While this is, as usual for Guerín, a lovely experience unlike most in cinema, I had trouble with it in its role as documentation. Too real to be fiction, but too staged to be reality, there is a constant tension while watching this film that relates to how it was shot and how genuine it is, which distracts from the lyricism of the film’s conversations, philosophies, and imagery. It is quite an obvious comparison, I think, to call attention between this film and Zhang-ke’s recent 24 City. Both films’ subjects are modern high-rise residencies which are being built to replace a piece of each respective city’s history, and both films walk a tightrope between fiction and reality. Zhang-ke interviews about eight subjects, and roughly half of them are actors who are acting out scripted material for their interview, while the other half are genuine, unscripted interviews with actual civilians. En Construccion has a more subtle conflict with reality, in the sense that I believe that all of the film’s subjects are non-actors who are simply acting out their daily routines, similar to the characters in a Pedro Costa film. Certain moments, especially the young worker who flirts with a woman who hangs her clothes to dry, lose credibility for the entire film because they are so obviously set-up, including reverse-angle shots and cuts to accompany the already far-fetched possibilty that a confrontation this theatrical could be simply stumbled upon; it feels like an homage to Romeo and Juliet. Earlier scenes in which it seems like we are eavesdropping on the conversations of resident’s and passersby are reconsidered at this point. A dialogue between a little girl and her friend, discussing something like whether or not she wants to have children when she grows up, becomes slightly awkward in retrospect. Is this just an actual conversation that they were having at the site, or did Guerín script this, and if so, why? Did Guerín hear the conversation and ask them to repeat it for the film, and again, why? Not to mention that most of the dialogue that seems to be spontaneous sounds so well recorded that I wonder if these people were mic’ed, and if so, who got a mic and who didn’t? What other juicy material am I missing from those who weren’t mic’ed? Needless to say, the formalities of the film took center stage with me, and I can’t tell if it was intentional or not, nor if it benefited the viewing experience; my hunch is ‘no.’ A film like Close Up gets away with this blurring of reality because, among other things, it embraces the confusion and mixing of fiction and non-fiction.
The flaws of En Construccion affect 24 City as well in much the same way. One wonders if Zhang-ke couldn’t find enough subjects to fill out a feature length film, or what the staged interviews add that he couldn’t get from the real interviews. I believe that he was drawing parallels between the natural and articial depictions of the interviewees with the buildings before and after 24 City was constructed, an artistic sacrifice on par with Adaptation‘s butchered third act for the sake of its concept. I think that Guerín is best when he is working either within the realms of fiction (In the City of Sylvia) or actually commenting on it (Train of Shadows). Like I said, though, En Construccion still has plenty of what makes Guerín’s films so watchable: the joys of voyeurism, lucious imagery, a brilliant sound design, et al.
I really need to see this one as well. I haven’t checked yet, but are subtitles needed?
subtitles are definitely needed with this one, much more so than either Sylvia film and Train of Shadows.
Some Photos in the City of Sylvia does require subtitles, actually, but they’re just assumed, since there’s no sound.
Thanks!