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#8 THE EVIL SPREADS: VENICE DAYS DISCOVERS A GREAT NARRATOR
07/09/2006
Jorge Sanchez-Cabezudo's debut feature is one of the biggest surprises of this year's Venice Days. In terms of structure and content, La noche de los girasoles is as close as cinema can get to literature. Its chapters form, altogether, a gallery of accurate and subtle portraits the multiplicity of which parallels the complex way the main plot and the many sub-plots eventually entangle as the actual chronology is gradually unveiled.
This rich diegesis, elaborated by a truly gifted narrator, unfolds, ironically, in a god-forsaken village on the verge of death of the Spanish countryside, Angosto, where nothing, in theory, should happen anymore - in fact, this Macbeth-like chain of crimes is related to the arrival of people from the city. It is indeed a serial killer -whose job is, paradoxically, to sell cleaning devices - who initially starts soiling everything around him.
This being said, Sanchez-Cabezudo soon blurs this impression of a clear-cut causality by multiplying haphazard events (of which he is himself in complete control)…
La noche de los girasoles is a fully-mastered variation on the theme Audiberti explored in "The Evil Spreads" -that is, the contagious nature of evil, which attracted to Sala Perla a wide audience, and ended with a warm applause and a series of appraisals, most of which duly noted the several references present in the film.
Why did you choose that title?
Initially, the film was entitled after the name of the village where the action takes place, "Angosto", but then we realized it would not mean much to the public and changed it into "La noche de los girasoles" (lit. 'the night of the sunflowers') because the characters seem to be as lost as sunflowers at night and because it fitted nicely the rural background where the story happens.
What led you to prefer this background for your crime story?
As the world is changing and the EU is growing, certain rural areas are gradually depopulated and I wanted to film them before it was too late.
Moreover, Spanish cinema has often associated rural life with violence and I wanted to correct that approach in a plot where violence comes from the city.
Eventually, by mixing small town characters and people from the city, I think I managed to level things out and show that all humans are guided by primary emotions.
The presence of many characters and subplots clearly counteracts simplistic notions and clichés...
I think that this was indeed one of the main premises of the film. Its structure allowed me to present a situation in all its complexity —to show the big picture in a kaleidoscopic way. Multiplying characters was also a way of avoiding to take on a cold, objective tone without introducing bias.
Bénédicte Prot (Cineuropa)
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Noche de los girasoles Interview |
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