Day 3 - Part I
A busy Saturday, curiously filled with movies in Spanish. I start with my first horror movie in Fantasia, the Peliculas para no dormir. The complete project has 6 one-hour movies made for the Spanish TV, and Fantasia showed two of them on the big screen:
La habitacion del niño (Alex de la Iglesia)
A haunted house story, or something quite like it. We see a couple with a baby moving into a spooky house. They are happy, a point is made clear in a conversation they have in bed. She says “We are so happy. Almost too happy. It scares me.”, to be replied by the husband words of wisdom: “You feel this way because you went to Catholic school…”
It turns out existential guilt is not the only reason for fear. Angry distorted shouts over the baby intercom make a much more solid one. When infra-red cameras are installed, it gets way worse. The images reveal a man there with the baby.
And from here the characters make something very, very rare: They act exactly like you and me would. Ok, maybe not the part where the hubbie almost stabs his sweetheart. But suffice to say they explore the possibility of a burglar, they tell the police right away, they install alarms and new locks. Realizing it didn’t work, they get the hell out of there.
It may not sound exciting, but this believable behaviour does wonders in the way of making you care. It doesn’t hurt that the two main actors are very strong. Although the wife is really hot and the guy is uglier than any nerd in the audience, they show a great chemistry. You actually don’t want anything bad to happen to these fellows. The dialogue is amazingly sharp, with many funny moments. So, yeah, I’m saying that this has believable reactions, well-written dialogues and superb acting. Horror movies usually have the opposite, so these alone would make me recommend it. On top of that, it’s quite scary, especially when we see things through the infra-red camera.
When the phenomena gets an explanation, it goes a bit towards the nonsense side, but then you are so engaged that you’ll happily swallow anything they throw at you, including some stretched quantum physics.
Para entrar a vivir (Jaume Balagueró)
This one is crazily stylish. The cinematography is gorgeous, the images are as spooky as they get. Before anything happens, you’re already afraid of whatever might be coming. The problem is that what comes is not particularly interesting, it is a cat-and-mouse game between a crazy psycho and potential victims in a locked building. And when the hunt begins, the characters, not having watched the previous movie, do exactly the opposite of what any human being in the same situation would do. Lots of facepalm moments there.
Amazingly, it holds together well, because it doesn’t take itself seriously. In a certain point the killer even emulates Jack Nicholson in The Shining. So, instead of serious material, we get a series of wink-winks to slasher film fans. Because it’s all delivered in so much style, it’s quite effective.
Suffice to say this movie got the most enthusiasm from the audience. Each time one of the would-be victims would rise again in the best Monty Python “I’m not dead yet” fashion, the audience would cheer as if he was Lazarus.
So, for both movies…
Audience rating: 4 claps
Audience best reaction: In the second movie, when the killer searches for her glasses putting her hand in the kitchen sink drain, then the camera cuts to the hero’s eyes, then to the shredder switch…
With a full hour before the next movie, I go find a restaurant in Crescent Street, a magnet for weird playboys and clueless tourists. I enter an Italian place that’s trying a bit too hard to look posh, but I love my pasta and I need energy for more 3 movies. At a table next to me, girls with artificial blonde strains in their hair, and their sunglasses (inside the restaurant) are big enough to match the biceps of their companions. One of the dudes has both arms fully tattooed, including the hands. I wonder if that’s some kind of pre-condition to enter the place, as in front of me a middle-age couple is eating, and the lady is using a tank in order to show her tattooed shoulders.
Thankfully it’s easy to find other things to look at, as there’s free wi-fi coming from some other place. I have to investigate the source.
La Antena (Esteban Sapir)
I came in 10 minutes late and it was a bad move. The room was absolutely packed. It took me another 10 minutes disturbing everyone with my big head until I found a seat. I didn’t think so many place people would be interested in checking an Argentine black and white mute film. Or almost mute. The movie takes us to a world where the almighty TV corporation had removed the voices of all the population, except for a singer called, er, THE VOICE, and her son, that for one of those ironies of fate had no eyes and spent the whole movie asking “Mommy are you there?” - I guess you can’t have everything in life.
And that’s the lesson I learned today, folks, apart from the redundant allegory on the power of media, massive culture and dictatorship. The main interest for this movie would be technical. Each frame is carefully planned, the light, shadows, perspectives, clothes, situations and expressions are extremely surrealistic and made to mimic the sci-fi movies from the very early cinema. There’s even a reference to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, that I only know from the pieces seen in Queen’s Radio Gaga video, but it’s very intellectual to mention this movie in a blog. The subtitles when people were “speaking” were also interesting, they would be part of the scene and sometimes interact with the speakers. The ever-present music would use themes and little noises in synch with the action, almost as if an orchestra was there playing live along the movie.
So it’s an experimental piece, incredibly well-done, but I wonder what for. Who’s paying a ticket to watch something that is only trying to look like it came from an obsolete era? I couldn’t help thinking the target for this is only festivals, the people involved might be more interested in more showing their credentials than actually making a movie. But what do I know? That’s why my rating in this blog/diary is the very scientific “perceived amount of clapping”. This time it was somewhat timid. Impressive technical skills are probably not enough to make for a completely satisfying experience.
Audience rating: 2 claps
Audience best reaction: My after-lunch-power-nap rocked by mellow tango music. Thanks La Antena!
La habitacion del niño (Alex de la Iglesia)A haunted house story, or something quite like it. We see a couple with a baby moving into a spooky house. They are happy, a point is made clear in a conversation they have in bed. She says “We are so happy. Almost too happy. It scares me.”, to be replied by the husband words of wisdom: “You feel this way because you went to Catholic school…”
It turns out existential guilt is not the only reason for fear. Angry distorted shouts over the baby intercom make a much more solid one. When infra-red cameras are installed, it gets way worse. The images reveal a man there with the baby.
And from here the characters make something very, very rare: They act exactly like you and me would. Ok, maybe not the part where the hubbie almost stabs his sweetheart. But suffice to say they explore the possibility of a burglar, they tell the police right away, they install alarms and new locks. Realizing it didn’t work, they get the hell out of there.
It may not sound exciting, but this believable behaviour does wonders in the way of making you care. It doesn’t hurt that the two main actors are very strong. Although the wife is really hot and the guy is uglier than any nerd in the audience, they show a great chemistry. You actually don’t want anything bad to happen to these fellows. The dialogue is amazingly sharp, with many funny moments. So, yeah, I’m saying that this has believable reactions, well-written dialogues and superb acting. Horror movies usually have the opposite, so these alone would make me recommend it. On top of that, it’s quite scary, especially when we see things through the infra-red camera.
When the phenomena gets an explanation, it goes a bit towards the nonsense side, but then you are so engaged that you’ll happily swallow anything they throw at you, including some stretched quantum physics.
Para entrar a vivir (Jaume Balagueró)This one is crazily stylish. The cinematography is gorgeous, the images are as spooky as they get. Before anything happens, you’re already afraid of whatever might be coming. The problem is that what comes is not particularly interesting, it is a cat-and-mouse game between a crazy psycho and potential victims in a locked building. And when the hunt begins, the characters, not having watched the previous movie, do exactly the opposite of what any human being in the same situation would do. Lots of facepalm moments there.
Amazingly, it holds together well, because it doesn’t take itself seriously. In a certain point the killer even emulates Jack Nicholson in The Shining. So, instead of serious material, we get a series of wink-winks to slasher film fans. Because it’s all delivered in so much style, it’s quite effective.
Suffice to say this movie got the most enthusiasm from the audience. Each time one of the would-be victims would rise again in the best Monty Python “I’m not dead yet” fashion, the audience would cheer as if he was Lazarus.
So, for both movies…
Audience rating: 4 claps
Audience best reaction: In the second movie, when the killer searches for her glasses putting her hand in the kitchen sink drain, then the camera cuts to the hero’s eyes, then to the shredder switch…
With a full hour before the next movie, I go find a restaurant in Crescent Street, a magnet for weird playboys and clueless tourists. I enter an Italian place that’s trying a bit too hard to look posh, but I love my pasta and I need energy for more 3 movies. At a table next to me, girls with artificial blonde strains in their hair, and their sunglasses (inside the restaurant) are big enough to match the biceps of their companions. One of the dudes has both arms fully tattooed, including the hands. I wonder if that’s some kind of pre-condition to enter the place, as in front of me a middle-age couple is eating, and the lady is using a tank in order to show her tattooed shoulders.
Thankfully it’s easy to find other things to look at, as there’s free wi-fi coming from some other place. I have to investigate the source.
La Antena (Esteban Sapir)I came in 10 minutes late and it was a bad move. The room was absolutely packed. It took me another 10 minutes disturbing everyone with my big head until I found a seat. I didn’t think so many place people would be interested in checking an Argentine black and white mute film. Or almost mute. The movie takes us to a world where the almighty TV corporation had removed the voices of all the population, except for a singer called, er, THE VOICE, and her son, that for one of those ironies of fate had no eyes and spent the whole movie asking “Mommy are you there?” - I guess you can’t have everything in life.
And that’s the lesson I learned today, folks, apart from the redundant allegory on the power of media, massive culture and dictatorship. The main interest for this movie would be technical. Each frame is carefully planned, the light, shadows, perspectives, clothes, situations and expressions are extremely surrealistic and made to mimic the sci-fi movies from the very early cinema. There’s even a reference to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, that I only know from the pieces seen in Queen’s Radio Gaga video, but it’s very intellectual to mention this movie in a blog. The subtitles when people were “speaking” were also interesting, they would be part of the scene and sometimes interact with the speakers. The ever-present music would use themes and little noises in synch with the action, almost as if an orchestra was there playing live along the movie.
So it’s an experimental piece, incredibly well-done, but I wonder what for. Who’s paying a ticket to watch something that is only trying to look like it came from an obsolete era? I couldn’t help thinking the target for this is only festivals, the people involved might be more interested in more showing their credentials than actually making a movie. But what do I know? That’s why my rating in this blog/diary is the very scientific “perceived amount of clapping”. This time it was somewhat timid. Impressive technical skills are probably not enough to make for a completely satisfying experience.
Audience rating: 2 claps
Audience best reaction: My after-lunch-power-nap rocked by mellow tango music. Thanks La Antena!
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