Cannibal

This is a good movie and it does not deserve the current low rating. I will not repeat what most before me have already said. However, I am adding my small comment just for some of the American audience who is used to the Hollywood clichés and can't comprehend that a film, yes a film not a movie, can actually venture in the realm of psychology. For those who are looking for horror, blood and cheap action thrillers look somewhere else.

This film is a deliberately slow and aesthetic act of seduction that introduces the audience into the transformation of the main character, Carlos. Cuenca carefully hides the monstrousness of his main character and carefully shapes an unexpected outcome.

"Cannibal" (2013 release from Spain; 117 min.) brings the story of Carlos, a well-respected tailor for the 1% in Grenada at day, but a cold-blooded murderer and cannibal at night. As the movie opens, we see a couple at a gas station and when they drive away, Carlos follows them, and causes their car to crash. He takes the woman with him, and does what he does. Carlos has a lovely new neighbor in his building, a Romanian girl named Alexandra who moved to Spain with her sister Nina to make money and support their parents financially back home. When Alexandra also "is disappeared" by Carlos, Nina comes looking for her sister. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first and foremost, don't be fooled by or intimidated by the movie's title. This is MILES away from "Silence of the Lambs" and its sequels, as this is NOT a horror movie or an action movie. Yes there are several harrowing scenes in it, but the focus of the movie is on a much deeper level, namely how one man can find himself in this position and just when you think you've figured him out, you are taken into a new direction. Second, kudos to director Manuel Martín Cuenca, whose previous movies (including "Malas temporadas" and "The Weakness of the Bolshevik" are now on my "want-to-see-badly" list. Third, the pacing of the moving is glacier-like, and I mean this as a complement. Check out the opening scene at the gas station, which takes several minutes and the camera doesn't change angles or zooms in, it simply lets you take it all in (this comes back a number of times in the movie). In keeping with the deliberate slow pace, there equally is no musical score for the movie (the only occasional music we hear is from the radio in Carlos' tailor shop). Last but certainly not least, the 2 main actors, Antonio de la Torre as Carlos and Olimpia Melinte in the dual role of Alexandra and Nina, give towering performances which will stay with you long after you've seen the movie.

"Cannibal" is the June, 2014 release in Film Movement's DVD-of-the-Month Club, and the DVD will become generally available to the public later this yea. As is usually the case, the DVD comes with a bonus shortie, and this month we get "Ogre" (18 min., from France), about a heavy-set man who encounters an all-too-kind young lady at the beach. Equally worth checking out! Meanwhile, "Cannibal" is a fantastic addition to Film Movement's ever-growing library of foreign and indie movies. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

"Cannibal" summons to mind vague storyline similarities with Patrice Leconte's moody 1990 film "Monsieur Hire" and James Hamilton- Paterson's roman a clef "Loving Monsters."

Protagonist Carlos is a revered tailor in Granada, Spain, who murders and cannibalizes beautiful young women, and ostensibly does so in a way unencumbered by sadism or sexuality. His monotonic cannibalism is never explained, and left as metaphorical vehicle. Horror is not on offer here, and viewers are left free to imbue Carlos's predilection with personal meaning: in other ways, Carlos is fair, just, and honorable. Do even the very best among us have equally abhorrent gaping erroneous zones?

Romanian actress Olimpia Melinte's fresh-faced, highly-abled and confident screen presence work well in two roles here. Mise en scene, vistas and pacing are lovely, and the languid takes, the confident exposition, the story's ability to achieve both enormity and enormousness with an economy of lines and set-ups, make "Cannibal" well worth immersing in.

The movie's title isn't ironic. It isn't a metaphor. Carlos really is a cannibal. If you can get past the (few) scenes you should expect as a result, this film will reward you with layers you didn't expect.

Antonio de la Torre plays an understated Carlos. No surprise he's rather obsessive compulsive - makes for one quirky cannibal. The fact that the film doesn't lead you to how exactly he became a cannibal is fine - leaves lots of room for the imagination to work, and there are enough clues to get you started. He also does the majority of his acting without speaking - something one doesn't see a ton of in North American films, and for this I am grateful to the director and writer.

Olimpia Melinte is also very good and understated in her performance, standing up just fine to Carlos as she turns his world upside down.

Kudos to Manuel Martín Cuenca for playing every note perfectly and brilliant casting. And kudos too to Cameron Bailey for putting this in his must see list for TIFF 2013.

A simple story created by inspired storytelling, admirable performance, high minimalism and the gray atmosphere of a car accident and presumed first help, a fridge and the meat contained by it, a tailor shop and the day between good morning and good evening, a neighbor and the help for her and a silent dinner. The ordinary evil can be the first definition. But the film represents more and the seductive end is the basic proof about impeccable gem.