The Secret in Their Eyes/El Secreto de Sus Ojos (2009) - Campanella and Sacheri's refined thriller

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Argentinian Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 16.95 times the cost

A rich tapestry of incidents and drama is hinted at in this poster for Juan José Campanella's The Secret in Their Eyes

  
A newly retired police investigator intends to write a book about the rape and murder case of a 23 year-old beauty, which has haunted him for 25 years. His writing also reopens an old romance.

The Secret in Their Eyes is written by Eduardo Sacheri (Underdogs/Metegol (2013)) and co-writer/co-producer/director/editor Juan José Campanella (The Boy Who Cried Bitch (1991)), adapting Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (2005).
It is an excting and good romance thriller with a good deal of welcome humor as well as technical excellence involved: It has a five minute-long chase scene at a packed football stadium in the 1970, which is downright virtuoso. (Cinematography by Félix Monti (Northeast/Nordeste (2005)).)
Periods of The Secret in Their Eyes is so suspenseful, it provokes goosebumps. The story deals with themes of guilt, doubt, judgement - and secrets. It is well-acted - but long; the romance takes center stage in the film's third act, and it never becomes too interesting, which hurts the overall good work.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 33.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 16.95 times its cost)
[The Secret in Their Eyes was released 13 August (Argentina) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October - November 2008. The stadium scene reportedly took 3 months of planning, 3 days to shot and the use of 200 extras. If the 2 mil. $ budget is accurate, which seems highly unlikely, the film was completed at an impressively low cost. 11 companies and support bodies were involved in its making. It opened #30 to a 167k $ first weekend in 10 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #14 and in 160 theaters (different weeks), playing for 27 weeks, grossing 6.3 mil. $ (18.6 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market: Biggest was its main production country Argentina with 9.2 mil. $ (27.1 %), 2nd biggest co-producing country Spain with 7.9 mil. $ (23.3 %). At the time of its release, the film became Argentina's 2nd highest-grossing film ever. The film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for Argentina, the country's second such win, a first for a Latin-American country. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a César award, a David di Donatello award, a European Film award, won 2/9 Goya award nominations and 13/17 Argentinian Academy awards. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. IMDb's users have rated the film into the site's Top 250 at #141, currently sitting between Come and See (1985) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Campanella returned with episodes in 4 TV-series before his next theatrical film, animation Underdogs (2013). Ricardo Darín (XXY (2007)) returned in The Dancer and the Thief/El Baile de la Victoria (2009). The Secret in Their Eyes is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Secret in Their Eyes?

Wild Tales/Relatos Salvajes (2014) - Szifron's mischievous, Argentinian anthology smash

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Argentinian Movie of the Year + Best Anthology of the Year

Three of the main characters of Damián Szifron's Wild Tales act out their inner animal in three situations from the film on this poster

Wild Tales presents six wild tales, fateful or karmic stories of uncommon yet still more or less realistic circumstances, wherein modern life seemingly pushes characters to act out in impulsively animalic, violent ways.

The three first stories of this anthology, SPOILER (the passengers stuck in the airplane; the restaurant murder and the strife between the two motorists), are only so-so successful, but they do establish the pitch black style of Wild Tales effectively. - And the following three tales are excellent; SPOILER the parking dogmatist, the DUI death and finally the wedding story, which must surely rate as the year's movie wedding. This story is especially memorable and hilarious; a bizarre example of how you absolutely will not want your wedding to pan out.
Wild Tales is self-assured and playfully made; it deliberately tricks our expectations more than once and also throughout denies us the luxury of having characters to feel bad for, which is rather smart of its Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifron (The Bottom of the Sea/El Fondo del Mar (2003)).
Wild Tales is a dark, funny, cheeky anthology of what could be termed someone's worst home-videos, presented cinematically.

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 30.6 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Wild Tales premiered 17 May (Cannes) and runs 122 minutes. Szifron based his script on a series of short stories he had begun writing in 2007. 70 % of the financing came from Argentina and the remaining 30 % from Spain. Filming took place in Argentina, including in Buenos Aires. The film opened #42 to an 85k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 122 theaters (different weeks), grossing 3.1 mil. $ (10.1 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was its native Argentina with 11.7 mil. $ (38.2 %) (although another source claims it made as much as 17.5 mil. $ in the country.) It broke the opening weekend record with sales of 450k tickets there, which grew to reportedly 3.9 mil. tickets, becoming the most seen Argentinian film in the country to date. The 2nd biggest market was Spain with 4.3 mil. $ (14.1 %), and North America was the 3rd biggest market. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to Pawel Pawlikowski's great Ida. It won a BAFTA, 10 out of 21 nominations at the Argentinian Motion Picture Academy, a David Di Donatello nomination, 1 win out of 9 Goya Awards nominations, a National Board of Review award and many other honors. The film currently stands at #186 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, between Life of Brian (1979) and Platoon (1986). Wild Tales is certified fresh at 95 % with an 8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Wild Tales?