This grim exercise in chiaroscuro is perhaps most interesting for its influences on later classic films.
In reading about it on Wikipedia, I found the parallels with "Rashomon," released 16 years later, to be intriguing. On my own, I thought of similarities with Satyajit Ray's "The Home and the World" of 1984.
The first famously employs a flashback format, and the second involves a love triangle among a seemingly naive woman and two men who are best friends.
"Dos Monjes" is extremely slow-moving. With editing it could easily have been half as long, but then it wouldn't have been a feature-length film. I dislike being manipulated that way. To call it lugubrious is a serious understatement, but I can't think of another word to capture its gloominess.
In reading about it on Wikipedia, I found the parallels with "Rashomon," released 16 years later, to be intriguing. On my own, I thought of similarities with Satyajit Ray's "The Home and the World" of 1984.
The first famously employs a flashback format, and the second involves a love triangle among a seemingly naive woman and two men who are best friends.
"Dos Monjes" is extremely slow-moving. With editing it could easily have been half as long, but then it wouldn't have been a feature-length film. I dislike being manipulated that way. To call it lugubrious is a serious understatement, but I can't think of another word to capture its gloominess.