Caótica Ana (2007)

Director:

Julio Medem

Writer:

Julio Medem (writer)

Release Date:

24 August 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | 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 | Australia:R (2009)

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:

Tiempo y silencio

Scattered Ana

I saw this last month at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The premise of this film was done before back in 1968 in the film Candy. You take a lovely nymph-like girl with a lot of hair and a beautiful body and build a series of disjointed, ridiculous sketch-like stories around her with the help of a big name actor or two and pretend it's a comedy. This film does the same except it pretends to be a drama. The films title character Ana (Manuela Vellés) is a gifted young artist living with her father Klaus (Matthias Habich) in a cave near Ibiza, Spain. Yes, they live in a cave but it's quite nice and richly appointed for a cave dwelling. Newcomer Vellés almost didn't have the role as it was originally attached to actress María Valverde who wisely bowed out and you can only imagine if it was her refusal to do a certain scene in this film. One day a wealthy art patron from France named Justine (veteran international talent Charlotte Rampling) discovers the artistic potential in Ana and wants to cultivate her talent by setting her up in her exclusive art colony she runs in Madrid. Ana meets Linda (Bebe Rebulleto) who becomes her best friend and Said (Nicolas Cazalé) who becomes her boyfriend. Ana discovers the doors to past lives through regressive hypnotism by an young American hypnotist named Michael (Asier Newman). The movie has you hooked for a while and you wonder where it's going to go but once she heads for New York it rapidly falls apart as a film trying to hard to be an art film with a political and social message. The film looks great with art direction by Montse Sanz and cinematography by Mario Montero and direction from the talented and celebrated, international film festival award winning Julio Medem. The film is dedicated to Medem's sister Ana Medem whose actual artwork are featured through the film. Her Picassoesque style painting were to be shown at an exhibit in Valencia when on her way there she was tragically killed in a car accident. I hate to be critical of a film dedicated to someone who represents such a personal loss to it's director but the story written by director Medem is so bad that I can't help it. Watching this film you realize that this guy knows how to make a film but you wonder why he didn't make one this time. It features some nudity and some prolonged unnecessary violence and I would give this a 5.5 out of 10 and not recommend it to a general audience.