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Waste of time

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The Argentinian film La cámara oscura (2008), directed by María Victoria Menis, was shown in the U.S. with the title "The Camera Obscura." It stars Mirta Bogdasarian as Gertrudis, a woman so unattractive that her own mother cannot bear to look at her. (Actually, Ms. Bogdasarian isn't even remotely as unattractive as the character she portrays. Nonetheless, the point of the story is that she's unattractive, so we have to accept it.)I knew that some Jews who escaped the Holocaust managed to get into Argentina. However, I didn't realize that immigrants like Gertrudis's family had arrived much earlier, to escape the Russian pogroms. They settled in rural Argentina, and became farmers and ranchers. The story moves forward 20 years, by which time hope has been lost in regard to a marriage for Gertrudis. Nonetheless, she does eventually get married, to a wealthy widower, whose first wife was beautiful but unfaithful. The plot really begins much later, after World War I, when Gertrudis, her husband, and her family are living on their large ranch. Into this situation comes a French photographer, a former war correspondent, who takes pictures of everyone, including Gertrudis. What happens next is somewhat ambiguous, and each viewer will have to decide the significance of the last scene in the film. (Apparently Ms. Menis has been quoted as saying that the last scene is not ambiguous. Most of us in the audience thought it was.)An interesting facet of this movie is the portrayal of Gertrudis's husband and their sons, who have adopted the Gaucho costume, and who work alongside the hired ranch hands. In the same way, the women work hard at the traditional female jobs. An English squire, in similar circumstances, would have a life of leisure, and his wife would have maids to do the hardest work. Not so, apparently, in Argentina. Assuming that this is an accurate portrayal, I found these facts fascinating.The film has some beautiful scenic shots, and they'll be mostly lost on the small screen. Better to see this film in a theater if possible. We saw it at the excellent Rochester Jewish Film Festival.P.S. For reasons I don't understand, this movie has a dismal weighted IMDb average of 6.3. It's not a great film, but it's much better than that. The Camera Obscura is definitely worth seeing.

This is the story of a sensitive woman who has the misfortune of having been considered unattractive all her life. Since her unfortunate and ill-timed birth, Gertrudis will be the butt of derision. Having been born from a Jewish mother as she arrives in Argentina, the unwanted baby is not even given a name by her parents. The customs inspector suggests she could be called Gertrudis, after his own girlfriend.Gertrudis has a hard time throughout her youth. Growing up, she meets a subtle cruelty from her classmates. Her own mother even suggests how to pose for pictures, by almost disappearing from the frame. In spite of her lack of physical attributes, Gertrudis has a vivid imagination; she sees beauty everywhere. When Leo Cohen, a Jewish widower, goes to find a substitute for his dead wife, he passes over Gertrudis' sisters, and selects her. He obviously sees quality in the homely woman, whom he will use as a way to get children; for all practical purposes Gertrudis becomes his slave. We do not even see a kind gesture from this man toward the woman that has done everything for him, without even complaining.When the French photographer Jean-Baptiste arrives in the farm, he is surprised by the self effacing woman who refuses to be photographed with her family. During his stay, Gertrudis listens riveted to what the stories the man has to offer. Jean-Baptiste, who has been injured during WW1, has seen enough horrors in his lifetime that he now wants to escape from them by taking pictures of beauty. He finds in Gertrudis the kind soul that has been taken for granted by her family and the world, at large.Maria Victoria Menis, the director and adapter of a short story by Angelica Gorodischer, works in subtle ways in this moody film that is basically a character story about Gertrudis. The film is slow in the European tradition. Ms. Menis has brought the viewer into a magical world where beauty of the land contrasts with the outward appearance of a woman that has tried to erase herself from existence. Gertrudis has lived with a man for many years without being given any kind of affection by a cold husband and indifferent children. When Jean-Baptiste arrives, she begins examining her life and she is reborn because she feels wanted and appreciated by the French man that happens to come her way.The work of Mirta Bogdasarian is pitch perfect. She really understands what it is to be looked down because the outward appearance. Gertrudis is played with a subtlety that with another actress it might have not been possible. Ms. Bogdasarian is the whole reason for watching the film. Patrick Dell'Isola does a fine job for the director. Fernando Arman gives a solid performance as the selfish husband that has no clue about the gem he had, but did not appreciate.The film is beautifully photographed by Marcelo Iaccarino. The musical score is by Marcelo Moguilevski. Not having seen the previous work of Ms. Menis, we can only go by this film which shows a talent for giving her audience a subtle story, told in gorgeous detail.

"Camara Obscura"Yes, it is painfully slow-moving and not easy to comprehend at times. However, there is a message and I do think it is an important one.The film shows an unattractive child, shunned by her mother. We usually associate a mother's love with unconditional love. Here, Gertrudis gets neither. Growing into adulthood does not improve the situation. An arranged marriage gives her a loveless life filled with drudgery but also the joys of being a parent and living close to nature. Moreover, her mother's painful cringe is nowhere to be seen.The main character's self-image can change if only another human being can find her features attractive.The last part is the best part and rewards us for having sat through a long, seemingly uneventful story.

It comes and goes with independent movies. The truth is they always seem to have something different to say, something more to say; but there are also times when they come with a straightforward story, filled with emotion, and you can't help to like them. At least that's how I see it in Argentina, thinking very quickly that, for example, "Un Oso Rojo" hasn't got any big or fundamental message, but tells a slice of life that gets right into your heart. "La cámara oscura", the film by María Victoria Menis, is a piece of a strange nature, that couldn't enter into any of the groups I mentioned above (if there is such thing as those groups in the first place), simply because it's the first picture I've seen in a long time that doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to be. It tells the story of Gertrudis (Mirta Bogdasarian), one of the children of a Jewish family that escapes from their home country to go to Argentina. Gertrudis comes to life from her mother's belly, and maybe that's the reason of her strange beauty, when she's coming down of the ship that brought her to Buenos Aires. It's important that you notice the expression "strange beauty", because it's one of the fundamental aspects of the movie. There are two aspects that you would expect the writers to develop after witnessing Gertrudis' birth, but they sort of evade them. With this I mean that they do delevop these things but they don't do it fully, a fact that gives the film a simplistic look. There's an intention of representing a historical period in the country that never takes shape and there's a relationship of silence, more like indifference, between Gertrudis and her sisters; but everything is surpassed by the 'beauty' aspect. Probably what I'm trying to present as the film's fundamental aspect is the only thing the film cares about, and this turns out to be a problem. When we understand that Gertrudis is seen as ugly by all the people around her, we feel obliged to feel sorry for her. This can never be possible in a movie, and least possible in a piece like this one, that only cares about a central character.There's something secretly sad about a woman that only knows to watch her own feet and is not able to raise his head but nothing secret about the way "La cámara oscura" guides us towards this conclusion. The rest is background, and it's not attractive enough to carry a full-length feature. Like that failed attempt at meditation directed by Santiago Loza, "Extraño", Menis gives us beautiful images of beautiful fields in peaceful times. It shows us a family that lives happily by repeating a boring routine (which is understandable, due to the time period and the activity of the father, head of the family in question), and at times elevates the risk with animated sequences. What I mean with thee fact that the film doesn't know what it wants to be can be appreciated just by watching it: "La cámara oscura" has nothing to say. If you read the first paragraph of this review, you could say I'm contradicting myself because I defend movies that don't have a fundamental message; but these films at least have something to say. Except for the final scene, during which I found myself smiling, this film has nothing to say, and therefore the viewer has nothing to feel. However, "La cámara oscura" is a very interesting film because it tells a love story we're not accustomed to watch every day, and it tells it relying mostly on images and looks, without the need of using a lot of words; and that's always appreciated.