'La Antena' has been likened to the films of Tim Burton; but while I can see a certain resemblance, Burton has never, in my opinion, directed a film as weird (or oddly, as deeply coherent) as this one. To say this is almost a silent film, almost an animated film, and almost a children's film, is to be stating obvious banalities for anyone who's seen it without getting close to what makes it so good. To observe that it is in a certain sense objectively bad, using cod-antique techniques, gets closer to the point; as times I felt as if I was watching a hybrid of a film by Guy Maddin and the 'Clangers'. But whereas Maddin can feel a little too self-conscious, the strange style of the telling of 'La Antena' feels completely of a piece with the strange world being portrayed, as if the narrative form comes naturally from the tale. However ,I will say that it's an odd film to watch with foreign language subtitles; you'll just have to watch to learn why.
Review of The Aerial
