Tesis (1996)

Director:

Alejandro Amenábar

Writers:

Alejandro Amenábar (writer)
Mateo Gil (writer)

Release Date:

12 April 1996 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Me llamo Ángela. Me van a matar. [English Tagline: My name is Angela. They're going to kill me.]

Plot:

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...

Plot Keywords:

Dark And Stormy Night | Snuff Film | Violence | Circular Saw | Editor

Awards:

13 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Ana Torrent	...	Ángela
Fele Martínez	...	Chema
Eduardo Noriega	...	Bosco
Xabier Elorriaga	...	Castro
Miguel Picazo	...	Figueroa
Nieves Herranz	...	Sena
Rosa Campillo	...	Yolanda
Paco Hernández	...	Padre Angela (as Francisco Hernández)
Rosa Ávila	...	Madre Angela
Teresa Castanedo	...	Presentadora T.V.
José Miguel Caballero	...	Conserje Videoteca
Joserra Cadiñanos	...	Vigilante
Julio Vélez	...	Encargado tren
Pilar Ortega	...	Encargada C. Ventas
Olga Margallo	...	Vanessa

Also Known As:

Thesis (UK) (festival title) (USA) (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong and perverse violent content, brief strong sexuality and strong language.

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Germany:18 (video premiere) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Las Producciones del Escorpión S.L.

Trivia:

Amenábar wrote some of this film while still at University, and that University was the Complutense, as featured in this film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the cave, when Castro gets shot, the gunshot would have deafened or at least severely affected the hearing of Chema and Angela.

Quotes:

Ángela Márquez: My name is Angela. They're going to kill me.

Movie Connections:

References Notorious (1946)

Clever debut

First effort by now affirmed Spanish director Amenebar, Tesis starts brilliantly (with a magnificent mix of music and images) and it develops perhaps too slowly and with a unsatisfying ending - at least for a mystery lover - butt it is for a rest a perfect machine explaining how a movie works, how it captures the attention of the viewers. Its aim and final analisys of the movie event and how violence is the basis of today's society could be debatable, but Amenebar has a gift to take good script and turn them in masterpieces.