La línea del cielo

This bilingual (Spanish/English) film is based for the most part upon events from the life of its director, Fernando Colomo, when he was endeavouring to market, in New York City, a script that he had written. As with the case of Gustavo (Antonio Resines), a professional photographer and the protagonist of this picture, Colomo's principal difficulty came from his lack of knowledge with the English language as well as from the cultural and social disorder that naturally develops from such a deficiency. Gustavo must find means by which he may be able to vend his portfolio of New York City commercial architecture, while simultaneously achieving fluency in a difficult foreign language. Additionally, he seeks a steady female companion in Manhattan, not an easy proposition to solve for those men who have been born and raised there. One of the film's strengths comes from Colomo's ability to avoid creating a burlesque mode during those scenes wherein Gustavo attempts to establish romantic liaisons with several women. The possibility of any freelance photographer having his work reproduced in a major periodical such as "Life" or "Newsweek" is clearly slender indeed, yet Gustavo will not give up such an aspiration, in spite of damage to his psyche caused by repeated rejection. A comedy drama, the film has achieved increased substance through the frustrated photographer's having subleased a luxurious Village loft during his stay and, moreover, by his expansion of a social framework through renewed contact with long-time Spanish friends who have become permanent New York City residents. The director's embrace of a naturalistic style for the film's narrative technique results in a quasi-documentary tone for the piece, shot entirely in New York. During pages of Spanish dialogue, subtitles are employed in English, and turnabout, all being generally quite accurate. Appropriate pop flamenco scoring is heard during several scenes by Manzanita, an esteemed Spanish group. Talented American director Whit Stillman performs here in an important role and also serves as script doctor, largely responsible for the story's ironic climax. Although this film was well-received at the London Film Festival of 1984, Colomo encountered customary and expected resistance to his essay at marketing it. However, BBC2 purchased the picture and it has been telecast several times in the United Kingdom. While not available in DVD format, SKYLINE is worthy of one's search for still-to-be-found VHS versions. These provide more than adequate visual and audio reproduction.

A Spanish photographer (Antonio Resines) goes to New York in an attempt of selling his picture work. Despite his broken English and his shyness, he meet two editors that could be interested in publishing his pictures. Along the way, he woos a beautiful Spanish expatriate (Beatriz Perez Porro) . However, he continues to pursue a young woman who's never expressed any interest in him . Furthermore , his dreams of fame and fortune vanish when he realizes that his photographs are considered old-fashioned by the American publishers.

Pleasant and decent Spanish comedy in low budget, being efficiently directed by expert comedian director Fernando Colomo . This comedy contains NY social habits , humor , entertainment and confusion . This is a slightly funny film with entertaining events , giggles , emotion , romance and touching scenes at its final part . The film moves in fits and starts most of which would be desirable , with more traps the viewer resists any kind, and some moments of enjoyment and others quite a few embarrassing with some absurdities and implausibilities . The flick gives a realistic description about New York way of life with a fish-out-water character who gets embroiled in the comedic misfortunes with various of its inhabitants . Filmed for a short time in 16 mm and later enlarged to 35 mm for commercial use, it tells the minimal adventures of a Spaniard in New York through long scenes with attractive but disconcerting dialogue. Concerning interesting themes as immigrants and immigration , capturing perfectly the frustration of our starring not being able to understand or speak the language around him . This is the return of screenwriter, producer and director Fernando Colomo to his beginnings, which clashes with the too conventional performance by Antonio Resines , against the naturalness carried out by a group of non-actors among which the sisters Beatriz and Irene Pérez Porro stand out , the later director Whit Stillman and the carefree Roy Hoffman, within a film with hardly any plot between reality and fiction . The storyline is plain and simple , a Spanish photographer named Gustavo/Antonio Resines spends the summer in New York, where he struggles to learn English, while attempting to sell his work to a big-name magazine . Writer/director Fernando Colomo clearly based much of this semi-autobiographical film on his own experiences as a visitor in the United States. However, the story itself fails to convince, mainly because Gustavo's stubborn insistence on attempting to sell his photos of New York buildings doesn't make any sense ; when told very gently but directly that the kind of work he has created has already been done, he doesn't seem to take the hint . Worst of all, however, is the film's ending, which is enormously unsatisfying .

This passable and with plenty of misunderstandings motion picture was professionally written ,and directed Fernando Colomo . Fernando Colomo was born in Madrid and is a talented and versatile writer/director who has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as comedy, drama and one science fiction movie (1985 El caballero del Dragón) in a career that spans over 30 years . Especially known for directing comedies such as 1987 La Vida Alegre , 1988 Miss Caribe , 1989 Bajarse al Moro , 1993 Rosa Rosae , 1994 Alegre Ma Non Troppo , 1995 Efecto Mariposa . And in the 2000s directed Al Sur Granada (2003) , El Próximo Oriente (2006), Rivales (2008) , La Banda Picasso (2012) , and several others . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable.