Earlier this year we were at the Fantasy Film Fest in Germany. Before the second film that we saw started, there was a trailer of “La Antena”. I immediately loved the weird black and white filming, strange atmosphere and odd music, so I decided that I had to see the film. It took me a while before I found out which film it was (I only remembered “Antena” and didn’t know the director) and a friend told me that the film would be on DVD in September. Last week I had to think about the film, started to search the web, noticed that the film actually premiered at the Fantasy Film Fest and opened the Rotterdam Film Festival and that it is available on DVD only in Germany. So that means a Spanish film with German subtitles or German overdub… Fortunately “La Antena” is mostly a silent film.
In fictitious sci-fi 1950’ies a nameless city is ruled by a mr. TV and his staff. They took away the peoples voices as one of the means of control, of course a few people start to rebel. “La Antena” brilliantly used a 50’ies way of filming and a 50’ies atmosphere together with great visual jokes mostly around the text that people speak now in text on the screen. The film reminds me a bit of “Sin City”, but also a bit of “Dark City” and sometimes a flinch of “Delikatessen” or “Les Triplettes De Belville”, but “La Antena” is very different from all of them. There is a beautiful high-contrast black and white stage, you will see the weirdest characters and costumes and nicely fitting music. There are two people in the film that can speak and of course I now had a Spanish and German film (subtitles for written spoken words), so you may have to wait for a version in English or your own language, but the film surely is a spectacle that you have to see sooner or later. Very original and well-done.
-4.5-