Nuestro tiempo

The theme and its treatment are a bit 1966 age: free love and open couples, with the underlying condition that everybody can "experience" others sexually, since real and deep love is between man and wife.

But... When arrives a Phil, that can actually push off former "love", problems arise, and hausband get jealous.

But he's not fihgting with physical strenght, like the bulls he breeds; he accuses instead his friend of being unloyal... but actually Carlos at the beginning was not angry of his wife having sex with Phil.

So the story is pretty confused, while dialogues have parts of cold logic, to unfold and manage the situation.

In substance, the bottom line could be that Carlos wants to be sure that he is loved, and for that, he pushes his wife in bed with other men, checking out if she still loves him... It has to said that images are very intriguing, camera, mouvements and all visual aspects are very fine.

Masterpiece. Dark. But amazing. Reygadas as always plays with the language of film.

Carlos Reygadas's cinema is one of meticulous observation and grandiose revelations. Casting himself and his real-life wife, the Mexican auteur boldly explores with spellbinding visuals the dark corners of relationships, dissecting patriarchy along the way. A domestic drama of majestic proportions.

Last month each viewing of The Souvenir lifted me one step into an aesthetic that I couldn't initially appreciate. And now it's happening again, with Our Time, by Carlos Reygadas. (The reviews on Metacritic are abysmally low.)

My first viewing, last night, was similar to that of at least one reviewer. In the middle of an interesting or puzzling shot, your heart breaks open and you haven't the faintest idea why. Has the spaciousness of the landscape prepared you? Or the passage of time? Or the tension? At the end (or in my case, as always, the next morning) you are left with such sadness. For...? For the human condition?

In his first sentence one reviewer calls the film "spiritual." Yes, at times wasn't there the sense of something beneath the surface, silent, all-embracing? Needs to be seen again.

Esther is the head of a family running a cattle ranch in Mexico. She starts an affair with a ranch hand. Her husband Juan has to deal with their open relationship and her volatility.

This reminds me a lot of Terrence Malick. It's like the filmmaker is trying to be the Mexican Malick. It's not everyone's taste. I would skip the more experimental shots like the mechanical insides of the vehicle. I get his intention to make the sex more brutal and less romantic. The horse goring scene is truly shocking. I had to stop because I lost the thread of the story. I kept thinking if they used a real horse. It looks so real. My main issue with this movie is that it mainly follows the wrong character. Juan's emotional journey is the main story and it holds the possibility of a great shock ending. I thought that the horse goring is some sort of foreshadowing. All in all, the filmmaking is masterful. The subject matter is interesting. It is long at three hours. That probably drove away most people.

As an Australian watching this narrative unfold in a Mexican life unknown to me was both refreshing and original. Especially the cinematography and slow yet precise direction. Kudos.