Citoyen d'honneur

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.

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.

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.

Thomas Wolfe once wrote that we can never go home again. He meant that we could not go back to a time when home was the same as it is in our memories. Homes change, cities change, people change; everything changes. That is the theme of the wonderful Argentinian film " The Distinguished Citizen". It is a well-written, well-directed, and well-acted film about trying to go home again, and the ultimate impossibility of accomplishing a goal that meets our memories. I generally do not like films about writers; and I particularly loathe films about writers with "writer's block" because there is no such thing. A writer writes, all the time, and never has enough time to write about all the things he or she wants to write about. I am a writer. I have several books on Amazon. I could never stop writing. A real writer never stops writing for any reason. But this film does not really center on writer's block; it is about trying to recapture one's past. And of course, the protagonist is doomed in his quest. The film goes on to show us why. If you are a successful writer, people will be jealous and try to discredit you. If you are an unsuccessful writer, people will encourage you and give you more credit than you deserve. Writing is too important to be left to the uninspired. The acting is first rate and I recommend this film highly.

Black comedies are a difficult movie genre. They have to get the tone exactly right, otherwise they are either not funny enough or too much over the top. In this respect, 'El ciudadano ilustre' is perfect. It's understated enough to be subtle, and surreal enough to make you laugh. It has this quality in common with that other Argentinian surprise from three years ago, 'Relatos Salvajes'.

'El ciudadano ilustre' is about a Nobel-prize winning author living in Spain, who decides to accept an invitation to become honorary citizen of his hometown, a sleepy backwater in the south of Argentina in which all of his novels are set. At first, it is unclear why he decides to accept this invitation, and only in the final minutes of the film this question is more or less answered. This nice twist at the end is the cherry on the cake.

The author, used to being admired and praised everywhere he goes, has to adapt to the less sophisticated way of life in his hometown. Already during the drive from the airport, he is in for a surprise. The car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and he is forced to tear his latest novel apart in order to use the pages for lighting a camp fire. It's symbolic for the lack of respect the local people have for his novels. Some of them are not extremely enthusiastic about the way their town is portrayed.

His visit starts a series of unexpected events, in which art, sex, violence and local politics play a part. But the film's bizarre story line is not its only quality. Above all, it's the way the local community is shown. In one small scene, the author is sitting on a street bench when an old man appears from a nearby house to bring him a cup of the Argentinian drink 'mate'. He drinks in silence, returns the cup to the man, who re-enters the house. End of scene.

'El ciudadano ilustre' is a wonderful film, highly recommended for anyone who likes understated humor and surreal situations.