La vie des poissons

The Life of Fish is a very accomplished little movie from Chile. Andres, a travel guide who is frequently traveling the world has a brief stop in Chile where he attends a friend's birthday party. In addition to seeing old friends, he meets an old flame in the party. They used to be in love once but now she is a divorced mum with two kids. This reunion leads them to re-examine their relationship and why they never married each other. Will she take the plunge and leave her kids with their father and join Andres on his travels? Life of Fish is played in real time and at the end you feel as though you've spent a very worthwhile 83 minutes. It is sensitively directed and beautifully acted. The soundtrack is also terrific. It is, in many ways, reminiscent of Richard Linklater's Before Sunset.

The Director of this film, Matías Bize, started out early his career. His movies have grown a lot since his first attempts, and if we compare his first big hit (in Chile) "en la cama", we can really observe an abysmal difference with "la vida de los peces". While the first movie has the same elements, meaning a small confined space with two main characters mainly talking to each other during the whole movie, it's only in "la vida de los peces" that we can have a real insight in the characters, they actually feel alive and throughout the movie we start to evolve feelings for them. My opinion is that the script is much better than his other attempts, for this time situations happen in a way we don't expect them. I'm usually not fond of this type of films, but this time I had a great surprise. I think, the Director is finally starting to master his style.

Matías Bize's 2010 film LA VIDA DE LOS PECES (The Life of Fish) takes place over a single evening at a Chilean house party. Andrés (Santiago Cabrera) is visiting Chile for the first time in 10 years, but he's due to fly back to his adopted Berlin the next day. The action of the film consists solely of Andrés wandering from room to room, catching up with people dear to him that he hasn't seen in a long time. Conversations with the friends of his youth hint at the tragedy they shared, which ultimately drove Andrés abroad, but it is Beatriz (Blanca Lewin) who ultimately lies at the centre of Andrés' youth, and their reunion after a decade leads them to a difficult choice.

For the most part, this film is intolerable melodrama. The script is unfocused (there's a bizarre scene where some pre-teens ask Andrés a series of graphic questions about what sex acts he's partaken in), and the acting lacks any subtlety. The soundtrack is the emotionally gushing pop music one associates more with late '90s teen television dramas like "Party of Five" than serious films. Now, the ending of his film is satisfying enough that I'm happy I held out and watched the whole thing, but it's bizarre that Chile thought this film worthy of submission for the Best Foreign Film category at the 2011 Academy Awards.

La vida de los peces starts out with an abrupt conversation, in which Andrés, a journalist working for travel magazines, just returned to Chile after 10 years of absence. His friends asked him if he has "talked to her," referring to Andrés's ex-girlfriend Bea. As Andrés and Bea finally encounter each other and strike a conversation (after spending much time avoiding the subject they want to talk about - that is their relationship), we discover the reason Andrés left town and went to Germany, Bea's current married life, and that they still have (lots of) feelings left for each other. While the setting is purposely made to be a confined space crowded with people, strangers and friends alike, the winding paths Andrés and Bea took to avoid each other and to finally meet each other are the journeys to find themselves, especially Andrés. Regardless of the ending (and they say it's not the end that matter, but rather the process of getting there), I really enjoyed the conversations between the two protagonists that seem very realistic, the strangely romantic moments where they were just standing there looking at goldfish circling around recounting their memories of the past, and especially the final scene, which must have been one of the best ending scenes ever in all the movies that I have seen.

I had never seen a Chilean film before the 'Life of Fish' was screened during a Spanish language film festival here in Perth, Western Australia.

I do not understand how MdIndeHond could find this film boring, I was mesmerised by its slow pace, the use of silence (there was almost no soundtrack), the constraint of filming the entire action within the confines of a house, the believable characters and dialogue and the utterly compelling acting.

'Life of Fish' may appeal more to older viewers than 20-somethings. I certainly am aware of missed opportunities in my own life and could relate to Andres dilemma.

If 'Life of Fish' is typical of the quality of Chilean film making then I shall certainly make an effort to see any other Chilean films that happen to reach 'the most isolated major city in the world'.