Wednesday, December 9, 2009

La Ruta Natural

Innovation in cinema comes and goes ,but in the case for La Ruta Natural, it's shown subtley. Never have I seen narrative and visuals work so well with each other. The director was definatley conveying a hidden message, and by doing it with limited dialogue made the expierence all the worth while. Every shot in the movie had purpose to it whether it be to the plot or the overall theme of the film. The quick cuts in the beginning olny show how important the editing is to this movie. Not to mention, the story is told in reverse which means the editors had to make everything that was shot in reverse in post production. The character anaylsis of Divad is interesting considering his personality is one big question mark. We seem him drawn away from family values, and enter his own fantasy world where he reminices on the glory days hence the whole plot of the story. The flashbacks of his younger years show a side of happines that I think he trying to search for in this entire movie. The lighting was dark for most parts which olny contributed to the dark, omnious tone of the movie. It funny, the son is showned in two ways as a motif throughout this film. In the beginning, his picture is burnt and it shows his casket symbolizing sadness but when it shows the married couple in their later years, the tone of the son seems to bring joy in the couple lives as they are showned happy while constructing their son's bedroom. The wardrobe was essential since it had to do with the couple being in different time periods, and to me, the costumes fit the time period where they were. It's interesting how the audio in the background stays at the same pace within the movie. It signals how dull the character life is by slowly fading in and out throughout the movie. In terms of mise-en-scene, the image of the broken flower pot showed how well the couple in their older years got along by breaking such a delicit item. Theres alot of stuff going on in this movie that it's hard to give one spefic theme to it all. This is a movie that really makes you think about the things around you that you take for granted. When movies have impacts on the minds of their audience, it seperates them from the pack. La Ruta Natural blends surrealism along with some new age techniques to provide a plot structure that is very unsual to see in movies.