By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Raoul Ruiz
Starring: Chamila Rodriguez | Christian Vadim | Pedro Villagra | Santiago Figueroa | Sergio Hernández | Sergio Schmied | Valentina Vargas
Original language title: La noche de enfrente
Country: chile, france
Year: 2013
Running time: 110
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1876360/
Bruce says: “Some films should come with their own primer. Certain people might find that concept quite insulting. For me, having background information before viewing NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET would have been very helpful. Raul Ruiz, who died last year at the age of 70, began making films when he was 22. One of his most critically acclaimed films is the recent MYSTERIES OF LISBON. In his extraordinarily prolific career he directed over 100 films, mostly in France where he and his wife expatriated in 1973. His films are known for their many literary and intellectual references. With NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, adapted from the novel by Hernan del Solar, Ruiz has infused his own memories into the story.
“Don Celso is aging and is being forced into retirement. As he awaits death he reflects on his life and imagines his younger self in the days when his boyhood nickname was Rhododendron. Rodo has imagination, something that Don Celso has lost along the way. NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET drifts back and forth in the two time periods. During the journey Long John Silver, Beethoven, and French novelist Jean Giono all become characters in the film creating a bizarre and complex fantasy, one that is not always easy to follow. Add to the mix a peppering of Mallarmé’s poetry and one’s head begins to spin.
“Ruiz’s film gloriously depicts the physical beauty of Chile and the colonial grandeur which Ruiz must have experienced in his youth. How much of the film is Ruiz and how much is del Solar is impossible for the uninitiated to properly discern. 3 cats
“(NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. I was standing in queue before the film began talking to a woman who has lived in Toronto for thirteen years. She had never been to a film at the festival and NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET was to be her first. What a bizarre selection; I can’t imagine she will ever return.)”