De noche los gatos son pardos

I had one shot to see a film a the IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam). As this film had a plot that looked like it might be interesting, so I went for it.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for me to lose the plot. I will fully admit that I'm not getting too excited when I see bare hairy male bottoms and fingers endlessly exploring facial orifices without it somehow making sense. This is probably a taste thing, so opinions may vary, but I've come to the conclusion that after 50 something years on the face of this earth, I'm no fan of films that take my time by being impossible to follow and being somewhat repulsive to watch.

So, after about 30 minutes of sitting it out, I came to the conclusion it wasn't going to become any better. This was confirmed when I had to go back to get my phone after getting out on the street.

For the first part, I thought this was turning out to be a typical Euro art house gibberish... but when the police and inspector arrive the scene, it became clearer this is to fall in the line of the theatre of the Absurd.

There are too many different languages, and people can hardly communicate. Police, inspector and mayor all keep their respectable facade, but none of them know what's going on or what has to be done (their language resembles that of politicians closely, actually - pretending to know what they are talking about and yet always evade what really matters). Nobody does or care for their job... and soon the scenes from the weird film in the first part start to repeat in reality... even across the ocean in Mexico.

Is it interesting? A bit. Worth nearly 3 hours of your life? Probably not. But at least its gibberish is not entirely gibberish because it's meant to reflect the absurdity of the world, life and us.

This is not the run of the mill movie. It barely has a plot. In fact, until the director of the film mysteriously disappears, I'm not to sure there was a plot. After the disappearance, the police investigation finally begins to allow a plot line to emerge.

Enter Jean-Charles de Quillacq as the handsome inspector, and suddenly the film starts to take form. Too bad this is almost half-way through the movie. There is also what seems to be a subplot, centered around the lost representatives of the funeral company dispatched to pick up a corpse.

There are certainly some rather funny scenes, most of which I thought centered on the funeral reps.

The acting certainly seems free-flowing in this movie, which adds to the interest. Can't say I enjoyed some of the jagged camera work with its bouncing, lurching style.

Certainly, this was not the best 2 and a half hours I've spent in front of a movie screen. I'm not even sure I'd commit to saying I liked the movie. But it's interesting to watch (once a plot actually begins to emerge).

I think there's a moral at the end of the movie. If there is, it's probably the very last line - so hang in there if you decide to invest your time in this one.