La Antena

Recently Guy Maddin brought out his 'docufantasy' pic about his hometown, 'My Winnipeg'. It was a glowing tribute to the early cinematic efforts of the 20's and 30's, and featured a large dose of surrealism. 'La Antena', an Argentinian film by the director Esteban Sapir, continues this thread of Golden Age throwbacks.

The surreal, anti-fascist plot takes place in the ficticious 'City of lost voices', where the inhabitants are all trapped by silence. All of them, except a mother (The Voice) and her son, who has no eyes. The city is controlled by an evil news corporation and it's seedy owner. He entraps the Voice, forcing her to broadcast her voice across the city and hypnotise the citizens to his own gain. The bespeccled hero, a worker at the station, stumbles across the dastardly plot and with the aid of his grandfather and daughter sets out to foil the plans.

The main feature of Sapir's film is the striking 1920's inspired visuals. The general look of the film is a pastiche of Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', all gloomy film noir and angular architecture. Like 'My Winnipeg', the city is bathed in dusty snow, and has a similarly strange, sleepy atmosphere. The visuals combine the past with the present, utilising a series of inventive homemade special effects and editing tricks. The titles play a big part in expressing the characters thoughts or feelings, in place of the dialogue. The film is basically like a modern day silent film; it has a theatrical, cartoony feel to it, and the characters act in exaggerated movements.

Although the film is visually striking, an all round slick and oiled machine and original and inventive (to an extent), I'd have to say that I felt a little unmoved by the film as a whole. The story was thin and lightweight, the characters one dimensional and unengaging. I do believe the story and characters were intended to be light and playful, but I think I'm past the age where I can appreciate this kind of story. Style over substance, perhaps in this case.

6/10