Earth (1996)
Angel, an exterminator recently released from a mental hospital, comes to rid a small Spanish town of tiny grubs in the soil. The local wine-making industry has found these pests responsible for giving their product an "earthy" taste that has divided local opinion. While in town, Angel becomes involved with two beautiful and very different women, and impacts their lives on a grand scale. Can either of these women accept the fact that Angel travels with a "ghost" of himself, or that he routinely speaks with the deseased townspeople?
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
The acting in this movie is really good.
You will get a faster heartbeat even though the story is not that good. It is not important how many imaginative friends the protagonist has, you don't have to follow the story. The film takes you everywhere he wants, and even if it does not make sense to you, you will be completely spellbound. Strange. Important are only the scenes and their composition, this awkward landscape and the people. There is this post-apocalyptic cloud hanging over every shot, a bit like Mad Max, where everybody is just crazy and aggressive. I was also a bit reminded of Farenheit by Truffaut in the style and the leprous main character.There is indeed lots of symbolism in it but that does not make the movie cheaper but richer. Most movies try symbolism and fail, being too ambitious, this one doesn't. It is brilliant and unique, watch it.
It is a beautiful movie (as most of Medem's movies are), visually absolutely stunning, with very good actors and a very human(istic) plot. It sometimes gets complicated, sometimes it does not make too much sense, but at the end it does not really matter. Probably the best way to enjoy this film is to let the images guide you into their dizzying magical world and you will then feel deep inside what it is all about.
After seeing "Sex and Lucia" by writer-director Julio Medem, I decided to rent this film and was gratified with one of the best works of international cinema. From the beginning we are fascinated by the world introduced through the main character, an agricultural technician supposedly recently out of a mental hospital. Along the way we get to doubt most everything. We experience a different world that opens up with unexpected violence and repressed longing. The cinematography, production design and performances are extraordinary until the very end, which as with most Julio Medem films happen to be a commercial cop-out of sorts. In the last two minutes, when it all goes in one direction, the writer-director insists in imposing his (overly sentimental) views on his tormented characters and previously constructed world. Rather than let things go towards their ultimate logical consequences and grand finale, it makes for a silly little ending. Still, a must video rent if you want a thought piece with humor and thriller elements.
The film tells the story of a technician who comes to a little village to solve the problem of the local wines, they taste to soil, in that task he will find several charachters that will start to enter wildly in his life. To me this one is the most discret film in the career of Julio Medem, a genial creator. Even if the film follows the general guidelines of the rest of the filmography of Medem (symbolism and psychologicalism), it lacks of the potence to attract so much the audience.