Post Tenebras Lux (2012) Reviews

• Life is a dream

  macrol2013-08-03

  Reygadas new film takes a very personal perspective on the preoccupations that have been haunting him in his earlier movies. If I try to put them in phrases: How can one live with the contradictions of life without destroying yourself and others? How are we close to others, the ones that are less privileged,our partners, our children? The answer given by this tenebrous movie is not encouraging considering the fate of the main character. In the first scene a little girl (Reygadas daughter) plays on a wet field where cows, horses and dogs are romping. In the background we can hear thunder and it is getting dark. It is a threatening atmosphere but also a very lively one. The child is full of joy but at the same time the atmosphere is somber. Maybe the author is saying: The life of my child starts in a mysterious and majestic nature. Where will it lead and what is my part in it? Many scenes do not fit in a sequence, but this gives a dreamlike undertone to the movie which is underlined by the distortion to the edge of the image which is annoying at the beginning but fits very well to the overall atmosphere. A devilish and unhurried image appears in the next scene and made me think: The devil is at work and it takes its time. As a child one observes impartially what happens in the adult world. The devil disappears into the chamber of the sleeping parents closing the door to the childish curiosity and getting to work on the sleeping couple with his toolbox. Juan the father and main character is worried about his surroundings and himself and he experiments approaching the inhabitants of the little town where he lives in a stately house. He attends the AA meetings where he also meets seven his handyman at home who will later rob his house and put an end to his life. Nature is impressive but full of violence. Trees are cut in retaliation for family feuds. Dogs that accompany our lives are at the same time violently mistreated. The relation to his wife Natalia is marked with contradiction, by tenderness, violence and distance. He tries to stimulate desire in both with strong erotic but personal words. She plays Neil Youngs "Its a dream" while he dies after saying a few poetic last words. Life is an intense dream for Reygadas and he shares his dreams with very impressive and poetic language.

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• Haunting Expressionist Art

  briandoering862014-01-16

  An urban family, having moved to the countryside of Mexico, experiences raw drama and ambiguous fantasy in this cinematically fresh and rewarding film by Reygadas. The cinematography is ethereal and at times haunting when combined with such unsettling imagery. That's not to say the films imagery is horrifying in itself. The imagery of Post Tenebras Lux is unsettling in that it's picturesque and lush while also being new and confounding. This is partially due to it's hypnotic, almost tunnel vision take on the 4:3 ratio. This way of presenting the story only adds to it's mysterious nature. The narrative in itself is overtly expressionist as it's partial auto-biographical and moves with fluidity removed from reasoning. It's a film that's entrancing and bewildering at the same time - an atmosphere that just seems to work. It certainly worked to make one of the most original films of the year.

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• Dark, beautiful and cryptic... blends Malick and Lynch

  prelude_e_n_i_g_m_a2013-05-14

  Post Tenebras Lux and TO THE WONDER were my favorite films at Toronto's Festival in 2012. The plot description you get here on IMDb is as good as I could do so I won't bother with that. This film is like a cross between Malick and Lynch. It's beautiful, dark, bizarre and dreamy... and non-linear to add to the cryptic puzzle. Like Malick, the beautiful shots are about enough to hook you in... assuming you know how to experience a movie, not just watch what a studio spoon feeds you. Like Lynch, the dark underbelly of humanity is lurking beneath in a surreal fashion. Subconscious here we come! My favorite place to be! By the way, Reygadas won Best Director at Cannes for this. Now I hope I've added to the mystery, and didn't solve any of it!

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• Creative film making with drawbacks

  cinematic_aficionado2013-03-25

  After the dark, light. This is the nearest translation of this highly tentative piece of cinema whose story involves Mexican urban life, a couple in a whorehouse, a British rugby match with a guest appearance of devil himself. At the epicentre a man and his family. On the surface he has it all; a nice house, a beautiful wife and two healthy adorable kids. Beneath that, not all that shines is gold as he struggles with addiction and needs pornography to inspire spousal intimacy. Unfortunately and despite the high dose of creative filming the above is the only cohesive bit in this film. The added layers that aspire to connect to the title by juxtaposition of moments of light and darkness drove the film onto a one way street with lights out. A very mixed experience

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• There's a lot to ponder in 'Post Tenebras Lux' but a lot that you may cast aside just as quickly

  dipesh-parmar2014-02-06

  Mexican film-maker Carlos Reygadas returns with his most ambitious film yet with 'Post Tenebras Lux', in the most part using a self-made beer-glass camera lens which refracts his figures, doubles the image and leaves the screen's borders blurred. The opening sequence sums up the dreamlike drama of this film, where a young child is surrounded by a pack of dogs and horses from daylight to darkness. Your mind starts to panic as you assume the worst will happen, questions go through your mind about the wellbeing of the child. Its an unnerving scene. Things get stranger still, with a series of seemingly unconnected stories; where English children play rugby in a school; a red Lucifer/goat-like figure making housecalls with a toolbox; and a bathhouse where orgies take place in rooms named after Hegel and Duchamp. Inbetween the many short stories, a couple called Juan (Adolfo Jiménez Castro) and Natalia (Nathalia Acevedo) live in a big house with their children in the mountains somewhere in Mexico. Their lives and the people that work for them are the only concentrated narrative strands running through this film. These disparate short stories seem to be used to map out the different aspects of Reygadas's home country. The rugby match is the one scene that doesn't fit into this film, I assume its used as a unifying concept for Mexico's people who shouldn't be fighting amongst themselves but working as a team for the greater good, regardless of their backgrounds and beliefs. 'Post Tenebras Lux' is a sketchy film that flits between the real and unreal. By taking so many different snapshots of life, the message is often lost. These broad brushstrokes are occasionally impressive in situations you least expect, such as in the forest and the headless man. Beautifully filmed, Reygadas's vision and imagination unlocks images you may not have seen otherwise, or unsuspecting thoughts and feelings. There's a lot to ponder in 'Post Tenebras Lux' but a lot that you may cast aside just as quickly, what's left may be all you need from this film.

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