presents
The Cinema Labyrinth
V E N I C E P L AY E R S : FR OM LORENZO VIGA S TO R OBIN CA MPILLO October 2015, Issue 001
A letter from the Curators
sunny, is de-saturated. A form creeps into the static composition and focus racks to his face: middle-aged, his gaze on the teenagers. In a single shot that at once demonstrates an arresting command of cinematography to reveal a character’s Desde allá, a first feature from Venezuealienated inner state, and a trust in the lan Lorenzo Vigas, won the Golden Lion audience to fill in the blanks, the man at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Desde walks toward the teenagers: focus lingers allá paints a very particular Caracas-set on the absent place where he once stood. love story between Armando, a wealthy middle-aged man who makes dentures The more attractive member of the for a living, and Elder, a local teenager bunch climbs onto a crowded bus. Our he solicits for sex. protagonist tails him, watches him through the loose hanging arms of othAt Venice in 2013, Moroccan-born er passengers. He sits beside the teenagFrench director Robin Campillo’s Easter and pulls a fat stack of cash from his ern Boys won Best Film in the Orizzonti pocket. section. Daniel, a wealthy middle-aged man, cruises Paris’s Gare du Nord train Cut to inside the man’s apartment. The station. His life is changed when he sosequence unfolds without dialogue. licits Marek, a young immigrant, for sex. — The existence of these two films in such proximity posits a new sub-genre within The opening sequence of Eastern Boys is the increasingly diverse movement of crowded by comparison. Quick cuts and queer-themed stories in art-house cinelong-lensing from above recall the openma. Despite a strikingly similar premise, ing scene of Coppola’s The Conversation, Desde allá and Eastern Boys exhibit quite except this San Francisco square is the diverse narrative voices and even more Gare du Nord train station in Paris, the disparate conclusions. What do their nefarious subjects a group of teenagers opening sequences communicate of the who don’t speak the local tongue. Threat socio-political realities of Caracas, and of authority is ever present— the audiParis? What elements remain? ence’s gaze as if through surveillance cameras, station guards lurking on the These aren’t simply stories of bleak edge of frame. Eventually we notice, too, middle-aged men cruising for rent boys; an adult with his own agenda— a midthey’re love stories that evolve into sodle-aged man carrying a briefcase, nercial contracts, expose the transactional vous to go unseen. nature of relationships, and offer a new lens of inquiry into the bond between He approaches the more aloof, sinewy father and son, citizen and state. teenager of the bunch who walks back in the station. Ensconced beneath a staircase — in broken English, the teen sets his price: “I do everything… 50 euro.” Desde allá opens on a group of teenagers hanging about the streets of Caracas. — Trash litters the street; the frame, while
1
Each man’s ‘approach’ functions as a mise-en-abîme of the Director’s own engagement with narrative. Vigas’s minimalist storytelling, while detached, is potent in its economy. Detail rather than exposition seeps the audience in Campillo’s very particular, very French milieu of class and inter-cultural inquiry. Both sequences elide exposition, privileging imagery and behavior to set the tone of what evolve into somber love stories predicated at least initially on transaction.
it follows, paternal dysfunction is inherited.
The central relationships— between the older Armando and the younger Elder in Desde allá, between Daniel and Marek in Eastern Boys— thus double as political meditations. Eastern Boys’ opening sequence establishes power dynamics and social hierarchy. Marek’s naming of a price places him in a market in which he acknowledges himself as a commodity, his value definitive. Desde allá, on the other hand, opens on trash in the streets, cramped buses, blurry crowds. We never know how much cash Armando sets aside in thick wads— Elder’s value feels less like payment and more like a bribe.
If Desde allá posits the father/son dynamic as an allegory for citizen/state, in Eastern Boys, the father is the socialist state complete with French lessons, flat-rate negotiation and a blind eye to robbery. Daniel (the state) literally adopts Marek, the son: he becomes a French citizen. Unfortunately, no such legal status awaits Elder. In Desde allá, there is no happy ending.
In both films, the pursuing adult ultimately rejects the increasingly affectionate teenager and romance shifts to paternalism. Love stories, then, become a framework by which to examine the nature of social contracts in the films’ relative nations: France and Venezuela. — Elder has been abandoned by his father in a world where poverty is taken as a given. Equally, Armando lurks in the shadows, observing the quotidian activity of a much older, much wealthier man one assumes is his own father. In Venezuela, 2
On the other hand Marek’s poverty is a function of circumstance. He is an illegal immigrant having fled war-ravaged Chechnya as a child. The titular Eastern Boys are his makeshift family. Young and forsaken, this fraternity of lost brothers is characterized by an enforced hierarchy with draconian penalties for defection. And yet, Campillo draws these characters as all deeply human.
— Filmatique’s Cinema Labyrinth was conceived as a thought experiment: to explore the landscape of contemporary cinema vis-à-vis studies of its Makers. Desde allá and Eastern Boys premiered at Venice within three years of each other. How many degrees separate them? Imagine a cocktail party. Venice, Italy. At one end of the room, Lorenzo Vigas. At the other, Robin Campillo. How do they meet?
3
The Players Lorenzo Vigas VENEZUELAN MOLECULAR-BIOLOGIST TURNED FILMMAKER
Guillermo Arriaga MEXICAN SCRIBE & SELF-DESRIBED HUNTER MOST FA M O U S F O R P E N N I N G I Ñ Á R R I T U ’ S D E AT H - T R I L O G Y
R o d r i g o Pr i e t o & A l b e r t o I g l e s i a s M E X I C A N C I N E M ATO G R A P H E R A N D S PA N I S H C O M P O S E R , R E S P E C T I V E LY, W I T H E QUA L L E V E L S BU T V E RY D I S T I N C T SENTIMENTS ON MAINSTREAM SUCCESS
Ju l i o M e d e m T H E BA S QU E AU T E U R
Laurent Cantet F R E N C H D I R E C TO R R E S P O N S I B L E F O R A NEW BRAND OF SOCIAL REALIST CINEMA
Robin Campillo M O RO C C A N - B O R N F R E N C H F I L M M A K E R W H O S E F I R S T B I G H I T WA S A Z O M B I E F I L M
4
5
Desde allá Desde allá (From Afar) by Lorenzo Vigas Venezuela, Mexico, 93’ Language: Spanish, English Color, 2.66:1, Ar ri Alexa
First Latin American film ever to win the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia 72, Competition
A lfredo Castro
“The grave-faced Castro is among the most calmly, economically expressive actors... Armando’s lifelong accumulation of hurt, disappointment and self-preserving reticence are carried and compressed in his long, loping gait, unassumingly straight stance and veiled, watchful countenance— on which even a fleeting half-smile briefly changes everything”
Synopsis Wealthy middle-aged Armando lures young men to his home with money. He doesn’t want to touch, only watch from a strict distance. He also follows an elderly businessman with whom he seems to have had a traumatic relationship. Armando’s first encounter with street thug Elder is violent, but this doesn’t
discourage the lonely man’s fascination with the tough handsome teenager. Financial interest keeps Elder visiting him regularly and an unexpected intimacy emerges. But Armando’s haunted past looms large, and Elder commits the ultimate act of affection on Armando’s behalf.
Credits PRODUCTION: Factor RH, Malandro Films, in association with Lucia Films DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER: Lorenzo Vigas STORY: Guillermo Arriaga, Lorenzo Vigas PRODUCERS: Rodolfo Cova, Guillermo Arriaga, Michel Franco, Lorenzo Vigas EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Edgar Ramirez, Gabriel Ripstein DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Sergio Armstrong PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Matias Tikas COSTUME DESIGNER: Marisela Marin EDITOR: Isabella Monteiro de Castro 8
First Reviews “Deliberately detached in its observational style, yet as probing, subtle and affecting as any psychological drama could wish to be, this is an elliptical film that trusts its audience enough to peel away exposition and unnecessary dialogue, uncovering rich layers of ambiguity... The initial danger of their sex-free encounters shifts into more unsettling and increasingly obscure territory that at times recalls the dynamics of a Harold Pinter play” —
“Looking, not touching, is the act of choice for a sexually wary gay man in From Afar, and his hands-off approach is shared by the expert storytelling in
Venezuelan helmer Lorenzo Vigas pristinely poised but deeply felt debut feature. Rarely taking the path of cheap exposition where convincing character psychology will do, this smart, unsensationalized examination of the slow-blossoming relationship between a middle-aged loner and a young street tough trusts auds to make the necessary connections in a narrative that merges its characters’ respective father complexes to moving, equivocal effect. Discerningly realized and performed — with its reliable Chilean star Alfredo Castro giving a veritable master class in fine-point anguish — this Venice competish entry marks out Vigas as one of Latin American cinema’s more auspicious arrivals of recent years”
L uis Silva
“Silva, a 21-year-old making his screen debut, is equally compelling. Elder is edgy and impulsive, revealing a well-hidden vulnerability only gradually as he starts seeking Armando’s approval. The way he sheds his inhibitions and relaxes into an unfamiliar sense of security makes what follows in the film’s conclusion quite shattering” 9
Cinematography “Armstrong’s fastidious, sunwashed lensing recalls his work on Larraín’s Post Mortem in its use of widescreen proportions to position and disorientate human subjects in their environment.
His location shooting, moreover, captures much incidental, context-enhancing life on Caracas’ cracked, strident sidewalks”
Director’s Statement The title Desde allá is a reference to the distance and separation between Armando and the objects of his desire — his “look but don’t touch” attitude. The idea of making a film about a man who struggles to connect emotionally to others was very attractive to me. A sudden obsession towards this young
10
man Elder is ignited. Maybe because Armando is a person that does not allow anybody to touch him and he is suddenly struck by a brutal hit. From this moment on, an illusion is created: to be capable of establishing a close emotional relationship with someone. But can this become a reality?
To continue reading register at filmatique.com
“Vigas and cinematographer Sergio Armstrong... capture the grit and poverty of the Caracas settings without overstatement, but those aspects register so strongly that a brief interlude by the sea brings an invigorating jolt, creating an airy space in which
Armando and Elder can inch closer to communication. Picking up every small signal of body language, Armstrong frequently shoots his subjects from behind or in searching closeups that isolate them within their busy surroundings�
11