Change Your Image
mql21
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Madres paralelas (2021)
Parallel Mothers, Parallel Spains
A war does not simply end overnight. Wars remain alive through the loved ones of those who won the war and especially those who lost.
'Parallel Mothers' is a film that portraits the inevitable and unbreakable connection that all presents have with their past. Just like Spain did after the civil war, Janis (Penélope Cruz) finds herself in a present that is inevitably marked by her recent past, so she'll need time to grief and overcome her new reality.
The entire film and its main topic can be understood through one of its wonderful and perfectly-composed scenes. At one point of the story, Ana (Milena Smit) finds out that she is the real mother of Janis' daughter. Because she needs time to accept this new reality, she decides to leave Janis' home, where she has been living for a while, taking her (somehow new) daughter with her.
We get to a farewell scene where we see Ana with her new daughter leaving the appartment, while Janis accompanies them to the elevator. As soon as Ana and her daughter enter the elevator to leave the building, Janis breaks and starts crying. She steps back to get into her appartment, now with her (no longer) daughter away for the first time. At this point, we see a shot that could simply sum up the entire film.
Through a static shot that focuses on Janis' appartment's door, we see her entering home through it. Also, through the door, we can perceive a mirror inside Janis' appartment that is reflecting something that soon resembles a Spanish flag. At this point, we se the door slowly closing, leaving Janis (and somehow the Spanish flag that the mirror is reflecting) abandoned to her new present inside her appartment.
That door closing clearly represents the barrier between the past and the present. Out of the door goes away her past; a child that no longer is her daughter. Inside the door, she finds herself with a new present that she'll have to learn how to live with. But a closing door does not simply end a relationship, just like a war ending does not simply end a war. We cannot just erase the past and act like if nothing happened. The grief moves on from generation to generation so, until every victim rests where they deserve, the war won't end.
El páramo (2021)
Personal film with interesting language
'El páramo' is not a simple horror film. It is, in fact, a much deeper film with an interesting gaze towards fear, loneliness, the loss of loved ones and what remains after they leave.
David Casademunt, director of the film, lost his mother at age 15 and, according to his own words, the virus of fear settled in at his house for almost a year after the loss. This goes to show that the film is probably a therapeutic excercise to openly talk about what happened during that dark time, almost as dark as the film, and express how that 15-year-old teen felt during the process.
'El páramo' is narrated through the look of Diego (Asier Flores), a kid who feels lonely and whose loneliness increases as his parents vanish multiple times troughout the film, phisically, psicologically and literally.
This feeling of loneliness is probably the main topic of the film and is reinforced with love for film language through the use of recurring very long shots, where Diego becomes a small ant as compared to the inmensity of the portrayed landscape. What he loves and takes for granted is vanishing, as does his own integrity as a child, so he feels alone and abandoned to its own fate.
Casademunt proves that he knows what he's doing and understands how to craft a film, from story, to script, to camera movement and shot selection. Hopefully there's more of his work coming and we have news from him soon.
First Reformed (2017)
A class on film language with interesting influences
Very few filmmakers can afford the luxury of being influenced by themselves, and 'First reformed' goes to show that Paul Shcrader is one of them.
'First reformed' explores death and despair through a lost and hopeless reverend, Ernst Toller, and does not only resonate, both in form and substance, with Schrader's mythical Taxi Driver but also with Ingmar Bergman and his vision about life.
Like in Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' (1957), no one in the film is free from eluding death, which, at the eyes of each and every character, seems inminent. Just like Antonius Block (main character of Bergman's masterpiece portrayed by Max von Sydow), reverend Toller is unable to find any encouraging answers that would stave off what seems inevitable. To portrait the fear that this situation evokes in reverend's psyche, Schrader makes a notable use of close-ups, confirming the influence of Bergman's film language.
The film is also smartly influenced by Schrader's and Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' (1976). While reverend Toller has a fearful and pessimistic side that reverberates with Antonius Block, he also has a nihilistic and anarchist side that soon reminds you of Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran who cannot sleep and main character of 'Taxi Driver', portrayed by Robert de Niro. Reverend's problem with the world is exactly the same as Travis'; his inability to accept the world as cold and unfair as it is and his desire to screw the system. The only difference between the characters is their evolution. On the one hand, Travis comes back from Vietnam War as a ticking time-bomb and is unable to overcome that state or evolve throughout the film. On the other hand, reverend Toller has some questions to ask before exploding and has a clear evolution from serenity to rage.
One of the aspects that makes 'First reformed' really interesting is its well-treated audiovisual language. Schrader uses very explicit shots to reinforce the main topics of the film and the feelings of the characters.
To mention a couple examples, at some point of the film, once it's clear that it's about death and despair, there's an overhead shot where you can see a rug with the words "Abundant life" upside down written on it, which is a smart way to negate these words and therefore reinforce film's main topic.
Also, at some point the reverend is diagnosed with cancer, one that is likely extended to multiple organs, so he'll need to take action soon because time is running out. To reinforce this feeling, Schrader uses a detail shot of a clock ticking for a few seconds, which is a good way of describing the pressure that reverend Toller is feeling.
To sum up, 'First reformed' has a very special love for film language. Unlike other films, where action is endogenous, action in 'First reformed' takes place inside the characters' psyche.
Les quatre cents coups (1959)
A story through the eyes of a kid
Some say that eyes are the most powerful tool in cinema and Truffaut goes to show it in "Les quatre cents coups". Some say that cinema is cinema when shots and camera movement tell as much as characters express through words, and Truffaut proves it through the film.
Antoine is a kid, a rebel one, son of a dysfunctional mother who tells him off frequently for no reason. He's sick of his parents and soon starts to pursue freedom.
As the story moves forward through Antoine's eyes, one gets to understand that, afterall, all what he's seeking for is love. The love that he has never received at home, the one that every kid deserves. He goes out with his friend, skips class, steals stuff to get some money but it never works out. He never seems to find the freedom he's dying to have despite being close. No matter how, something or someone ends up dashing his plans.
As stated, the story is told from and through Antoine's eyes. We see him look around amazed by the greatness of the city, we see him scared, enraged and sad, and, at the very end, confused. The long travellings that portrait the city help us understand Antoine's look and desire of breaking free and becoming a son of Paris and no one else.
The ending sequence is a true lesson of film language. Antoine seems to have made it. After running away from the juvenile facility he was abandonet at, he's now free in front of the sea. But that sensation of freedom ends as soon as Antoine stares confused right at the camera, which is when the film ends. His confusion tells us that, afterall, he's a kid and is completely lost and alone, so he'll need to learn how to survive.
Saya-zamurai (2010)
A gaze at paternity
Matsumoto continues to explore his gaze at paternity, just like he did in in one of the two parts of 'Symbol' (2009). 'Scabbard Samurai' portraits paternity through the love of a girl that wishes the best for her father, a samurai that has lost all of its honor, despite odds being against hope. There's nothing sadder than the look of a kid watching their father being humiliated, over and over, and Matsumoto knows it.
Hitoshi Matsumotos's work as a director is unclassifiable, his movies do not belong to any particular genre, and Saya-zamurai is a good example of it. Despite the movie talking about such deep and transcendental topics, Matsumoto explores them from comedy to drama, from genuine laughter to inevitable grief, always with an interesting twist of embarrassment.
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Confusing tone with one lesson of filmmaking
After watching the movie, one can understand why back in the day this adaptation of Stephen King's homonymous novel wasn't well received by critics. The film changes its tone multiple times throughout the story, going from comedy to terror to sci-fi so on and so forth. This is why the tone and general atmosphere may vary and result confusing to some spectators, since it can be hard to stick to a movie archetype while the plot moves forward.
However, there was one scene which, to me, was a lesson of filmmaking. (SPOILER) When Henry goes to Duddit's place to meet him for the first time in a very long time and pick him up, you realize that Duddit has been living with his mother all this time. So, when Henry and Duddit leave, the latter says bye to his mom in a very short and cold farewell. That is what I'm talking about. A lesson of filmmaking. In a normal scenario, saying "Bye mom" feels almost like you're going to be right back. But the look in the eyes of Duddit's mother makes it gain a whole different sense. Now we, the spectators, realize that this cold farewell is indeed the last words that a son and a mother are sharing. We now realize that this is the very last time they're going to see each other. This is a lesson on how with very few and simple words, you can actually tell a lot. It's all about the sight.
El autor (2017)
Life and fate
The film narrates the story of a man, Álvaro, who is insanely obsessed with writting a "high literature" novel. Once his writing professor criticizes one of his assignments for an obvious lack of truthfullness and meaning, the main character decides to write the definitive novel. To do so, he will orchestrate his neighbors's life in all manner of ways, to see their reactions and therefore have the story written by itself. Álvaro, as every writer who starts a book, has to write and develop the characters of his novel, but this time he does it in a literal way. As some sort of God, he decides to write the life and therefore the story of his neighbors, who will be the characters of his book. After doing as much as possible to stir the life of his neighbors, the ending of his book is unexpectedly written by someone else.
This is a movie about story writing, fate and life itself. No matter the effort you put into writing anybody's life because at the end, life finds a way to hit and surprise you.
La casa de papel (2017)
Both entertaining and poor
"Money Heist" or "La casa de papel" is a series whose success resides solely in its capacity to entertain the majority of us. But from an strictly technical point of view, Money Heist survives as a concatenation of sensacionalist sequences that are full of implausibly acquired technology and completely unnecessary moments to generate this constant tone of showmanship. When it comes to the script, despite having some interesting and well-written parts like the relationship between Berlin and Palermo in fourth season, the series abuses the deux ex machina trick making the plot and its formula become pretty bland, predictable and poor.
Under the Shadow (2016)
The liberation of Middle Eastern women
The tension and the fear in the film hide a metaphor about the role of women in middle East. If you pay attention, the ghosts in the film are purely middle eastern fabrics that recall to the veil that women are forced to wear. They are not escaping from ghosts, they're escaping from their veils.
'Under the Shadow' pictures a constant fight of a woman and her daughter to escape from those fabrics that hound them aggressively and will probably accompany them the rest of their life.
The ending scene, where the daughter extends her helping hand to her mother so they can finally escape from the ghosts, can be understood as the hope for the new generation of middle eastern girls and their liberation.
Elephant (2003)
Gus Van Sant in a nutshell
Elephant is Gus Van Sant in its purest excellence.
Van Sant tends to prioritize shots, photography, music and silence before dialogues, to immerse the spectator and make it be part of the film. This is the reason why Elephant is a silent film without any sort of evolution.
Van Sant's purpose is not to make a drama out of the Columbine massacre, but rather to expose that fatal day in the most natural way, without unnecessary haste, with long shots and different points of view.
Elephant is an honest portrait of a tragic day, a crude characterization of what teenage problems look like and can lead to. Violence is implicit in the film, however it still leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. There's no explicit blood, but you can still perceive it.
Colossal (2016)
Not a Kaiju film
The film has two interpretations, a literal and a metaphoric one. Sticking only to the literal reading is a mistake since the film loses all of its sense.
The relationship between Oscar and Gloria represents this sort of toxic relationships where women are sick and want to leave but men won't allow it. That's literally what happens when Gloria wants to leave but Oscar tries to intimidate and threat her. Basically, if she leaves, he'll hurt people from Seoul. The film is a portrait of that kind of relationships where violence reigns at night and then it's all apologies and presents to make peace in the morning. At one point of the film, Oscar brings some furniture as an apology for the argument they had the previous night, which is a clear representation of that toxic behavior.
The ending, represents the liberation of a woman who manages to finally leave the psychological abuser behind. Colossal is an excuse, in the noble sense of the word, to expose Vigalondo's feminist vision of life and human relationships.
Nacho Vigalondo, as a joke, referred to the film as a new version of Godzilla and people took it too seriously, he even got sued for it. The message of Colossal goes much further than a Kaiju movie. It is definitely not a Kaiju film.
Det sjunde inseglet (1957)
The cold truth about Death
When a wave of consciousness hits your mind and all of a sudden you're aware of your finitude and your inevitable death you feel cold and confused. You definitely feel the fear flowing through your body. This exact same feeling is what The Seventh Seal evokes throughout its scenes.
The Seventh Seal is an unfair and unavoidable cold water bucket being thrown to your face. Death is imminent, and everyone knows it.
The film exposes multiple ways to approach death. Some of the characters are paralyzed by the fear, some try not to think about it, and some other, like Antonius Block, have some questions to resolve before the game is over. But what if there're no answers? What if even the Death, God or the Devil have no answers? What if questions are an invitation to fear, anxiety and emptiness? These are the questions that are not explicit in the film but are clearly present. If you're ready to jump into the real and most anthropological fear, this is definitely your film.
Caché (2005)
The fourth wall
A huge part of the burden falls on the spectator, to a point where it's us who have to resolve the film and write the ending.
The takes are especially long in this film, which allows us to think that (SPOILER) the genuine receiver of the tapes, rather than the Laurent family, are us the spectators. It comes clear that the spectators are not mere observers. If the tapes and its takes are so long, it's because someone wants us to witness them.
At this point, assuming that we are the receiver of those long, almost professionally-recorded tapes, it is not so crazy to think that the one who took and delivered the tapes to the Laurent family, with us the spectators in mind, was no other but Haneke.