Post Tenebras Lux

After the dark, light.

This is the nearest translation of this highly tentative piece of cinema whose story involves Mexican urban life, a couple in a whorehouse, a British rugby match with a guest appearance of devil himself.

At the epicentre a man and his family. On the surface he has it all; a nice house, a beautiful wife and two healthy adorable kids. Beneath that, not all that shines is gold as he struggles with addiction and needs pornography to inspire spousal intimacy.

Unfortunately and despite the high dose of creative filming the above is the only cohesive bit in this film. The added layers that aspire to connect to the title by juxtaposition of moments of light and darkness drove the film onto a one way street with lights out.

A very mixed experience

Mexican film 'Post Tenebras Lux' begins with an amazingly surreal opening sequence.It is a very crucial part of the film as it reveals the ways in which this film's young actors have been directed. Director Carlos Reygadas has not been able to capitalize a lot on the brilliant opening shots as much of the subsequent film is muddled and reeks of pretentiousness.Elements like literature and sex have been introduced by the filmmaker to convey hidden messages. In one instance there are people trying to outsmart each other by sharing their shallow knowledge of Russian literature by quoting some of its greatest authors namely Chekov,Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Reygadas also uses sex in order to delve deeper into pretentiousness as names of great philosophers such as Kant and Foucault are taken in order to portray a freaky encounter with strangers in a bathhouse.This film's biggest weakness is its complete absence of a clearly defined storyline which could accompany audiences in a meaningful cinematographic journey.Touted as a family film,'Post Tenebras Lux' gives the impression of merely being a convoluted personal vision of how a rich person behaves in a place surrounded by poor people with problems.The hapless audiences are puzzled as they have the right to know how the film is going to end. Hop la as it comes like a maddening shock.Watch and regret at your own perils.

Post Tenebras Lux and TO THE WONDER were my favorite films at Toronto's Festival in 2012. The plot description you get here on IMDb is as good as I could do so I won't bother with that. This film is like a cross between Malick and Lynch. It's beautiful, dark, bizarre and dreamy... and non-linear to add to the cryptic puzzle. Like Malick, the beautiful shots are about enough to hook you in... assuming you know how to experience a movie, not just watch what a studio spoon feeds you. Like Lynch, the dark underbelly of humanity is lurking beneath in a surreal fashion. Subconscious here we come! My favorite place to be! By the way, Reygadas won Best Director at Cannes for this. Now I hope I've added to the mystery, and didn't solve any of it!

An urban family, having moved to the countryside of Mexico, experiences raw drama and ambiguous fantasy in this cinematically fresh and rewarding film by Reygadas. The cinematography is ethereal and at times haunting when combined with such unsettling imagery. That's not to say the films imagery is horrifying in itself. The imagery of Post Tenebras Lux is unsettling in that it's picturesque and lush while also being new and confounding. This is partially due to it's hypnotic, almost tunnel vision take on the 4:3 ratio. This way of presenting the story only adds to it's mysterious nature. The narrative in itself is overtly expressionist as it's partial auto-biographical and moves with fluidity removed from reasoning. It's a film that's entrancing and bewildering at the same time - an atmosphere that just seems to work. It certainly worked to make one of the most original films of the year.

All the reviewers that superficially reacted to this film as just another self-indulgent art house ego trip made me laugh. I despise and ridicule art house pretension as much as anyone. But that's not what this film is. I'm not going to bother adding my insights and interpretations to the heap, you can do that on your own. And that's the point, if you can have a mind to make your own connections and formulate your own ideas, you should have no problems with PTL. Rich photography with shots that linger long enough to actually absorb them. A refreshing lack of the usual gimmicks: moving close-ups, romantic schmaltz and tearful, blubbering melodrama. The story is self-contained and original; the characters genuine and authentic; the style minimalist yet mesmerizing. Attributes sorely lacking in Hollywood and contemporary cinema in general. And Natalia's rendition of 'it's a dream' near the end was moving and impactful. Unlike anything that whining, glass shattering ol' hack Neil Young ever did. Not going to say it's perfect, but we need more like this.