Trenque Lauquen
Since it ranked first in Cahiers du Cinéma for 2023, I went to Shimotakaido Cinema to see it. However, on the first day, the theater was fully booked, and since it’s not exactly in my neighborhood, I went on Sunday morning to get a ticket and finally managed to watch it. Watching a 4.5-hour film in a packed theater was quite a rare experience. Here are some quick impressions, since it’s worth sharing.
https://www.filmlinc.org/films/trenque-lauquen/
The synopsis is summarized in the work’s informations above.
As a big fan of Fernando Solanas, I have a personal tendency to hold certain expectations for Argentine films—things like Borges, labyrinths, magical realism, and so on. This film met those expectations splendidly, or rather, it seemed to aim for and achieve precisely that. Specifically, it captures and expresses the kind of romanticism or collective fantasy that I (perhaps presumptuously) associate with Argentinians: being "born on the pampas and fading away into them." Midway through the second part, the film switches to Cinemascope, capturing the protagonist disappearing into the pampas. This evokes a lineage of cinematic sensibilities, from the ending of The 400 Blows to Antonioni’s works and Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’Amour, situating this film firmly within that tradition.
Additionally, some of the episodic elements used as MacGuffins evoke a sense of an "Argentine version of The Legends of Tono,(Japanese folklore classic)” which was a delightful touch.
From a technical perspective, the film makes excellent use of shallow focus. By shifting focus within long takes, it achieves a montage effect—a technique that aligns with certain recent trends. The combination of "shallow focus + long takes" can be traced back to Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003), with László Nemes’ Son of Saul (2015) pushing this further to create what might be called "immersive cinema." Later examples include An Elephant Sitting Still (2018), where this style gained more traction. While those films use the technique to relentlessly follow the protagonist within sequences, this film applies it more broadly and casually. In other words, what used to be handled with deep focus is now being replaced by shallow focus, reflecting a digital-era trend. I suspect the precise control of sound also contributes to this shift.
Compared to the aforementioned works, this film features frequent monologues and a lot of dialogue. While the dialogue scenes are shot with shallow focus, the film adheres more rigorously to cutbacks. Overall, it feels more orthodox than typical "slow cinema," and as mentioned in the work’s description, it could even be categorized as a “mystery.” These elements may make it more accessible to a wider audience.
That’s about it for my quick first impressions. Among the films I’ve seen recently (though I haven’t seen many), I’d highly recommend this one.