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Chaotic Ana

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:19 am
by CAP
Or Caótica Ana to give it its original Spanish title. Crazy feminist epic from 2007 by Julio Medem, who apparently has a bit of reputation as an auteur, meaning = arty maverick. Anyway the story is nothing if not chaotic, involving flashbacks, while the main character, Ana, played by the very beautiful Manuela Vellés, is supposedly under hypnosis by a handsome young American called Angelo. The story rambles through many exotic locations (filmed in New York, Arizona, Madrid, and the Canary and Baleares islands) somehow ending up in a scene where Ana shits on the face of one of President Bush's attending neo-cons. Yeah don't ask me but that one sort of stays with you. Mythic is I guess the tip Medem is shooting for but momentum is the problem it has. The thing seems to drag, even as more and more bizarre episodes pile up.

Of particular appeal to this reviewer were the subtle changes to Ana's grooming as the story progresses - from ample blonde dreadlocks, with plaited tresses, in the opening scenes where she lives in a seaside cave with her mystic German father, to the slick combed-out look when she moves to Madrid to study art in a private academy, to the cropped and dyed semi-bob in her New York adventures - the undeniable charms of Ms Vellés only increase with the film's unfolding.

Also notable: Medem's usual composer, Alberto Iglesias was unavailable for this project and so under-rated British composer, Jocelyn Pook supplies the music. Pook last noted for the haunting theme to brilliant crime documentary series The Staircase, by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, back in... 2002? 2003? Anyway, excellent stuff - chase it up as a DVD!

Chaotic Ana probably won't make it to the DVD racks, unless you go for a Spanish language version.