Citoyen d'honneur

Few movies have achieved to be as visceral and deep as this one. Without failing to keep your eyes on the screen until the last scene, besides making you laugh, panic and hold your breath countless times, A Distinguished Citizen questions the role of the artist, his ethics and his commitments. Mantovani, the main character, confronts his origins and his own creatures face to face, outside the artificiality of his new life as an European and a very well-succeeded writer. What comes from there is the source of his art emerging again: in the mediocrity of the Latin American little town's facts (and his repercussion on them), the whole system of art comes into question. Is the writer really able to stand for what he believes in and what has earned him a Noble prize? Should the artist violate real people in order to make his art relevant? This movie proves itself consistent with its plot by providing sturdy answers instead of falling into mere nihilism or sarcasm.

This is a perplexing story from Argentina about fame and the fact that as Thomas Wolfe advised, you can never go home again. A pampered writer, in fact, a Nobel prize winner, impulsively decides to return to his native village which he left half a century ago without ever returning. He longs to revisit where it all began and our sympathy is with him because who hasn't longed to retrace the paths of life to see what might have been? The provincials in his home town pull out all the stops to curry favor with the man, lectures are scheduled, there's a parade,, he asked to judge the local art contest and they erect a hastily improvised statue of him. But instead of understanding their jealousy of his fame mingled with their genuine pride in his accomplishments, he pompously mocks their country ways and their longing to escape from the monotony of provincial life. Suddenly the tables are turned; we see the the bumpkins as honest and fallible human beings even if they lack the will and talent to escape, and the writer is revealed to be the pompous ass he probably has always been. This transformation is very skillfully done in a film that is at once funny and sad. Highly recommended.

Predictable, for sure, but there were quite a few funny moments throughout the film that managed to win me over. I commend the lead (Oscar Martínez)for the subtlety he brought to this role in order to make the part(and the situations)convincingly amusing. Understanding or navigating the nuances of a foreign culture, even when the culture is from one's own childhood, can be a tricky task.

For starters, let me express that all the events that take place in this film can happen in real life, this fact being very welcome and of course, unusual. Not short of this, the genre explored here is indeed scarce. This film invades the spectator with a feeling of uneasiness very difficult to describe by minute five. And far from relieving you from this uncanny feeling, it builds up more and more and more and more. By the hour, I just had to stop and switch my TV to a stupid channel in order to go to bed peacefully. But don't misunderstand me: if you see my reviews you'll find I'm a tough critic of unnecessary violence and gore. What you have here is a mounting tension like when you see huge amounts of snow in the mountain ladder and you know a huge avalanche is due. Some other reviewers (of this same film) call this "predictable"; in my opinion they are completely mistaken. The avalanche is due, but you just don't know when and what it'll do. The nearest comparison I have at hand is a very old film starring Dustin Hoffman "The Straw Dogs", but it's just a poor comparison: "The Distinguished Citizen" is by far better and suspenseful. I watched the (almost) remaining half the next day and it just got better. Be warned, this film is better served for those who are emotionally sensitive: an idiot will just not notice that everything that goes on in this film is terribly wrong! I will end up saying that this is a class A film that deserves a place in the nominees for best foreign language films if not the Oscar. Highly recommended.

You know the excitement of life: the Nobel Prize from the Royal Family, and the Outstanding Citizen Award from the Mayor. You all know the embarrassment of life: sitting on the plane and hearing your name on the radio, recording a TV program suddenly inserted ads. Inexplicable in life, you all know: you have to buy a wheelchair for fellow teenagers, and you have to go to the invitation of strangers. The cemetery where the former residence was used for other purposes is deserted: you just don't know where this homesickness is placed.