This
screening is followed by a Q&A with director Carlos Reygadas
hosted by filmmaker and projection designer Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Cinema Scope review:
In his Cannes-awarded Post Tenebras Lux, Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas already dealt with personal matters, reflecting on his role as lover, father and husband in a semi-autobiographical film with a metaphysical bias. Our Time goes even further in his Knausgårdian self-observation as he himself takes the central part as rancher/award-winning poet Juan, while Reygadas’ wife and sometimes editor Natalie López plays Ester, his spouse. Also, the location is his own playground. The autofiction turns out as a sort of Bergmanesque introspection of a marriage that hides its imbalances behind a liberal, open-minded stance towards extramarital sex. The problems start when Ester has an affair with gringo horse breaker Phil (Phil Burger). Juan can’t suppress his jealousy and accuses his wife of disloyalty because she wouldn’t tell him every detail. In the wrong hands a topic such as this could quickly become banal; however, Reygadas deals with it in a daring and truthful way. His prime interest lies in the moral dilemma of a freedom that one theoretically allows, but practically is not able to fulfill. Our Time is essentially a film about masculinity in crisis: Juan tries to rationalize his uneasiness, and at the same time his compulsive behaviour makes it impossible for him to detach from it. Is it courageous that Reygadas exposes himself as a rather ridiculous man? The answer must remain ambiguous, as the director never gives up control. With the support of his inventive DP Diego Garcia, he seems very much aware of his abilities. The film fuses different poetic devices to punctuate the couple’s efforts for a mutual understanding and better communication. At the same time, the archaic landscape is used like a subtext, undermining the spirited parle d’amour: a wild bull is effectively used as a reminder that nature never gives up its will.
Dominik Kamalzedh
Here (and above) is the trailer.In his Cannes-awarded Post Tenebras Lux, Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas already dealt with personal matters, reflecting on his role as lover, father and husband in a semi-autobiographical film with a metaphysical bias. Our Time goes even further in his Knausgårdian self-observation as he himself takes the central part as rancher/award-winning poet Juan, while Reygadas’ wife and sometimes editor Natalie López plays Ester, his spouse. Also, the location is his own playground. The autofiction turns out as a sort of Bergmanesque introspection of a marriage that hides its imbalances behind a liberal, open-minded stance towards extramarital sex. The problems start when Ester has an affair with gringo horse breaker Phil (Phil Burger). Juan can’t suppress his jealousy and accuses his wife of disloyalty because she wouldn’t tell him every detail. In the wrong hands a topic such as this could quickly become banal; however, Reygadas deals with it in a daring and truthful way. His prime interest lies in the moral dilemma of a freedom that one theoretically allows, but practically is not able to fulfill. Our Time is essentially a film about masculinity in crisis: Juan tries to rationalize his uneasiness, and at the same time his compulsive behaviour makes it impossible for him to detach from it. Is it courageous that Reygadas exposes himself as a rather ridiculous man? The answer must remain ambiguous, as the director never gives up control. With the support of his inventive DP Diego Garcia, he seems very much aware of his abilities. The film fuses different poetic devices to punctuate the couple’s efforts for a mutual understanding and better communication. At the same time, the archaic landscape is used like a subtext, undermining the spirited parle d’amour: a wild bull is effectively used as a reminder that nature never gives up its will.
Dominik Kamalzedh
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The Interrogation of Pilot Pirx (Piestrak,1969): Barbican Cinema, 6.45pm
This special screening is part of the Stanislaw Lem on Film season at the Barbican. You can find the full details here.
Barbican Cinema introduction:
Based on a short story by Stanislaw Lem, this 1970s Polish sci-fi anticipates the anxiety of Blade Runner: non-humans passing among us, unrecognised. In an undefined near-future, a new, top-secret mission is announced: a test flight around Saturn to try out new automatic probes for passing through the Cassini Division. Recruited to the mission, Pilot Pirx gradually comes to understand its covert purpose: to test a new kind of android being developed by a shady corporation and which, it is hoped, will come to replace human beings on space flights. Only some of Pirx’ five-person crew are human, the rest are robots: can he tell them apart, and can they be trusted? Shot in part at various newly-built modernist locations including the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and featuring an edgy, percussive score by composer Arvo Part, the film combines sci-fi speculation with the look and feel of a 70s-era conspiracy thriller.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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