Platillos volantes

"Platillos Volantes" (2003 - 99 minutes), written and directed by the Spanish director Óscar Aibar, is a movie with an Ufological theme. The plot is inspired in a real history occurred in Terrassa, a Catalan industrial city, in 1972, when two textile workers, Juan Teru Vallés (21 years) and José Félix Rodríguez Montero (47 years), had been found decapitated on the railway of the Barcelona-Zaragoza train. They had left the following message: "The extraterrestrials call us, we belong to infinite". Some time later, posthumous letters sent by them to the ONU General- Secretary and to the Spanish investigators of the UFO phenomenon were found. Adopting the pseudonyms of Rasdi and Amiex, "trackers of the infinite and friends of extraterrestrial intelligences", the suicidal ones had described in the letters the incredible mutation that their bodies had suffered and had informed to be preparing a definitive trip to Jupiter where they believed was the location of the alien base. Essential for all those that research Ufology, the plot remembers the Brazilian controverted "Case of the Lead Masks" of 1966.

I borrowed this from Netflix, while browsing the foreign films section. It listed it as being based on a famous case in Brazil where 2 UFO contactees (people who think aliens have contacted and talked to them) were found dead wearing lead masks. Which I had read about, and was intrigued it got turned into a movie.

Alas, Netflix kind of got it wrong. It's only very loosed based on that (mostly in that there were 2 people involved), it's actually perhaps more derived from the UMMO case, which was mostly in Spain. Basically people got mysterious notes and such purporting to be from aliens, along with technical info on UFOs and some supposedly advanced technological devices.

Anyway, the movie deals with two men. One is a young man who seemingly has a decent life. Decent job, attractive girlfriend, friends. But he has a thing for UFOs. And he suffers from some other personal problems. While his girlfriend is hot, she's also a tease, and he is preyed upon by a middle aged fat women who is after his body. He doesn't like it, but nevertheless, after being led on but then rejected by his GF, has to slake his lust with her.

He meets another UFO buff, who also has a pretty good life. Solid job as a machinist (or something in a factory), but something of an idealist and an outcast. They bond, and they go to a couple of UFO events. Then they run into trouble, and well, any more and I would give away the ending. But it's both unexpected and not.

Kind of a long movie, but it really does do a great job of portraying what the whole UFO contactee scene is like (Even though it's set in 70s Spain, it's little different than the contactee scene in the US). There's lots of little nice touches in the film. For instance, lights flickering mysteriously in some scenes. And while it's very much fiction, it's also very much based on what actual contactees are like. If you've read Jaques Vallee's Confrontions/Dimensions/Revelations trilogy, you will see it conforms exactly to his observations of them (which also tally with my personal experiences of them).

The acting is excellent, the actors really bring their characters to life, even the ones with small roles, as is the cinematography (unfortunately, the DVD I got was the Full Frame version, but the movie really looked nice). It's not a comedy, but there are a few amusing bits.

I'm not sure most people will like it, but if you are familiar with Jacques Vallee's work, it's almost a must see. People who like personal dramas will also probably like it. There's no action or suspense, really, and the supernatural aspects are more puzzling than anything else.

Second feature film by Oscar Aibar (El Bosque, multiple chapters of Cuentame Que Me Paso, El Gran Vazquez) with a script that attempts to delve into the complex psychology of the two main characters and that Aibar himself co-writes in collaboration with Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Alex de la Iglesia's regular screenwriter. This one deals with a black chronicle of what happened in the industrial city of Tarrassa in 1972, with two textile workers José (Ángel de Andrés) and Juan (Jordi Vilches) with very normal lives and occupations. Both share their passion about the paranormal, specially about UFOs. In these years where was very much UFOs' sightings, they feel captivated by the mystery and start to investigate the diverse theories about the intentions or purposes of the sightings. But , a little bit on, we find them decapitated on the train track next to a note that said: ¨The aliens call us, we belong to infinity.¨. Shortly after, other envelopes appear addressed to the UN, to the researchers of the UFO phenomenon in Spain and to Leonidas Breznev and Richard Nixon. In them, the two suicides talked about the incredible mutation that their bodies had undergone and that had prepared them for their final trip to Jupiter, where, they believed, the closest Alien base was located. The real story about two Spanish men whose traveled to another planet!. Extraterrestrials call us: we belong to infinity !.

There's a faithful portrayal of the Spanish environment in Franco era during the Seventies and with the two main actors giving terrific performance, balancing tenderness and cynicism, making the film a pleasant surprise. Based on real events, in 1972 Juan and José are two textile workers from Tarrasa, Catalonia (northeast to Spain) who meet during an UFOs' convention. The film focuses on the peculiar relationship between two unfortunate and obsessed by UFOS people. Their friendship and the obsession they have will turn in dementia and paranoia, hurting their relations with their respective friends and familiars and exposing their lives to an extreme decision due to the conclusion of their own investigations. Óscar Aibar is not as well known outside of Spain as he should be. His films have that strange and wonderful blending of genres, such as comedy and sci-fi in Platillos Volantes about textile workers obsessed with UFO's. The film pays tribute a other films as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and even TV series as Los Chiripitiflauticos.

This one stars the veteran and recently deceased Angel de Andrés and the young Jordi Vilches, along with the Italian comedian Leo Bassi, Pere Ponce, Angels Poch, Macarena Gómez, Berta Ojea, Carmen de Lirio, Benito Pocino, Francisca Piñón, Juan Margallo with the collaboration of Enrique VIllén, Craig Hill and Iker Jiménez, makes an uncredited cameo as the man who gets banned from the UFO convention for being a skeptic, he was a well-known Spanish writer, reporter and investigator of paranormal phenomena.

In Platillos volantes(2003) excels the evocative and thrilling musical score by Javier Navarrete who would continue a successful international career as a great composer, adding symphony NO-DO by Manuel Parada and the catching song Voces de otros mundos lyrics & music by Manuel Díaz Martínez performed by Los Pasos. The motion picture Flying Saucers (World-wide, English title) was competently written and directed by Oscar Aibar. Previously he directed a sci-fi/western in Atolladero (set in a lawless hinterland with Iggy Pop as a psychopathic killer), and even a bit of history in the story of 1960s Spanish comic writer El Gran Vázquez, starring Santiago Segura. Aibar combines the great Spanish absurd and grotesque tradition into postmodern myth. He's just begun shooting his sixth feature film, El Bosque, starring Tom Sizemore, bein based upon a short story from spanish author Albert Sanchez Piñol set during the Spanish Civil War. Oscar is a craftsman who has directed a few films , all of them have special issues and interesting themes , dealing with all kinds of genres , such as Spaghetti/Sci-Fi : ¨Atolladero¨ , Fantasy : ¨The Forest¨ , Thriller : ¨Rumors¨ , Comedy/Drama : ¨Platillos Volantes¨, Biography : ¨El Gran Vazquez¨ with Santiago Segura and ¨La Maquina de Billar¨ also starred by Segura . Rating : 7/10 , better than average .

Jose and Juan are two freaks that love UFOs, day by day, this love will became an obsession and the will think that they are really talking with theme. this will cause fear from their neighbours, as they don't understand these freaks. The movie is based on real facts: On 1972 two men committed suicide in Terrassa (a little industrial city of Spain), their note said: We belong to infinite. The movie is, maybe quite absurd, but is quite well done and it results funny; the gags are not stupid and the actors result as much pathetic as they want to be, not more, not less. It is short, so you have no time to be fed up of the film. The ending is unusual and unexpected, of course, very absurd. It is a movie for a Sunday afternoon when there's nothing more to do, but it is not bad.