Elisa & Marcela. Isabel Coixet. 2019. ☆☆☆★★★
Another Spanish Netflix Original? Sure, I’m game.
And it’s in black and white? Great. But… it looks kinda like an odd black and white? It’s looks a bit washed out… as if it was done on colour video and then they just dropped all the colour? I don’t know. But I’m oddly reminded of El abrazo de la serpiente. I mean, the movies couldn’t be more different, but I wonder whether the idea of not using colour while filming in famously scenic South America stems from the same place: i.e., going against cliché.
It’s been savagely panned by the critics, so I’m an optimist: Perhaps this’ll be great?
There’s a lot here I like: The languid pacing, the cameras getting way up into the actors’ faces, the two main actors themselves, the sparing use of music.
But it’s no masterpiece, unfortunately. The other characters are just too schematic and the dialogue doesn’t convince.
The squid thing is odd.
This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.
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