Month of Foreign: Day One: The Official Story

My preferred method of killing two birds is by using one stone. The 1,001 Movies You Must See Club chose Luis Puenzo's Argentine political mystery, The Official Story, for this week's film. Whitney, an active member of the prestigious club, decided to capitalize on the situation by kicking off our Month of Foreign with the same movie.

When a middle-class teacher, Alicia, starts to suspect that her adoptive daughter Gaby might have been taken from a pregnant captor of Argentine's Dirty War (1976-1983), she begins to unravel the secrets surrounding Gaby's past. She finds dead ends wherever she turns. Her husband, a strict traditionalist, tell her not to ask questions. Her priest dismisses her concerns and tells her to honor God's will. The hospitals refuses to help her look into the records taken during the War. Alicia refuses to give up and eventually she beings finding out more than she bargained for.

Foreign films always find the most adorable and talented child actors. Remember the little girl in The Fall? Or the kid from Cinema Paradiso? Whoever cast Analia Castro to play Gaby in The Official Story knew what they were doing. This little doe-eyed angel outshone everyone she shared a scene with. It was important to find a girl who the audience would immediately attach themselves to because Gaby not only serves as the center of this story but also serves as a reminder of the uncountable abducted, tortured, and murdered Argentine citizens from this time.

The film carries itself through its characters. The story would make complete sense to anyone, even including people with no knowledge of Argentine history or culture. And while there are attempts to catch viewers up, the expository dialogue is minimal and presented in interesting ways. Some have referred to Story as a thriller but that's inaccurate by present-day definitions. Instead of a run-of-the-mill psychological or political thriller, The Official Story is really more of a mystery film with political undertones. You become more and more attached to Alicia and Gaby as the movie progresses and by the end, instead of being scared for them, feeling of sadness creep in and eventually a blunt sense of acceptance takes over. The mystery is solved but the Alicia's reactions are ambiguous. In fact, the end of the film is ambiguous. And after a months of foreign films, I'm sure I'll have had my share of ambiguity.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Never having watched 2001: A Space Odyssey was my longest-held cinephile shame. That is, until yesterday's screening. For years, I avoided "Slow Walking on Spaceship Movies" the same way other people avoid "Boat Movies" or "Torture Porn." Solaris was most likely the culprit that began my distaste. Thanks to the 1001 Movies You Must See group, I've righted my greatest wrong.

Despite 2001 being one of the most written about and highest rated sci-fi films of all-time, I knew relatively nothing about it before yesterday. I knew Kubrick directed it and that it didn't star Michael J. Fox even though the poster wants to make you think he is. Going into the film without knowing the details was definitely the way to go. My opinions may have been skewed had I known there was 20-minute acid trip scene and another 20-minute section with men in monkey costumes. Coming in fresh, I was ready for anything and ended up loving everything.

I'll admit, the prelude started pressing my buttons right away but once the visuals arrived, I was hooked. Yes, the movie is long. Yes, the pacing is slow. And yes, the spaceship walking is extremely slow. But as a whole, 2001 was just as good as everyone said it was. It's 3:30AM so this won't be the most technical or thorough review but there are some thoughts that I have to put out there.

When I said that I knew little about 2001, I wasn't exaggerating. I didn't even know what year it was made. Once my wife told me that it came out in 1968, a full nine years before Star Wars, the imagery on-screen became almost unbearably impressive. Stories of ecstatic crowds cheering and applauding when the Star Destroyer flew from overhead have a way of floating around film programs. Star Wars was heralded as sci-fi's savior and a pioneer in visual effects. And while I don't want to take away anything from Star Wars, the visuals and cinematography in this film are, at the least, on par with it's sci-fi successor. It's the type of thing where writing about it may cheapen its impressiveness. I would urge anyone on the fence with this film to do yourself the favor and watch this film. Keep in mind, as Whitney pointed out to me, that it was released before the moon landing.