La Antena

La Antena (The Aerial), an almost silent black-and-white film from Argentina would be better off competing in the Olympics gymnastic events than in the harsh climate of the modern multiplex. Sadly, the average cinema viewer does not award points for execution, difficulty, or variety of elements, but if they did, La Antena would surely be challenging the box office records set by Titanic, as it is definitely one of the most experimental efforts that your humble narrator has seen in recent years. Unfortunately it isn’t one of the most coherent.

As bleak a dystopia has ever been committed to celluloid, it tells the tale of a city controlled by a megalomaniacal Berloscuni-esque TV mogul, rather simply named Mr TV. He has monopolised all media, and now has set his sights on a target so diabolical it takes on Mr. Burns-esque proportions, our words. As I mentioned earlier, La Antena is nearly silent, but some of the techniques used to convey dialogue and sound (a smoke ring forms an “O”, a machine gun fires and the words “Rat Tat Tat” fill the sky) are truly ingenious. Here subtitles are as much for the benefit of characters onscreen as the viewing audience. 

Director Esteban Sapir is clearly quite a film buff, as this is only his second feature (he began his career as a cinematographer, which goes some way to explaining why La Antena is so beautiful to look at) yet he is confident enough to load it with references to other films by directors as revered as Fritz Lang and Orson Welles, to more contemporary works by the likes of the two David’s (Lynch and Cronenberg). The movies of Lynch are a good litmus test for whether you would finds this enjoyable. If his films are too esoteric for your taste then put this back on the shelf and pick up Transformers instead. If you’re prepared to take a chance though, then you just mind find yourself surprised by an admittedly over-ambitious, but nonetheless impressive and actually quite perceptive film.

Release Date: 18th August 2008
Director: Esteban Sapir
Starring: Valeria Bertuccelli, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Julieta Cardinali, Rafael Ferro & Florencia Raggi
Runtime: 93 minutes
Certificate: PG
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Special Features: Trailer
RRP: £14.99

Matthew Kleebauer