Follow this rich girl from the first home movies she made in the 1920s through to her safaris and cross-continental travels in the 1970s. Born in Barcelona to a very wealthy family in the pharmaceutical business, she proved to be more adventurous than most girls of her class at the time. I spent most of the film expecting something special to happen, and in that sense it was a disappointment. Compared, for instance, with the eight stories compiled by Jan Sikl in Private Century (2006), 'Un instante' lacks a final, touching, personal anecdote that could bring its self-filmed character closer to the viewer. Neither do we get the pleasure of a carefully written narration about the historical context that is so delightful about Peter Forgac's El perro negro (2005). Instead, this film merely surprises us by showing us the cosmopolitan life of a bourgeois but creatively talented woman, very atypical to Spanish film culture. Madronita is a refreshing break from the vast collection of provincial, repressed, stern women that are usually portrayed in historical dramas of the 20th century (and beyond). I have read that the directors stumbled upon these old film rolls while searching for archive footage for another film. I can imagine them drowning in the sheer amounts of film and the abundance of skilfully composed frames. Nevertheless, the content remains banal beneath the relative beauty of these amateur images.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
