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Festival 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Grand Jury Prize Nominee Goya Awards 2005 (Spanish Academy Awards) Nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress Best Costume Design, Best Make-up and Hair, Best Original Score “A delirious bedroom farce… bracingly literate.” --Stephen Holden, NYTimes Slyly amusing. A ribald sex farce of considerable imagination and inspired wackiness... sustained effortlessly by the charismatic Watling and Tosar. --Kevin Thomas - Los Angeles Times Watling is a revelation of divine proportions; as she and Tosar dance through the delicate maze of narrative tripwires laid by Orístrell and cowriters Teresa De Pelegri and Dominic Harari, viewers are likely to feel as if they are legitimately watching the birth of a star. The picture’s broader joys, however, come from its clever fusion of Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde, finally polished with Orístrell’s fluid style and impeccable production values. It’s a welcome and long overdue reminder that great Iberian cinema does not begin and end with Almodóvar. --Wade Major, L.A. City Beat Smart, sexy, wacky and graceful --Gene Seymour - Newsday Grade A A tightly plotted masterpiece zinging with witty barbs and profound thoughts on man in an early age of enlightenment. Sometimes a movie is just a movie, but Unconscious is an enchanting Spanish film destined to captivate and amuse American audiences. Mike Buzzelli, Campus Circle (FOUR STARS) A joy to watch... UNCONSCIOUS is a little gem --Digby Lewis, BBC (FOUR STARS) Sparkling dialogue and superb performances... Crackles with an underlying passion. --Nikki Baughan, Film Review A delightful comic farce. It’ll have you in stitches. The funniest Spanish film since El Crimen Ferpecto. -NYC Movie Guru One of the most visually stunning and original movies to come along in a while. --Ted Murphy - Murphy's Movie Reviews (FOUR STARS) Smart, exceedingly charming. A true joy. What makes Unconscious a true joy, though, is the dexterity with which its sly historical insight and subtle humanism combine to both celebrate and chide modernism. --Mark Holcomb, Time Out New York. A delightfully bonkers, and deceptively smart comedy. -- Demetrios Matheou, Sunday London Herald Don’t let this movie slip away. It's a quirky little Spanish sex comedy, brilliantly scripted, beautifully put together. Paolo Cabrelli, Stylus Magazine PICK OF THE WEEK Unconscious promises to slip into your subconscious and sweeten your day. It's the very definition of a quirky Spanish sex comedy... Unconscious rattles taboos and wallows in slapstick. Michael Leaverton, San Francisco Weekly (THREE 1/2 STARS) a winningly playful mix of farce and Freud ... "Unconscious" is the ticket to a romp through the psychopathology of everyday life. --Jay Carr, AM New York A delightful screwball sex comedy...highly satisfying. —Gary M. Kramer, In LA Magazine (FOUR STARS) Watling and Tosar are superb and it's undeniably great fun. --Patrick Peters, Empire An absolutely delightful movie... funny, wonderfully romantic and sexy ... the repartee comes fast and sharp, the visuals are sumptuous and the actors lovely... see it twice - Tim Cogshell , Box Office Review Clever wit, a charming cast and a unique stylishness... beautifully crafted and a truly memorable Indie that viewers will simply fall in love with. -- Peter Dimako. MovieJungle.com (FOUR STARS) A frothy confection of history, sex and romance. --Ian Winterton, Hotdog Apple-cheeked Almodóvar vet Leonor Watling rules the reels Michelle Devereaux SF Bay Guardian A breathless, vibrant sex comedy. -Jamie Russell, Total Film Works as farce, intricately designed love story, family melodrama, and portrait of society not too different from our own.... Watling [is] born to the role of a screwball comedy heroine. Gregg Rickman, San Francisco Weekly hard to resist.... charmingly fantastic -Katey Rich, Film Journal International You will laugh from corners of your subconscious you didn't know you had. --Cole Smithey As unpredictable and comic as the best of Oscar Wilde’s plays...oozes atmosphere from every single frame...perfectly executed --Boyd van Hoeij, Eurorpean-Films.net "Unconscious" is a romantic rouge-noir, if you will, hidden in the velveteen folds of sumptuous early 20th century society, marked by appealingly indecent taboo and wonderful farce. With invitingly anachronistic characters, witty dialogue and an interesting historical-fiction twist, its warm humor and intriguing plot make it a nearly perfect mixture of heart and mind. --Chandler Ford, Daily Trojan A very amusing film --John Esther, ErosZine |
Michelle Devereaux SF Bay Guardian It may be drowning in enough buttery, period-piece sepia to make Land o' Lakes jealous, but Spanish filmmaker Joaquín Oristrell's psychosexual farce has a lot more in common with Pedro Almodóvar than Merchant-Ivory. And no wonder — apple-cheeked Almodóvar vet Leonor Watling (Talk to Her) rules the reels as the thoroughly modern (for 1913), nine-months-pregnant Alma, the wife of a well-to-do Barcelona psychoanalyst (Alex Brendemühl) who turns amateur sleuth after his bizarre disappearance. Together with her impressively muttonchopped brother-in-law (Luis Tosar), who just happens to also be a shrink, the bright, plucky beauty is lead into a salacious underworld of cross-dressing, sadomasochistic porn, incest, and scandalous doctoral theses. There's even an assassination attempt on Freud himself. It seems all that newfound medicinal insight into the darkness of the human psyche might be a little hard to swallow — even for the doctors doling out the doses. If they have this much of a problem with Herr Sigmund, who knows what these therapy neophytes would have made of the horror that is Dr. Phil? ====================== Gregg Rickman, SF Weekly Issue Date: 12/29/06 Quote: "works as farce, intricately designed love story, family melodrama, love story, and portrait of society not too different from our own....Watling [is] born to the role of a screwball comedy heroine" [their capsule reviews are not online] Michael Leaverton, SF Weekly PICK OF THE WEEK "Dabbling in sex, history, romance, and Freud jokes that involve the presence of the man himself, director Joaquín Oristrell's Unconscious promises to slip into your subconscious and sweeten your day. It's the very definition of a quirky Spanish sex comedy, involving a woman looking for her psychoanalyst husband (and Freud disciple), accompanied by a man with alarming muttonchops that caterpillar across his face. Set in Antonio Gaudí–drenched 1913 Barcelona, Unconscious rattles taboos and wallows in slapstick." ========================= Set in 1913 Barcelona, during the rise of Freud and the new mind-science of psychoanalysis, Alma (Leonor Watling of Bad Education), the very pregnant wife of Freudian novice Leon (Alex Brendemuhl), engages her brother-in-law Salvador (Luis Tosar, Miami Vice), also a psychiatrist, to help her find her husband, who mysteriously disappears after a highly intriguing opening sequence. Damsel-in-distress Alma — who even nine months pregnant is too alluring to refuse — cajoles Salvador into taking up the search, during which it is in fact her Holmesian analytical skills that put them on the trail of Leon, not to mention a plethora family secrets involving her analyst Father, housekeeper, sister and a number of women whom Leon treated for what was commonly called hysteria. It’s all highly Freudian, indeed. Cultural taboos from patricide to incest are at play, and Spanish director Joaquin Oristrell’s Unconscious is an absolutely delightful movie — that is, despite those ostensibly distressing subjects — and most of all funny, wonderfully romantic and sexy. The film is a combination of styles and modes, ranging from episodic vignettes to magical realism, with touches of thriller and mystery, comedy and, of course, romance. Even with the burden of subtitles in a film where the repartee comes fast and sharp, the visuals are sumptuous and the actors lovely. Unconscious is worth the effort to divide your senses and take in every aspect. If necessary, just see it twice: Read it the first time, watch it the second. - Tim Cogshell , Box Office Review ======================== -Katey Rich, Film Journal International UNCONSCIOUS Manic period comedy from Spain is hard to resist. Poor Salvador. Here it is, 1913, and he just can't catch up with these modern times. Out there they're inventing things like crosswords and psychoanalysis, but Salvador is stuck in a loveless marriage, passed up for a job by his own father-in-law, and harboring a crush on his sister-in-law that he won't dare admit. How can he get out of this rut? If the filmmakers behind Unconscious have the answers-and, even by the end of this amusing period romp, it's not clear whether they think they do or not-it's really quite simple. Just accidentally hypnotize yourself, try to rape the woman you love, expose yourself at a supper club and accuse your boss of penis envy. By then you'll be well on your way to joining the fabulous, swinging '10s. Against the backdrop of the birth of modern psychology, Unconscious tells the charmingly fantastic story of a psychoanalyst's wife who uses his research, Sherlock Holmes-style, to track him down following his disappearance. Alma, sexually liberated and chock-full of Freudian theories, enlists her sister's husband Salvador to help her, knowing that he is in love with her and won't say no. As Salvador, with full-blown muttonchop facial hair and hangdog eyes, Luis Tosar is a hilarious sad sack, especially when dragged around Barcelona by wild, impetuous Alma (Leonor Watling, who along with Tosar is clearly having a ball). The chemistry between the actors adds a sparkle to the love story at the center of all the sleuthing, and the tenderness that emerges between Alma and Salvador is essential to keeping the bawdy one-liners and penis jokes from taking over entirely. Director Joaquin Oristrell employs a highly self-aware style, occasionally speeding up the film, using intertitles or sepia tones to make the movie look like it came from 1913. Oristrell and fellow screenwriters Teresa de Pelegri and Dominic Harari allow the rest of the film to go entirely over the top; with characters constantly fainting, coming out of hiding, fighting off villains or revealing secret relatives, it really begins to feel like an old French serial melodrama. With every single actor on board, though, the silliness feels like a big game, audience included, rather than an ironic period piece. The trick to enjoying Unconscious is to stay with it, and hold on tight-if you think you've seen it all when a nun stuns a pharmacist with a bottle of perfume, just wait until Salvador bursts into a brothel in his underwear with a headboard tied, crucifix-style, to his arms. Oristrell never seems to decide what he thinks about Freud, and Unconscious doesn't exactly do for psychoanalysis what Hitchcock did. Then again, by abandoning much of Freud's seriousness and using things like Oedipal complexes and penis envy as gags, Oristrell avoids a bummer finale like the end of Marnie. It seems that Oristrell was aiming for a larger message about psychology or our modern times, a message that gets lost somewhere between Salvador's stabbing at the hands of a porn star and the alcoholic maid taking swigs of Alma's perfume. No matter. Even with nothing more redeeming than a lot of good one-liners, Unconscious has a charm that your ego, superego and id can all enjoy. ***1/2 UNCONSCIOUS By Jay Carr, AM New York No film that begins with an old newsreel and ends with a tango can be all bad, and these are the least of the sprightly delights in "Unconscious," Joaquin Oristrell's Spanish sex farce set in Barcelona, 1913, when the world was just beginning to be aware of what a farce sex can be. Although sometimes over-emphatically executed, it's a winningly playful mix of farce and Freud as the pregnant wife of a shrink sets about finding her suddenly AWOL husband as all Barcelona, or at least its psychiatric circles, awaits the great Sigmund's lecture on totem and taboo. Totems and taboos abound, and Leonor Watling fields them in lively ways. The boisterousness and bustle never elbow sophistication aside, not even when the scene shifts to a country house devoted to transvestite transgressions, or the King of Spain's favorite bordello. Juicy visuals are another plus in this excustion into art nouveau Barcelona, complete with its own Gustav Klimt poster. There's no deficiency of mayhem at the big confab, either, as a Freudians and Jungians exchange death threats, a chandelier falls, and innocents dream of crossing the Atlantic to a New World of no psychoanalysis. "Unconscious" is the ticket to a romp through the psychopathology of everyday life. Four Stars Time Out New York An unexpected cloud break in the gloomy postholiday movie season, this smart, exceedingly charming romp defies pat categorization. Equal parts sex comedy, period piece and whodunit (although deducing what was done to whom is the bigger challenge), Unconscious cheekily acknowledges its genre influences without resorting to stale self-satisfaction. Indeed, it takes surprising turns right up to the closing credits. Set in Barcelona in 1913, the film begins with the sudden disappearance of psychoanalyst Leon Mira (Brendemuhl). His willful, very pregnant wife, Alma (the fittingly hypnotic Watling), drafts her repressed brother-in-law, Salvador (Tosar), who's also a shrink, to help track down her wayward spouse. Using Leon's dissertation on female hysteria as a guide, their investigation leads to encounters with the staff of a stag film studio, revelers at a drag ball, an accommodating neighborhood pharmacist and Sigmund Freud, as well as several shocking interpersonal discoveries. Chief among the latter, naturally, is that our amateur sleuths share a surreptitious mutual lust. Director Joaquin Oristrell keeps things bouncy throughout, from the sepia-tinted metacinematic trickery (the film sprocket wipes are a hoot) to the cast's barely reined-in histrionics. What makes Unconscious a true joy, though, is the dexterity with which its sly historical insight and subtle humanism combine to both celebrate and chide modernism. --Mark Holcomb, Time Out New York. NEW YORK TIMES - By STEPHEN HOLDEN “Emotion is a hormonal disorder,” declares Salvador (Luis Tosar), a conservative psychiatrist in Joaquín Oristrell’s Freudian farce, “Unconscious.” We are in Barcelona in 1913, and Salvador’s hare-brained theories about mental health are under assault by rabid acolytes of that subversive new philosopher of human behavior, Sigmund Freud. Suddenly the world of psychiatry is abuzz with scientific-sounding terms like penis envy and Oedipus complex. This being a farce, Salvador’s strait-laced machismo is comically undermined at every turn. His attempt to hypnotize a woman with a dangling pocket watch backfires, and he puts himself into a trance in which he spouts his inner feelings. Eventually he is shown changing into a dress and waltzing with another man at a posh transvestite club. Among the Freudian disciples chipping away at Salvador’s complacency, the most extreme is his brother-in-law and best friend, León (Alex Brendemühl), also a psychiatrist, whose studies with the master have turned him into an emotional hypochondriac. Everyone, including himself, León believes, is sick, sick, sick. He reels off a textbook’s worth of kinks to describe his recently discovered, hopelessly twisted, inner nature. If, as he acknowledges sadly, the unconscious mind holds the ultimate truth of human identity, the truth will not set you free; it’s a whole new can of worms. Trooping through this 2004 Spanish movie are the psychiatrists’ wives, competitive sisters who are both daughters of Dr. Mira (Juanjo Puigcorbé), the pompous chief of staff in the hospital where both men practice. We soon realize that Salvador’s prim, frigid wife, Olivia (Núria Prims), and León’s voluptuous spouse, Alma (Leonor Watling), would probably be much happier if each had married the other’s husband. The farce springs into action when León, seized by a panic brought on by a mysterious visitor to his home, flees for his life, and Alma beseeches Salvador to help her find him and unravel the mystery. There are intimations that León’s disappearance may be connected to the concealment of embarrassing revelations about the sex life of the Spanish king. Clues to León’s distress are found in his thesis: a detailed journal of his psychoanalytic sessions with four women he is treating for Freud-defined “hysteria,” a diagnosis the movie ridicules as a tool used by husbands to control their wives. The search for these patients takes Alma and Salvador to an elegant brothel, a transvestite club and the back room of a barn. This is the kind of farce in which people hide behind doors to overhear withering descriptions of their bedtime activities and genitalia. The cigar dangling conspicuously from the lips of Dr. Mira is definitely more than a cigar. If “Unconscious” consistently overplays its hand, its fusion of a Sherlock Holmes-style detective story (Alma is the master sleuth, and Salvador her Dr. Watson) with a delirious bedroom farce in the spirit of early Pedro Almodóvar is frequently very funny. The dizzy, erotic euphoria of post-Franco Spanish cinema may have subsided somewhat, but it can still produce movies like “Unconscious,” which simultaneously sends up and celebrates Freudian philosophy. The film, acted so broadly that it plays somewhat like a silent movie with spoken dialogue, is framed by bogus silent newsreels describing the latest inventions and fads of 1913 and introduces scenes with zany chapter titles. It is paced so breathlessly that it keeps you panting to keep up with each new plot twist. Yet with its elegant settings and richly saturated color, it has the opulence of a costume drama. Eventually Freud himself appears, surrounded by fawning admirers, to discourse on his new book, “Totem and Taboo.” Even when “Unconscious” loses its head, it remains bracingly literate. BY GENE SEYMOUR Newsday Staff Writer February 9, 2007 Are the Spanish the only ones these days able to make movie comedies that are smart, sexy, wacky and graceful all at once? It certainly seems so and, as knowledgeable filmgoers will tell you, not all of these movies bear the Pedro Almodóvar brand name. A case in point is Joaquin Oristrell's elegantly apportioned exercise in period screwball comedy set in pre-World War I Barcelona, where a pregnant woman, Alma (Leonor Watling from Almodóvar's "Talk to Her"), desperately searches for her missing psychiatrist husband with the help of her stiff-backed brother-in-law Salvatore (Luis Tosar from "Miami Vice"), who's also a shrink - albeit one who's not at all enraptured with the then-burgeoning theories of Sigmund Freud. Nonetheless, Alma keeps goading Salvatore deeper into detective work, using Freudian theories and leitmotifs as guides. Together, they tour an underbelly of secret indulgence, taking in scenery that includes pornography, transvestism, bisexuality and drug abuse. Things get, perhaps, a little sillier than they should, especially toward the climax. But working with a script he co-wrote with Teresa de Pelegri and Dominic Harari (directors of the comparably charming and sophisticated "Only Human"), Oristrell offers filmgoers (and, one hopes, filmmakers) on these shores a legitimate alternative to the relatively sappy, mostly palliative stuff that's supposedly carrying on the once-proud tradition of American romantic comedy. FOUR STARS out of FIVE Digby Lewis, BBC Inconscientes (Unconscious) is a distinctive, quirky comedy, which caused a stir at last year's Sundance Film Festival and is finally getting a limited UK release. Set in Barcelona in 1913, against a modernist backdrop of Sigmund Freud's theories and Gaudi's architecture, the well-structured, multi-layered script - part mystery, part romance - is bolstered by a great cast, with genuine on-screen chemistry. A heavily pregnant Alma (Leonor Watling) returns home one day to find her eminent psychiatrist husband Dr Leon Pardo (Alex Brendemühl) in tears and about to flee their home and his practice. Left to have their baby alone, she enlists the help of her admiring brother-in-law Salvador (Luis Tosar) and sets about uncovering the elaborate mystery of Leon's sudden departure. Their investigation is based on Leon's thesis on female sexuality and leads them to a series of unlikely discoveries. These include Salvador's sexually frustrated wife Olivia (Nuria Prims), who is also Alma's sister and one of Leon's recent patients. "A JOY TO WATCH" With both feet firmly rooted in high farce, many of the comic situations and characters are deliberately OTT. Watling's portrayal of the neurotic firebrand Alma and Tosar's bumbling, love-struck Salvador are a joy to watch together, while Mercedes Sampietro shines as the drunken housekeeper. Despite only appearing in the last act, Brendemühl threatens to steal the show with a hilarious final monologue. A well-observed, sideways portrait of the day, Unconscious is a little gem. Written by Boyd van Hoeij, Eurorpean-Films.net Some are ahead of their times more than others. Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis was such a person. His persona and work are the inspiration for the delightful Spanish comedy of manners Inconscientes (Unconscious), set in Barcelona in 1913. The fictional character of Alma ("soul" in Spanish) is at least as much ahead of her time as Freud. Her father is a renowned neurosurgeon and she is married to Dr. León Pardo, a psychiatrist who studied under Freud. After returning to Barcelona from Vienna, Dr Pardo, mumbling and crying, leaves his pregnant Alma under very mysterious circumstances. Alma seeks help and solace with her brother-in-law Salvador, who is secretly in love with her and who, despite being a psychiatrist, believes Freud’s outrageous theories are a pile of modern nonsense. Salvador and Alma to try fathom the mystery of the disappearance of León using the psychiatrist’s thesis, which contains anonymous case-studies of four of his patients. What follows is as unpredictable and comic as the best of Oscar Wilde’s plays, with the script by Dominic Harari, Teresa Pelegri and director Joaquín Oristrell moving seamlessly between puns and word play, snappy, intelligent dialogues and physical comedy. Even Dr. Freud himself makes an appearance, and many taboos as well as hypnosis and other tricks from psychiatry are woven into the fabric of Inconscientes with such grace that one hardly notices the effort it must have cost the writers to come up with something so consistently funny and focussed on its subject matter. There is not a bad performance to be found in Oristrell's comedy; Leonor Watling, who also starred as the neurotic, sexually unsure daughter in A mi madre le gustan las mujeres (My Mother Likes Women), here stars as Alma and shows off her perfect comedic timing and her elastic features. Her brother-in-law Salvador is played by character actor Luis Tosar (Te doy mis ojos/Take My Eyes), who finally gets the opportunity here to put his talent for comedy on display. They make the perfect screen couple, and it is evident that they hugely enjoyed themselves while working on this project. Inconscientes also oozes atmosphere from every single frame. The sumptuous interiors and exteriors of 1913 Barcelona and the elaborate costumes are all wonderfully photographed by cinematographer Jaume Peracaula, whose saturated and well-lit work is a feast for the eye right into the farthest corners of the screen, and for all of its running time. Sometimes the stars align for a trifle of a comedy that is just perfectly executed. Director Joaquín Oristrell was certainly not unconscious when he made Inconscientes; Oscar Wilde would have been proud to call this work his own. NYC Movie Guru Very rarely does a period piece come along that has so much off-the-wall, physical humor and manages to be truly suspenseful at the same time. As the film opens, Alma discovers that her husband, León, disappeared and joins her brother-in-law, Salvador, in a quest to find him. León leave behind his thesis on female sexuality, which Salvador considers to be a clue. What follows is a hilarious second act that brings Alma and Salvador closer together while meeting many colorful characters—and crazy characters, too. Unlike many sex comedies that rely on toilet humor, Unconscious mainly resorts to slapstick, dark, and situational humor along with some comedy of error. The third act does have a little perverse humor, though, which might be too offensive for some people. It helps that the screenplay by co-writer/director Joaquín Oristrell has many quotable lines and includes some unexpected plot twists. Just watch what happens when Salvador accidentally hypnotizes himself. The drunken housekeeper (Sampietro) has some laugh-out-loud, memorable scenes. What makes it all work, though, is the energetic performances and great comic timing by each and every actor from start to finish. They all seem to be having a lot of fun acting in this film and so will you while watching them. SPIRITUAL VALUE: None is required or desired. INSULT TO YOUR INTELLIGENCE: None, as long as you suspend your disbelief. NUMBER OF TIMES I CHECKED MY WATCH: 0 IN A NUTSHELL: A delightful comic farce. It’ll have you in stitches. The funniest Spanish film since El Crimen Ferpecto. Mystery, sexual escapades boost superb 'Unconscious' By: Chandler Ford, Daily Trojan In a prim and proper world, the suppression of physical and emotional appetite is paramount. Dr. Sigmund Freud's scandalous theories about human sexuality defy convention and, as director Joaquín Oristrell's charming Spanish film "Unconscious" would suggest, ask us to question the sexual taboos of a judiciously restrained atmosphere. The year is 1913, and Dr. Freud's teachings are accompanied by the invention of ecstasy, crossword puzzles and the brassiere. In Spain, his following is relatively small, but distinguished by the modern thinkers of the day. Among them are Dr. León Pardo (Alex Brendemuhl) and his wife, Alma (Leonor Watling), the film's heroine. The film begins with Dr. Pardo's abrupt departure, leaving Alma eight months pregnant. In her desperation, Alma enlists the help of her brother-in-law, Salvador (Luis Tosar), to seek out her husband and unravel the mystery of his disappearance. Armed with only a Freudian thesis detailing four cases of hysterical women as a clue, the duo set off on a scandalous adventure riddled with sex, intrigue and hypnosis. The themes of sexual identity, knowing oneself and giving into unconscious desires are prevalent throughout the movie, constantly examining and reexamining Freud's fundamental principles and fueling the comedy of the film. The four intertwining case studies explore sexual taboos of the time, masked by scientific analysis; one patient offers proof that "the quickest way to get rid of a wife" is to declare her insane. Alma's recognition of these "modern" ideas is foiled by Salvador's dogmatic allegiance to all things factual and scientific. His unconscious love for Alma, hidden beneath his scorn for the hypothetical, surfaces through a humorous botched attempt at hypnosis. The love affair between Alma and Salvador culminates as they discover one another while discovering themselves along the journey. The comedic element appears through Freudian revelations perceived by the characters, revealing that which their subconscious tries to keep hidden - to the hilarity of all. With the film framed throughout by an antique border and set in the most conservative, cultured society, Alma's modern presence and the setting's ideas of sexual deviance propagate ridiculous situations that are both farcical and functional. The mystery plot thickens rather quickly and, given the need for nimble mind and eyes to compensate for subtitles and plot twists, makes comprehension a vigorous task. The reward for such endurance, however, will leave literary aficionados satisfied to find the film peppered with allusions to such revolutionaries as Oscar Wilde and Charlotte Bronte. "Unconscious" is a romantic rouge-noir, if you will, hidden in the velveteen folds of sumptuous early 20th century society, marked by appealingly indecent taboo and wonderful farce. With invitingly anachronistic characters, witty dialogue and an interesting historical-fiction twist, its warm humor and intriguing plot make it a nearly perfect mixture of heart and mind. Unconscious (Regent Releasing) By Mike Buzzelli, Campus Circle Nothing is taboo when director Joaquin Oristrell explores the early years of modern psychiatry in Unconscious (Inconscientes) , a wonderfully giddy Spanish sex farce set in 1913 Barcelona, Spain. A very pregnant Alma (a sensuous Leonor Watling, Bad Education ) discovers that her husband, Leon Pardo (Alex Brendemuhl), a notable psychiatrist, has received some disturbing news and disappeared. Fearing the worst, she enlists the aid of her brother-in-law Salvador (Luis Tosar, Miami Vice ), another psychoanalyst. Slavador comically plays Watson to Alma's Sherlock as they hunt the missing man. Their only lead is Leon's unfinished treatise on female sexuality, case studies of four distinct and unusual female patients. Oristrell uses sumptuous filmmaking techniques to enhance this manic romantic comedy/mystery/period piece. He uses clever cuts, sepia-toned saturated frames and a rich color palette to augment this delightful romp. He and his fellow screenwriters, Teresa de Pelegri and Dominic Harari, deliver a tightly plotted masterpiece zinging with witty barbs and profound thoughts on man in an early age of enlightenment. Sometimes a movie is just a movie, but Unconscious is an enchanting Spanish film destined to captivate and amuse American audiences. Grade: A Unconscious (Inconscientes). In 1913 Barcelona, the pregnant wife (Leonor Watling) of a missing psychiatrist recruits her brother-in-law (Luis Tosar), also a psychiatrist, to help unravel the mystery of her husband’s disappearance. Their only clues come from a manuscript in which he reports on four anonymous female patients and their “issues.” It’s almost criminal that Spanish director Joaquin Orístrell’s delightful Freudian farce, completed and initially released in 2004, has taken this long to receive a stateside release. Watling (Bad Education) is a revelation of divine proportions; as she and Tosar dance through the delicate maze of narrative tripwires laid by Orístrell and cowriters Teresa De Pelegri and Dominic Harari, viewers are likely to feel as if they are legitimately watching the birth of a star. The picture’s broader joys, however, come from its clever fusion of Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde, finally polished with Orístrell’s fluid style and impeccable production values. It’s a welcome and long overdue reminder that great Iberian cinema does not begin and end with Almodóvar. --Wade Major, L.A. City Beat |