A Useful Life

angelicidea

Everybody is very chilled and slow in this film. I love how it plays like a silent movie with beautiful and interesting shots all the way through. Weird and wonderful and latin.

Graham Ball

An extremely 'Useful Life'... loved it, feel like I've lived aspects of it, melancholy feelings of a time gone by or in decline, but, conversely, inspires hope for the evolution of cinema.

Karthik

What a beautiful shot, a "hinge-shot", which turns the narrative: Jorge and Martinez, stump down the obscure defeated stairs, below a looming half-cut-off poster of Chaplin and his girl (at the end of Modern Times?) walking away at dawn...

Nelson Núñez

Otra película uruguaya contemporánea, minimalista en su forma y naturalista en el registro actoral. Con una marcada influencia del cine de Ermanno Olmi, asistimos a la modesta historia del empleado de una cinemateca en crisis que se ve obligado a encarar la vida de una forma distinta ante la inminente desaparición de su "mundo". El uso de los espacios tiene una carga dramática y narrativa sustancial. Interesante.

Yusef

Formal, simple and sincere, excellent job turning Montevideo into a timeless space. The reflection on cinema industry is so clear and direct that it surprisingly fits in the narrative structure and the apparent light tone of the film.

dionysus67

Low key meditation about the end of auteur cinema, this honest and austere film makes a for a splendid tribute to all National Film Theatres, their struggles, utopian vision and dissemination of important films. Never maudlin, it reverberates with an intellectual nostalgia, using as backdrop cinema's inspiration for real-life love and intimacy.

Ludovic72

Une réflexion élégante et nostalgique sur l'utilité de la cinéphilie classique et de son "église officielle", la cinémathèque. Le style dépouillé - tout à fait "auteuriste" - transmet bien l'état d'esprit de cette institution menacée, mais Federico Veiroj n'oublie pas l'humour et il parsème le film de jolies trouvailles visuelles et sonores. Sans oublier une critique (toujours bienvenue) du dogme de la rentabilité...

kartina obskura

3,5