:
Hugo Soto,
Hugo Soto,
Alfredo Alcon,
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:
Eliseo Subiela,
Eliseo Subiela
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: Not Rated
: Facets
: Drama, Foreign, Spain, Portugal, Latin America
: 127 min.
: Spanish
: English
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The director of the enigmatic, entirely memorable feature Man Facing Southeast confronts viewers with another exhuberantly metaphysical movie in Ultimas Imagenes del Naufragio. In the story, Roberto (Lorenzo Quinteras) is a man whose inner life has gone dead. He has no interest in his job (selling life insurance) or his family. About the only thing that interests him is his writing, but he currently has writer's block. When he sees a lovely young woman on the verge of throwing herself in front of a train, he can't help himself: he has to stop her. It turns out that the woman, Estela (Noemi Frenkel), is only slightly addled: she is a prostitute who uses this rather dramatic technique to pick up men. Interested in her as a character for his novel, he accompanies her home. At one point, the ghosts of her dead relatives get on the bus they are traveling on, but she refuses to speak to them so as to avoid having to speak about her father. Once Roberto gets to her home, he finds it to be a hot-bed of odd characters. Attracted by them to participate in life once more, even if that life is very peculiar, he visits them more and more frequently, and is fired from his job and abandons his wife. Estela has a very personal relationship with Jesus, and seeks his advice on how to get Roberto to notice her as a woman. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
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| Art, Life, Philosophy
by talltale
August 11, 2005 - 6:02 AM PDT
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2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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The differences between--and reasons to live (or die) for--life and art get a good going over in LAST IMAGES OF THE SHIPWRECK. This playful, sad, funny and profound film from Eliseo Subiela, the Argentine writer/director responsible for "Man Facing Southeast," "Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going" and "Wake Up Love" (among many others) is world-class cinema, even if some might add the word "pretentious" to the above list of adjectives. I wouldn't be surprised if Subiela himself added it, since, in the course of his film, he manages to call into question everything he says and does.
Perhaps the line between pretentious and profound is as thin as that between genius and madness. In any case, this talented, questing moviemaker manages to cross over all the lines and back again. It's as though he intends to give you nothing less than the meaning of life, admits that this is an impossibility--and then proceeds to do it anyhow.
In this film, a would-be writer stumbles into another person's life, becomes involved with her family and in the process creates "art" that help change lives. Which is, not coincidentally, what Subiela does with this movie. I think what seduces me most about this filmmaker's work are the philosophical aspects. Subiela manages to create strange and fascinating characters and stories that make me consider the possibilities of life and art in ways I have not managed on my own.
Maybe Subiela is an acquired taste. If so, I'm hooked, and I want to share each new film of his that I see with as wide an audience as possible. Just a few of the wonders to watch for here: the brother who permanently deletes certain words from his vocabulary, how to use your writing skills in the service of creative robberies, and the importance of squash (the vegetable, not the game). |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.55)
20 Votes
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