Chilean Filmmaker Raul Ruiz Cheats Death in Guadalajara Festival Prensa Latina
go to original March 4, 2013

Night Across the Street Official Trailer (FilmFestivalVideos)

GUADALAJARA, Mexico - Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz cheated death Sunday, being applauded again as in life, after posthumous presentation of his film "La noche de enfrente" (The Night Across The Street) in the Guadalajara Film Festival.

The film, last work by Ruiz, who died in 2011, is probably a summary of the issues, obsessions, beings and the surrealist vision of everyday life that marked most of his work and life.

The film, a screen adaptation of the fantastic short stories of Chilean writer Hernan del Solar, is full of hidden meanings and tricks to the audience, fits of humor, disturbing directions, mockery and mysteries, as if every step of the character in reality opened a hidden dimension to the unknown.

The author repeats in this testament movie his most recognized technical marks, his peculiar ways of saying things by means of camera montages: non-conventional angles, close-up shots and the innovative use of color go together with the surreal story of Don Celso, who is that of Don Raul Ruiz somehow.

Ruiz himself requested that the film were not presented before his death, because he could see it coming anyway, he said. He could not see his work finished. A lung problem ended his life at the age of 70.

The film, which close Ruiz' extensive filmmaking of more than 100 feature films, was premiered posthumously during the Fifteen-day Period of Filmmakers in the Film Festivals of Toronto, New York, Chicago, Havana and it is now competing in the official section of the Guadalajara Festival.

Ruiz, who took refuge in France after the escalation of the military dictatorship in his country, is recognized for being one of the most disturbing and prolific filmmakers in the history of Latin American cinema.

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