And about time, too. Well, I mean, I like to see films from a director in the order they come out, the same as I prefer to read novels by an author in the same order as he writes them. This is, obviously, a logical way of following the progress and maturing of the artist. However, things escape me, I do not get to the cinema on time, and I end up having to wait for a repeat showing at the cinema, or, in the worst of cases, wait for the elusive cinematographic production to turn up on some local TV channel.
This is the case with `Tesis', an early film by that little genius Alejandro Amenábar, as I had already seen his better known and posterior films `Abre Los Ojos' (qv) and `Los Otros' (The Others) (qv), both on the big screen, which with no doubt is a totally different experience.
Whereas `Tesis' might be considered a middle-of-the-road thriller, it does have those early hallmarks which later so characterise this Chilean-born Spanish director. A university student studying film-making in Madrid (precisely where Amenábar fluffed as he did not want to study film-making but make his own films) decides to prepare a thesis on rather shady cinematographic productions such as pornography and `snuff' films.
You might like to compare this film with `8MM' (1999) by Joel Schumacher with Nicholas Cage. The concepts are very different, but both are aimed at the Hollywood industry, as can be seen from Amenábar's more recent films.
Obviously his later films are better made, but with `Tesis' Amenábar made a good start in life: we shall undoubtedly be hearing a lot more about this young man, but unfortunately not in a Spanish sense, as he is evidently bent on storming other genres which cannot be classified as Spanish in style or content. So we will impatiently await his next English-language film, and therefore should not be listed as `Spanish'. Which is a shame.
This is the case with `Tesis', an early film by that little genius Alejandro Amenábar, as I had already seen his better known and posterior films `Abre Los Ojos' (qv) and `Los Otros' (The Others) (qv), both on the big screen, which with no doubt is a totally different experience.
Whereas `Tesis' might be considered a middle-of-the-road thriller, it does have those early hallmarks which later so characterise this Chilean-born Spanish director. A university student studying film-making in Madrid (precisely where Amenábar fluffed as he did not want to study film-making but make his own films) decides to prepare a thesis on rather shady cinematographic productions such as pornography and `snuff' films.
You might like to compare this film with `8MM' (1999) by Joel Schumacher with Nicholas Cage. The concepts are very different, but both are aimed at the Hollywood industry, as can be seen from Amenábar's more recent films.
Obviously his later films are better made, but with `Tesis' Amenábar made a good start in life: we shall undoubtedly be hearing a lot more about this young man, but unfortunately not in a Spanish sense, as he is evidently bent on storming other genres which cannot be classified as Spanish in style or content. So we will impatiently await his next English-language film, and therefore should not be listed as `Spanish'. Which is a shame.