Jaime Rosales's 'La Soledad' is a bit of an experimental mood-piece. To give it a very slice of life feel, Rosales uses no music or the typical postcard visuals and special effects. It follows the life of a single mother who moves to Madrid from the countryside and of a widow quietly battling her own struggles.
There isn't much that is 'happening' in the film per se. Many of the visuals pretty much mimic glimpses of daily life in Madrid. However, the director focuses too much on the simple visuals that are just there and, as a result, 'La Soledad' moves at a very slow pace. There is some gratuitous nudity (perhaps to compensate for the lethargic pace). Only in the last half hour does it pick up but overall the film failed to keep me engaged.
While the split-screen idea is quite new in Spanish films, at times it serves no purpose and is rather distracting. With the exception of Petra Martinez, most of the actors do a passable job that is nothing particularly outstanding but nothing dreadful either. Martinez is the one who gives a memorable performance as the mother of three trying to hold on to her memory and identity while her selfish eldest daughter continues to push her mother into selling her house to buy a guest house.
Anyway, to sum it up, the editing was a big disadvantage for me especially for a film that heavily relies on mood and less on story.
There isn't much that is 'happening' in the film per se. Many of the visuals pretty much mimic glimpses of daily life in Madrid. However, the director focuses too much on the simple visuals that are just there and, as a result, 'La Soledad' moves at a very slow pace. There is some gratuitous nudity (perhaps to compensate for the lethargic pace). Only in the last half hour does it pick up but overall the film failed to keep me engaged.
While the split-screen idea is quite new in Spanish films, at times it serves no purpose and is rather distracting. With the exception of Petra Martinez, most of the actors do a passable job that is nothing particularly outstanding but nothing dreadful either. Martinez is the one who gives a memorable performance as the mother of three trying to hold on to her memory and identity while her selfish eldest daughter continues to push her mother into selling her house to buy a guest house.
Anyway, to sum it up, the editing was a big disadvantage for me especially for a film that heavily relies on mood and less on story.