Caótica Ana (2007)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Julio Medem

Writer:

Julio Medem (writer)

Release Date:

24 August 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A countdown, 10, 9, 8, 7... until 0, like in hypnosis, through which Ana proves that she does not live alone.

Plot Keywords:

Hypnosis | Reincarnation | Ibiza Spain | Character Name In Title

Cast

Manuela Vellés	...	Ana
Charlotte Rampling	...	Justine
Bebe	...	Linda (as Bebe Rebolledo)
Nicolas Cazalé	...	Said / Yasir
Asier Newman	...	Anglo
Matthias Habich	...	Klaus
Lluís Homar	...	Ismael
Gerrit Graham	...	Míster Halcón
Raúl Peña	...	Lucas
Giacomo Gonnella	...	Guardaespaldas
Leslie Charles	...	Jovoskaya
Juanma Lara
Diego Molero
Antonio Vega	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Antonio Bellido
Valeria Vereau	...	La inca

Also Known As:

Chaotic Ana (International: English title) (festival title) (UK) (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish | Arabic | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Company:

Alicia Produce

Trivia:

All the paintings by 'Ana' in the film were actually painted by Julio Medem's sister Ana Medem, who died just on the eve of a big exhibition of her work.

Soundtrack:

Agárrate a mí, María

Disappointing movie of a great director

After the wonderful "Lovers of the Arctic Circle" and his masterpiece "Sex and Lucia" (the last almost seven years ago) my expectations on Julio Medem's follow up movie were very high and for that reason I rushed to see "CAOTIC ANA" at the Toronto Film Festival. To my disappointment, this movie is just as its title CAOTIC. A sad demonstration that some interesting or even original ideas by no means end up as a good movie.

Ana is a young painter living in IBIZA with his widow father. One day she meets Justine (the great Charlotte Rampling) who offers education and economic support to perfect her artistic skills if she moves to Madrid. Ana starts "feeling" the big city and the new life (it is a sensorial feeling; she is be far from shy or at least she has no problems in being nude for art's sake or to take a bath in the ocean or for many other reasons). One of her new "feelings" is Said; a young Arab and fellow student which Ana gets involved and obsessive in love (like Lucia in "Sex"). In short time, Ana starts having strange daydreams and seizures until a professional hypnotist finds out she had lived many previous lives and all of them ending with terrible deaths at a very young age (around 22 years old). This discovery plus something said by Ana (she speaks different languages while hypnotized) causes Said to run away without any explanation. In order find out what happened with Said she accepts being part of a hypnotic treatment, trying to investigate her previous lives (and deaths). The only condition, she does not want to remember anything about the session, unless is related to Said. Many more things occur and for reasons that do not make a lot of sense she ends up in USA where she is submitted to the last "session" to find out the truth. Even when the idea looks interesting; the unrealistic chain of events, many of them too forced, harms the narrative. No character in the movie (which includes very well known European actors like Rampling or Luis Homar) has any deep or definition. They are mostly pieces put there to generate a situation or a dialog; we do not get to properly know Ana since her only motivation seems to be finding Said; and even this mystery (which drives the movie ) is easily predictable. Medem (like Bergman in his own way) has a personal concept about love and human relations and all his movies make reference to the stupid choices and things people do and consequences in everybody's lives. He never really made a lineal or realistic story; just a chain of events aligned to show his theory. This concept worked fine in previous movies; because in some way everything (albeit not always logically) got connected and made sense; which is not the case here. Many ideas seem to be thrown in the mix (not all of them really good or original) but like water and oil did not blend at all. Cohesion is missing in many moments (like the missing reels in GRINDHOUSE). The perfect example is the scene with the USA government functionary; a scene many people will probably enjoy (aside for the disgusting) but has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It is really sad because technically the movie is excellent; the paintings and the animations are outstanding, the locations are pure beauty but while Ana had many souls, this movie has none.