Best International Feature: France, Portugal, Spain
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 7:00PM ;)
Europe is the most represented continent in the history of the Best International Feature Oscar. However, while some of its countries are regularly honored, others have been submitting for decades without luck. France, for instance, is the reigning champion of the category, having been nominated forty times. In contrast, Portugal - my country – holds the record for the most submissions without a single nod. For this chapter in our trip through world cinema, we arrive at these two nations' 2020 submissions as well as Spain's Netflix contender…
TWO OF US (France)
The closet is a poisonous thing, corroding the mind and spirit. One's true self becomes a secret while what the outside sees is a strenuous performance. Madeleine has been living in that hell for decades, hiding the love of her life from her adult children, pretending to be friendly neighbors with her paramour instead of committed lovers. Her partner, Nina, is tired of the deception and, one day, finally explodes. What follows is a series of tragic misfortunes that put the couple's unity to the test, their lives separated by disease, familial hostilities, and the mercilessness of time. Formalistically, Filippo Meneghetti isn't reinventing the wheel, though the picture's subdued naturalism works fine for the narrative at hand. Attention should be paid to the details of production design, for they bring some sophistication to the visual storytelling. Thankfully, as Two of Us is a film focused on performance, the actors deliver exquisite characterizations with special praise reserved for the two leads. Martine Chevalier makes Madeleine's silence heartbreakingly expressive, while Barbara Sukowa's Nina is a volcanic eruption of powerless rage, fiery indignation, heroic rebellion. The two thespians even manage to work their way around the plot's contrivances, injecting humanity into every harrowing scene they share in Two of Us. B
VITALINA VARELA (Portugal)
Since 1997's Ossos, Pedro Costa's cinema has been plunged into darkness, deep shadows taking over his every film. Over the years, the work has started to look more like hallucinatory phantasmagoria instead of a document of urban decay, its Expressionistic style and Neorealist ethos battling it out in severe tableaux. Vitalina Varela is an apotheosis of these conflicting sides in Costa's cinema, taking his investigations about poetic austerity to new echelons of abstraction. This time, his camera is directed at a woman playing a fictional version of herself, a Cape Verdean widow coming to Lisbon to mourn her husband's death, he who had abandoned her in the African islands and tried to make it in Portugal's capital. As Vitalina delves into painful recollection and discoveries of marital betrayals, a priest, played by Costa's stalwart muse Venture, gives her a weak semblance of guidance. In the end, however, hers is an odyssey of introspection. It's a look inside into the mysteries of her scarred soul. Self-confrontation is taken to literal extremes as the conclusion nears and the membrane between dream and waking life becomes more porous than ever, the reality of the filmed faces coming into question. Beneath all these layers of defiant style, lyrical obfuscation, and a demandingly glacial pace, Vitalina Varela is oddly touching, its images as beautiful as they are haunting. From the deep darkness, the actors emerge as beacons, humanity shining through the void, looking for the light, for the warmth of the sun, for deliverance. B+
THE ENDLESS TRENCH (Spain)
During Franco's dictatorship, political dissidents were ruthlessly hunted by the authorities. Many disappeared, others died, victims of a tyrannical regime whose evils still reverberate through modern-day Spain. Directed by Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi & Jose Mari Goenaga, The Endless Trench tells the story of one of those men who, upon the start of the Civil War, hides from Franco's army under the floor of his and his bride's humble home. As time goes by, he keeps hiding, living within the walls of his old father's house, keeping his family from enjoying a normal existence. Survivalist impetus sours into obsession, panic rots the mind into near madness and not even the brightest flame of love can hope to endure the smothering hand of fear. The domestic spaces, brilliantly designed by Pepe Domínguez del Olmo, gradually transform, over the decades, from a temple of salvation to a cramped prison. As the despair of the outside contaminates the inside, the character's souls bend to the pressure. History manifests as fractured set design, twisted relationships, shattered hopes. The structure, divided into neat chapters, is necessarily repetitive but one does start to get worn down by the cyclical nature of the dramatic beats. The actors try and do some impressive work, but they can't overcome the premise's inherent limitations or the exhausting running time. Part of the film's point is that feeling, so its makers deserve compliments for their craft, even if the result lacks modulation of tone. B-
As much as I'd love to predict Vitalina Varela as a likely nominee, Pedro Costa's aesthetic and narrative proposition feel way too outside the Academy's usual wheelhouse to make it to the shortlist without the help of the executive committee. Two of Us and, especially, The Endless Trench won't have such troubles. It wouldn't be surprising to see them get in. Portugal'll probably hold on to its record.
Reader Comments (13)
I loved The Endless Trench but I didn't enjoy Vitalina Varela at all.
I'm excited to watch Two Of Us soon.
The Endless Trench is Spain's official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards. I think it has a strong chance of landing in the final five.
The claustrophobic thriller is a response to an unusual occurrence in 1969. "Moles," political dissidents who opposed Franco, went into hiding in the cupboards, under the floorboards, or in the walls of their homes. When the government established amnesty for these men, they revealed themselves after surviving more than three decades by the efforts of their families.
Directed by Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi, and Jose Mari Goenaga, The Endless Trench reminds us of the Oscar nominated work of Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot. The camera finds endless avenues to keep our attention in a restricted environment. This is most evident when a soldier rapes Rosa.
Higinio can hear the brutal attack where he hides in the wall. In a hurried effort to leave the hiding spot and rescue his wife, he tips over the oil lantern and ignites his sleeping space. He struggles to put out the fire while we listen to the rape continuing on the other side of the wall. Once Higinio escapes and attacks the rapist, we see that atrophied muscles have left him insufficient strength to battle the muscled soldier. Pinned beneath the predator, Rosa grasps for anything to kill the man. The directorial choices here are brilliant. As if we were still inside the hiding place, we can only see glimpses of the assault. Sound proves to be more helpful in discerning what is occurring.
This is a strong film and well worth seeking out.
So, did you vote?
í liked The Endless Trench just fine. I do think it could be shorter, but as Cláudio says, the exhaustion and impotence are the central feelings the movie is projecting, so í think it works in the end.
I haven't gone to check The Endless Trench yet, because of its running time and predictable mood - not the kind of film I need at this moment of my life. Nevertheless I am still pissed they have overlooked so much "Unfortunate Stories" both at the Goya and the Feroz awards... in my opinion, one of the BEST spanish films of the XXIst century (and the funniest)
Friendly reminder that Spain still has political prisoners and exiles. Not even the hottest president can cover that.
@Nacho... oh, it if it was only that... the situation of Spain's "democracy" is even worse that that... just barely scratches the surface. Spain hasn't have had democracy since 1939 when the Republic was defeated by Franco with the help of Hitler and Mussolini and the accomplish silence of every "democracy" of the western hemisphere.
Problem with Spain is simple: it can't be free to choose anything. Geostrategically speaking, it is a key country in trade and communications, as Panama, Morocco, or Singapore and Malaysia, or Egypt, therefore they will always have puppet governments. I am geographer and historian with international experience, so I really know what I am talking about.
Most people inside and outside Spain simply don't know that during Franco regime over 100,000 people were purged, 400,000 forced into slave labor and millions were forced to starve to migrate abroad or to the big cities, specially to Catalonia and the Basque Country, to promote aculturization in those areas and integrate them "better" into the central political system in which all the territory would feed Madrid's power - where the biggest elites reside.
@Jesús Stop whining
@Pablo
LOL.
(Also a Spaniard here but I'll be steering away from politics and back onto movies)
I'm a bit embarrassed to say I can't really face watching 'The Endless Trench' even tho it's now on Netflix, I've heard it's good and I really like Belén Cuesta... but another film about the civil war and one that's 2.5 hrs long? Ugh I can't!
Another Spaniard (from Catalonia!) here (quite embarrassed with Nacho's --that's his/her alias today-- and Jesús --what a relief to know that he really knows what he is talking about!-- comments).
Going back to the important topic, 'The endless trench' is a fine (but far from outstanding) film which may be among the finalists, but I think it will not be nominated. 'Two of us' is quite good, but I am afraid it will not be nominated either. Quite curious about the Portuguese entry, so fingers crossed it will open in this horrible dictatorship full of freedom and civil rights.
I have no connections to any of these 3 countries, but I've seen all of the 3 films. And I thinkthat the only one having a chance to get into 15 of these is France (for me it worked and I have it on the 13th place at the moment). Spain maybe, but I doubt, as the characters were not loveable at all. The main character (Higinio) got me irritated right in the beginning and it was basically downhill from there. There are some other weird choices too, although all together it wasn't that bad as it may sound from my words. On my list it's on the 25th place at the moment (though hearing how many people, usually somehow connected to Spain, love it and the importance regarding the historical level in it... well maybe-maybe top15, but no way it will get nominated this year, when there are so many thoroughly stronger films in the mix). Portugal is so interesting artistically, would say even that it has many bold choices, but Academy tends to love stronger storylines, so I'm with you, that it is strong on the technical part, but I'd be very surprised if it gets into the 15. Critics love it. though, because it's so different from all other films.
Rod -- Hope you enjoy TWO OF US.
James -- Thanks for including all the historical context in your comment. In truth, I wanted to cram some of it in my mini-review, but this capsule format really limits the amount of information I can include.
Jesus Alonso -- Thank you for the recommendation.
Kris -- If you thought VITALINA VARELA's interesting, I recommend the other films of Pedro Costa. He's got a very unique style.