Eliseo Subiela Movies
Argentinean filmmaker Eliseo Subiela directed this idiosyncratic drama that uses sex and love as a springboard for an exploration of bold philosophical ideas. Twenty-something Eloy (Leandro Stivelman) has a gift for walking on stilts that her inherited from his father, but while Dad tried to use this talent for creative purposes, Eloy has made a career out of his skill, wandering the city dressed as a high-rise sandwich to promote a diner. One day, a stumble causes Eloy to crash through a ceiling window into the bedroom of Elvira (Antonella Costa), an attractive older woman. Both Elvira and her mother (Maria Elena Ruaz) are convinced that a greater destiny has brought Eloy into her life, and she takes the young man under her wing. Eloy loves women and is delighted when Elvira expresses a powerfully sexual interest in him, but she's a student of tantric sex techniques, and as she opens his eyes to the possibilities of lovemaking, he's introduced to new worlds of eroticism that allow him to leave his body and travel through time and space. No Mires Para Abajo (aka Don't Look Down) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leandro Stivelman, Antonella Costa, (more)
- 2005
Eliseo Subiela's comedy Heartlift stars Pep Munne as an aging plastic surgeon who falls for a young female assistant (Moro Anghileri) while attending a medical conference. Soon he begins inventing new reasons to spend more time with her. His wife Cristina (Maria Barranco) begins meeting with a psychiatrist (Jean Pierre Noher) in order to figure out what is going on in her marriage. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pepe Munné, Maria Barranco, (more)
One man's search for love takes him on an unexpected journey in this purposefully offbeat romantic comedy, which picks up where Eliseo Subiela's El Lado Oscuro Del Corazon left off. Struggling poet Oliverio (Dario Grandinetti) is still looking for the perfect woman, though his standards are a bit on the high side; he wants a woman whose passion will literally allow him to fly, and those who fail to make the grade disappear down a trap door near his bed. Oliverio is taken with Miranda (Carolina Peleritti), but while he wants love without commitments, she wants a stable relationship, so he sets out to find Ana (Sandra Ballesteros), an upscale prostitute with whom he once had a fiery affair. As it turns out, Ana is willing to offer Oliverio a one-night-stand, but with a daughter to look after, she isn't interested in much more than that. With his constant companions Female Death (Nacha Guevara) and Time (Manuel Bandera) at his side, Oliverio decides to travel to the coast of Spain in hopes of finding Alejandra (Ariadna Gil), a lovely high-wire artist he's seen on a circus poster. Oliverio meets Alejandra and tries to win her heart, but before she'll get involved with him, she demands that he prove his love by performing a dangerous tightrope routine, leaving Oliverio to wonder if this is more commitment than he can handle. Bringing back many of the players and locations from the first film, El Lado Oscuro Del Corazon 2 received its North American premier at the 2001 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Darío Grandinetti, Ariadna Gil, (more)
- 2000
Shot in digital video, this surreal, metaphysical meditation on existence and identity finds a man (Pasta Dioguardi) and a woman (Flor Sabatella) trapped in an apparent dream taking place in the labyrinthine corridors and strange rooms of a seaside 1930s hotel. The man knows nothing about his past or how he ended up in the hotel, but is accused by two men of having committed a crime at some previous point in his life. Every time he falls asleep, the man is tortured by a recurring nightmare of living in an impoverished apartment with a woman and a baby. Gradually, the man and woman fall in love as they try to figure out what has led to their imprisonment, and together they resort to extreme measures to break out of the dream. The dream takes on even more sinister proportions when the couple realize that one of the hotel's bizarre inhabitants may in fact be dreaming them. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 1998
Eliseo Subiela, who made the Philip K. Dick-influenced Man Facing Southeast (1986), takes a lighter approach in this Argentine comedy-drama with fantasy elements. Customers at a Buenos Aires supermarket are unable to answer theological questions asked by cashier Rosalia (Julieta Ortega). Rosalia and her bitter mother were abandoned years earlier by Rosalia's father. Rosalia volunteers to help two blind people; one is the wealthy Don Francisco (Paco M.), and the other is a middle-aged woman (Monica Galan) studying for a law exam. Rosalia, who uses her telekinetic abilities to help these two and others who are needy, sees herself as a "fairy godmother," and she gets a total makeover from a trio of young women she assumes are other fairies. Eventually, Rosalia finds her own Prince Charming -- physicist Santiago (Antonio Birbent) who has been tracking her movements at the bus stop with a video camera transmission to his computer. Black-and-white dream sequences show Rosalia rescued by a winged fairy. Shown at 1998 film fests (San Francisco, Miami). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julieta Ortega, Antonio Birabent, (more)
A group of former high-school buddies, now in their mid-40s, gather 25 years after graduation to relive their glory days. The reunion is the brainchild of Ricardo (AKA Elvis -- for his love of the King's music and his tendency to dance to it atop the roof of his office-furniture store). The old gang is comprised of Ricardo's depressive, hypochondriac wife Ana and her socially-conscious former lover Ernesto, a journalist who left Ana years ago to pursue his political ideologies in post-revolutionary Cuba. Ernesto's presence revitalizes Ana who in turn begins showing renewed interest in her husband. Unfortunately for her, by that time Ricardo has fallen in love with Vera, a beautiful Cuban cellist. Two other members of the old gang also show up. Finally there is Sebastian, Ricardo and Ana's 20-year-old son. A poet, he shares Ernesto's serious view of the world. As the party progresses, their reminiscences of the good old days are shown via flashback. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1995
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Love and reincarnation are the basic themes of this metaphorical Argentine fantasy. It is a serpentine tale with many interesting surprises. The story begins in 1885 New Jersey, as Thomas Edison's assistant says his final good bye to his recently deceased wife. Suddenly a vibrating zoetrope is seen and dreamy images and titles fill the screen which suddenly bursts into the vibrant world of contemporary Buenos Aires where Leopoldo is working as a projectionist in a ramshackle cinema. Leopoldo is married to Susana. He is obsessed with devising a machine that will record human dreams, an aspiration he shares with his closest friend Oscar, who has invented a robot in the image of a famous tango singer Carlos Gardel. One day Leopoldo awakens to discover that he has successfully recorded that night's dream in which he felt great love for a woman who lived 110 years ago. Shortly thereafter, he sees the very same woman standing outside his theater. Her name is Rachel and she calls him William. She explains that they have been lovers throughout the ages and have been reincarnated many times. Unfortunately, Leopoldo has no memory of her. Still they become lovers. The two come to a difficult juncture when Rachel decides that she has had enough reincarnation and simply wants to stay dead; on the other hand, Leopoldo is terrified of death and yet does not want to be forever apart from her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Darío Grandinetti, Mariana Arias, (more)
- 1992
- R
In this cheerfully surrealistic romance, a poet named Oliverio (Darío Grandinetti) lives by his wits in Buenos Aires, winning dollars by reciting his poems to passing motorists who stop at red lights or by occasionally trading a poem for a steak from a sympathetic restaurateur. His friends include an eccentric Canadian sculptor and Death (Nacha Guevara) himself, who often encourages him to get a regular job. When he grows tired of the women he is sleeping with, his bed becomes a doorway to elsewhere, and they simply disappear. This all changes somewhat when he falls in love with a high-class (and evidently very gifted) hooker. Their lovemaking sessions literally result in the couple levitating. Increasingly obsessed with meeting her fee, the free-spirited poet gets a job in advertising. At one point, their sexual encounter literally sends them flying over the city. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Darío Grandinetti, Sandra Ballesteros, (more)
- 1986
- R
This Argentine film freshens up an old cinematic device: juxtaposing science fiction and religion. A Buenos Aires mental hospital is thrown into an uproar when a mysterious male patient appears out of nowhere. As the psychiatrists grill the stranger, he sticks to a story that suggests that his origins are far from earthly. In fact, if his seemingly supernatural powers are any proof, he may well be a space alien. Unable to comprehend the incomprehensible, the authorities decide to lock the visitor away from public view, maybe even put an end to his life--and the analogies to Christ and Christianity are lost on no one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lorenzs Quinteros, Hugo Soto, (more)
The director of the enigmatic, entirely memorable feature Man Facing Southeast confronts viewers with another exhuberantly metaphysical movie in Ultimas Imagenes del Naufragio. In the story, Roberto (Lorenzo Quinteras) is a man whose inner life has gone dead. He has no interest in his job (selling life insurance) or his family. About the only thing that interests him is his writing, but he currently has writer's block. When he sees a lovely young woman on the verge of throwing herself in front of a train, he can't help himself: he has to stop her. It turns out that the woman, Estela (Noemi Frenkel), is only slightly addled: she is a prostitute who uses this rather dramatic technique to pick up men. Interested in her as a character for his novel, he accompanies her home. At one point, the ghosts of her dead relatives get on the bus they are traveling on, but she refuses to speak to them so as to avoid having to speak about her father. Once Roberto gets to her home, he finds it to be a hot-bed of odd characters. Attracted by them to participate in life once more, even if that life is very peculiar, he visits them more and more frequently, and is fired from his job and abandons his wife. Estela has a very personal relationship with Jesus, and seeks his advice on how to get Roberto to notice her as a woman. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugo Soto
A twenty year old woman falls for an HIV-positive divorce lawyer in director Eliseo Subiela's tender romantic drama. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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