vida en sombras (w&d llorenç llobet-gràcia, w. victorio aguado)

The high concept idea always feels modern. Nolan, Vila-Matas, Nichol’s One Day are just a few references from recent years, which follow on from the likes of Robbe-Grillet and chums. But of course, it isn’t. High Concept has been at work forever, with A 101 Nights, A Winter’s Tale, Tempest, Life is a Dream, just a few examples. 

Perhaps it feels less well established in the cinema, and this is why Llobet-Gràcia’s delicious 1947 love story stroke homage to cinema feels so surprising. The film opens with the protagonist’s parents watching a Lumiere brothers film as a novelty in a Barcelona circus. A decade or so later, Carlos himself is watching an early Chaplin film with his friend Luis. They are joined by Ana, who twenty years later, will become his wife. He becomes a documentary director. With the arrival of the Civil War, he headset into the streets to film, following his documentary instincts. But whilst he is out, Ana is killed, so he volunteers for the front and foregoes the camera. After the war, his friend Luis, now a film star, persuades him to go and watch Hitchcock’s Rebecca. This would appear to have been a terrible decision when he walks out the cinema, unable to bear the narrative. But this has actually reawakened Carlos’ understanding of the power of cinema, and helps him to return to his former vocation.

The way in which Llobet-Gràcia constructs his story, weaving the history of cinema into the thread of Carlos’ life is magical. The film also manages to insert a sly counter Franco message, which lead to it being censored and meant that Vida En Sombras was the director’s first and last feature. It’s a lost classic, a bewitching succinct celebration of the power of cinema and its importance and possibilities as a story telling medium. 

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Footnote - posting this a month or so after seeing the film, whilst in Catalunya, one cannot help thinking that the unorthodoxy of Catalan architecture and thought must play a part in the originality of artistic thought that emanates from this corner of the world, something Llorenç Llobet-Gràcia’s only movie exemplifies.