La Frontera

This fine film appeared recently as part of a Chilean film festival at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It is a very moving portrayal of people caught up in struggles with a dictatorial society and harsh weather conditions. The romance between the two main characters serves as a fine example of how we all look for relevance in a world dominated by evil and natural forces.

The acting, the script, the cinematography and even the music are all superb. This is the type of film that you will rarely encounter from our Hollywood gristmill. Chilean filmmakers are obviously not afraid to confront their past and to deal with it by producing great artistic films. I have been going to this festival quite regularly and only hope that more people will get to see fine cinema from Chile. Highly Recommended.

I enjoyed the movie a lot. I like movies in which the characters are kind of ¨mysterious¨ at the beginning and then become clearer as the film progresses. Ramillo is ¨dumped¨ onto this island as an exile, but we don't know anything at first about why he's an exile or where he's being exiled from. All of this is gradually revealed in the film. All of the characters are fascinating. The drunk who dies at the beginning, the diver, the men in the bar, the woman and her father, the ¨seer¨ who warns them that the sea is coming.

I wonder why it was named ¨La Frontera.¨ I also wonder why Maite does not go with Ramillo. She seems to have lost her mind somewhat at the end. She is sexually starved, but then refuses a life with Ramillo.

Superbly written and acted. I'm still thinking about this movie, 15 years later, after seeing it at a local art film movie house in Ann Arbor. The pastoral beauty of the Maine-like seaside isolation is beautifully and bleakly shot, and the location is a perfect choice for this reflective look at how we banish and bury the truth and emotional life. It's the ocean, the natural world, which keeps track of the past and the present, and does not let anyone forget. I give this film 10 votes out of 10 for vibrant use of Latin-American Magical Realism plus Best "guys dancing with guys" in a bar in Nowheresville scene ever. A quiet, thoughtful movie that precisely conveyed a different way of thinking about the world, and which changed a lot of the ways that I think about the world--exactly what the power of film was meant to accomplish.

A very lyrical movie from Chile, reminded me much of Tarkovsky's work. The acting was also excellent. This was certainly the best movie shown this season in our international movie club.

This movie teaches us a lot of useful things. First: making good movies about political issues is possible. Second: You can make a good chilean movie about chilean aspects of chilean life (many chilean directors want to do French, Italian, or New York look-like movies, ashamed of their own roots). Third: You can a good movie about political issues, about Chilean stuff and have success in both theaters and critic. A very human and poetic love story during the Pinochet's dictatorship is shown in La Frontera, when oppositors were sent to little villages far away from everything and a series of strange relations start. With great performances of and Patricio Contreras and Gloria Laso. The scene in the bar when the men are dancing between them is just memorable. Hector Rios' cinematography is superb. If you can see this movie, I recommend it.