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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A real taste for death, November 13, 2002
The thing that's interesting is the word thesis. It can also mean a theme. Well, Alejandro Amenabar's theme and Angela's thesis are one and the same, examining people's morbidity over images of violent death. The theme can be summarized in the opening scene, involving a man who has thrown himself in front of the train and the people straining to see.Angela Marques is a student at the School of Mass Communications in Madrid. She asks the kindly Professor Figueroa, who's directing her thesis, if he could get access to the video archives, which has some very violent images. He picks a video out and watches it in the screening room. The next day, Angela finds him dead from an asthma attack, but the look in his face is one of fear. She pockets the video he was watching and enlists the aid of Chema, a classmate who has a taste for violent and pornographic videos. To her shock and surprise of Chema, it is a snuff film of a young girl being tortured, beaten, killed, and then cut to pieces with a chainsaw. Chema recognizes her as Vanessa, a student who had disappeared two years ago. However, is Chema telling her everything he knows? Angela then runs into Bosco, a real lady's man who knew Vanessa. He charms his way into her family, even flirting with Sena, Angela's younger and bratty sister. Bosco is a bit of a cad, as he treats his girlfriend Yolanda callously. It turns out that Vanessa had run away with a boy and wrote a letter, but is that true? Things heat up when Jorge Castro, the cinema professor assigned to take over Figueroa's classes and hence directing her thesis, seems to be involved. There's more, but I won't spoil it here. Castro effectively characterizes the business side of cinema, that it is an industry, and in order for it to succeed, it has to pander to what the public wants. His view contrasts the moral side represented by Angela, who while sickened by violent images, is fascinated by them only in an objective, scholarly way, and believes the director has responsibilities in what he/she presents. Eduardo Noriega, who later starred as Cesar in Amenabar's smashing Abre Los Ojos, is perfectly cast as Bosco. He looks more like a retired member of Menudo, a real pretty boy. However, he is topped by Fele Martinez as Chema. With spectacles, long hair, mustache, goatee, and black clothing, Chema is a real contrast to Abre Los Ojos's Pelayo. There is one in-joke. When Angela accesses the database of customers buying a certain video camera, a familiar name is seen. Hint, the initials are A.A. This is a gripping thriller that builds up quicker than Abre Los Ojos and leaves the audience guessing. The gruesome scenes are kept to a minimum. Occasionally, the video switches to the POV of a B&W movie camera, reminding the viewer that we are the audience, the market for people targeted by Jorge Castro, and that the camera is a window to the soul, as someone once said. And by the way, don't be thrown by the plot summary on the back of the video. It's written in Spanish but the movie's subtitled, so nothing to worry about.
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