A THRILLER WITH A TWIST : "THE CAT VANISHES"

Carlos Sorin has always been a director I have greatly admired. I loved the subtle humor and emotion in his Argentina trilogy. I was therefore incredibly excited to see that his latest film, The Cat Vanishes would be gracing the big screen during the Istanbul film festival. I hadn’t seen that much by Sorin to be honest, but I had really enjoyed every single thing I had seen. I was therefore pleasantly surprised – but maybe not so surprised as all that – to find out that Sorin is a master of suspense and thrillers, just as he is when it comes to more day to day emotions… Luigi, a middle-aged university lecturer, has just had a psychotic break with reality, which has meant he has been in a mental institute for a number of months. But now, thankfully, all is well again, and his doctors deem him fit for the outside world once again. His extreme jealousy and possessiveness when it comes to his work and his paranoia and animosity concerning his former assistant seem to have subsided. Thus, his wife of a number of years, Betty, comes to pick him up, excited and in hope that they can start their life together from where it broke off so abruptly. But the thing is, there is something… Not quite right about Luigi. Betty simply cannot put her finger on it, on the surface he is just as he was and everyone, their children, neighbors and Luigi’s former students are all adamant that he looks fine, that she is rightly nervous due to the unpleasant events of a few months back. The only “person” who seems to agree with her seems to be the family cat Donatello, who refuses point blank to even go near Luigi, hissing and spitting, even scratching him when Luigi attempts anything. It is when, a few days after Luigi’s arrival, Donatello vanishes that Betty begins to worry. And not only about Donatello’s wellbeing, her own as well… But is she right to do so?... What I loved about this film is the way the suspense and the humor had been mixed. Sorin keeps his audience guessing about the nature of the film right to the end. What is going on in Luigi’s head? Is he really cured? Or is Betty the problem? Has she been so traumatized that she is now imagining this, projecting her worries onto her innocent husband? Speaking of innocence, what has happened to the cat? I mean, it’s just a cat, surely he’ll turn up… Coincidences do happen… Just sit back and relax, it isn’t until the last minutes of the film that Sorin reveals what the real story is all about. Until then we zig-zag between horror, suspense and comedy of errors, our decision changing almost every fifteen minutes with each new plot-twist. And the brilliant thing is that all these little plot-twists are conveyed without resolving to anything “big” as it were. All this psychology and suspense is very neatly and cleverly meshed into the couple’s day to day life with such perfect realism that I defy you not to become ever so slightly paranoid about the sanity and intentions of your own family members after watching this… Really exciting and great fun right to the end…

EL SECRETO EN SUS OJOS

Yeah, yeah don’t get sarcastic boys and girls I’m aware that it’s almost time for the Oscars for 2011. But I still have films to cross off the list you see (one of the more famous ones being The Hurt Locker. I have it in my archive I just have a “thing” about it rather like Shutter Island. My cinephile friends assure me they’re not of the same caliber though so I’m not hurrying…) . Now this one (Oscar winner for Best Foreign Picture) I missed out of pure lack of opportunity. Then I had a copy but only one specific machine would open it and then I either didn’t have the machine or the time (or the copy at times) cut a long story short, my free couple of hours, the dvd and the machine all crossed paths this very morning. And so you find me excitedly pounding my keyboard – Oh yes, a BRILLIANT film.
Then again, I already told you, I have a soft spot for Latin American cinema… Well, this is the story of Benjamin Esposito, now retired from the Prosecutors’ office in Argentina. As many people do when they retire, he too is thinking about the past, his memoirs and decides to write a book. A book about that one case that haunted him; the murder of a young woman who never found justice and her husband who loved her to distraction and was devastated by her death… He decides to look into it again, for that affair upset so much in his life, and although it is sometimes better just to let sleeping dogs lie, there are other times where they simply MUST be woken up…
Now, don’t you utter a great yawn and tell me “it’s just another whodunit”. Ok, it is a “whodunit”. But not “another” one – it’s a Latin American one. First of all, when we say “murder mystery” these days, such a lot of violence blood and gore seems to come into it by definition. Not the case here – with a couple of exceptions but hey, there has to BE a murder to investigate first, no? So it’s a good old-fashioned whodunit – and it’s just around 2 hours long so none of the CSI style rush-jobs (no offence meant I LOVE CSI but their plots don’t make good movies). Secondly, the characters are WONDERFULLY portrayed (I’m ashamed at this moment I don’t know more about the actors…). The characters are so very human, their stories are stories that may actually have happened to us, they react in ways you or I may well have reacted under those circumstances… This is precisely what I love about the whole South American “take” on life in films. I always find South American films so much “warmer” because they seem to describe life with much greater accuracy. Not just circumstantially but also – and for me more importantly – on an emotional level. A lot of the characters are not stylized, they have flaws and qualities and “off days” – the story seems to “happen” naturally as opposed to being guided along by an invisible hand… The secret in her eyes is a prime example of all this… Enjoy…

HISTORIAS MINIMAS / MINIMAL STORIES - WHERE THE SMALL THINGS TAKE CENTER STAGE

Historias Minimas is the first in the “Argentinian Stories” trilogy by Argentinean director Carlos Sorin. Bombon El Perro is the second, andI have enjoyed both thoroughly. I am looking forward to getting to watch the third…
As I watched the film, I remembered once again the reason I love South American Cinema so much. Sorin’s film, like so many films of the genre, is full of the stories and the life of the continent. I know, I should be giving you a synopsis around now but in fact I am not sure where to begin, because the film, like life itself, doesn’t have a concrete theme… An old man takes off on his own to a distant town on a search for his lost dog, but is this really the only reason for his travels? A traveling salesman is preparing a birthday surprise for the child of a pretty widow he has met on his travels… A poor peasant woman is selected to participate in a TV show where she may win a trip to Brazil or a food processor – but she neither has much food or electricity in her house! All these completely unconnected stories come together and drift apart again, along with many other little things to make a perfect mirror of life, full of laughter, irony and tragedies both small and large…
Historias Minimas is indeed minimal. It reminds us that life, for many reasons – mainly economical – in South America is tougher than others. The “trappings” other people (Hollywood for instance) posses may not be at hand. Therefore, the things that matter, life itself, comes into perspective. The little things in life that are actually so important but get overlooked get center stage for a change… Minimal Stories is a down to earth and “real” film. And it was VERY refreshing in many ways, even though I am not a big fan of minimal cinema. Definately watch it, and maybe get introduced to the Latin American style while you’re at it. If you haven’t been introduced yet you honestly don’ t know what you’re missing and Carlos Sorin is a brilliant way to start…