Reviews

...And I was wondering why. That guy on the Washington Post said the film is boring because "it´s like watching some other´s family album"... On the paper, I´d agree with him, but after watching the movie i have to say that I do not. I guess it has to do with the little, precious details (those long travellings inside the house, for instance: this is a very well directed movie), the humor, the music, with Gassman of course, and with the fact that we´re actually watching the whole life of a man we cannot dislike: the last scene, with the 80 years old Gassman -the grandfather now- posing with all his family for the photo (as in the very first scene, when he´s a baby surrounded by people that will die eventually) has such deep emotional impact, because, I guess, shows finally that life is a trip that inevitably has an end, and where the new ones will occupy the seat of the old ones, and that´s how it should be, and the movie has a sense of calm acceptation of that. In "La famiglia" you see, as Cocteau said, "death doing her work". It´s true that the story seems to have no point, but also, I don´t think life has a point. At least I cannot see one...

I really liked this movie. In my opinion, 7/10.

I was so enthusiastic for this film... before seeing it. "Así es la vida" is the first latin american commercially released film shot on digital video (Pal system, of course) and, beyond that technical achievement, it´s of little interest. The movie shows (and, as usual in Ripstein, into a sordid scenario) a woman complaining and punishing herself because her husband left her and went away with another (younger) woman. When the man comes back for taking the kids with him, then she will decide how to take revenge...

I think the question here is: how long, as a viewer, can you stand a woman complaining without anything actually happening? Certainly there is no dramatic progression -perhaps the film would have worked better if the story showed this couple from the beginning of the relationship so we could follow their degradation- and the characters are so cliché... it´s obvious Ripstein here is using the sordid elements not to reveal the depths of his characters but simply to shock us gratuitously. As always the dialogs are soup-opera kind, but here they just don´t work and seem a little pretentious. Visually, the film lacks appeal. The director uses long one-shot takes that give the movie a monotonous feeling. Anyway, I must say that the election of the DV -with all its imperfections- as format helps a lot to build the atmosphere and the decoration is just brilliant.

Some OKs, like using the tv and the musical group to show the feelings of the characters, a very funny take (above all, the film has a certain black humor that I appreciate) where we see the very same Ripstein through a mirror, don´t save this picture. By the way, it feels like he has seen Von Trier´s "Breaking the waves" a lot... If you have seen Ripstein´s best "Principio y Fin" then you have already seen "Así es la vida". Hmmm.