Friday, 25 November 2016

Film You May Have Missed (#5)

La Antena (2007)


A completely unique take on silent cinema is this fairy-tale like story by Argentinian director Esteban Sapir, beautifully shot in black-and-white and practically without dialogue; ‘La Antena’ is a feast for the eyes.

'The City without a Voice', is ruled by Mr. TV. He has stolen the inhabitants’ voices and is in total control of all spoken words and media, forcing everyone to eat his own brand of TV-food. Mr TV is not just a monopolist, he is the personification of evil and totalitarianism, even the swastika appears as a symbol a number of times. He secretly works on a device to steel the words through his television broadcasts. For this purpose, he kidnaps the only one left with The Voice, a beautiful singer, but a TV repairman witnesses the kidnapping and using The Voice’s blind son who is the only other inhabitant that can speak tries to thwart Mr TV’s evil plans.


In the opening sequence, we see a book, titled ‘La Antena’, that opens and a three dimensional city made of paper rises from the pages into which the camera dollies. The production design is stunning with beautiful sets and imagery. Although, shot primarily with the basic language of silent cinema, Esteban Sapir also adds a number of fresh techniques of his own, such as a combination of typographic and animation techniques. Everyone ‘talks’ to each other through text balloons (usually floating near their mouths), the louder they talk, the larger the font. The same trick is used for sound effects. The balloons themselves can be pushed away or crushed as if they had physical presence.


A magical film quite unlike anything else I’ve seen before or since.

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