"Fuga", an Argentine-Chilean co-production was shown recently in a cable channel. Not having a clue as to what it was about, the premise looked interesting. This is the first full length feature directed by Pablo Larrain.
The plot centers around a composer, Eliseo Montalban, who might be a genius, but who can't deliver his masterpiece because not only is his composition difficult to execute, but it represents for its creator the sum of the trauma he experienced as a young man when he watched in horror the raping and murder of his own sister in mysterious circumstances. We watch how Montalban, who is going to conduct the premiere of his own creation at the Municipal theater in Santiago, witnesses from the podium the death of his beloved Georgina from what appears a massive coronary with blood exploding from her head.
Eliseo Montalban goes crazy after his loss. The man ends up in a mental institution where he adorns the walls of the room he is confined to, with the Danza Macabra musical score. Eliseo has gone mad after the failure of his debut by attacking, and destroying six pianos in a conservatory, which clearly indicates he is quite disturbed. In a way, he is fighting his own demons in the only way he knows how.
Enter Ricardo Coppa, a man who is interested in finding the legendary composition. Everything leads him to the room in the now crumbling building that housed the hospital in which Eliseo Montalban was a patient. To his amazement, he discovers under the wall paper what had eluded him from the start. Coppa, an untalented pianist wants to make the composition his own.
"Fuga" has some visual elements that are at first appealing, but unfortunately, the narrative, as conceived by Mateo Iribarren, Hernan Rodriguez Matte, and the director, becomes too weird for its own good. The casting of Benjamin Vicuna as the mad composer, doesn't add up anything to the plot because this role demanded a much more experienced actor. Gaston Pauls, a good Argentine film star does what he can, but he is not helped by a screen play that becomes tiresome as it goes along. The music of Juan Cristobal Meza is interesting, as is the cinematography of Miguel Joan Littin.
Watch "Fuga" as a curiosity.
The plot centers around a composer, Eliseo Montalban, who might be a genius, but who can't deliver his masterpiece because not only is his composition difficult to execute, but it represents for its creator the sum of the trauma he experienced as a young man when he watched in horror the raping and murder of his own sister in mysterious circumstances. We watch how Montalban, who is going to conduct the premiere of his own creation at the Municipal theater in Santiago, witnesses from the podium the death of his beloved Georgina from what appears a massive coronary with blood exploding from her head.
Eliseo Montalban goes crazy after his loss. The man ends up in a mental institution where he adorns the walls of the room he is confined to, with the Danza Macabra musical score. Eliseo has gone mad after the failure of his debut by attacking, and destroying six pianos in a conservatory, which clearly indicates he is quite disturbed. In a way, he is fighting his own demons in the only way he knows how.
Enter Ricardo Coppa, a man who is interested in finding the legendary composition. Everything leads him to the room in the now crumbling building that housed the hospital in which Eliseo Montalban was a patient. To his amazement, he discovers under the wall paper what had eluded him from the start. Coppa, an untalented pianist wants to make the composition his own.
"Fuga" has some visual elements that are at first appealing, but unfortunately, the narrative, as conceived by Mateo Iribarren, Hernan Rodriguez Matte, and the director, becomes too weird for its own good. The casting of Benjamin Vicuna as the mad composer, doesn't add up anything to the plot because this role demanded a much more experienced actor. Gaston Pauls, a good Argentine film star does what he can, but he is not helped by a screen play that becomes tiresome as it goes along. The music of Juan Cristobal Meza is interesting, as is the cinematography of Miguel Joan Littin.
Watch "Fuga" as a curiosity.