Venice Film Festival 2019: BLANCO EN BLANCO

Blanco en Blanco (White on White) follows photographer Pedro (Alfredo Castro) in early twentieth-century South America. He is hired by an unknown benefactor to photograph his wedding with a prepubescent girl. Pedro slowly becomes obsessed with the young bride as time goes on, and is left to ponder his role in the desolate wilderness that is destroying the indigenous civilisation.

What is described on paper as a brutally glib but necessary viewing of moral and racial nihilism, is not conveyed whatsoever on film with director Théo Court‘s bleak, but wholly uninteresting and frustrating feature that is just short of a total disaster.

Disappoints and Frustrates

There are many elements in Théo Court‘s film that underwhelm, disappoint and frustrate. To start, one of those elements is the film’s pacing. For a film that has a running time of just over ninety nine minutes, it gives the impression it could rival with Terrence Malick‘s 3-hour long A Hidden Life and its boredom.

Court‘s film utilises long intense pacing to optimise the unsettling depiction of its characters actions. To Court‘s credit, he achieves this with help from his editor and cinematographer Manuel Muñoz Rivas and José Alayón respectively, with slow burning, wide, long takes to capture the desperation and tension. It is aesthetically pleasing, but does not compensate for the film’s other shortcomings.

Hollow and Dull

It is perhaps an oxymoronic compliment that such a thematically bland and hollow feature looks extraordinarily beautiful. The cinematography from José Alayón is rich with shots that look nothing short of stunning throughout. There is a beautifully vivid and abstract style implemented that has an aesthetic not too dissimilar to that of a painting. It often looks tantalisingly intoxicating to behold, and the viewer almost gets caught in the trap, but it is that hollowness that is not filled with anything worthy of merit that reminds the audience of what they are witnessing.

The aesthetics attempt to cover up the on-screen violence and tension of events that unfold without payoff. The film includes repetitive, excruciating scenarios depictions of paedophilia, sexual abuse and racism that have no thematic weight or concrete arc, seemingly without purpose other than to drive the audience to the end of their wits.

Blanco en Blanco: Conclusion

There is so much in Blanco en Blanco that disappoints. It is lacking in thematic weight, and the way it explores hard-hitting topics comes across hollow. The central performance from Alfredo Castro has so much potential to be a deeply gripping, harrowing character study, but flounders due to a lack of direction and limited exploration.

Blanco en Blanco‘s aesthetic and artistic quality only leads to more disappointment; there was so much promise here, so much talent waiting to be explored, but it is let down by the lack of restraint and direction.

Will you be heading out to find a screening of Blanco en Blanco? Let us know in the comments! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moN3n3zE5Nk