note de film : Hawaii

juillet 23, 2018 Si tu laisses un commentaire sur notre site, tu peux accepter que ton nom, ton adresse e-mail et ton site Web soient enregistrés dans des cookies. Ceux-ci sont pour ta commodité afin que tu n'aies pas à remplir à nouveau tes coordonnées lorsque tu laisses un autre commentaire. Ces cookies dureront un an. Notes sur le film

Hawaii
Réalisé par Marco Berger
1h 46m, Argentina, 2013

This is my favorite feature, so far, of Argentine director, Marco Berger, even though it really only represents a refinement of the stylistic and narrative elements common to the rest of his work, rather than a major development or step forward:

• the essential and somewhat sentimentalized eroticism of male bonding;
• the postponement until bursting of any sort of consummation or fulfillment of that eroticism, due to the confusions or extreme shyness of his men;
• an arch and muy lenta y argentina elaboration of the rituals that constitute that bonding;
• the foreshortened framing that makes interior spaces even more intimate than they are;
• the emphasis on everything below the head, particularly the bulging crotches of the men;
• extended close-ups that allow his actors to explore layers of and changes in emotions in any particular scene.

Berger lifts a device used in the film’s title nearly wholesale from Lisandro Alonso‘s 2008 feature Liverpool [YouTube; you can legally watch the movie here on Amazon Prime via an affiliate link.] which is also a non sequitur, although Alonso’s feature is very different in tone and neither the word nor the city is any sort of catalyst as it is in Hawaii.

I’m a little disappointed in that use, but I probably shouldn’t be. Berger is as sensitive and patient director of actors as ever and uses Manuel Vignau from Plan B, here with a haircut, glasses, and from a different social class, in a way that makes me feel like the actor is some sort of stand-in for Berger. All of which is to say that I guess he’s becoming an auteur, and it’s fun to watch.