Batalla en el cielo (2005)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Carlos Reygadas

Writer:

Carlos Reygadas (writer)

Release Date:

August 2005 (Russia)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A working-class man named Marcos and his wife kidnap a baby for ransom money, but it goes tragically wrong when the infant dies...

Plot Keywords:

Guilt | Baby | Ransom | Wading Through Water | Adultery

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Marcos Hernández	...	Marcos
Anapola Mushkadiz	...	Ana
Bertha Ruiz	...	Marcos' Wife
David Bornstein	...	Jaime
Rosalinda Ramirez	...	Viky
El Abuelo	...	Chief of Police
Brenda Angulo	...	Madame
El Mago	...	Preacher
Francisco 'El Gato' Martínez	...	Gas Station Attendant
Diego Martínez Vignatti	...	Soccer Player
Alejandro Mayar	...	Police Inspector
Chavo Nava	...	Neurotic Conductor
Estela Tamariz	...	Ines
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernesto Veláquez	...	Entrevistador Cancha

Also Known As:

Battle in Heaven (Germany) (DVD title) (International: English title)
Bataille dans le ciel (France)
Eine Schlacht im Himmel (Germany) (TV title)

Runtime:

98 min | Brazil:126 min (director's cut) | Argentina:98 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

France | Germany | Mexico | Belgium

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Norway:18 | Netherlands:16 | Italy:VM18 | Hong Kong:III | Argentina:18 | South Korea:Limited | Germany:18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | Singapore:R21 (cut) | France:-16 | Portugal:M/18 | Australia:R | Brazil:16 (director's cut) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

México D.F., Mexico

Company:

Société Parisienne de Production

Trivia:

For the US theatrical poster hair was digitally added to cover the breasts of Anapola Mushkadiz.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: During the scene where Ana and Marcos are making love, as the camera pans out, a crew member's reflection can be seen in the window.

Movie Connections:

References "SpongeBob SquarePants" (1999)

From 'cinéma vérité' to Big Brother aesthetics

Dealing to be impartial and generous with the last work of Carlos Reygadas, I could recognize its effort to obtain a different film, cradle absolutely in personal convictions and without considerations for the Box office. But that "effort" is also what bothers me: Too many pretensions for so miserable result: 1)Its pretension of veracity like a documented reality or more likely a "cinéma vérité" work, using real people and non-actors, impostors of emotional states for a very diluted script fails resoundingly: A script exists. And it is perceivable that their individuals or "characters" are acting, and as is expected with nonprofessional actors, acting poorly. Their dialogs are unbelievable. And contributing to the feeling of unreal and falsification, the director uses abundant sequences in fixed positions where the characters seemed to be forced dummies, nothing that corresponds with the naturalness of the human body in the plotted situations. Everything is false, artificial and unreal.

2)I think questionable that the "authenticity" had some aesthetic merit, or therefore, any "Big Brother" or Real TV would be equal to the last work of Reygadas: In them there is no plot, and the people are real either. I do not believe that Carlos Reygadas finds in "The Real Cancun" some aesthetic merit, nevertheless, this one has the same characteristics that he looks for in "Batalla en el Cielo". Both fulfill with his simplistic belief in "real cinema": not directed by history at all, being something unreachable, similar to music experience, been perceived of different form by each member from the hearing. Semiotics does not come to the case, but considering image and a spoken language similar ways to obtains diffuse effects like the music experience, without considering the implicit qualities of precision of those means, has not hit the target.

3)Its pretension of reflection and depth with its long pauses like Tarkovsky did, doing a film totally rate devoid is disturbed, breaking any calm or reflexive feelings, with some real jewels of involuntary humor, as the gross and shocking moves in, any deep feelings or reflections on the human condition moves out. Crazy laughs or repulsion stays.

4)When the film has finished, I felt to be the filthy accomplice of a director without scruples, with has so much passion for create, but very little to say. That his work is fundamentally based on the value of ordinary people who were used to expose themselves in cinematographic sessions of explicit sex in a film with many artistic pretensions, but where the only art were the sounds and music of the sound track.