A Fantastic Woman (15.)
Directed by Sebastián Lelio.
Starring Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Nicolás Saavedra, Amparo Noguera. 104 mins
It's one of the oldest stories going – respectable middle-aged man leaves his wife and family for a young floozy who sings in nightclubs. The Fantastic Woman here, Marina (Vega) though is a pre-op trans woman and when her white-haired lover Orlando (Reyes) suddenly drops down dead she faces investigation and scrutiny from the authorities, and amplified levels of scorn and contempt from his family.
In the first half, you are primed for impassioned melodrama, for savages injustices to rain down on her from the police and the family who want the car and apartment they shared back. Marina seems ready to blow at any moment but for the most part, she holds it in, tries to keeps going and make sense of a life which suddenly seems empty.
The film is being pushed as a campaigning piece, a breakthrough because it has a trans performer in the lead role. And that's significant, but what ultimately makes the film special is not what is different about it, but what is universal about it: it's a truly affecting representation of grief. We barely get to know Orlando before he's taken and even when he is alive he is seems like a marginal figure, sometimes shuffling away in the corner of the frame or with his back half turned to the camera, but the gap he leaves is enormous.
Lelio's film is both beautifully acted and shot. It moves quietly, lets Marina's life unwind with dignity. The first half of the film is straightforward but in the second Lelio slips in a few moments of non-realism, such as Marina leaning into the strong wind as she walks along a street until she ends up at an unnatural 45-degree angle. It seems trite written down but it is shot and performed so seamlessly that it is uncommonly expressive. At her toughest moments she often sees a vision of Orlando and he is such a fluffy sheep of a man, the contrast with her dark present is very poignant.
Directed by Sebastián Lelio.
Starring Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Nicolás Saavedra, Amparo Noguera. 104 mins
It's one of the oldest stories going – respectable middle-aged man leaves his wife and family for a young floozy who sings in nightclubs. The Fantastic Woman here, Marina (Vega) though is a pre-op trans woman and when her white-haired lover Orlando (Reyes) suddenly drops down dead she faces investigation and scrutiny from the authorities, and amplified levels of scorn and contempt from his family.
In the first half, you are primed for impassioned melodrama, for savages injustices to rain down on her from the police and the family who want the car and apartment they shared back. Marina seems ready to blow at any moment but for the most part, she holds it in, tries to keeps going and make sense of a life which suddenly seems empty.
The film is being pushed as a campaigning piece, a breakthrough because it has a trans performer in the lead role. And that's significant, but what ultimately makes the film special is not what is different about it, but what is universal about it: it's a truly affecting representation of grief. We barely get to know Orlando before he's taken and even when he is alive he is seems like a marginal figure, sometimes shuffling away in the corner of the frame or with his back half turned to the camera, but the gap he leaves is enormous.
Lelio's film is both beautifully acted and shot. It moves quietly, lets Marina's life unwind with dignity. The first half of the film is straightforward but in the second Lelio slips in a few moments of non-realism, such as Marina leaning into the strong wind as she walks along a street until she ends up at an unnatural 45-degree angle. It seems trite written down but it is shot and performed so seamlessly that it is uncommonly expressive. At her toughest moments she often sees a vision of Orlando and he is such a fluffy sheep of a man, the contrast with her dark present is very poignant.
