Tão de Repente

Marcia (Tatiana Saphir) is a heavy-set woman who is stuck in a dead-end job selling underwear in a lingerie shop that attracts few customers. Rejected by her fiancé after a two-year courtship, she goes through the motions of living. Her world is turned upside down, however, when she is kidnapped at knife point by two sullen, ice-cold, look-alike lesbians named Mao (Carla Crespo) and Lenin (Veronica Hassan) who tell her how much they want to have sex with her.

Based on the novel La Prueba by Argentine writer Cesar Aria, Deigo Lerman's Suddenly is a fascinating examination of power struggles in relationships that takes us to unexpected places - suddenly. Filmed in 16mm black and white by cinematographers Diego del Piano and Luciano Zito and reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's episodic style, Lerman's first feature has, according to the director, "contradictions reveling in contradictions".

The film contains moments of comedy but these are undercut by a mysteriously sinister air that keeps us guessing as to where the film is headed. Marcia is scared but does not attempt to run away and seems curious about their overtures. The tough young women hijack a taxi and drive Marcia to visit Lenin's seventy-year old Aunt Blanca (Beatriz Thibaudin), who lives in Rosario, a seaside town near Buenos Aires with her two tenants, the shy Felipe (Marcos Ferrante), a Biology student and Delia (Maria Merlino), a painter and part-time teacher. Aunt Blanca in a fine performance by Thibaudin, is one of the few sympathetic characters in the film and her unconventional warmth allows Lenin to connect with the value of relationships.

When Marcia tells Mao that she enjoyed being with her, she tells Marcia to shut up and go to sleep. Mao is an unpleasant bully who, after consummating her relationship with Marcia, neglects her and rudely shifts her interest to Felipe. Passive to the end, Marcia does not stand up for herself or try to leave. Felipe seems bewildered by the girls but supports Mao in a shoplifting spree without considering the ramifications. Suddenly is a strangely involving film that shows great promise by the director but the lesbian butch women are caricatures that detract from the film's message, which after all is quite simple - when people are finished playing ego games with each other, what is left is love.

'Tan de repente' (Suddenly) is wrongly considered a landmark in the so-called 'New Argentine Cinema'. Who establishes those landmarks? Certainly a bunch of foreign critics and festival prize-givers with a weakness for art-house films, especially if they come from third-world (poor) countries. This one suits them perfectly; it comes from Argentina (country that has been a lot in the map recently due to its huge economic crisis), it is shot in grainy black and white, it contains some raw dialogue, a realistic though stylized look (the image treatment reminds of the superior Stranger than Paradise) and some extreme nudity. The perfect cocktail. But to be honest with it, the film is dull as a film can be and has some of the most abominable performances seen recently on screen. The unimaginative ultra-slow pace, divertive storytelling and the keenness of portraying the ugly from a low point of view doesn't help either. Lerman's film may fool a good few abroad, with its exasperating still photo of country skies, high-tension wires and rear-view mirrors, but ultimately cannot hide the director's inability to reach any standard of storytelling. It is a pity that this is the kind of argentine film commercially released internationally, for the embarrassment of argentinians abroad and the regular filmgoer.

A brilliant, ever-shifting intimately-scaled comedy-adventure movie exploring the complicated relationships among about ten characters, young and old, mostly women. It is by turns a bit scary and sadistic, gentle, bawdy, warmly sympathetic, mysterious, yet ultimately rather clear.

Shot in B&W on blown-up 16 mm, and reminiscent of Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise." An edgy celebration of life, humanity, and vulnerabilities. Well worth seeing.

Two lesbians Mao and Lenin kidnap a shop girl Marcia and take off with her in a taxi. Before too long Marcia goes along with things including having sex with the Mao? (one of the lesbians).

This grainy black and white film has no interesting story no cinematography to speak of and no acting! This is the kind of film that might come out of a college class.

Save yourself the trouble and money and rent some good Argentine movies like The Aura or Live In Maid or Intimate Stories...vastly better than this ?? term project at a junior college.

Do not recommend.

this movie is just an exercise of cinema made by unexperienced people. I only hope that the people who made it, have this in mind. It has one or two jokes, but lacks of a real proposal, a real story, something interesting inside, if you know what i mean. 4/10