Throughout the history of cinema, the stories of indigenous peoples in the Americas have been framed almost entirely through the gaze of immigrant European peoples. Lisandro Alonso’s challenging three part film is informed by their own stories, not just in the narratives it unfolds, but also in the structures of its storytelling.
Scripted with the aid of authors Martin Camaño and Fabian Casas, this is a film as rich in thematic and literary motifs as it is in imagery. The first segment, which stars Viggo Mortensen as a damaged man looking for trouble in a dissolute frontier town, plays out like a black and white reworking of The Searchers, taking John Ford’s vision of the Wild West to such an extreme that its nature as propaganda can no longer be denied, and at the same time speaking to the very real tragedy wrought upon Native peoples by colonial brutalisation and.
Scripted with the aid of authors Martin Camaño and Fabian Casas, this is a film as rich in thematic and literary motifs as it is in imagery. The first segment, which stars Viggo Mortensen as a damaged man looking for trouble in a dissolute frontier town, plays out like a black and white reworking of The Searchers, taking John Ford’s vision of the Wild West to such an extreme that its nature as propaganda can no longer be denied, and at the same time speaking to the very real tragedy wrought upon Native peoples by colonial brutalisation and.
- 2/16/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Lisandro Alonso’s heady, intoxicating Eureka opens on a pristine beach where a Native American musician sings toward the sun. None of what he says is subtitled, though it’s apparent that his personal history, as well as that of his people, colors every word. When his chant concludes, the man walks slowly inland in one of the protracted transitional sequences in which Alonso specializes. Of all the practitioners of so-called “slow cinema,” the Argentine filmmaker excels at making even the most anti-dramatic actions riveting.
Eventually, the Native singer comes to an overlook where he spots a wagon in the distance. In the back of the vehicle sits a grizzled gunslinger named Murphy (Viggo Mortensen). Up to this point, Eureka has the feel of an ethnographic documentary. But with the arrival of a bona fide movie star, the ambience shifts toward the thorny fantasyland of the American western.
The genre trappings are familiar,...
Eventually, the Native singer comes to an overlook where he spots a wagon in the distance. In the back of the vehicle sits a grizzled gunslinger named Murphy (Viggo Mortensen). Up to this point, Eureka has the feel of an ethnographic documentary. But with the arrival of a bona fide movie star, the ambience shifts toward the thorny fantasyland of the American western.
The genre trappings are familiar,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Keith Uhlich
- Slant Magazine
Late into Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja, Viggo Mortensen’s Captain Gunnar Dinesen disappeared into a cave. What happened next, in that unnamed stretch of 19th-century Patagonia, was nothing short of otherworldly. Gunnar’s encounter down the grotto was Jauja’s climax, and it stood as a kind of revelation for film and filmmaker both. The narrative trap door stripped Jauja of its western trappings and lifted the Danish soldier’s search for his daughter across the pampa into the realm of myth before an ellipsis shuttled one across time and space and it all became something else entirely. It also moved Alonso away from the observational, minimalist style of his earlier features toward a more expansive, enigmatic, magical register. More than anything, perhaps, that baffling rupture suggested liberation: it was the sort of moment his previous work––with their intimations of spiritual mysteries and numinous references––had long courted; here it finally detonated,...
- 6/14/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Jauja Cinema Guild Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: B+ Director: Lisandro Alonso Screenwriter: Lisandro Alonso, Fabian Casas Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Viilbjørk Agger Malling, Ghita Norby, Adrian Fondari, Esteban Bigliardi Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/3/15 Opens: 3/20/15 A personal note with some bearing on this film: I spent a good part of my career teaching history and economics in high school. The so-called World History course made no mention of China except as a place for the British to set up trading posts. There was no mention of Africa except as a place for goodies to be stolen by British, French, German and Belgian [ Read More ]
The post Jauja Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Jauja Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/6/2015
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
One of the most talked-about films in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard this year, Argentinean auteur Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja, had its local premiere Sunday at the 29th Mar del Plata Film Festival, presented by the director alongside star Viggo Mortensen and writer Fabian Casas. The film, winner of the Fipresci award at Cannes, features a Danish-speaking Mortensen as a 19th army captain who sets out on a hypnotic and somewhat magical journey through the Argentine Patagonia to find his kidnapped young daughter. Mortensen, who grew up in Argentina and speaks perfect Castellano, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how
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- 11/24/2014
- by Agustin Mango
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
★★★☆☆Viggo Mortensen takes a leisurely stroll through South American arthouse territory in Lisandro Alonso's oddly compelling peculiarity Jauja (2014). From a screenplay by poet Fabian Casas, the film tells the story of Danish captain Gunnar Dinesen (Mortensen), something of a wanderer who has in tow his 15-year-old daughter, Ingeborg (Viilbjork Mallin Agger). We begin with a disparate group of men, dressed in vaguely 19th century get up, sitting on a rocky seashore. A soldier picks his teeth with a knife and an officer masturbates as he lies in a rock pool, while around them a monotonous bleating suggests the presence of goats. The shots are held for significant amounts of time as nothing happens.
- 5/26/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Cannes - "Did you see the Lisandro Alonso?!" came the eager text from a friend not in Cannes, mere minutes after I had, indeed, seen Alonso's "Jauja" -- an Argentine western turned existential comedy turned, well, any number of alternate-dimension subgenres. I envied him his excitement. Alonso has built up a fiercely devoted band of admirers with his opaque brand of slow-cinema puzzle picture, as demonstrated in the likes of "Liverpool" and "Los Muertos"; for those of us who have never gained access to that club, "Jauja" is unlikely to bring us much closer. Intermittently playful, consistently confounding, finally petrified, it's a film of fussy, cultivated austerity; Alonsolytes will debate what it's hiding, while others will suggest "an actual movie" as the answer. Initially, improbably, it seems that we're in for more hand-holding than usual from Alonso, as proceedings open with a lengthy block of text that helpfully gives context...
- 5/21/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
While we took the weekend off from keeping tabs on news in and around Cannes, here are some highlights we missed: • Over at the Montreal Gazette, Liz Ferguson rounds up photos of red carpet activism, ranging from nearly the entire cast of The Expendables 3 holding papers reading “Bring our girls back” (after riding down the streets in two tanks) to Jauja director Lisandro Alonso, star Viggo Mortensen, screenwriter Fabian Casas and other cast members bearing a sign reading “We want the trophy” in Spanish — a message of support for Buenos Aires’ Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, […]...
- 5/19/2014
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
While we took the weekend off from keeping tabs on news in and around Cannes, here are some highlights we missed: • Over at the Montreal Gazette, Liz Ferguson rounds up photos of red carpet activism, ranging from nearly the entire cast of The Expendables 3 holding papers reading “Bring our girls back” (after riding down the streets in two tanks) to Jauja director Lisandro Alonso, star Viggo Mortensen, screenwriter Fabian Casas and other cast members bearing a sign reading “We want the trophy” in Spanish — a message of support for Buenos Aires’ Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, […]...
- 5/19/2014
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Jauja
Written by Lisandro Alonso and Fabian Casas
Directed by Lisandro Alonso
Argentina, 2014
Leaving his long studies of structure and work behind, Lisandro Alonso’s newest feature Jauja instead behaves like a dark fairy tale in a minimalistic universe of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s hauntingly slow, but only to the point that we can experience everything that needs to be said and done. In this respect, Alonso uses his small conversations and economic direction of space to solidify his particular brand of art-house contemplation without sacrificing a good-natured inquiry into the sort of visceral reaction his style can commandeer. However, Jauja seems to be straddling the limits of what Alonso can possibly offer, always taking a step back whenever he tempts to be too interesting.
Jauja opens in a round-bordered 4:3 frame, as a military-dress-clad father (Viggo Mortensen) discusses getting a dog with his daughter. It’s an uneventful...
Written by Lisandro Alonso and Fabian Casas
Directed by Lisandro Alonso
Argentina, 2014
Leaving his long studies of structure and work behind, Lisandro Alonso’s newest feature Jauja instead behaves like a dark fairy tale in a minimalistic universe of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s hauntingly slow, but only to the point that we can experience everything that needs to be said and done. In this respect, Alonso uses his small conversations and economic direction of space to solidify his particular brand of art-house contemplation without sacrificing a good-natured inquiry into the sort of visceral reaction his style can commandeer. However, Jauja seems to be straddling the limits of what Alonso can possibly offer, always taking a step back whenever he tempts to be too interesting.
Jauja opens in a round-bordered 4:3 frame, as a military-dress-clad father (Viggo Mortensen) discusses getting a dog with his daughter. It’s an uneventful...
- 5/19/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
Argentine director Lisandro Alonso has built a cult following around a handful of elegant, minimalist films made for meditative minds. In comparison to his earlier work, the most surprising thing about Jauja (Land of Plenty) is its relative verbosity and the traces of actual narrative in the screenplay written by poet and journalist Fabian Casas. Another prime attraction is actor Viggo Mortensen in the role of a dizzy 19th century army captain whose search for his missing daughter in the wilds of South America turns into a long existential journey. Whether these elements will suffice to enlarge the director’s circle
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- 5/18/2014
- by Deborah Young
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Argentine filmmaker Lisandro Alonso was last seen at Cannes in 2008 with his drama about a sailor, "Liverpool." He's exploring the natural world yet again in "Jauja," the Un Certain Regard entry starring Viggo Mortensen as a father who treks with his daughter from Denmark to an uncharted desert in South America. Costarring Ghita Norby, "Jauja" is cowritten by Alonso and first-time scribe Fabian Casas, and this is Alonso's first narrative feature since "Liverpool." He made an international splash in 2004 with "Los Muertos," another mystery that turned on the relationship between father and daughter. Take a look at images from the set of "Jauja" below, and Indiewire has an exclusive on the beautiful new poster here. The film will compete for the Un Certain Regard prize, under Argentinian jury president Pablo Trapero.
- 5/8/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Director: Lisandro Alonso
Writers: Lisandro Alonso, Fabian Casas
Producers: Ilse Hughan, Andy Kleinman, Viggo Mortensen, Helle Ulsteen
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Ghita Nørby
We’re used to our favorite auteur Argentinean filmmakers making us wait and this will have been the longest he has been between feature film projects. An expert in the vérité form, the untitled fifth feature following La libertad, Los muertos, Fantasma and Liverpool, Lisandro Alonso teamed with the linguistically versatile Viggo Mortensen for what should be one more distinctly art-house item.
Gist: A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.
Release Date: He has been in the Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard sections at the Cannes Film Festival. Perhaps he’ll attain the “highest” section of them all with a Main Comp showing…
More Top 200 Most Anticipated Films...
Writers: Lisandro Alonso, Fabian Casas
Producers: Ilse Hughan, Andy Kleinman, Viggo Mortensen, Helle Ulsteen
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Ghita Nørby
We’re used to our favorite auteur Argentinean filmmakers making us wait and this will have been the longest he has been between feature film projects. An expert in the vérité form, the untitled fifth feature following La libertad, Los muertos, Fantasma and Liverpool, Lisandro Alonso teamed with the linguistically versatile Viggo Mortensen for what should be one more distinctly art-house item.
Gist: A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.
Release Date: He has been in the Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard sections at the Cannes Film Festival. Perhaps he’ll attain the “highest” section of them all with a Main Comp showing…
More Top 200 Most Anticipated Films...
- 3/3/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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