La Flor

La Flor
This flower-shaped graphic was created to depict the relation between the six episodes, most of which start or end in medias res.
Directed by Mariano Llinás
Produced by Laura Citarella
Written by Mariano Llinás
Starring
  • Elisa Carricajo
  • Valeria Correa
  • Pilar Gamboa
  • Laura Paredes
Music by Gabriel Chwojnik
Cinematography Agustín Mendilaharzu
Production
company
El Pampero Cine
Release date
  • April 14, 2018 (2018-04-14) (BAFICI)
Running time
 868 minutes
Country Argentina
Language Spanish

La Flor (English: The Flower) is a 2018 Argentine film written and directed by Mariano Llinás. With a length of 868 minutes including intermissions, it is the longest film in the history of Argentine cinema.[1][2] The film is a joint project by the production group El Pampero Cine and the acting company Piel de Lava, made up of actresses Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa, and Laura Paredes. It premiered at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.

Plot

La Flor is broken into six separate episodes, connected only by an on-screen appearance by Llinás explaining the film's structure.[1] The first four episodes have the beginning of a story but finish in medias res. The fifth episode is the only one to proceed from start to end, and the last episode has just the conclusion of a story.

The first episode is shot as a B movie, where a group of researchers encounter a mummy and its supernatural curse. The second episode has two parallel plots. One follows a couple that has broken up as they reunite to record a song together, and the other is a mystery about a secret society formulating a potion for eternal life using a supposedly extinct scorpion. The third episode is about a group of spies, with extended flashbacks describing each of their backstories.

The fourth episode uses an experimental metanarrative in which the four lead actresses play actresses who turn against their director and his elaborate narrative structure. After the director disappears, an investigator develops a theory about the actresses after reading a story about Casanova. The fifth episode is a black-and-white, largely silent remake of Jean Renoir's Partie de campagne. The sixth episode is told through the diary of an Englishwoman living in the Americas during the nineteenth century. She and a three other women leave the desert after being held captive many years.

Production

Llinás first met the actresses of Piel de Lava in 2005 after seeing them in the play Neblina (English: Mist). They pitched him the idea of adapting it into a film. The group began working on this initial concept but eventually shifted to the idea of a single film encompassing multiple smaller films.[1][3] The film's structure is linked to its title through a drawing that illustrates the arrangement of the six episodes in the shape of a flower.[4]

Filming La Flor began in 2009, with each episode being shot sequentially.[1][3] The first episodes were shot on MiniDV, which gave the images a shallow focus. While filming the second episode, the crew switched to a Canon EOS 7D camera.[5] Llinás worked closely off of a script for the first two episodes, often recording multiple takes.[6] The third episode, shot from 2011 to 2016, took the longest to film.[1] The crew began shooting without a script in order to capture more natural performances from the cast. Voice-over narration was added later.[6] Filming locations included Argentina, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, and Mongolia.[4][7][8]

Release

Director of photography Agustín Mendilaharzu presenting La Flor at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival

While the film was still in production, the first two episodes of La Flor premiered in 2016. They were shown at a surprise screening at Festifreak in La Plata.[9] Several other screenings of the incomplete version were held throughout Argentina.[4]

La Flor premiered in its entirety at the 2018 BAFICI. The film was screened in three sections that began on April 14. It was awarded Best Film, and Piel de Lava won for Best Female Performance.[10] La Flor was selected to screen at the Locarno Festival,[11] Toronto International Film Festival,[12] and New York Film Festival.[13] Reviewer Keith Uhlich of Slant Magazine gave the film a perfect rating and wrote that its "meta self-awareness could easily be insufferable, yet Llinás never loses his sense of playfulness and fun."[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cronk, Jordan (2018). "La Flor (Mariano Llinás, Argentina) — Wavelengths". Cinema Scope. No. 76. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ "'La Flor' de Mariano Llinás. La Película más larga de la Historia" ['La Flor' by Mariano Llinás. The Longest Movie in History.]. El Día (in Spanish). April 20, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Zimerman, Gaspar (November 24, 2016). "'La flor', un filme de nueve horas" ['La flor', a nine-hour film]. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Pereyra, Pablo (November 12, 2016). "Mariano Llinás: 'Lo que más nos gusta es salir a filmar'" [Mariano Llinás: 'What we like most is going out to film']. Los Andes (in Spanish). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ Koza, Roger (April 13, 2018). "Mariano Llinás: La ficción como una aventura gozosa" [Mariano Llinás: Fiction as a joyful adventure]. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  6. 1 2 Mandelbaum, Jacques (September 8, 2018). "Mariano Llinas : « Je vois le film comme un arbre de Noël »" [Mariano Llinas: 'I see the film as a Christmas tree']. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  7. ↑ Stiletano, Marcelo (April 15, 2018). "Mariano Llinás: 'A mí me hubiese gustado seguir filmando La flor siempre': la historia de una película de 14 horas, la más extensa de la historia argentina" [Mariano Llinás: 'I would have liked to keep filming La flor forever': the story of a 14-hour film, the largest in Argentine history]. La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Batlle, Diego (April 17, 2018). "Bafici: La flor es una creación monumental y apasionante de 14 horas" [BAFICI: La Flor is a monumental and thrilling 14-hour creation]. La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  9. ↑ Boetti, Ezequiel (November 25, 2016). "Deshojando la margarita" [Pulling the daisy]. Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Bafici: triunfó 'La flor', una película que dura catorce horas" [Bafici: 'La flor', a film that lasts fourteen hours, wins]. El Tribuno (in Spanish). April 23, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  11. ↑ "La Flor". Locarno Festival. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  12. ↑ "115 new films added to the TIFF '18 lineup". Toronto International Film Festival. August 14, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  13. ↑ Raup, Jordan (August 7, 2018). "56th New York Film Festival Main Slate Announced". Film Society of Lincoln Center. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  14. ↑ Uhlich, Keith (October 6, 2018). "La Flor". Slant Magazine. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
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