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INTACTO
6/10
aka
Intact : Spain 2001 : Juan Carlos Fresnadillo : 108 mins
A
mildly surrealist kind of crime-thriller, Intacto imagines an intriguing
alternative universe where luck, rather than being an abstract concept,
is a practical commodity which can be transferred from person to person
by touch and thus accumulated in especially ‘gifted’ and therefore fortunate
individuals. The ‘god of good luck’ is Samuel Berg (Max Von Sydow), a
guilt-stricken concentration-camp survivor who lives secretly under a
casino among the volcanic wastelands of Tenerife. As the film begins,
Samuel’s long-time student (and surrogate son) Federico (Eusebio Poncela),
offends his mentor by announcing his plans to leave the old man behind
and seek his way in the outside world. Samuel responds by embracing Federico
– and thus absorbing all of the younger man’s good luck.
Seven
years on, Federico remains desperate for revenge. He must locate a worthy
‘opponent’ for Sam, and (in a development eerily – but coincidentally
- reminiscent of Unbreakable)
settles on Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a petty criminal who has just survived
a plane crash. In a relationship that recalls recent Argentinian hit Nine
Queens, Federico takes the wayward young lad under his wing and
trains him to succeed in the bizarre tests of luck needed to progress
towards a final confrontation with Sam. Complicating matters is a persistent
cop, Sara (Monica Lopez), who herself has accumulated a store of ‘undeserved
luck’ in tragic circumstances…
Intacto
isn’t an easy film to summarise,
nor is it especially simple to follow. Debutant director Fresnadillo
and co-writer Andres Koppel create a puzzling world of complicated rules,
not all of which are full explained. We can sort-of-follow what’s going
on, but several sequences – especially those involving a hapless bunch
of non-gifted ordinary folk known as ‘captives’ – remain frustratingly
opaque. The film is never less than watchable, however, in part thanks
to the commanding turns from Von Sydow (in his intermittent appearances)
and Poncela, though Sbaraglia (who looks like a cross between Tom Cruise
and Matthiew Kassowitz) grows into his part a young man who, realising
he’s way out of his depth, rapidly has to find finds his feet.
But
there’s something naggingly unsatisfying about Intacto that ensures
it falls short of, say, Being John Malkovich
or Scanners. Alternative universes (especially those featuring
Phil-Dickian ‘psi’ powers) are tricky things to maintain, and it’s vital
that all aspects of the plot must follow a coherent internal logic. That
doesn’t quite happen here. It doesn’t help that Fresnadillo’s visual input
seldom approaches the flight-of-fancy originality of his script – cinematographer
Xavier Jimenez’s creates a conventional ‘look’ (the cheesy casino scenes
recall Croupier), and
while aspects of Cesar Macarron’s art direction nod towards David Lynch,
there’s a lot more to crafting a Lynchian nightmare-world than placing
ruby-coloured props among a cobalt-blue background or having people walking
down long, blood-red corridors. Lucio Godoy’s musical score, likewise,
is rather too familiar and standard-issue for comfort.
Intacto
has all the makings of a dazzling,
truly Borgesian thriller – and two of the ‘luck games’ are sensationally
imaginative highlights which the Argentinian master would undoubtedly
approve. It would be unfair to spell out exactly what goes on, save to
say that one involves a winged, treacle-hunting insect, and the other
a Return of the Jedi-style race through a forest. These sequences
alone confirm Fresnadillo’s talent and his promise, making it all the
more frustrating that so many other elements of the film fall relatively
flat. There’s a first-draft feel to some of the dialogue (“I’ve known
you since you survived that earthquake,” Sam helpfully informs Federico
early on), but Fresnadillo and Koppel’s most serious error of judgement
comes when Von Sydow delivers a spellbinding monologue on his experiences
in the concentration camp. We cut from Sam’s dark tale to a Vegas-style
casino display that reads ‘WIN THE JACKPOT’ - a painfully crass treatment
of the most tragic of subjects, awkwardly out of place in what is an absorbing
but essentially gimmicky, somewhat pretentious drama.
19th
August, 2002
(seen 15th, UGC Edinburgh - Edinburgh
Film Festival)
For and interview
with the director Juan-Carlos Fresnadillo
click here.
For all the
reviews from the 2002 Edinburgh Film Festival
click here.
by Neil
Young
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