La flor

The six stories contained in this film are diferently attractive, full of suspense but also laughs, greatly filmed. It's a risky but greatly structured film. The performances are superb.

Each part is a different genre, howEVER, even though each one is a different genre, they all have one thing in common: there is nothing in each of the six parts.

Now I understand why most of the reviews only review the idea of this. Having multiple movies connected together, but non really review the movies themselves. Why? Because they are uterly boring as hell. Not really an intriguing story and I think this could all be combined into a few hours, instead there are these long scenes of nothing and boring discussions.

Ô miracle, I managed to see the four opuses. Superb exercise of obstinacy, perseverance and self-denial, because, frankly, I severely fought against boredom and even sleep.

Pros: the four main actresses Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa and Laura Paredes are remarkable. With a special mention for the scene during which Pilar Gamboa is of an incredible verbal violence, on the phone, summoning the distant interlocutor to choose sides. She really scared me! And Elisa Carricajo is irresistibly gorgeous.

Cons: this movie is a huge labyrinth and, when stuck in a dead end, you are teleported to another place, without understanding how or why. I was naively hoping that the fourth and final opus would complete the three previous ones and then offer a global picture for this endless work. In vain! What is the interest of this film for a viewer? Especially the last opus which is the worst of all. I objectively admit that some scenes are worthy of interest, about 40/60 minutes versus a vertiginous total of 800! About 5% of the film approximately ...

A posteriori, I did not understand at all the short speech of the director Mariano Llinás who tries to explain, at the beginning of the first opus, the choice of the name La Flor and the drawing on the poster which would be closely related to the structure of the film itself, theoretically speaking. Honestly, why a flower? Why not consider a dog with 5 legs, 1/2 tail and 1 head, or an ice cream with 6 scoops of 6 distinct flavors and whipped cream, or quite simply an empty poster? Mariano Llinás seriously needs to stop smoking hash and hiding himself behind a facade of a two-penny poet. This film was even presented at the festival of Biarritz (south of France) dedicated to Latin America, in competition with the masterpiece A Twelve-Year Night (2018) and the excellent Pájaros de verano (2018). The Biarrots should definitely learn to sorting out the wheat from the chavs. Anyway, if you are an insomniac and are looking for a sleeping pill, La Flor is the solution, even if it's hardly swallow-able.

Rainer Maria Fassbinder in the 1980ies, Wong Kar-Wai in the 1990ies, Paolo Sorrentino at present, Mariano Llinás is on a par with those film makers. This is what cinematography is all about: pure emotions in artistic depiction with narrative grandeur. This film is a drug.