5/29/10

Woman Without Piano

"La Mujer Sin Piano" (with English captions) is the sort of film that, in my opinion, gives film festivals a bad name.

First of all, the pace is glacial! The characters have the potential to be interesting but instead, they just walk around Madrid at night and don't do much. There is very little dialogue and what there is, proves oblique and puzzling.

The main character is a woman named Rosa, whose husband is a cab driver. Once he is asleep, she gets up, dons a wig and sets out on what may or may not be a nightly prowl around Madrid. The actress is wonderful but the story is nonexistent.

By the time this film finally meandered to a close, I had a few questions but absolutely NO answers. I found this frustrating and a waste of time. At the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival screening I attended, there was a spattering of applause, but it was more than offset by the number of people who walked out.

Oh yeah, in one scene there was a piano for about 60 seconds....