January 5th: WILD TALES (Damián Szifrón, 2014)

NOTE: This film will be projected in the high-definition Blu-ray format.


An anthology featuring six stories dealing in revenge both short and long-term, illustrating the darkest aspects of human nature.


Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifrón was the co-creator of television show The Pretenders before making his first two features The Bottom of the Sea and On Probation, both of which received many nominations from the Argentinian Film Critics Association. He then returned to TV, creating and writing for the successful show Hermanos y Detectives.


Szifrón went on a prolonged sabbatical from production, focusing on writing and developing material for years. He stepped away from a large-scale project and distilled a handful of disconnected pieces into the script that would become Wild Tales. It received very positive feedback from producers, including Pedro and Augustin Almodovar, who got on board.


Because of the shorter amount of screen time per character, Szifrón was able to attract a good number of popular Argentinian actors to appear in the film, including Ricardo Darin (The Secret In Their Eyes), Dario Grandinetti (Almodovar's Talk To Her), Erica Rivas (Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro), and Oscar Martinez, as well as previous collaborators.


In the pre-production phase, Szifrón decided not only to direct all the segments himself, but to use the same cinematographer on all of them, unusual for an anthology feature. He discussed using different formats with cameraman Javier Julia, but eventually they made the decision to use the same equipment and aspect ratio for all the stories, with the intention to have them all reflecting the same society.


The film was shot all over the country,  including the capital Buenos Aires, over the course of 2 months. Szifrón's obsessive attention to detail continued into the post-production phase, having a hand in the editing and closely working with musical score composer and 2x Oscar-winner Gutavo Santaolalla (Babel, Brokeback Mountain).


Wild Tales debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to a very positive audience response. It won various international festival prizes, and at Argentina's own Motion Picture Academy Awards, it received a staggering 21 nominations and won 10, including Best Film and Director, as well as awards for Martinez, Rivas, Julia, and Santaolalla. It was Argentina's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, and received a nomination in that category.


Running time is 2 hours.

Comments

Popular Posts