El hombre de al lado (2009) Reviews

• An empire crumbles

  Chris Knipp2010-03-11

  This fourth collaboration between Argentinians Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat is a drolly ironic study of bourgeois insecurity in which the viewer's sympathies gradually shift from the apparent protagonist to his apparent enemy -- a crude neighbor who shatters his calm by knocking out a hole in a wall facing and adjoining his especially perfect house. All focus is on Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd), a successful designer who lives with his wife and teenage daughter in the university town of La Plata, Buenos Aires in what is essentially a museum: a Le Corbusier house, the only one in Latin America. It's a real house: it's called the Curutchet House. It is ample and meandering; we never get a look at all of it at once. One of its windows faces a white wall. That wall belongs to a house. Behind that wall, in an apartment, is a macho, gravel-voiced used car salesman called Victor (Daniel Aráoz). This man is remodeling, and he wants a bit of light. The film begins with a big sledge hammer knocking a hole in the wall. At first one's sympathies are with Leonardo, especially if one has ever had to deal with nosy, intrusive, or annoying neighbors, as many of us have. Victor could be doing anything, chopping down a tree, building or destroying a fence, even harboring a noisy dog. The sly part comes when the personalities of Leonardo and Victor are combined; because, try as he might to keep it cold and businesslike, Leonardo can't stop Victor from being friendly and insisting they discuss the issue "as friends" in a café. Sure, Victor is a bit crude, and this is, typically for an Argentinian film, largely about class. But the class Leonardo increasingly shows, as the picture builds up, is world class priggishness and Olympic grade cowardice. His self-importance is endless, but nothing he does ever justifies it. Sure, he is a successful designer, but the house only underlines the fact that he's no Le Corbusier. Moreover, he keeps telling Victor he's terribly busy when he's so rattled by the noise (as Victor has the window changed back and forth) that he isn't doing anything. His wife is always on his case, and his daughter is always dancing in her room wearing headphones. Leonardo is even cowardly in the face of his daughter's insolence and and hostility. The Le Corbusier house may be marvelous. People are constantly coming around to photograph it and annoying Leonardo by even sometimes asking to be let in (out of the question; but their repeated appearances add to the growing sense of menace, of the crumbling of Leonardo's world). Leonardo resents that the house is listed on Wikipedia (it is; look it up). Victor acts friendly, and so Leonardo pretends to act friendly too, meanwhile making fun of Victor and exclaiming at his presumption and gaucherie to sycophantic friends. Leonardo began by telling Victor what he's doing was illegal. In fact when he finally consults with a knowledgeable friend it turns out Victor has the right to put in a window. It just needs to be higher up and narrower. But if the law forbids a big squarish wall, when it comes down to actual cases that may be hard to enforce. Too weak to confront Victor on his own or in a café (though he does consent to enter his kitschy van), Leonardo resorts to pretending it's his wife who won't allow the window, and then his father-in-law, who in his lies are far more authoritative and unyielding than he is. It becomes increasingly clear that Leonardo is ineffectual. The hole in the wall was from the start the symbol of his impotence. Leonardo is an asshole; and so are his wife and daughter. He's also hollow, like the family who inhabiting the modern house of Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle. With all due respect to Le Corbusier, such houses are not cozy, and in both cases people are making things more important than people. Victor (ironically, since he quite lacks Hulot's fey delicacy) is like Monsieur Hulot. He's a human being, and the threat he poses to Leonardo is that he connects on a human level. Leonardo is just a self-important snob. His sense of superiority is focused in his notion that his house is of transcendent importance; that the world belongs to him. As Victor, Daniel Aráoz's performance is a marvel of control that hovers perpetually and tantalizingly between bonhomie and menace. And the modulation of the film is equally subtle in the way it gradually shifts the viewer's sympathies from Leonardo to his annoying neighbor; the way little by little, Leonardo and his family become the truly and deeply annoying ones. The Man Next Door is a very simple story: the premise takes such good care of itself that almost any little incident that happens from day to day enriches the situation and adds layers to its implications. This is the story of a process, a gradual meltdown. Victor turns out, in a surprise twist, that, unfortunately, takes the film into another, unrelated genre, to be in fact a very good neighbor indeed. What's good about The Man Next Door is the way it's simultaneously both symbolic (and satirical) and very practical and down-to-earth. The film (El homre de al lado) has a special cool, flat, grayish look that is elegant and distinctive, and it won the cinematography prize at Sundance. It was in several festivals; is scheduled for release in Argentina in September 2010; and was chosen to be part of the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and shown at the Walter Reade Theater and at MoMA, March 31, 2010 (MoMA) and April 1 (Walter Reade).

• Unique Le Corbusier House and a conflicting illegal window on the party wall.

  davidtraversa-12011-06-05

  From the very beginning, the film starts with a split screen, the left side light and luminous, the sun hits directly a white, solid wall. The right side of the screen is the same wall, but viewed from the interior, very dark, no light whatsoever. Someone is hitting the wall from the inside with a sledgehammer, trying to open a hole, blow by blow. The hole gets larger and larger. On the left, sunny side the wall starts to crack, soon it crumbles and the hole is opened. Light starts lighting up the dark interior. And here starts the film, with the opening of an illegal window on a party wall. But not only that window is illegal, it opens facing its neighbor, the only house that Le Corbusier built in all Southamerica, in La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. (This house can be seen in Wikipedia and we see tourists coming from different parts of the world to see it, to photograph it and even to ask permission from its owner to visit the interior!!). The premise couldn't be simpler and its the only premise of the whole movie, but... what a movie! I don't remember seeing another movie with that particular stylishness in its look. Every frame seems to have been designed by a designer of cool contemporary objects. The Le Corbusier house is perfection itself, and when we consider that it was built 80 years ago, its hard to believe it and even harder not to show deep respect for that genius of an architect. The house seems built this morning and with the latest tendency in architecture. Two are the main characters, the refined architect and the coarse neighbor --perfect casting-- a neighbor guilty of breaking the law with his need to open a window because he "needs a bit of sunlight" in his dark interior. I was mesmerized throughout the whole film. Excellent in the way it portraits social relationships among different classes and the inherent criticism of it. The ending is pure black humor on the surface, but a hard blow on our moral standards when considering on which side is our judgment in front of such behavior. This film will certainly make you think. Do not miss the final credits because there is a touch of black humor during its run.

• Polanski Paranoia in a Jaques Tati house

  nihao2010-12-23

  Forgive me the flippant title but... The two young Argentine directors behind this movie have served up an interesting, stylish, oddly provocative film using what Argentina is rather good at... a keen interest in all things foreign. The film could well have been a British class-clash movie. It has all the controlled tension and violence of a British movie. BUT... it's more attractive, more quirky, and more cosmopolitan. It seems to tell us that however much mankind tries to adorn the ANIMAL within.... it is ALWAYS there, looming, and ready to pounce. Socialy the film is a slice of 'state.of-the-art' Argentina (a country which is in constant mutation, like a huge anaconda shedding its skin). But a New Yorker or a Londoner, o even a Parisian would undoubtedly feel very well represented by the subject matter and milieu. One protagonist is a '"succesful Modern man", an interior designer, living what looks like a perfect life, but , as the film progresses, reveals itself to be an angst-ridden nightmare. The OTHER is a psychotic freak.... or is he? The way our points of view are manipulated to shift, as the film unravels, is very amusing, and revealing. Are we ALL a bunch of brainwashed bigots? A good question, from Argentina. MUY BIEN, AMIGOS!

• Loved it

  feliperuizmendoza2016-04-02

  This is one of the best movies I've seen lately. Considering you can read the storyline and watch the trailer, I'll stay away from any sort of story description. The movie builds a real and completely believable story that keeps you hooked during the entire film. It was well shot, and the characters evolve nicely, offering the viewer enough information to follow the story and sympathize with the characters. The story is dark enough to be interesting, but real enough to make you feel you are watching real people dealing with their daily lives. I think what I loved the most is how simple and clever the story is—not a Hollywood blockbuster for sure. The Man Next Door leans towards an independent film where story goes first and production and visual effects are just minimal. I'm really excited to see independent filmmakers producing awesome films with a fraction of the budget.

• Neighbors

  jotix1002011-06-07

  The opening sequence of this Argentine film sets the tone for what will be the central idea behind this black comedy. Set in La Plata, in Buenos Aires province, the action takes place in the famous Casa Curuchet, which was designed by that master of architecture, Le Corbusier, his only work in South America. The house with its modern lines, is more of a museum than a place one can call home. A somewhat prominent furniture designer, Leonardo, is presently living in Casa Curuchet. He has recently won great accolades for his unique design of a chair. He is sleeping when we first see him with his wife Anna. There is a noise that does not let him sleep peacefully. Going to inspect where it is coming from, he watches as a big hole is being made in the property across from his living area which is only separated by an inner courtyard. Leonardo is not too nice to this worker, who is just following orders. One day, Leonardo, gets to meet his neighbor across the courtyard. He is Victor, a bear of a man, who explains to his neighbor all he wants is some sunshine in that part of his house which does not get any light. Leonardo is completely taken aback. In his line of work, he appears to be the one ordering everyone around. How dare this man invade his territory? Victor is an adversary that will keep working to get what he wants, in spite of what Leonardo tries to do to get him to abandon his folly. Leonardo's home life, like the sterile interiors of his home, is not exactly a happy environment. He belongs to a sophisticated class of overachiever that looks down on people that are of different social classes, something that Victor represents. The conflict between the two men will go to ridiculous extremes with an unexpected finale in which Leonardo will show his true colors in a turn of events that shows well what this designer is really like. The film was directed by Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn. The film's main theme is prejudice as shown by a selfish Leonardo, who cannot tolerate things to get out of his control. Victor, of a different social status, shows he can deal with things in a different manner, that of the streets, more than of intelligence. It is basically a feature to showcase the talents of the two principals who give all they have to make this one of the most original films from Argentina, in recent memory. The film serves as a social commentary about class and power in the country. Rafael Spregelburg makes a formidable Leonardo. He is the selfish man that wants things his way and in his own terms. What he considers his privilege, is suddenly challenged by his would be neighbor in a conflict Leonardo thinks he shall prevail because of his position and standing. Daniel Araoz matches his co-star in amazing ways. He is a more sympathetic individual with different aesthetics, a simpler man without the hangups of his neighbor. Both actors are terrific. The directors did their own cinematography which highlights the famous home in La Plata in all its functionality and starkness. The music is credited to Sergio Pangaro. The screenplay is by Andres Duprat. This is an inspired work that shows the talent of two men in great form.