Reviews

Maximillian Martin (Fernando Fernan Gomez) is an old man dying of a brain tumour. His wife Marie (Geraldine Chaplin) and two eldest sons have brought him to Paris following his wish. They insist on a complex brain operation, even though it's rather risky and will not cure the patient but only prolong his life a little. The family is depressed, it seems that they have accepted the verdict and don't even try to encourage Max a little bit. They are also occupied with selling the family business, and the two sons have their own family problems. The youngest son Victor (Leonardo Sbaraglia), an intelligent and charming guy, comes from Argentina with his fiancée Eilin (Leticia Bredice). Victor has been estranged from his family, but he comes out to be the only person whom his father trusts.

Max is behaving very strangely. He doesn't want to take his medicines and seems to be paranoid and scared of the nurses in the hospital. He regularly attempts to escape (secretly, as if it's a prison and not a hospital) and find a man called Rancel in order to warn him against some danger that awaits him if he gets on the train. Victor doesn't understand whether this Rancel actually exists, or the tumour has affected his father's sanity. Then he asks his mother Marie if she knows who Rancel is, but Marie says that she has never heard this name. Victor doesn't really believe her and her behaviour seems to him suspicious.

Marie is a controlling mother, a woman with a quiet voice and emaciated look. She guards a dark family secret that poisons her from the inside. Victor insists on her revealing to him who this Rancel is and she tells her son a story: a long time ago Rancel and Max were together in a communist cell, but Max betrayed his comrade. Rancel was arrested and soon died in jail, and Max cannot forgive himself because of it. The truth is, however, that Rancel is alive, he is about to meet Victor and to reveal to him the whole terrible secret Marie is hiding. Marie tries to explain herself to Victor and says that their family owes its very existence to her lie, she is very probably right, and Victor has to admit it.

It is a very good and strong film about a feeling of guilt that destroys one's soul. It has some especially memorable scenes. One of them is on the train station, near the end, when Max is looking at the passers-by trying to recognize Rancel, and Victor sits by his father's side and cannot tell him that Rancel won't come. The other moment is when Rancel comes to Max's funeral and faces Marie, a very strong scene that needs no words. The acting is very good, especially the one of Leonardo Sbaraglia, Geraldine Chaplin and Fernando Fernan Gomez (his characters are always so memorable). I recommend this film to everyone.

In the beginning of the film an old man Luis (Fernando Rey) is working on his memoirs (or something of a kind). The chapter he is currently writing is the monologue of his estranged daughter Elisa. The father's voice recites her confession: 'I hadn't seen my father for years, I almost never wrote him... When I got my sister's telegram, telling me of his illness... I decided to go to Madrid. Selfishly speaking, finally I had an excuse to get away from home... I left, I now realize, knowing I'd never return'.

Luis had left his family many years ago. He did not write a farewell letter or took anything with him. His wife was devastated, and her belief that Luis was a sick and selfish man somehow affected her daughters. Luis felt that he had a talent for literature and moved to a distant countryside, because he couldn't stand the routine full of false values.

But in the beginning we see Luis' family coming to the countryside to his birthday. The visitors are Elisa (Geraldine Chaplin) and her sister Isabel with her husband and two children. Elisa finds some papers in the father's room. Luis is painfully reflecting on his life: he is tired because he isn't sure whether all his past experience has any value. Now he has come to a conclusion that one just needs to enjoy every moment of his life; but he is afraid to take this new path thinking that it might be too late. As Elisa reads these words, the sadness in her eyes is striking; it seems that she has just found an explanation to something very important for her.

The family spends a few days in the countryside and is about to leave, but at the last moment Elisa decides to stay. She and Luis go for a walk (it is very beautiful there). In the field Elisa sees a strange white stone and a vase with flowers by its side. Luis tells her a story: some years ago he encountered here a murdered woman, later someone brought the flowers - it was actually the killer. Elisa is deeply affected by the story and imagines that she is this woman.

As time passes Elisa and her father get closer. Luis takes her to a local church school where he teaches kids. There is another scene when Elisa recalls one of her father's letters. He confesses that his attitude to his own writing is not what it used to be. He would write several drafts for his letter and hoped they'd be published one day, there was something snobbish in this practice. Now it is clear to him that a writer is just one of the many jobs in the world, he is not superior to a simple worker. This understanding is tied to one of the closing scenes. The children whom he teaches are rehearsing a play, and they constantly argue about the roles. Everyone wants to play a king or some other man of power, no one agrees to take a role of a poor man, and there is a belief that one must be a good person to deserve a 'decent' role. But it is a wrong perception, because one's role is not to be confused with the life itself. A good man is the one who makes the best of the role he is given.

Elisa wants to have a look at her father's manuscript, but he says he can't show it at the moment. Later Elisa tells him a story of her failed relationships with Antonio, her husband who has cheated on her with her best friend. This marriage was doomed from the beginning and she always felt it but for some reason tried to deceive herself, and now her world collapsed. Antonio comes to the countryside and tries to talk to Elisa. She explains to him that everything is over between them, they have a painful exchange of reproaches. What comes after Elisa sends Antonio home is a surreal scene of closeness (on the verge of incest). It occurs in the mind of either Elisa or Luis, who at this moment writes down Elisa thoughts of her life with a man she has never actually known. He stops when he hears her crying in the other room and goes to comfort her, but she bursts out in rage and they nearly beat each other.

Next morning Elisa lingers by a white stone and says a sorrowful monologue: 'Nobody has told me that all this beautiful story would have such a horrible ending'. Elisa imagines again that she is the murdered woman; to be more precise, she lives deliberately through the woman's horrible death, as if feeling that something inside of her must be killed.

Then she and her father are reunited, but he is getting worse. He refuses to go to hospital. In the morning, while Elisa is out, he leaves too. Elisa encounters him in the field, he is dying, and this is a really unforgettable, sad and beautiful episode, one of the most affectionate farewell scenes I have seen in the movies. Elisa stays at her father's home and continues his book. At the end she writes down the same monologue that we heard in the beginning spoken out by her father.

It seemed to me really weird that 'Elisa vida mia' is a film so little known. It is masterfully crafted and beautifully acted, deep and full of nuances. I loved this film just as much as Cria Cuervos and would recommend it to everyone.