Carlos Reygadas

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Reygadas and the second or maternal family name is Castillo.
Carlos Reygadas
Reygadas at the Tokyo International
Filmfest in 2009
Born (1971-10-10) October 10, 1971 (age 52)
Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation(s)Film director, producer and screenwriter
Years active1997 - present

Carlos Reygadas Castillo (Spanish pronunciation:

filmmaker. Influenced by existentialist art and philosophy, Reygadas' movies feature spiritual journeys into the inner worlds of his main characters, through which themes of love, suffering
, death, and life's meaning are explored.

Reygadas has been described as "the one-man third wave of

Japón (2002) and Silent Light (2007), made him one of Latin America's most prominent writer-directors, with various critics having named Silent Light as one of the best films of its decade. His films Battle in Heaven (2005) and Post Tenebras Lux
(2012) divided critics.

He has co-produced other directors such as Amat Escalante (Sangre, Los Bastardos, Heli) or Pedro Aguilera (The Influence).

Golden Apricot
2019, Moderator: James Steffen

Early life

Reygadas first became fascinated with cinema in 1987, upon watching the works of the acclaimed Soviet/Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, who had died the previous year. In 1997, he entered a film competition in Belgium with his first short film, Maxhumain.

Japón (2002)

Two years after the release of Maxhumain, Reygadas began writing his first feature-length movie. Shooting for the film, named

signified, for although it is named after Japan, the island country itself is never portrayed, or even mentioned, in any way throughout; the story is set in a remote and impoverished Hidalgo
town.

The harsh atmosphere of this region is clear, but its remoteness also creates a dreamlike nature that accentuates the

metaphysical crisis the protagonist is experiencing. The plot follows the ascension of a man up a deep ravine where he plans to commit suicide, but is finally saved when he falls in love with Ascen (short for Ascension), an old religious and indigenous woman with whom he ultimately has sexual relations. The relation between these two characters has a clear allegorical significance that goes beyond its pure physicality and exposes the ultimate aim of an encounter, the true purpose of all human connectability. In this respect, although Japón focuses on the inner problems of a single individual, and the protagonist's relation both with the old woman and with the rustic surrounding where the story takes place, in its core it "reveals the potential that cinema has to be truly cosmopolitan, to the extent that it gives us structures for developing empathy towards the foreign and the unfamiliar, and for understanding more deeply the divide between self and other.".[2]

Japón contains a number of scenes of real animal cruelty and the British Board of Film Classification demanded cuts for its UK release in accordance with the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937. The excised scenes are described as an unsuccessful attempt to strangle a bird which then stumbles around injured on the ground and a dog being forced to 'sing along' to a song through the application of a painful stimulus.[3] The film also includes an unsimulated scene of a bird being shot down and then killed by having its head torn off, and the (off camera) slaughter of a pig.[4]

Battle in Heaven (2005)

In Reygadas' next film, the director once again presents an ontological exploration into the interior of his characters. This time the film follows Marcos, a working class man, who falls into an existential crisis when a child kidnapped by his wife and him, tragically dies. Marcos' remorse becomes even more excruciating when he kills Ana, the free-spirit daughter of his employer, with whom he has sexual relations. This murder deepens Marcos sense of guilt and leads him in a long and painful pilgrimage of repentance to the

Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and gained worldwide notoriety for its graphic depiction of sexual encounters between its characters .[5]

Silent Light (2007)

Similarly to Japón, in his third movie,

Jury Prize.[7]
The magazine Sight & Sound rated it number 6 on their list of the top films of 2007, while Roger Ebert ranked the film one of the top ten independent films of 2009.[6]

Post Tenebras Lux (2012)

In early 2012, Reygadas released

Best Director Award.[9]

Currently, Reygadas in working on his fifth film, titled Donde nace la vida, (2016) with the collaboration of Uruguayan cinematographer Diego Garcia, who worked in

San Sebastian International Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival. Furthermore, he has worked with the Spanish director and producer Jaime Rosales (Fresdeval Films), in the film El árbol (The Tree). This Spanish-Mexican co-production was directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona and starred Bosco Sodi
, a contemporary artist, as the main character. The film was presented at the 2009 Rotterdam Film Festival and received positive reviews.

Directorial style

Reygadas’s use of nonprofessional actors shows influence from

Italian neorealist philosophies on cinema. While this is a characteristic found in many independent movies, Reygadas also engages with his actors while guiding them through an internal process by which they can embody scenes that are both physically and emotionally demanding. Reygadas has metaphorically likened the relation between a director and his or her actors to a complete vote of confidence in which both take a risk and enter an adventure: "Pretend I'm a climber and invite you to the Everest. I tell you that I have gone twice and there are certain risks: you can have a stroke, fall, or die because of an avalanche. You decide whether or not to go up with me. And that's it."[11]
For him, cinema is closer to poetry than to the dramatic arts and hence more focused on capturing the essence of a character through the person filmed than the individual's acting ability.

Reygadas’ use of long takes and wide shots have been said to depict the sublime as an aesthetic quality found in nature, that can manifest itself both as a frightening vital force and in more subtle ways.[citation needed] He has opted to shoot all but two of his films in CinemaScope.

Filmography

Year Original title English title Production country Language Length Award nominations
1999 Maxhumain MaxHumain Belgium Silent 10 min
2002
Japón
 		Japón Mexico Spanish 130 min
Directors Fortnight
– "Special Mention" Camara d'Òr Award
2005
Batalla en el Cielo
 		Battle in Heaven Mexico, France, Germany Spanish 105 min Cannes Film Festival "In Competition"
2007
Luz Silenciosa
 (A.K.A. Stellet Licht) 		Silent Light Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands Plautdietsch 110 min
Jury Prize Award
2010 Este es mi Reino This is my Kingdom Mexico Spanish 10 min
Berlin Film Festival
2012 Post Tenebras Lux Post Tenebras Lux Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands Spanish 110 min
Best Director Award
.
2018 Nuestro tiempo Our Time Mexico Spanish 173 min Venice Film Festival "In Competition"

References

  1. ^ "Sight & Sound's films of the decade". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. ^ "Cosmopolitan Aesthetics in the Films of Carlos Reygadas". Flowtv.org. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  3. ^ Japon – Alejandro Ferretis, Magdalena Flores, Yolanda Villa
  4. ^ "Austin360 Movies: 'Japon' Reviews – Los Angeles Times". Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  5. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Battle in Heaven". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  6. ^ "Silent Light" Archived 2010-11-07 at the Wayback Machine, Film Forum website
  7. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Silent Light". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-12. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
  8. ^ "Someone Else's Memories".
  9. ^ "Awards 2012". Cannes. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  10. ^ "Mantarraya Preps Reygadas' 'Life,' Shoots Escalante's 'Untamed' (EXCLUSIVE)". 13 October 2015.
  11. ^ "¿Quién diablos es Carlos Reygadas?". 24 November 2012.

External links

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