PVC-1

It's been a few years since I've seen this film, but I'll add a few words.

From a technical perspective the film was incredible for me as I remembered it was filmed in a single take with one camera. That is stage-theatre discipline right there.

I liked the general idea of the plot, but the pacing was agonizingly slow. This did help to achieve some incredible tension as the film progressed. I recommend screening this flick once for the experience; but this really isn't the kind of film you'll find yourself wanting to revisit.

The plot is literally ripped from the headlines, and is straightforward. A collar bomb is placed on an unsuspecting victim, mother of a household, and ransom is demanded. And here starts her family's agonizing journey to resolve the situation.

As a movie viewer, you soon realize that the movie starts off in a seemingly long continuous take - not uncommon in many films. Then there comes a point that you realize that the filmmaker has likely committed himself to filming the ENTIRE movie in one continuous take.

Filmed, then, in real-time, to the movie detriment, there is really no opportunity to build characters or backstories or plot twists or motives behind anything or subplots. What's left, gratifyingly, to the movie's brilliance, is a mesmerizing exercise in filmmaking.

Fully committed to this technique, stretches of the film, regrettably, feel tedious. But this is frankly unavoidable.

With little if any soundtrack to speak of, the movie can only build tension through body language and gestures and dialogue and somewhat succeeds.

The movie also is also intriguing in its exhibition of bomb squad procedures in the backwoods of a foreign country.

Flaws aside, the movie is compelling to watch from beginning to end, and most discriminating movie viewers will appreciate the intricate staging what with complex tracking and attention to shadows from the camera person and possible crew - a fascinating movie to watch.

A COLOMBIAN Film that is Astoundingly "DIFFERENT"!!!

BUT BEFORE diving in....

FIRST... Let us FOCUS on the Title's Content and Context:

You think you know "Reality" in movies? If you do, I invite you to take the PVC-1 CHALLENGE! BTW, due to Non-Stop PVC-1 Ricocheting around my brain since seeing it some hours ago, I have revised my rating to 10*! Upfront, I will state very clearly: I absolutely cannot even Begin to be the LEAST BIT objective about this film. I really don't think any Colombian or any long time resident of Colombia possibly could be either! 6.8 Stars Average.... Huh! Pathetic!!!

Let me tell you a few things you DON'T know about PVC-1. Forget the Blurb. This is the most realistic Single-Take, Real-Time, Docu-Drama any of us have ever seen. Why? From the "Family-That-Slays-Together-STAYS-Together" opening scene; where the Can't-Get-Out-A-Single-Sentence-Without-Multiple-Obscenities Uncle/Patriarch sociopath/psychopath "Traqueto" whips his motley crew into shape for their up-coming grizzly caper... Until the literally mind-blowing, in every sense of the word, closing scene; every minute detail, EVERYTHING depicted on-screen is a pure, unadulterated Reality Bite. 6.8 STARS?!?! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!

OK...Here is my COLOMBIAN PVC-1 CHALLENGE: As you watch the hysterical Elvia, mother of three (Merida Urquia) being fitted for her PVC-1, pipe-bomb necklace, superimpose, on her face, the face of YOUR mother, or sister, or wife, daughter, girlfriend, Aunt, cousin, or best friend...as she scrambles around desperately, for her life, as the seconds tick by. When the bomb-squad police lieutenant, who is trying franticly to save her from certain death, cuts his hand with a knife and says to her, "I'll be back in SECONDS!" She then loses it completely! "SECONDS?" Elvia shrieks insanely, "What Seconds? They took ALL my Seconds! I don't have ANY Seconds for ANYBODY!"...And then I CHALLENGE you to rate this 6.8 STARS! Because the harshly stark reality of Colombia ensures that when WE look at Elvia, we see the face of someone near and dear to us! 10**********

....ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!!!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the earliest filmmakers to experiment with single shot storytelling--that is, forsaking the conventional tools of cinema: cuts, edits, time lapse & multiple cameras. In his 1948 masterpiece "Rope", he tells the story of a murder and the slow unravelling of the murderer in real-time, using only around 10 cuts (which were unavoidable due to film cameras being limited to 10-minute magazines). Most critics called the film "experimental", but the technique remains, to this day, one of the most suspenseful (and certainly difficult) ways of telling a story. The audience is brought into a real-time drama, like Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, or perhaps a CNN broadcast of the 9/11 disaster. Real-time events remind us that we also dwell in the same world as the drama we are watching. And a capable director can make us feel like we're in the drama itself.

With this approach, there is no room for error; like a stage play, everyone has to be spot on. But "PVC-1" is no stage play. Unlike the minimalistic "Rope" which takes place entirely within 2 rooms, and unlike the carefully orchestrated "Russian Ark" (another single-shot film) which takes place in the rooms of the Hermitage Museum, "PVC-1" takes us across literally miles of scenery, never giving us the claustrophobic feeling of "Rope" but, perhaps more chilling, it gives us the feeling of having nowhere to run from a diabolical device that could end your life at any second. This is no tight, close-quartered, darkly-lit thriller like most. Here, scenes are wide open, unafraid to show the majesty of nature (a rural Columbian mountain village) contrasted starkly against ones mortality.

The story is very simple: in the first 10 minutes, a woman gets a PVC collar bomb glued around her neck. For the next 80 minutes we follow her plight as she & her family try to get help. No zany plot twists are necessary, no mysterious whodunnits are required. Plain & simple, this film conveys the feeling of facing an untimely death.

Director/writer/camera operator Spiros Stathoulopoulos brings us this emotionally gripping story based on the true events that happened to 53-year-old farmer Elvia Cortés on May 15, 2000. Don't google it until after you see the movie, lest the ending be ruined for you. Even so, you might be shocked to see how little information there is on the incident, and some of it inaccurate, such as blaming FARC, a militant group of Marxist revolutionaries. As this film shows, it was no grandiose terrorist plot. We see in the first 10 minutes that it was a case of common criminal violence over a petty 15 million pesos ($7000). Again, no elaborate spy stories or conspiracy theories are required; Stathoulopoulos is showing us a simple crime and its not- so-simple effect on people. This is storytelling stripped to the bone, and it works.

Even though there are tons of amateur "raw footage" thrillers flooding the movie world, there is nothing amateur about "PVC-1". Don't expect some shaky-cam "Blair Witch" nonsense designed to beat your mind into submission. The cinematography here is smooth and deliberate, and every camera movement for 90 minutes is carefully planned in order to keep the story & themes moving forward. I know I said that this film is raw & simple, but it still touches on some deep thoughts. In particular, it makes us wonder, what is the role of faith & religion during terrible times? Other moments rely on excellent silent acting to awaken the philosopher in all of us, like the scene when the policeman is standing alone in an abandoned building, his mind racing like a hamster wheel while, outside, we see traffic continue, business as usual. There are many such poetic moments in "PVC-1", and for what it aims to accomplish, this film is picture perfect. I haven't given out a perfect 10 since I saw Orson Welles' "The Trial", but this film truly deserves it.

A single shot, a real time film on location about an assault, a ransom demand, bomb deactivating and desperation should have been nothing else than a breathtaking piece with its audacity. P.V.C.-1, the FIPRESCI award winner of the International Competition, is indeed breathtaking. Given the information that P.V.C.–1 takes place in a rural area in Colombia —where the political situation is critical— and the film is based on an actual event, the tension automatically increases. It is a brilliant directorial debut.

The outstanding work of the steady cam operator — by the director Spiros Stathoulopoulos himself — makes the audience become eyewitnesses to the tragicomic tale, seeing the helplessness of the authorities dealing with a cruel crime. We witness a poor farmer's family being slowly victimized by the harsh third world reality.

The originality of the idea and style transform the event into a genuine thriller. The panic- stricken family contacts the local military authorities and makes an appointment to meet the unit that might dismantle the PVC tube device from the mother's neck at the crossroads. They are not sure if it is a real bomb or a sick joke.

The use of real time and the camera's movement like the human eye as if turning our heads from one point to another, as if changing positions, creates a psychological effect. We feel as nervous as a person on location. Time passes, it gets darker and we get impatient.

P.V.C.-1 succeeds in creating the suspense that most thrillers, horror and action films fail to. It heartily involves us.

Without any artificial lighting, without any close ups, without any cuts, with only little dialogue, with amateurish acting and with some bitter, dark humor derived from the absurdity of the whole event, P.V.C.-1 reaches the level of high profile film-making.