Mariana Hristova Blog 1

“La Antena” , the first night opening film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, was a real surprise for me by two reasons.

First one is connected with the specific nature of the film. Because Esteban Sapir is famous as one of the Argentinean New Wave’s fathers, I expected more naturalistic vision, more direct messages. Instead of the ascetic “reality” style, characterizing the films of the New Wave (for example Ana Poliak), I was pleasantly surprised by the director’s aesthetical view – black&white retro images, Silent cinema tribute quotations from Georges Méliès’s “Le Voyage dans la lune” through numerous distinctive features of the Expressionism to Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” reminders.

The first scene, combining typewriter’s image with piano sound, was a promising beginning that made me expect a really precious piece of art. Unfortunately in this case the first impression didn’t respond to the final. Although the director’s original idea obviously was to unmask the repressing media influence through a beautiful parable about love and hope, I don’t think the result is so successful. In my opinion the story is too naïve, narrated in a childish way which doesn’t fulfill the serious intention of the film. Metaphors are impressive but too clear, have just one meaning.

These important details make the film somehow boring so it’s not so strange that some people lost patience and left the screening hall before the end.