Almodóvar film. Very intricate plot involving three or more levels of narration: a story within a story within a story. Two old school friends meet after many years apart. They were each other's first love. Ignacio, now calling himself Angel, gives Enrique, a film director, a short story called "The Visit", partly based on their schooldays - an exposé of the Catholic priesthood. There's lots of gay sex and joie de vivre, vibrant colours, beautiful skin and balletic cinematography; but the plot is confounding with all the fast-paced whadafuck moments of film noir. At times the soundtrack is at odds with what you might expect of the mood of the film, and the slick editing weaves the different layers of the film together, so it sometimes takes a moment or two to realize which level of the film you are seeing. At one stage, you see the film filming itself - a classic moment of postmodern self-reflexivity. A bit of a headfuck movie, therefore, but a very enjoyable one with much humour and a luminous performance by Gael García Bernal in multiple roles.
Nugget: good to see a DVD with original cinematic subtitles rather than unclear, pixellated computerized ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment