Movie 55: El Secreto De Sus Ojos

A deputy counsellor, now retired, is still obsessed with a case from 25 years in his past and is writing a novel about it. Told partly in flash back and partly in the present the film shows us what happened then (possibly fictionalised a little as its his book) and where the characters ended up now.

Los Coldo Casion if you will. And damn is it good. This swept the Argentinian Oscars and it’s a shame that the actual Oscars don’t put foreign movies up for other categories as this would be up for make up and cinematography at least.

Before I get in to that, I’ll just briefly say that this is a well written, well acted thriller. I’m not clear on how the justice system works there as the main character appears to work for the court but is also a detective. The dialogue is witty at times, its very well plotted and Guillermo Francella plays a loveable drunk type character. Unfortunately I can’t get in to the plot too much for spoiler reasons.

The cast play themselves then and now and the make up is simple but flawless. Basically your talking hair styles, facial hair and some wrinkles but the effect is perfect. And as for the cinematography…

Well, when you have a copy to hand (which you should) watch the scene at the football match very carefully. I went back and double checked. The camera flies in from a distance to the stadium, over to the pitch to follow the game, in to the crowd where it sits with our characters, then through the crowd, in a chase around the stadium (including a 10 foot drop from a wall) all the way back on to the pitch. Roughly 5 minutes, no visible edits. I don’t know if this is actually one shot, I highly doubt it and can guess where there was a cheat, but it’s either amazing camera work, very good CGI (it cost fuck all so I doubt that) or very masterful editing. Simply STUNNING stuff.

It pulls no punches, has plenty of twists and turns and a heck of a plot but it would be worth it for what was in that last paragraph. Go check it out

Next up: The Lovely Bones