnsuche der diversen Protagonistinnen und Protagonisten spiegelt sich in der Sinnstiftung, die wir beim Erleben dieses epischen, visionären und experimentellen Filmtrips oft selbst leisten – oder es auch lassen. Ein faszinierendes und einzigartiges Werk, das in bester Bild- und Tonqualität genossen werden will. (Auszug)

Michel Bodmer