Petra

Jaime Rosales's work is outright unclassifiable concerning a loner artist called Petra and showing the changing relationship and the cruelty of a narcissistic pervert that causes personal tragedies. Jaime Rosales' ambitious work isn't for all tastes , dealing with the identity of Petra's father who has been hidden from her all her life. When her mother (Petra Martinez) dies, Petra (Bárbara Lennie) embarks on a quest which leads to Jaume (Joan Botey) , a celebrated artist and an egoistic , ruthless man. As she searches for the truth, Petra meets Marisa (Marisa Paredes) , Jaume's wife, and their son Lucas (Alex Brendemül) . But fate's cruel logic is derailed by a twist that opens a path to hope and redemption . Likewise, the flashbacks that the story operates allow us to play with the expectations of the viewer, who discovers, generally, at the same time as Petra the hidden truths that end up exploding, sometimes too late .

A weird , messy and twisted film , being carrried out by means of a disjoined realization in various disordered episodes .It deals with a number of roles who intertwine in a spiral of malice, violence , family secrets and death. The moralizing character of Petra lies in the reconciliation of a paradox between a subject with dramatic potential and its form, which keeps the viewer at a distance and thus prevents their immersion in the diegesis. A non-linear, elliptical , untidy, narrative divided into chapters signals the presence of an extra-diegetic narrator who directs attention to what is to come while leaving the dramatic events out of the picture, and gradually the stories will drive them all to the edge , while essentially focusing on the irreversible causal chain they create. In this messed up gap created between form and content, the performance of the actors is particularly surprising. It remains without excesses, while it is restricted. Director Jaime Rosales is always trying to find new ways of expressing his art and his technique, he may disconcert those who, having seen one of his films, think he can be classified in one category or another. Uncertain, slow, the movements of the camera also contribute strongly to the sobriety of this game: it moves in the manner of an individual, zooming in on the characters first captured in a general plan, then directing its attention to one, then the other , before focusing your gaze on a surrounding object or nature. Unfortunately for them, but luckily for those who are in search of authentic artists, One of his films can be in black in white, the next one will be in color. In one of his works the unordered dialogue will be almost inaudible whereas in the following one it will be as clear and significant as can be. At times he will favor fixed shots while at others tracking shots will be the norm. In some sequences the time will be stretched, in some others contracted. So, do not try to label Jaime Rosales, you are bound to fail. Simply because the man loves experimentation and whether one likes his body of work or not, it cannot be denied that he is is a sincere, demanding artist constantly renewing himself.

The motion picture was regularly and disorderly directed by Jaime Rosales. Born in Barcelona in 1970, Jaime Rosales is not the routine kind of filmmaker but an offbeat director who honors not only Spanish cinema as well as the world cinema. The future darling of film festivals paradoxically started by studying economics. But more passionate about the seventh art, he changed course and joined two different film schools, EICTV in Cuba first and then AFTRSBE in Sydney, Australia. He soon found himself directing, three shorts for starters, which would be followed by eight features, all selected and awarded in film festivals, one of which, 'La Soledad' , even proving a surprise public success. If, as I said, Rosales never makes the same film twice, he does have one recurring theme. Plus a sub-theme, the harmful effects of violence on the seemingly well ordered everyday life of people, generally described beforehand, minutely and... slowly. Which is best exemplified by his first effort, 'Las horas del dia' (2003), with its belated revelation that the main protagonist, whose ordinary daily life has been described in detail, is... a serial killer. Violence will later upset the characters of all of his films, that inherent in solitude and cancer in 'La soledad' (2007), the ruthlessness of an ETA commando in 'Tiro en la cabeza' (2008), the loss of a child' in 'Sueño y silencio' (2014). It is the brutality of society against young people that induces the couple of 'Hermosa Juventud' or ¨Beautiful Youth¨(2014) , here Rosales takes a Verite approach to an unfortunate couple attempting to make a porn movie which gives the movie an added layer of reality and he uses technology in an interesting and new way to mark the passage of time.

I've seen this movie as intended in spanish with the help of english subtitles. So i got the actors voice but i relied on the translators work. First of all research Jamie Rosales and his other works and you will understand that his movies are out of the ordinary and he is a excentric director leaning towards dramatic stories. His style is to show sometimes things others would feel shame in and leave things out, where other directors see profit and action.

It takes time to dive in deep into the minds of the few protagonists and yes i am glad Jamie Rosales broke the wheel of fortune here, that spins in the same ways since the begin of dramatic art. Do we have a need for characters redeeming themselfes? Is there a need for the good to prevail? Is a movie exciting that gives away so much of it's plot right before we see it? This are topics that will not be exclusively answered here but it is a start to see stories can be both strange but yet familiar.

This is not your ordinary movie and does not want our belive in mankind to be restored. As a matter of fact the movie is telling half the story and we make up the rest inbetween. Sometimes it is confusing but this movie is meant to be the experience of reading dramtic poetry for the cinema. He gives us the time to imagine things which makes Petra not such a fast paced experience and he leaves in conversations that seem useless, but any smalltalk is here to let us see how the protagonists tick. Actually there are few scenes where i wondered how it made it's way to the movie and others not but then again the overall outcome and acting is good and the way this movie is built really impresses me.

It isn't cinema for the masses or a good film to watch on the first date, but should you happen to be lost for words or like to challenge the other, then take this one.

The story told in "Petra" is fragmented in 7 chapters, but is not told lineally, so the first chapert we see is the second, then the third, the first, and so on. This is a "fresh" way to structure the narrative, with some potential regarding the building of suspense. However, at some point, it becomes useless in its functions, even making some chapters irrelevant in all its content (thats the power of an elipsis, so turning back in time is pointless unless we tell something new, something we lost in the way). Despite this caracteristics, the movie does his job in creating human drama, may be execesive sometimes, and senseless in the end, but powerful during the majority of the time.

There is no development of the characters, there are great actors but they are under utilized in an absurd and ridiculous plot that reminds you of the worst soap operas. The music is misplaced and there are many moments with dialog that are full of platitudes and dont add to the story or the character or anything at all. The photography is mediocre, the décor and clothing ugly.... insufferable!