Las aventuras de Dios

From the 24th Portland International Film Festival. I'm all for surrealism, don't get me wrong, but this Bunuel-meets-Bergman film from Argentina does not stop to think if it might be too saturated with the directors personal metaphors. I think the symbolism (if there was any) is too buried to be even interesting to navigate. Granted, some visuals are original and/or interesting, but most of the film is 'surreal' to the n-th degree and goes to the point where the viewers say "what's the point?" I gave it a 3 because it did have some good shots and humorous moments, but an all around annoyance of pretentious imagery. The plot is reminiscent of Dark City, and the look of the film is that of Fellini and Bunuel so it's not too original either.

Finally, tempered surrealism hits the screen. Unlike early works from the 30s, this film delivers a moderated flow of strangeness which is used to accentuate the director's vision-- While at times some events and characters may seem gratuitously inserted, almost without exception they resolve their merits.

There are some scenes which are beautiful in a more classic way, and the director's mastery of the film medium is very evident. The acting is very compelling, and at times, I felt a strong urge (or perhaps a connection) to act as did the protagonist, and I felt like something was pulling me into the film itself, feeling its emotions, and thinking as did its characters speak, which is very appropriate for this film.

I saw this film at the Chicago International Film festival, 2000. For those of us non-Spanish speakers, the subtitling there was done in chunks. At first, I found this to be distracting, and sometimes it ruined the punchline of the jokes (I wasn't laughing at the same time as the native or learned speakers), but it also allowed me to more appreciate the visual and literary mastery of the film.