Optical Illusions (Ilusiones ópticas)
About Film
Session Times
Sunday 4 April 6:15pm
Friday 9 April 8:45pm
REVIEWS
Optical Illusions is the strikingly promising feature debut from director Cristian Jimenez - who co-wrote the script of this ambitious satirical comedy-drama with the more established Alicia Scherson (Play; Tourists). Though set in the southern part of Chile, the gloomy humour in this tale of suburban intersections is unexpectedly Nordic - the influence of Sweden's Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor) and Finland's Aki Kaurismaki (The Man Without A Past) is evident, but Jimenez's intricate, textured patchwork is very much its own idiosyncratic creation.
TRIBUNE MAGAZINE
Neil Young
The struggles of Chilean society to come to terms with the marketing era are brought into sharp, witty focus in Optical Illusions, a delightfully observed comic drama whose gauche, homemade quality seems to enhance its charm. Featuring a straightforward, unpretentious script, an engaging range of insecure simpaticos and a high-scoring gag rate, the film goes where a thousand social-issue dramas have gone before but thankfully manages to keep its tongue in cheek.
The film fires off satirical arrows at our neuroses over appearances, obsession with work, cod psychology and the surveillance society. That it all adds up to a pretty bleak picture of the world we've made is more than mitigated by much well-judged, dark-hued humor.
VARIETY
Jonathan Hollan
An audiovisual achievement which consistently forces the audience to look beyond the characters’ faces to be able to appreciate the full screen.
There are characters wandering around this tragicomic atmosphere which does not quite make you laugh or cry. Emotions remind us of acques Tati, Wes Anderson (The eccentric Tenenbaums) and Aki Kaurismaki’s imaginary.
LAS ÚLTIMAS NOTICIAS
Leopoldo Muñoz
Often good films avoid being loud and concentrate on the possibilities of their own expression. Optical Illusions takes place in a world where everything is connected, where nothing is important and where everything is according to its won scale.
Jiménez shows an impressive control of the means he uses – the precision of framing, the adjustment of light, the direction of the cuts- and makes a film increasing in density and energy. There is more strength in Optical Illusions than in much the recent national cinema.
EL MERCURIO
Ascanio Cavallo
Optical Illusions is a film about the vision mechanism in humans and in the cinema.
It is a film that flows along its paradoxes, relating less to Kaurismaki ( an influence mentioned by some critics) and more to the comedies by Kitano, where the completely absurd situations hit against the hieratical distance of the narrative.
A considerable amount of talent and courage is required to base a comedy somewhere in the distance and lacking emphasis.
It is one of the more carefully crafted Chilean films of the last five years.
LA FUGA
Daniel Villalobos
The first film by Chilean Christian Jiménez is a choral story without a central protagonist where characters are close to each other at different levels. We watch a framework of relationships, many of them regulated by the power of the desire in a dark, wet and wintery Valdivia, which is as grey as the life of the characters.
EL MERCURIO
Ernesto Ayala
Optical Illusions is a comedy with a ridiculous humour
It is a black comedy breathing melancholy.
So much bad luck and tragedy is dealt by Jiménez and his co-script writer with a glove of black humour which is surprisingly resistant. Once again, the episodes exhibit self-confidence linking him to the first films by Raúl Ruiz or to the films by Finnish Aki Kaurismaki for his hidden laugh.
The director enjoys Inti Briones’ complicity, in charge of photography and the author of a first class visual calligraphy which favors big, delicious frames.
LA TERCERA
Rodrigo González M.
This is a black and fairly absurd comedy where anything arbitrary, contradictory or irrational finds its way and provides cohesion to the stories and unity to the whole film.
WIKEN - EL MERCURIO
Antonio Martínez
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