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Los miembros de la familia (2019)
A grey but funny minimalist drama
A coming of age tale of two siblings who are mourning over the loss of their mother and become stranded on a coastal town that strangely seems desert of almost anyone outside of their own personal spheres. The surrealist vibe of their isolation is also teased (quite in a funny way) when they are presented with theories of computationalism, magnet therapy, and leftovers of religious self-help propaganda (from a priest who won't even pay his debts).
The depressing atmosphere of their unfortunate circumstances and boredom is brightened up by the several moments of subtle humour (which is also noticeable as a clever word-play in the movie title), and elevated by the great performances of the leads. Their companionship is so realistic it even reminded me of my own relation with my older sister.
Formally, the film seems deceptively minimalistic, with washed out colours on an apparently shy cinematography, but there is much beauty to be found in these gloomy scenes, especially the ones on the Argentinian seashore.
There is a sparse usage of music, but always to a great effect.
There's not much I can complain about this film, and it's more than enough to put Mateo Bendesky on my radar from now on!
As Mil e Uma Noites - Volume 1: O Inquieto (2015)
A quirky, surreal and profound crossing within the Portuguese culture
"As Mil e Uma Noites" is the latest film by the Portuguese Miguel Gomes, a director who already caught my special attention with his "Tabu", which also received very positive appreciation, in Portugal and internationally. His new work, a trilogy amassing 381 minutes divided in 3 Volumes, debuted at Cannes, at the Director's Fortnight, having been considered for Palm d'Or but it's sheer duration would be problematic for the festival's agenda. Meanwhile, it has already won some prizes, such as at the Sidney FF, among other nominations. Miguel Gomes called upon the Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, notorious for having regularly worked with "Joe" in pictures like Uncle Boomnee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the Palm d'Or in 2010, which becomes glaring in some framing layouts, color tones and especially in a scene where a woman fades with a film technique identical to the one used in "Boonmee".
I will write about the first Volume, "The Restless", which is now screening in some (too few) Portuguese cinema theaters.
The movie starts in a documentary style, with the narrated account of the workers at the shipyards of Viana do Castelo about their imminent mass dismissal, speaking interchangeably and in parallel with another narrated report, from the same Portuguese region, but without any causal relationship, of a bee-keeper and handyman who fights against a plague of foreign wasps. This apparent lack of correlation between these two events provokes a creative crisis of the film Director, who is keen on peculiarly showing himself running away from his own film crew, because he fears he may be lacking the ability to carry on his quest of portraying on the big screen the various episodes during the Portuguese financial crisis. The film thus becomes self-aware, channeling a Charlie Kaufman screenplay (Adaptation.). In order to satisfy his film crew, Miguel Gomes then proceeds, in a bizarre context, to explain his intention of telling a series of stories, loosely on the lines of the Arabian Scheherazade homonymous frame tale.
The next segment is probably the most silly, where what might seem to be a serious meeting with the Portuguese government and the "troika" representatives (who Miguel Gomes clearly critiques, presenting both parties with a clear "lack of social justice notion"), quickly becomes an anedoctic and highly surrealistic and delirious episode that satirizes the twists and turns of their decisions, relaying to the lack of "vigour" (sexual innuendo) of the stakeholders, as well as their communication issues inherent to the internationality of the meeting. It is, accordingly, the most Buñuel of the segments of the movie, which the author titled "The Men with Hard-Ons".
The following segment, "The Story of the Cockerel and the Fire", is my personal favourite of the volume, which tells a true story in the town of Resende about a rooster that is trialled for disturbing the neighbours with its loudness. Meanwhile, municipal elections are ongoing -- which are subject of quaint provincial conversations, as well as town festivities, and frequent arsons in the mountain range. This set of phenomena might seem unfocused, recalling the initial troubles of the Director's ability to correlate between such events, which solely seem to share a common site, but behold as we re-enter the surrealist context and Miguel Gomes introduces in the narrative an ephemeral Asian character who spits a charade about the "flames" of the village, and, more extravagantly, grants the "singing" rooster the ability to speak in his defence to the judge before being condemned to go to the cooking pot and explaining the missing correlation (and even causality) between the arsons, an innocent story of teenage crush which were in the origin of the crimes, and his own loud nocturnal manifestations, that were no more than an attempt to warn the town of the fires that were to happen. This is the most folkloric segment, where Gomes channels some idiosyncrasies of Kusturica, particularly on a typically Portuguese character who accompanies the judge while joyfully playing his accordion.
In the last segment of this Volume, takes place in Aveiro (the city where I'm finishing University), and captures some pretty imagery of the region's "Barra" lighthouse -- the second tallest of the Iberic Peninsula. Here, we follow the difficulties of the fugleman of "The Bath of the Magnificents", who suffers from heart disease, and hears the testimonies of three "Magnificents" of the region, who tell their stories of crossing severe financial difficulties. The "Bath" at the beach of "Barra" takes place in the first of January and seems to be a way of starting a new year with the superstition of better times ahead
In-between, the punctual doses of satirical surrealism are not missing, with a quirky "medical appointment" and an "exploding" dead whale, which got stuck in the sand of the aforementioned beach -- significances to be deciphered by the viewers.
I will be anxiously waiting for the second Volume, "The Desolated", for another two hours of a cinematic experience with an identity so inextricably Portuguese that I will certainly not lose.
Interstellar (2014)
Not a Kubrick or a Malick, but a very enjoyable blockbuster with great ambition.
The enormous ambition and downright grandeur is admirable, in a film that at times leaves us pinned to our seats with intensity, or dealing with strong emotional quandaries at others. The feeling of mystery and exploration towards the unknown - wormholes and black holes, are exercises that have never been made in cinema with this degree of scientific approach while displaying them on the big screen with such visual splendour.
Unfortunately, Nolan fails to deliver a deserving finale at the scale of the whole interstellar voyage. Unwinding itself in scientific explanations (Nolan already had the bad habit of providing over-exposition through some of the characters) - which ends up mitigating the whole sense of mystery and subjectiveness; otherwise imagine a "2001: Space Odyssey" where all the characters would be constantly explaining in detail everything that was going on; this excess of exposition contrasts with the convenient lack of plausible science in some moments of the movie, which causes the plot to lose consistency.
On the other hand, although Nolan manages to give a strong emotional side of the film's protagonists, he "forgets" to give any character development to some of the non-leads, being completely insensible towards them in some moments and losing, once again, consistency. Moreover, while some of the characters seem to be present only to serve as "how-to manuals" and exposition, the one that displays more "humanity" in terms of dialogue is arguably a robot...
The final act of the movie was... a mess. I was stunned, but mostly not for good reasons, and found myself thinking more than once: "are you kidding me?".
But I can honestly say I liked the movie, overall. It is a very interesting story; very intense, mainly thanks to moments similar to what we've seen in Cuarón's "Gravity"; a sense of exploration and mankind pushing boundaries, as we've experienced in Kubrick's "2001"; and a plot that might share too many resemblances with... "Knowing" (Alex Proyas, 2009), but this one is not a compliment!
Definitely worth seeing at a movie theatre, but that you already knew!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Otherworldly
More than 40 years after its release, this transcendental sci-fi experience remains unparalleled. Kubrick's depiction of Arthur C. Clarke's novel, filmed in eye-popping 70mm, with revolutionary visual effects and blended with some of the most beautiful music ever created by man, forms the utter symphony between the everlasting curiosity of mankind and the infinite mystery of outer space. Along this epic voyage of time and space, we watch the birth of human technology and its push towards the evolution of our species, ultimately leading to an envisioned modern era of dazzling discoveries. A truly inspiring odyssey and I find one of its most astounding facts that it was made before the human race had even set foot on the Moon.