Weird and depressing paranoia fest. Maybe it was the late screening session or the overload of films I had seen that day (Cinema Novo Festival Bruges with focus on Buñuel and contemporaries this year), but this film made me glad I could get out of the theatre and just ride home in the rain.
To me, this film's about a man who's totally fed up with his fellow human beings caused by paranoid schizophrenia. When he married his wife, the arrangement seemed to be that the only one who ever was to set a foot out of the house was the man. Not his wife, not his children (the eldest is 18 and hasn't been outside of the house once). The only living daylight the children (Utopía, Porvenir, Voluntad) see, is via the atrium in the centre of the old house. And the only thing that 'window on the world' seems to have to offer is, rain, rain, rain. Only few times do we get to see the sun shine, and most of the times it's in the scenes where the man goes out of the house. When he does, he mostly is about to sell the raticide his children manufacture. The rest of their time, they spend playing old games, with old toys. Or they get punished for something their father doesn't really like. Sometimes it seems he even locks them up for fun. What a father doesn't have to do, to keep his children away from that rotten world outside! This movie may be a good case study (I really saw some symptoms of the disease I mentioned above, like I can see in someone I know myself), but it was, however, annoying and boring at times. This film is a must see for anyone who likes a powerful film that has a lot to tell, but do acknowledge you're up for one hell of a depressing experience. I don't regret seeing it, but there are many films I like better.
To me, this film's about a man who's totally fed up with his fellow human beings caused by paranoid schizophrenia. When he married his wife, the arrangement seemed to be that the only one who ever was to set a foot out of the house was the man. Not his wife, not his children (the eldest is 18 and hasn't been outside of the house once). The only living daylight the children (Utopía, Porvenir, Voluntad) see, is via the atrium in the centre of the old house. And the only thing that 'window on the world' seems to have to offer is, rain, rain, rain. Only few times do we get to see the sun shine, and most of the times it's in the scenes where the man goes out of the house. When he does, he mostly is about to sell the raticide his children manufacture. The rest of their time, they spend playing old games, with old toys. Or they get punished for something their father doesn't really like. Sometimes it seems he even locks them up for fun. What a father doesn't have to do, to keep his children away from that rotten world outside! This movie may be a good case study (I really saw some symptoms of the disease I mentioned above, like I can see in someone I know myself), but it was, however, annoying and boring at times. This film is a must see for anyone who likes a powerful film that has a lot to tell, but do acknowledge you're up for one hell of a depressing experience. I don't regret seeing it, but there are many films I like better.