Fata/Morgana

"Fata Morgana" is a great Werner Herzog film I saw over 30 years ago, but I was pleasantly surprised to recently discover an even better film, Vicente Aranda's "Fata/Morgana", a terrific comic-strip fantasy from the '60s.

This was when Joseph Losey made the nutty "Modesty Blaise", and later films like "Death Lays an Egg", "Danger: Diabolik", "Deadly Sweet" and "Barbarella" typified the mainly failed attempts to do psychedelic/Swinging Sixties live action comic strips. Aranda beat them all to the punch and deserves some retrospective credit.

In a very convoluted and intentionally in-jokey sci-fi storyline, Teresa Gimpera plays the beautiful Gim, involved in all manner of intrigue with spies, hit men, revolutionary conspirators and just crazy characters wearing goofy disguises. The plot has elements of Philip K. Dick, notably his 1956 short story "Minority Report", as our hero races the clock to save Gim from her predicted murder.

Film's pop art visual style remains intriguing after 45 years of obscurity, and the supporting cast, notably a severely styled but sexy villainess Mariane Benet, is very effective. Overall it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and is strewn with too many non sequiturs, but I enjoyed it.

Aranda is a pioneer filmmaker who has many, many top-notch works to his credit, ranging from THE EXQUISITE CADAVER with Gimpera & Capucine, plus FANNY STRAWHAIR with Fanny Cottencon, to the classic LOVERS starring Victoria Abril. He stepped over the line with the Abril tour de force (in poor taste) AVENTIS, but I can't think of a better (Bigas Luna who imitates him included) Spanish sex film director.

In the not-too-distant future, a college professor doesn't realize "the bell tolls for thee" as he prepares for a lecture on how murder victims are born to be killed...

Vicente Aranda's disorienting, futuristic avant garde opus literally opens as a comic book and would seem to predict the look and ambiance of Truffaut's FARENHEIT 451 crossed with Antonioni's BLOW UP. As the professor's life begins to imitate academic art, helicopters and tanks with loudspeakers urge the populace to evacuate the city for reasons unknown. The entire film plays out in an eerily deserted Barcelona with many an enigmatic mis-en-scène reflecting a plot that unfolds with the illogic of a fever dream. Spanish actress Teresa Gimpera, the future Mrs. Craig Hill, makes a lovely red herring and I loved the murder weapon, a silver objet d'art that turns into a swordfish when you push a button and a switchblade pops out.

Several films from the late 1960's and early 1970's tried to capture either the look or the feel of a comic strip or a comic book. Some of these, my favorites, had striking, stylized sets (Barbarella; The Tenth Victim). Others (like Baba Yaga) placed their bizarre stories in what might be called realistic or natural settings. Fata/Morgana falls into the second category.

Taking place after some unstated disaster has befallen London, a model named Gim is having a hard time making her way in the world. She is desired by almost everyone. Students cut her picture out of a billboard and carry it around. Men on the street stop her. However, the man she wants is involved in a complicated relationship with a survivor from the unstated London disaster.

Meanwhile, a young secret agent of questionable competency is tasked with finding and saving Gim from being murdered by the same killer of another woman a few years back. How this unstated organization knows this is never revealed. Complicating the chase is a professor obsessed the concept of Fate (and a little obsessed with Gim).

Fata/Morgana does not have a strong plot line as events just sort of happen and characters pop in and out of the story. The strongest element is a brief but startling flashback to the London disaster.

Fata/Morgana mildly held my interest but did not do much more than that. It is one of those movies that pretty much disappears from one's thoughts as soon as it ends. I was also disappointed that the film took place mostly in everyday alleyways, apartment flats, and parks, instead of more surreal settings. I guess they all can't be Barbarella!