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Editorial Reviews
Review
Witty... Sensual... Delightful! --David Parkinson, Empire
Tender... Touching... Droll! --Melissa Anderson, Art Forum
Touching and amusing! --Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
Tender... Touching... Droll! --Melissa Anderson, Art Forum
Touching and amusing! --Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
Product Description
Julio is a struggling young writer who has hit a wall. Unemployed and involved in a half-hearted relationship with his neighbor, things are finally starting to look up when he gets an interview with a renowned author to transcribe his latest work. Things don t go as planned, however, and Julio doesn t get the job. Instead of admitting the truth to his girlfriend, he pretends to be transcribing the novel when actually writing his own story. Searching for inspiration and a plot, Julio revisits a romance he had eight years ago when studying literature in Valdivia. As Julio s novel progresses, so does his fondness for the past and of the love he let slip away. Based on an internationally acclaimed novella, BONSAI is a subtly affecting examination of the lies we tell ourselves in order to get by.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Chilean Character Study About Idealized Romance And The Writing Process
August 3, 2012
The Chilean film "Bonsai" is an experience that completely confounded my expectations. I try not to be unduly influenced with how a film is being marketed, instead I like to let it unfold naturally. But, in this instance, I do need to reference how Cristian Jimenez's work is being portrayed in its North American DVD release. The cover art (and its tag line) intimate that this is going to be a quirky comedy, perhaps of a romantic bent. The whimsical graphic, however, has little to do with the actual movie. Although there are elements of comedy, "Bonsai" is a rather serious contemplation of idealized romance and the writing process. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a lovely film in many ways. The DVD looks so frivolous and lightweight, however, that I just wanted to mention what I thought was a slight disconnect in marketing.
"Bonsai" is a story that takes place over alternating timelines. The contemporary thread introduces our hero (a deadpan Diego Noguera) who is trying to get a foothold into the writing profession. When a transcription job with a famous author falls through, he instead writes something of his own which he passes off to his girlfriend as the professional's work. As he gauges her reactions in some amusing ways, the book continues to morph into a biography of an idealized (but ill-fated) love. The other narrative timeline (eight years past) tells the story of his tempestuous relationship with his perceived true love Emilia (Nathalia Galgani). As it turns out, this is the story he has decided to write in the future. As the two worlds converge, Noguera contemplates the mistakes he's made and reconciles where's he's at in the world with where he envisioned himself.
In truth, "Bonsai" is a subtle and introspective character study. It's about a time of life that most of us experience in one way or another. We look back at imperfect relationships with nostalgia due to some made-up notion of what our youth was. But by coming to terms with these memories, we make the conscious choice to move past them. Noguera underplays his role to perfection, most of his biggest realizations are completely internalized. It's easy to identify with the universal themes of "Bonsai," I certainly did. In addition to being a rather astute character piece, the movie also effectively conveys the artistic process of writing. Not a bold and quirky comedy, "Bonsai" instead works primarily due to its subtlety. It may feel a bit slight to some, but its modest goals won me over. KGHarris, 8/12.
"Bonsai" is a story that takes place over alternating timelines. The contemporary thread introduces our hero (a deadpan Diego Noguera) who is trying to get a foothold into the writing profession. When a transcription job with a famous author falls through, he instead writes something of his own which he passes off to his girlfriend as the professional's work. As he gauges her reactions in some amusing ways, the book continues to morph into a biography of an idealized (but ill-fated) love. The other narrative timeline (eight years past) tells the story of his tempestuous relationship with his perceived true love Emilia (Nathalia Galgani). As it turns out, this is the story he has decided to write in the future. As the two worlds converge, Noguera contemplates the mistakes he's made and reconciles where's he's at in the world with where he envisioned himself.
In truth, "Bonsai" is a subtle and introspective character study. It's about a time of life that most of us experience in one way or another. We look back at imperfect relationships with nostalgia due to some made-up notion of what our youth was. But by coming to terms with these memories, we make the conscious choice to move past them. Noguera underplays his role to perfection, most of his biggest realizations are completely internalized. It's easy to identify with the universal themes of "Bonsai," I certainly did. In addition to being a rather astute character piece, the movie also effectively conveys the artistic process of writing. Not a bold and quirky comedy, "Bonsai" instead works primarily due to its subtlety. It may feel a bit slight to some, but its modest goals won me over. KGHarris, 8/12.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky BONSAI Misses The 'Romantic Comedy' Mark But Delivers Thoughtful Dramedy
September 13, 2012
By Edward Lee
It's been said that "love is a many splendored thing." Actually, from what I can recall, I think that's even been sung. In any event, love serves many roles in our respective lives. It gives us direction and inspiration. It forces us to think about who we are and what we want from another. It gives us the fuel to get up and face another day, and it prompts us to try to be a better person. However, the flip side to the coin is that love often times leaves us challenged. It presents obstacles we're not entirely certain of surmounting. When not cared for, it can leave us scarred, forever altered - even a shell of the person we were before we found it - forever distant, and forever tossed about on a sea of indifference. It's our greatest pain and our fondest reward for a life truly lived and fully explored.
That's precisely what makes it a many splendored thing.
BONSAI is the story of a struggling young author, told through his experiences in his present day and the life-changing love affair he endured eight years previous. A younger Julio (played by Diego Noguera) meets and falls head-over-heels for Emilia (Natalia Galgani), a classmate with some deep-rooted issues surrounding commitment. However, the present day Julio - struggling to find employment - opts to craft a romantic novel all of his own, and he uses his own reflections of his days with Emilia to do so. He reads the completed passages to present day girlfriend and neighbor, Blanca (Trinidad Gonzalez), though he covers it all up by lying to her, suggesting that he's ghostwriting a novel for an established author and that the romance is not his. However, a chance encounter with an old friend presents Julio with a unique challenge: Emilia is back in the country, living in the city. Will he see her again now that his fire has been rekindled, or should he leave those `demons' in his past?
The film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name, and writer/director Cristian Jimenez has done a respectable job turning it into a film. (From what I understand, the novel is a slim 90 pages.) The peoples, places, and events all seem real - perhaps a bit too real and/or droll at times as Julio and Emilia's relationship grows out of a series of casual events; however, that may be the intended appeal. There's an undeniable earthiness to all of it - the shooting locations certainly all resemble very average looking accommodations, so much so that they could be the antithesis of big budget Hollywood romances - and that's saying a lot for a story predicated on caring for trees.
Also, Jimenez approaches the subject matter with the same openness that author Alejandro Zambra puts in the novel, disclosing the fate of his principle characters right up front. The audience learns Julio and Emilia's fate in the opening scenes, leaving only a desire to learn how they get to their respective places as the motivating force for finishing the film. However, I'll admit that I struggled a bit with the flashback device. At first, I suspected that they weren't flashbacks, per se, that the narrator was telling the story of a novel only. As the layers are peeled away, it becomes clear that Julio has lived the novel, but the steps he goes to keep Blanca believing otherwise get very curious and given no legitimate explanation. Is he ashamed of how things ended with Emilia? Was he disgraced? Did he commit some grievous error? His motivation remains elusive - or if it was clearly stated then I completely missed it - and Emilia's eventual dismissal of him as her suitor is equally troubling. Did she secretly fall in love with someone else? Or did she simply grow weary of his companionship?
The subtle truth here is that there may be no definitive answer needed. The prime thrust of the story remains the metaphor - caring for a Bonsai tree is much like the care needed for a relationship. The drawback I would have stylistically is that I find no evidence to believe that had Julio behaved any differently then he would've produced any different outcome. (Again, if it was disclosed deliberately, I missed it.) Rather, Emilia seems to be a lost soul at times - one who gravitates between quiet moments lying in bed, snuggled up to her partner, or taking long, hot showers by herself. The implication is that she's lapsed into a deep, deep bout of depression, though the source remains absent.
Still, it's an interesting narrative, one with some deadpan moments of inescapable humor that elevate the story and push the viewer to stay involved. If the pacing had been tightened up a bit or either lead had been a bit more relatable, then BONSAI probably would've been a hit with audiences. As it is, it serves mostly as an art-house romance flick - think of (500) DAYS OF SUMMER without all of the obvious less-literate humor, and you get the drift.
BONSAI is a co-production of Rizoma Films and Ukbar Filmes, along with producing participation from Jirafa and Rouge International. DVD distribution is being handled through Strand Releasing. The film looks and sounds solid - there were a few sequences where sound was recorded very softly, so I had to amp up the volume a bit to understand some light dialogue. Additionally, the flick has garnered some great attention from the film festival circuit, including prizes from the Havana Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival, as well as serving as the Official Selection for the Cannes, Telluride, Toronto International, Chicago International, Seattle International, San Francisco International, and San Sebastian International Film Festivals. The screener I was provided had no special features to speak of; something (anything!) would have been nice, but, alas, it wasn't meant to be.
RECOMMENDED. BONSAI isn't perfect. It's pacing leaves more than a bit to be desired. And there's never an easy answer provided for why some of these characters behave the way they do. Still, the film is underscored by a functional metaphor (the care of plants likened to the attention required of any relationship), and the low-key humor hits enough laughs to make it a passable enjoyment. Will it change your world? Probably not. Is it an acceptable way to spend a few hours studying romance and the human condition? That's a `budding' insight, if I ever heard one.
In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the good folks at Strand Releasing provided me with a DVD screener of BONSAI for the expressed purposes of completing this review.
That's precisely what makes it a many splendored thing.
BONSAI is the story of a struggling young author, told through his experiences in his present day and the life-changing love affair he endured eight years previous. A younger Julio (played by Diego Noguera) meets and falls head-over-heels for Emilia (Natalia Galgani), a classmate with some deep-rooted issues surrounding commitment. However, the present day Julio - struggling to find employment - opts to craft a romantic novel all of his own, and he uses his own reflections of his days with Emilia to do so. He reads the completed passages to present day girlfriend and neighbor, Blanca (Trinidad Gonzalez), though he covers it all up by lying to her, suggesting that he's ghostwriting a novel for an established author and that the romance is not his. However, a chance encounter with an old friend presents Julio with a unique challenge: Emilia is back in the country, living in the city. Will he see her again now that his fire has been rekindled, or should he leave those `demons' in his past?
The film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name, and writer/director Cristian Jimenez has done a respectable job turning it into a film. (From what I understand, the novel is a slim 90 pages.) The peoples, places, and events all seem real - perhaps a bit too real and/or droll at times as Julio and Emilia's relationship grows out of a series of casual events; however, that may be the intended appeal. There's an undeniable earthiness to all of it - the shooting locations certainly all resemble very average looking accommodations, so much so that they could be the antithesis of big budget Hollywood romances - and that's saying a lot for a story predicated on caring for trees.
Also, Jimenez approaches the subject matter with the same openness that author Alejandro Zambra puts in the novel, disclosing the fate of his principle characters right up front. The audience learns Julio and Emilia's fate in the opening scenes, leaving only a desire to learn how they get to their respective places as the motivating force for finishing the film. However, I'll admit that I struggled a bit with the flashback device. At first, I suspected that they weren't flashbacks, per se, that the narrator was telling the story of a novel only. As the layers are peeled away, it becomes clear that Julio has lived the novel, but the steps he goes to keep Blanca believing otherwise get very curious and given no legitimate explanation. Is he ashamed of how things ended with Emilia? Was he disgraced? Did he commit some grievous error? His motivation remains elusive - or if it was clearly stated then I completely missed it - and Emilia's eventual dismissal of him as her suitor is equally troubling. Did she secretly fall in love with someone else? Or did she simply grow weary of his companionship?
The subtle truth here is that there may be no definitive answer needed. The prime thrust of the story remains the metaphor - caring for a Bonsai tree is much like the care needed for a relationship. The drawback I would have stylistically is that I find no evidence to believe that had Julio behaved any differently then he would've produced any different outcome. (Again, if it was disclosed deliberately, I missed it.) Rather, Emilia seems to be a lost soul at times - one who gravitates between quiet moments lying in bed, snuggled up to her partner, or taking long, hot showers by herself. The implication is that she's lapsed into a deep, deep bout of depression, though the source remains absent.
Still, it's an interesting narrative, one with some deadpan moments of inescapable humor that elevate the story and push the viewer to stay involved. If the pacing had been tightened up a bit or either lead had been a bit more relatable, then BONSAI probably would've been a hit with audiences. As it is, it serves mostly as an art-house romance flick - think of (500) DAYS OF SUMMER without all of the obvious less-literate humor, and you get the drift.
BONSAI is a co-production of Rizoma Films and Ukbar Filmes, along with producing participation from Jirafa and Rouge International. DVD distribution is being handled through Strand Releasing. The film looks and sounds solid - there were a few sequences where sound was recorded very softly, so I had to amp up the volume a bit to understand some light dialogue. Additionally, the flick has garnered some great attention from the film festival circuit, including prizes from the Havana Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival, as well as serving as the Official Selection for the Cannes, Telluride, Toronto International, Chicago International, Seattle International, San Francisco International, and San Sebastian International Film Festivals. The screener I was provided had no special features to speak of; something (anything!) would have been nice, but, alas, it wasn't meant to be.
RECOMMENDED. BONSAI isn't perfect. It's pacing leaves more than a bit to be desired. And there's never an easy answer provided for why some of these characters behave the way they do. Still, the film is underscored by a functional metaphor (the care of plants likened to the attention required of any relationship), and the low-key humor hits enough laughs to make it a passable enjoyment. Will it change your world? Probably not. Is it an acceptable way to spend a few hours studying romance and the human condition? That's a `budding' insight, if I ever heard one.
In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the good folks at Strand Releasing provided me with a DVD screener of BONSAI for the expressed purposes of completing this review.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Small trees, Poetry, Novel Writing in Chile and Proust - What's not to like?
August 9, 2012
This is a film by Christian Jiminez based on the book by Alejandro Zambra and it comes from Chile. It was premiered at Cannes and despite a theatre release in both the UK and USA in March went pretty quickly to DVD. It is about Julio who is into literature and we meet him as a student where his reticence to learn Proust is not seen as an aphrodisiac by the woman he wants Emilia. So his literary juices have to start flowing before any others can.
The story then moves on eight years and we meet an older, though equally lazy, Julio who is now with his soul mate. He is approached by a well known author who asks him to transcribe his latest novel as he has written it by hand. Well Julio asks a price but it is too high and so he don't get the gig. He has pretended that he still doing the job and so decides to write to novel himself sharing it with his friend, who becomes his aid and critic without knowing it is his work.
The film keeps going back in chapters eight years and then forward to the present and slowly reveals his inspiration and his lost love.
This is often slow paced, but is also funny, touching, warm and connects on so many levels. There is a lot of rutting but nothing that would induce retching in the maiden aunt so all perfectly acceptable. We also have the futility of poetry the blandness of rock and the power of the written word. The bonsai of the title is a metaphor for dyeing love trapped in a prison of its own making by the co-dependence that is all consuming in such circumstances, and it actually works really well.
This will not be to everyone's taste but as I watch a lot of World cinema I really appreciated it. It is in Spanish with really good sub titles and runs for around 100 minutes. This is for fans of quirky cinema in all its' guises and for fans of the lovelorn, who also like a bibliophile - recommended.
The story then moves on eight years and we meet an older, though equally lazy, Julio who is now with his soul mate. He is approached by a well known author who asks him to transcribe his latest novel as he has written it by hand. Well Julio asks a price but it is too high and so he don't get the gig. He has pretended that he still doing the job and so decides to write to novel himself sharing it with his friend, who becomes his aid and critic without knowing it is his work.
The film keeps going back in chapters eight years and then forward to the present and slowly reveals his inspiration and his lost love.
This is often slow paced, but is also funny, touching, warm and connects on so many levels. There is a lot of rutting but nothing that would induce retching in the maiden aunt so all perfectly acceptable. We also have the futility of poetry the blandness of rock and the power of the written word. The bonsai of the title is a metaphor for dyeing love trapped in a prison of its own making by the co-dependence that is all consuming in such circumstances, and it actually works really well.
This will not be to everyone's taste but as I watch a lot of World cinema I really appreciated it. It is in Spanish with really good sub titles and runs for around 100 minutes. This is for fans of quirky cinema in all its' guises and for fans of the lovelorn, who also like a bibliophile - recommended.
