film reviews

Film Review: HER SMELL (USA 2018) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Her Smell Poster
Trailer

A self-destructive punk rocker struggles with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.

Director:

Alex Ross Perry

Writer:

Alex Ross Perry

Stars:

Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens

Directed by Alex Ross Perry, who also produced the film with its star Elisabeth Moss, HER SMELL the film could also be re-titled HER STINK as this is a warts and all account (mainly warts, actually) of the lead singer, Beck (played by Moss) of a fictitious female punk group called ‘Something She’ – whatever the name means.  HER SMELL is the name of the club Something She is performing during the film’s opening act.

The members of ‘Something New” are Beck herself, and two others, Marielle (Agyness Deyn) and Ali (Gayle Rankin), who Beck constantly abuses and bullies until they finally freak out and give up on her.  Later, they sign of another 3-girl punk rock band.

If Beck does even show up for her band’s show, she will abuse verbally and occasionally physically all those around-her.  These also include her record label owner, Howard (Eric Stolz), her young daughter, a  toddler who she screams she is playing rocket with, tossing her into the air and at one point even falling to the ground and almost dropping her.  

Her husband or ex-husband, Danny (Dan Stevens) shows up with the daughter but clearly there is no chance of a re-conciliation due to Beck’s awful behaviour.  

Her band members are no angels either – snorting coke or screaming foul language.

The punk songs heard on screen are not half bad, and are originally written.

The film runs long at over 120 minutes, and director Perry seems to have given his star Moss Carte Blanche to do whatever she wants to do.  Moss delivers an uninhibited performance if it not electrifying is definitely unforgettable.  It is an Oscar worthy performance, though one would think the members of the Academy would want to give the award for a role so demented.  Moss is brave enough to show her ugly side.  Moss can be beautiful as at the end of the film or just plain ugly when she is nasty.  The camera reveals Moss ugly side – her sweaty palid skin full of zits and pimples.

The film’s plot is simple.  It shows the self destructiveness of Beck in Something She.  She finally gets the act together and achieves redemption which is largely due to the love of her daughter.  But the film has one main glaring flaw – the turning point.  For someone to make such a radical change from evil to super good, there must be a drastic event to cause the one hundred eighty degree change in behaviour.  This is missing.  One can also not understand the reason Beck’s boyfriend or mother (Virginia Madsen) continues to stay at her.

This is not the first movie about a self-destructive recording star – Bradley Cooper’s A STAR IS BORN, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and VOX LUX with Natalie Portman portraying an almost identical character being recent examples.  The question is whether anyone would want to pay good money to watch another caustic journey of a self-destructive female punk.  But I must admit that I was moved.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7942742/videoplayer/vi1934735897?ref_=tt_ov_vi

Film Review: HELLMINGTON (Canada 2017) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
Hellmington Poster
A detective investigates her father’s dying words; the name of a girl who has been missing for 9 years.

Directors:

Justin Hewitt-Drakulic, Alex Lee Williams

Writers:

Justin Hewitt-Drakulic, Alex Lee Williams

Stars:

Nicola Correia-Damude, Robin Archer, Morgan Bedard

HELLMINGTON is a suspense thriller written and directed by Justin Hewitt-Drakulic and Alex Lee Williams.  HELLMINGTON is the name of the school where the trouble in the story begins.

The film opens wth a burning house, an image that is revisited several times in the film – likely for the reason that it is the most expensive set-piece and also for the reason that it has something important to do with the mystery shrouded in the story.  There is also an image of a little girl in a photograph.  As the film progresses, more and more incidents are built into the story.  There is a cult with the cult’s symbol (a rather silly looking asymmetric one) that keeps appearing, the disappearance of a teen girl, the various suspects, the prison guards and the main protagonist, Sam who returns to her home town to re-open old wounds.

The basic plot involves a detective, Samantha Woodhouse (Nicola Correia-Drakulic) investigates her father’s dying words; the name of a girl who has been missing for 9 years.  Sam is called to the town and informed of the father’s death by her uncle (Micahel Ironside, the only recognizable name in the cast), who is the brother of her father, both of whom worked as prison guards.  The uncle appears to be a dirty old man from his actions, with Sam insisting she stays at a motel instead of his house.  The motel’s receptionist is hilarious, injecting thinly humour in this mostly serious film.  The girl missing has disappeared after what looks like a prom party in which the last person seen with her was her date.  Sam questions the date, who is seen suddenly running away, freaking out.  The film has many well staged build-ups.  Besides the one just mentioned, there is the one with Sam in a motel room when the occult sign suddenly appears on the wall, among others.  Suspense is enhanced by the soundtrack within with thumping (on walls) or the loud sound of the heart beating.

Apparently there is more than meets the eye, as Sam turns up somehow connected with the girl’s disappearance.

All the incidents are eventually neatly tied together in a well constructed mystery thriller that occasionally feels like a horror film.  The film is shot in North Bay, Ontario where there are plentiful shot of the wood and country.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRY2BYysN38

Film Review: FAUSTO (Canada/Mexico 2018)

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Fausto Poster
On the Oaxacan coast of Mexico, rumblings of previous times are never far from the surface. Tales of shapeshifting, telepathy and dealings with the Devil are embedded in the colonization …See full summary »

Director:

Andrea Bussmann

Writer:

Andrea Bussmann

Stars:

Victor Pueyo, Fernando Renjifo, Ziad Chakaroun

There are two types of filmgoers.  The minority group are the ones that are more open to different types of films that include experimental films.  A few years back I was at the Tate Modern in London with my friend, British director Simon Rumley (one of the 26 directors of THE ABC’S OF DEATH PART 2; THE LIVING AND THE DEAD and the upcoming ONCE UPON A TIME IN LONDON) and we approached an experimental film playing on exhibit.  We left after 5 minutes.  To my surprise, I thought the experimental film would at least hold the interest of a film director for at least 5 minutes.  FAUSTO belongs to the section of Wavelengths, a section at the Toronto Film Festival where one can be sure to be able to get tickets.  Films in the Wavelength section usually play to empty auditoriums.

Shot on Mexico’s Oaxacan coast, Andrea Bussmann’s (co-director of TALES OF TWO WHO DREAMT) hybrid ethnography is a direct, rigorous, and largely theoretical adaptation of Goethe’s Faust that wholeheartedly adopts that text’s anti-empiricist ideals: it is a portrait of a place and its inhabitants (deceased or otherwise) caught in limbo between what is and what was.  In hushed narration, local myths commingle with the Faust narrative, while the images, shot digitally and transferred to 16mm, open onto a pre-colonial world where land and capital were not so synonymous.

(The above paragraph is the film’s TIFF description.)

The film is basically story telling, as told by the film’s randomly chosen characters the voices imposed on images, many taken of the Oaxacan coast.  The images are impressive but by no means astounding.  Quite a few of these images are shot at night and the shadows often cloud the clarity.  A few of the stories are interesting – the hidden woods that hide the girl that escapes her marauders at the beginning of creation; the search of the missing shadow of a French journalist by questioning a blind zookeeper; the computers with the black screen in the areas of the black sand that could be due to the iron in the sand and others.  Director Gassmann makes no attempt at linking these stories nor even linking some of the images with the voiceover.  The film’s pace is incredibly slow with the running time of 70 minutes feeling like a hefty 3 hours.

FAUSTO is occasionally pretty look at though it makes little sense most of the time.  See this only if you are able to enjoy experimental films or films with little narrative.  For myself, I just have so much patience.  For critics who love this film, I dare you to recommend the film to your friends.

FAUSTO opens at the Bell Lightbox Friday April 12th.  The film’s director Andrea Bussmann will be present for an introduction and post-screening Q&A at the Friday, April 12, 6:25pm screening.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV6rb012EGI

Interview with Festival Director Paola Melli (SOUTH SOCIAL FILM FESTIVAL)

festreviews Festival Interview, Festival Testimonials, film festival, film festival reviews, matthew toffolo wildsound, Uncategorized , , , ,

South Social Film Festival is a trans-geographical, multicultural and multidimensional festival celebrating independent cinema, dance, world music, art and regional cuisine, launched in 2015 in London.

https://www.instagram.com/southsocialfilmfest/

Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Paola Melli: Creating a platform where they can express and promote themselves.

2) What would you expect to experience if you attend your upcoming festival?

Networking with professionals, a good selection of up and coming filmmakers , discovering talents and culture.

3) What are the qualifications for the selected films?

New and original content, young filmmakers that need to be boosted.

4) Do you think that some films really don’t get a fair shake from film festivals? And if so, why?

Short films unless they go to a short film festival, don’t get enough exposure. A balanced mix of feature films and shorts could be a winning strategy.

5) What motivates you and your team to do this festival?

Passion about diversity, different cultures, innovative kind of filmmaking, discovery of new talents.

6) How has your FilmFreeway submission process been?

It’s been good and helpful, it really put us on the international map.

7) Where do you see the festival by 2023?

Maybe a franchising in different countries.

8) What film have you seen the most times in your life?

Wings of desire by Wim Wenders

9) In one sentence, what makes a great film?

Being symbolic, mesmerising, unique and representing a life changing experience.

10) How is the film scene in your city?

Thriving, lots of diversity and talent that sadly is not widely seen.

south social 1

Film Review: THE INVISIBLES (Die Unsichtbaren)(Germany 2017) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Invisibles Poster
Trailer

While Joseph Goebbels infamously declared Berlin “free of Jews” in 1943, 1,700 managed to survive in the Nazi capital through the end of WWII. The Invisibles traces the stories of four young people who learned to hide in plain sight.

Director:

Claus Räfle

Writers:

Claus Räfle (screenplay), Alejandra López (screenplay)

Stars:

Max Mauff, Alice Dwyer, Ruby O. Fee

1943.  Four Jewish youths have to hide their identities in Berlin in order to survive the Third Reich.  A true story- as the film continues to remind the audience.

Films from Germany on the injustice of the Nazis have shed new insight.  Audiences learnt that many Germans living today are unaware of the holocaust and the horror the Nazis have committed on the Jew in the concentration camps.  (Sorry, I can’t remember the title of this German movie, but the film traces the exploits of a German proving that the Holocaust exists.)  Audiences also learnt that Germans also committed horrors on their own German people as in the recent Academy Award German nominee for Best Foreign Film – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck‘s NEVER LOOK AWAY.

While Jospeh Goebbels infamously declared Berlin “free of Jews” in 1943, some 1,700 (out of 6000, as the audience is later informed at the end credits) survived in Nazism’s capital until liberation.  Director Räfle’s gripping docudrama traces the stories of four real-life survivors who learned that sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.  While moving between cinemas, cafés and safe houses they dodged Gestapo and a dense network of spies and informants, knowing that certain death was just one mistake away.  Yet their prudence was at odds with their youthful inclination towards recklessness, sometimes prompting them to join the resistance, forge passports, or pose as Aryan war widows.

The four youths are Hanni (Alice Dwyr), Cioama (Max Mauff) , Eugen (Aaron Altaras) and Ruth (Ruby O. Fee).  These are four German Jews coming from different social classes as well as different neighbourhoods.  The film takes its time on each, showing their relationship and difficult separation from their parents and loved ones.  The problem with this, is that the trials each undergo are identical and it makes the narrative repetitive.

For each character, a few solid suspense set-ups are worthy of mention.  One involves a Jewish informer, Stella (Laila Maria Witt) who recognizes Ellen Lewinsky (Victoria Schulz) while she and a friend go to the cinema dressed as war widows.  Stella informs so that she gets special privileges from the Gestapo that her parents do not get deported.  But they do, regardless.  Another suspenseful scene has Jews hiding in a room when a German appears going from room to to room in that house looking for lodging for Germans displaced from bombings.

One plus of the film is the interspersing of the enactments with interviews of the four main characters now much older, which are the survivors in real live.  This tactic adds to the film’s authenticity.  The film is also interspersed with archive 1940’s film footage.

Despite the film’s flaws, THE INVISIBLES is a worthy and insightful account of not only the triumph of the human spirit in surviving but also the inherent good in the few Germans who risk everything in helping the Jews.  Just as the proverb goes ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, desperation forces the desperate to survive against all odds.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5586052/videoplayer/vi2626534169?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Film Review: SUNSET (Napszallta)(Hungary 2018) ***1/2

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Sunset Poster
Trailer

A young girl grows up to become a strong and fearless woman in Budapest before World War I.

Director:

László Nemes

Writers:

László Nemes, Clara Royer (co-writer) | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Susanne Wuest, Juli Jakab, Evelin Dobos

SUNSET, Hungary’s Academy Award entry for the Best Foreign Language Film 2019 is a lavishly mounted production with great attention to detail in dialogue as well as production sets, wardrobe, hair and yes, hats.  One problem of the hair is that Leiter has the perfect curls throughout the film.  The story protagonist is the daughter of the original owners of a established well-successful hat shop in Budapest.  When the film opens, Irisz Leiter (Juli Jakab) arrives at the hat shop seeking employment as a milliner, but is turned down.

Director and co-writer of the script Names already won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2016 for his Jewish concentration camp drama, SON OF SAUL.  Watching SUNSET immediately brings to mind the similarities of both films despite its different settings.  What is most notable is Nemes’ fondest of keeping the camera at neck level of his main character and the story unfolds as if seen from the character’s point of view.  In SUNSET, the camera also reveals, while at neck level, Leiter’s collar of her period dress as well as her hair and of course, stunning hat.  Every line of dialogue appears to be carefully written with subtle innuendoes often found in many of them.  This technique does get tiresome after a while.  Clues to the story and Leiter’s history are also revealed in the dialogue.  Example: when Leiter tells a stranger who inquires the reason of her sadness, she says: “I just got turned down from a job at the hat company.”  “That is not the only hat company in town,” is his reply to which she retorts: “But it is the only one with my name on it.”  The film’s best line: “the horrors of the world (at the brink of the first world war) hides behind these infinitely pretty things (referring to the hats).

The story is set in thriving Budapest in the early 1920s.  It is before the first world war when the Austro-Hungarian was the centre of Europe.  Besides the wealth on display in Budapest, poverty still exists.  When Leiter returns to her boarding house after being rejected from her job, she is told she is returning to dust and bed bugs.

The story is about Leiter leaving the orphanage and finding out the secrets of her family.  Leiter was put in the orphanage at the age of 2 after her parents’ death.  She does not remember anything.  She learns of a  brother, who had committed crime and now presumed gone into hiding.  Her re-appearance at the hat shop generates fears and memories of her brother’s evil deed.  But Leiter is determined to learn the truth surrounding her brother and keeps inquiring despite very bad vibes from those she asks.

The twist in the story occurs around the half way mark in the two-hour over film.

For what the film is worth, the period atmosphere and setting are extremely well done.  The narrative fails to satisfy in what would have resulted in an outstanding film.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5855772/videoplayer/vi1684650521?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_2

Hot Docs 2019 Reviews: THE DAUGHTER TREE (Canada 2019) ****

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , ,
The Daughter Tree Poster
Trailer

THE DAUGHTER TREE is a cinematic character-driven feature documentary with unprecedented access that explores the aftermath of a cultural preference for baby boys sweeping through interior … See full summary »

Director:

Rama Rau

Indians are stubborn to have a boy.  They abort the girls.  Changing the natural order results in unbalances in the human ecology of things.  There are insufficient girls to be married off and many males end up singles, unable to find a wife.  Brides are often sold to willing males.  

The insightful doc THE DAUGHTER TREE, filmed in India is an entertaining  and absorbing examination of the problem.  This is a totally new Canadian documentary written, produced and directed by Rama Rau, an epic documentary film, six years in the making, about the disappearance of women in India resulting in all-male populations in some villages.  If there is a feminist themed movie, this is the one as it deals with the subject from the roots.  

Females are just as important if not more important than  their male counterparts.  The film explores the aftermath of a cultural preference for baby boys sweeping through interior India, through the eyes of a fearless Warrior midwife called Neelam who counsels and advocates for baby girls, while a lone man in the Village of Men – so called because no girl has been born here the past three decades – goes on a quest to find a wife.  

The film is also beautifully shot by D.P. Nagaraj Diwakar.  India never looks so stunning, especially not in a documentary.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/244731236

Film Review: THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE (Canada 2018) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Through Black Spruce Poster
Trailer

The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.

Director:

Don McKellar

Writer:

Barbara Samuels

Stars:

Tanaya Beatty, Cait Alexander, Sarah Armstrong

THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE has one scene where a character walks through wooded black spruce.  There is something subtle about the scene though one can not be 100% clear what the meaning of it all is.  The same thing can be said overall of Canadian actor/director Don McKellar’s (LAST NIGHT) mesh of missing persons mystery and indigenous people statement.  The film is an ambitious and diligent work but the two genres fit uncomfortably in a somewhat drab thriller, not for want of trying.

There are two things going for McKellar’s movie.  The first is the beautiful and stunning Ontario landscape of James Bay.  The shots of the lakes, forests and vegetation are typical of the beast scenery Ontario, Canada has to offer.  The second is the impressive performances of the film’s indigenous cast.  Veteran Graham Greene returns as well as the Toronto Film Critic’s Association’s darling (they recently honoured her), Tantoo Cardinal as well as Brandon Oakes.  New is Tanaya Beatty in the title role of Cree woman Annie Bird.

The film is bookended by the violent beating of Annie’s Uncle, Uncle Will (Oakes) of a golf club by the local drug dealer.  The golf club is one of the most awful weapons used in film – the last time it was used was when Randy Quiard took out Sandy Dennis, the school councillor in PARENTS.  The story of what happens in between is the movie.

Suzanne, Annie’s sister has gone missing after chasing her modelling career in Toronto.  The subplot emphasizes Canada’s major problem of missing indigenous women.  Annie stays in Toronto hunting for clues for her missing sister.  She learns of her sister’s drug habits including some shady dealings with ex-drug dealer boyfriend Gus.  In the mean time, she has a mild romantic fling with her sister’s last photographer, the fast-rising Jesse (Kiowa Gordon) before thing with the sister started falling apart.

In the mean time, Uncle Will takes off on his plane despite not having a void pilot’s license for a decade up north into hunting territory for reason revealed at the end of the film.  These segments are interspersed with Annie’s mis-adventures in Toronto.  The two segments do not flow well, and the dramatic effects of each are lost when the segments change.  Thankfully, all makes sense at he film’s climax when all is explained.

Despite the film’s flaws, credit must be given to McKellar for mounting such an ambitious indigenous film.  The hunting scenes especially the ones with the grizzly bear and the moose’s carcass bring authenticity into the story.

The Toronto famed scenes are also well done.  McKellar seems fond of Toronto’s Queen Street where streetcars frequent (as observed by an overturned streetcar in LAST NIGHT).  The club scene with the throbbing vibes whee Annie gets totally stoned look chic and trendy.

Not a total miss and not without its intrinsic pleasures, THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE is an entertaining mystery while shedding a little isight on the troubles of the indigenous people of Canada.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7400118/videoplayer/vi2304227865?ref_=tt_ov_vi

Film Review: GIANT LITTLE ONES (Canada 2018) ****

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Giant Little Ones Poster
Trailer

Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.

Director:

Keith Behrman

Writer:

Keith Behrman

Stars:

Taylor Hickson, Maria Bello, Niamh Wilson

GIANT LITLLE ONES is the second feature from Vancouver filmmaker Keith Behrman (FLOWER & GARNET) that has already won accolades including three DGC (Directors Guild of Canada) nominations and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle’s BEST Screenplay for a Canadian film.  It also made this year’s Canada’s Top 10.  It is a film about youth – and one that captures the bullying and expectations of both upon youth.  The film has a gay slant and one that straight youth cannot accept, even in these days of gay acceptance.

The film opens with the protagonist, Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins) riding his bicycle around his neighbourhood.  It is a great scene that celebrates writer/director Behrman’s love for filmmaking.  The plot and story is not yet established and the camera just spans and moves around in  exhilaration as if to celebrate the joys of filming.  And the joy is catching.  The audience gets to enjoy this spanning of the landscape before the story settles on a more serious subject.  What is seen on screen could very well be a suburb of a Canadian or American city – but the setting is left ambiguous.  But one would wish that since it is a Canadian film, that the setting would be more deliberately stated as Canadian.  Money talks – and an American setting means a bigger target audience.  

The story is about labelling.  A straight swim team member is labeled as gay and the story concerns on what he does to survive the labelling.  Things do not help that his father (Kyle MacLachlan of BLUE VELVET) has recently come out gay and his mother (Maria Bello who also co-produced this film), has written the book “Whatever… Love Is Love: Questioning the Labels We Give Ourselves”.

It all started off at Franky’s 17th birthday party when his girlfriend, Natasha (Taylor Hickson) leaves after the incident in which they both fail to lose their virginity.  Her brother, Ballas (Darren Mann) also on Franky’s swim team spreads the rumour that Franky may be gay.  That is when all the trouble starts.  And continues through the film.

Behrman is brave enough to attempt certain daring lines in his script.  In one key family scene, when Frank is told his visiting gay father has been told of the incident, he storms out of the room screaming: “I am not f***ing gay!”  The words that might offend a portion of the gay audience are left intact to emphasize the emotions Franky is undergoing.  Credit to Behrman.  The film also shows the teens behaving maturely, as adults thug still dealing with teen issues.  This aspect of the film shows that teens demand more respect as adults.

Excellent performances are delivered by all the young performers aided by Bello and MacLachlan.  MacLachlan does not have many scenes but he creates quite the impact in those he is in.

So how does it all end?  Is there a message for the audience?  Revealing more would definitely be a spoiler to what is an excellent paced and remarkably moving film about coming-of-age, acceptance, family acceptance and a whole lot more issues.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4481066/videoplayer/vi1848097561?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Film Review: THE QUIETUDE (LA QUIETUDE) (Argentina 2018) **

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Quietude Poster
Trailer

Two sisters, as close as they are different, find themselves after a long separation.

Director:

Pablo Trapero

Writers:

Alberto Rojas Apel (collaborating writer), Pablo Trapero

Stars:

Martina Gusman, Bérénice Bejo, Edgar Ramírez

THE QUIETUDE is the name of the sprawling ranch in Argentina where a wealthy Argentine family resides.  The quiet ranch will be shown to be not that quiet or restful by the time the film ends.

The film begins with a beautiful young lady in Buenos Aires, Mia (Martina Gusman) entering the house and interrupting a nasty argument that is heard but not seen, which is likely all for the best, as the audience gets the picture.  Mia follows the father to the D.A,’s office where he suffers a stroke and is bedridden.  This brings back to Buenos Aires the other member of the family – Eugenia (Berenice Bejo, the actress and wife of the director of the Oscar Winning Best Film THE ARTIST.)

With every member of the family at home, trouble ensues, as expected.  It is revealed that the two sisters have an unhealthy sexual incestuous relationship, as can be witnessed in the 5-minute or so oral sex scene that should keep many an audience aroused.  The two main actresses are both Argentine and they look so alike, they could pass on for twins.  This is a bit confusing during some parts of the movie when one needs to distinguish Mia and Eugenia, unless their names are used in the dialogue.

The events take place during the political unrest of the country due to the brutality of the current dictatorship.

But Trapero’s film, apart from the sexual scenes are boring for the fact that they are hardly credible.  It seems that anything goes for drama, and Trapero puts in any event convenient to create high drama, like the father’s stroke, the sex between two females and then male and female.   A bit more detail would have been helpful to aid the story’s credibility.  Nothing is mentioned of how the family’ wealth is achieved or the reason Eugenia went away to Paris or he reason father and mother stayed together despite huge disagreements.

Though shot on a ranch, most of the film’s scenes are interiors, with not much seen of the animals or in the farming. But the exteriors and production sets are quite good to look at courtesy of the cinematographer and production designer.

Trapero does not do anything to connect the audience with his characters.  The audience do not care if the father passes away or not or whether the two sisters will earn their happiness.  It appears that all Trapero is interested in doing is to titillate or shock his audience – as in the sex scenes and the oddities of behaviour of the family. 

The end result THE QUIETUDE is a rather boring family affair which could be quietly  dismissed.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e23SQyvTfcA