Review of Post Tenebras Lux (2012) by Edgar C — 29 Mar 2014

Written and directed by Carlos Reygadas, (Japón (2002), Battle in Heaven (2005) and Silent Light (2007)), this stream-of-conscious film was inspired by events from Reygadas' life, but it was also inspired by aspirations and fantasies he had.

It's a very surreal film, but even if it dangerously veers toward heavy philosophical subtexts, the film manages to make sense. It tells the story of Juan (Adolfo Jiménez Castro) who with his wife Natalia (Nathalia Acevedo) and their young children Eleazer and Rut (Eleazer and Rut Reygadas), live out in the remote Mexican countryside, surrounded by forest and mountains.

But all is not happy between Juan and Natalia, and they have memories of the past and events that might come in their lives. Juan needs pornography to get aroused, while we see the plight of a nearby woodcutter called Seven (Willebaldo Torres).

We also cut back and forth between a rugby match somewhere in England, a seedy whorehouse somewhere in France and an animated devil walking into a house. Juan and Natalia decide to try and make their rocky marriage work somehow.

This is the film that To The Wonder (2012) should have been, shot in a cold full frame format, it's a moving and somehow engaging meditation on life. God knows how, because it's slow moving and quite pretentious, how Reygadas manages to make it compelling for nearly 2 hours is a miracle, but it's well worth a watch.