|
« Cinequest - Day Four |
Main
| I do sleep SOME hours each night »
Historias Extraordinarias - the (4 hour 20 minute) Movie
I am not ashamed to say that I dozed off a couple times in the second half - I did better than I had expected, and another viewer told me she was out at one minute 30. Having not seen the ENTIRE film, I have a hard time reviewing it. I did enjoy it, I didn't feel like I had just lost 4.5 hours of my life, I wasn't sorry to have scheduled it. Would I recommend it? I haven't decided yet. I absolutely LOVED that the narration was in such simple Spanish that I could almost entirely understand it without subtitles (I am SJSU certified as "fluent" in Spanish. This makes me laugh.). This of course made closing my eyes for a minute much easier. But that also made it easier to doze off. Ah well. I LOVED the promise of the three stories: One character named X, one named Z, one named H. Each a solitary man on his own personal journey or quest. At different times one or the other is searching for gold, searching for a beautiful missing woman, one is hiding for months in his hotel room, another trying to get a job done... But I never saw any real ending or wrap up to any of the stories, and I don't know if it happened when I was asleep or not at all! I LOVED the short vignette about a very old lion named "Colonel". I thought that particular story was told very very well. I was really interested in everything that was happening, although it jumped around so much I kept having to go back through my head to remember which story this or that character was from. None of the stories tied in with each other. I really enjoyed what I saw when I was awake. But then I fell asleep for more than a moment and woke up to a group of German speaking men, and a first person narrator. What happened??? I figured out who the narrator was, but didn't understand the connection. This was almost at the end, and marked the moment when I knew I had lost the battle to see this movie. Also LOVED: The closing song at the end of the movie. Sung in English with Spanish subtitles, I enjoyed the Spanish version even better. Even though I wasn't sure about the endings of each historia extroardinaria, this final song kind of tied them together for me. In short: I loved everything I saw. My only complaints are about some missing endings/explanations, but they may have happened when I was asleep. So what do I decide? I say, if you've read the Cinequest description and still want to sit through 4 hours 20 minutes of one movie, then do it. I don't think anyone left during intermission and didn't return. Just drink more coffee than I did. Posted by Pischina at February 28, 2009 11:18 PMComments
I was a bit upset at the ending, wondering, what happened to H? About five minutes later, I figured that Story 3 wasn't about H, it was about Cesar, and H is only part of the explanation for why _Cesar_ is travelling down the river. The German section was Cesar's backstory, presented as a flashback, and the last chapter was about where he was headed at the end of the movie. The movie presented life as an adventure, but played around with viewers' perceptions of what was important and what was trivial, epitomized by naming a supporting character as if he were the main character. Posted by: Creigton Asato at March 2, 2009 2:46 AMPost a comment
|
Site Recent Entries Categories January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 links |