Just recently, the strongly linked film industries of Spain and Mexico were the talk of the world cinema scene, with auteurs like Almodovar, Del Toro, Amenabar and Inarittu enjoying an unprecedentedly high profile in the US, and picking up awards left, right and centre.
This past year, however, has a seen a shift back to more traditional cinematic sources, with rejuvenated European stalwarts Italy and, in particular, France churning out the critical hits and festival sensations.
The Spanish-speaking countries’ slight (and no doubt temporary) loss of momentum is arguably reflected in their recently announced submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film race: both have selected sober-sounding period dramas with relatively low international profiles.
Spain’s choice, “The Blind Sunflowers,” takes place in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and tells the story of a presumed war widow harbouring her left-wing husband in the family home. It’s a period that has proved fertile ground for great Spanish cinema, and the cast, including the wonderful Maribel Verdu and Javier Camara, is exciting, but Variety was decidedly unimpressed by the film at Toronto:
Brimming with ideas it fails to galvanize, “The Blind Sunflowers” reps an unhappy swan song for late, great screenwriter Rafael Azcona. As a portrait of the dullness of life in provincial postwar Spain, the pic is fine, but much of that dullness spills over into the treatment, which fails to do justice to Alberto Mendez’s dark novel … Top-notch cast feels wasted, with most of the content rerun from previous Civil War dramas.
Mexico, meanwhile, has gone with “Tear Up My Life,” a portrait of the rise of feminism in 1930’s Mexico, as seen through the eyes of an influential politician’s wife. Reportedly the most expensive Mexican film ever made, it recently broke domestic box-office records, and sounds like an altogether safer bet for the country than last year’s commendably left-field choice of Carlos Reygadas’ “Silent Light.”
I know we have a number of readers from those parts of the world, so don’t hesitate to offer your perspective on these selections below. By the way, once the October 1 deadline has passed, I’ll be rounding up all the foreign-language submissions in a single post and offering some impressions on the race at this early stage.
Comments
6 responses to “Foreign film watch: Spain and Mexico go period”
Israel sends “Waltz with Bashir”…
Arrancame la Vida (Tear up my life) is great. It is an adaptation of a famous novel of the same name from Angeles Mastreta. The performances from Daniel Gimenez Cacho and Ana Claudia Talancon are excellent, but the standout is Gimenez Cacho for his portrayal of the General Andres Ascencio, a very charismatic monster. I believe he’s a very underated actor. The story takes place in Puebla where a naive 15 year old girl (Talancon)
falls in love and marries the corrupt general. Asencio aspires to become president. Slowly she becomes a aware of who is the person she married and unhappily she adapts to her new reality while finding ways to entertain herself. The film is also the story of postrevolutionary Mexico and the birth of the political party the ruled the contry for over 70 years.
Here in Mexico Arrancame la vida has open to good reviews. Roberto Sneider, the director, made a great film in the 90’s named Dos crimenes (a very underated film). The cinematography is also excellent, in fact the production looks grand, it looks like the most expencive film Mexico has ever made.
Just got back from watching “Los Girasoles Ciegos”, and I think that critic from Variety has confused dullness with soberness, with understatedness (is that even a term?). It’s a serious theme, living scared hiding in your home (actually in a hole in the wall behind the closet), your whole family terrified because if you’re found out it means execution for you… and who knows what for them. It portrays the fear of ordinary people on the losing side of a vicious civil war, who have to “play along” with the victors (for example on the religious front) so they won’t be branded as “reds”. A confused kid who has to lie at school to protect his family.
It could have been made in a much more melodramatic fashion, with a soundtrack picking at your soul, and lots of suspenseful moments. Might have felt less “dull”, but then it would have felt a lot less real. And that reality is the scary part. The realisation that even if this isn’t “based on a true story”, there were hundreds of “true stories” just like this one all over Spain just after the Civil War; and in Vichy-France, and in any other country when a totalitarian regime takes over.
It’s an excellent film, the actors do a wonderful job (Maribel Verdu expresses so much with just her body language). I don’t know how it will read on your side of the Atlantic. Perhaps it’s too low-key for the Academy. But I hope people will give it a chance, go and see it. Because although it’s a period piece, it’s a moment in time that could come again if we’re not careful, and that I’m sure is actually part of the present in some corners of the world.
Thanks guys — nice to get some fresh perspective.
(PS. Cris — I’m on your side of the Atlantic, by the way.)
Mexico’s Tear Up My Life is a good movie, solid, exquisitely shot. That said, it has no place amongst international Oscar competitors. There’s no denying the fact that Oscar-nominated foreign movies usually need a high profile, some kind of edge in their stories. This movie does not have it, I think it will play blandly amongst voters and there’s also the downside that it strives to be comedic, but its humor is very local. Don’t count on it.
nice to see someone else has to stay up all night to enjoy the Oscars Guy!
but at least you’re in the right place to see most films available, be they from any side of the Atlantic… although I hear the UK does take its sweet time in getting foreign-language fare ;o)