Can you imagine what "The Wizard of Oz" would be if the film ended with the scene where Dorothy and her fellow travelers spot the city of Oz and run through the poppies? Full of hope and with joy in their eyes, they frolic and gambol through the blossoms as the choir sings "You're out of the woods/you're out of the dark/ you're out of the night"?
Leaving us with our imaginations' conceptions of The Wizard and the Emerald City, might it still have been a masterpiece? Could it have been a wistful finale, full of possibilities?
"El Sur" ("The South"), as described elsewhere on this site, was cut short due to financial problems. The director intended to take the protagonist, Estrella, south--perhaps to learn more about what memories haunted her father. Instead, we are left wondering--and using our imaginations to consider, along with Estrella, what mysteries, and solutions, waited in the south.
"El Sur" is a very atmospheric film. It provides a series of vignettes, remembrances, of the young girl that pertain to her father, a man who was often distant and enigmatic. In one extraordinary scene, for example, Estrella hides beneath her bed for hours as other search for her. We see just her face. As day passes into night, the lighting of her face changes--as her moods change from impishness to regret to stubbornness, etc. In this scene, as in others, the director achieves a chiaroscuro effect.
Estrella sloughs off her own childish assumptions as she slowly peels away the layers of ignorance, hoping to understand her father. She follows him, observes him, trying to unravel the complexities of a man about whom she can never be objective.
This film feels like a meditation. Like Lasse Hallstrom's "My Life as a Dog", it takes the viewer into the life of a child, but it feels more contemplative.
Leaving us with our imaginations' conceptions of The Wizard and the Emerald City, might it still have been a masterpiece? Could it have been a wistful finale, full of possibilities?
"El Sur" ("The South"), as described elsewhere on this site, was cut short due to financial problems. The director intended to take the protagonist, Estrella, south--perhaps to learn more about what memories haunted her father. Instead, we are left wondering--and using our imaginations to consider, along with Estrella, what mysteries, and solutions, waited in the south.
"El Sur" is a very atmospheric film. It provides a series of vignettes, remembrances, of the young girl that pertain to her father, a man who was often distant and enigmatic. In one extraordinary scene, for example, Estrella hides beneath her bed for hours as other search for her. We see just her face. As day passes into night, the lighting of her face changes--as her moods change from impishness to regret to stubbornness, etc. In this scene, as in others, the director achieves a chiaroscuro effect.
Estrella sloughs off her own childish assumptions as she slowly peels away the layers of ignorance, hoping to understand her father. She follows him, observes him, trying to unravel the complexities of a man about whom she can never be objective.
This film feels like a meditation. Like Lasse Hallstrom's "My Life as a Dog", it takes the viewer into the life of a child, but it feels more contemplative.