All’s Well, End’s Well: Leon de Aranoa’s Benevolent English Debut
Fernando Leon de Aranoa makes his English language debut with A Perfect Day, a period comedy set in the mid 90’s about a group of aid workers doing their best to assist the locals at the tail end of the Balkan War. Though this ‘war comedy’ isn’t the first of its kind (Altman’s M*A*S*H certainly comes to mind with its similar mix of self-consumed characters and melancholy apathy), the Spanish filmmaker avoids sermonizing the noble intentions of the Ngo workers in favor of realistic character tendencies. But although it avoids melodrama, the narrative languishes a bit too much on its quintet of characters, whose passions, drives, and desires tend to be relayed paralytically. As a glimpse at a particular time and place often avoided in English speaking cinematic ventures, Leon de Aranoa...
Fernando Leon de Aranoa makes his English language debut with A Perfect Day, a period comedy set in the mid 90’s about a group of aid workers doing their best to assist the locals at the tail end of the Balkan War. Though this ‘war comedy’ isn’t the first of its kind (Altman’s M*A*S*H certainly comes to mind with its similar mix of self-consumed characters and melancholy apathy), the Spanish filmmaker avoids sermonizing the noble intentions of the Ngo workers in favor of realistic character tendencies. But although it avoids melodrama, the narrative languishes a bit too much on its quintet of characters, whose passions, drives, and desires tend to be relayed paralytically. As a glimpse at a particular time and place often avoided in English speaking cinematic ventures, Leon de Aranoa...
- 1/15/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
This compact little satire — set in 1990s Balkans — is a small, personal story about huge unfairnesses and injustices. Bleakly, bitterly, blackly funny. I’m “biast” (pro): love Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The title of the film is, ironically, the least ironic bit of absurdity four humanitarian aid workers confront in this bleakly bitter black comedy set in the Balkans in 1995. (One unintentional bit of bleakness: the reminder that 1995 is 20 years ago.) The three veterans — Mambrú (Benicio Del Toro: Sicario, Guardians of the Galaxy), B (Tim Robbins: Welcome to Me, Life of Crime), and Katya (Olga Kurylenko: The Water Diviner, Oblivion) — may come from very different parts of planet Earth, but they are united in their comparative privilege, relative to this one small...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The title of the film is, ironically, the least ironic bit of absurdity four humanitarian aid workers confront in this bleakly bitter black comedy set in the Balkans in 1995. (One unintentional bit of bleakness: the reminder that 1995 is 20 years ago.) The three veterans — Mambrú (Benicio Del Toro: Sicario, Guardians of the Galaxy), B (Tim Robbins: Welcome to Me, Life of Crime), and Katya (Olga Kurylenko: The Water Diviner, Oblivion) — may come from very different parts of planet Earth, but they are united in their comparative privilege, relative to this one small...
- 1/15/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Spain's Fernando León de Aranoa is among many Directors' Fortnight entrants working in English this year. His English-language debut, and first Cannes premiere, "A Perfect Day" stars Benicio del Toro (who also has Denis Villeneuve's "Sicario" in competition), Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko and Melanie Thierry. Adapted by de Aranoa from humanitarian doctor and author Paula Farias' novel "Dejarse Llover," the film follows a group of aid workers as they try to resolve a crisis in an armed conflict zone: Sophie (Thierry) is a newcomer who wants to help; Mambrú (del Toro) has seen it all and wants to go home; Katya (Kurylenko) once wanted Mambrú; Damir (Stukan) wants the war to end, and B (Robbins) doesn’t know what he wants. Read More: Directors' Fortnight Lines Up Vet Auteurs and American Indies “Fast, direct, rough, a race against the clock, this film has no time to waste. Like cars in the mud,...
- 5/7/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Though it is apparently still in post-production, a trailer for A Perfect Day has hit the web ahead of WestEnd Films packaging it for sale at the European Film Market next week.
Written and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa (Mondays In The Sun), who adapted the story from the novel Dejarse Ilover, by Paula Farias, A Perfect Day tells the tale of five conflict zone aid workers who all have various agendas. They find themselves having to work together to left a dead body out of a well, so a community can have access to water. The film stars Academy Award winners Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) and Tim Robbins (Mystic River), who are ably supported by Olga Kurylenko (Oblivion) Melanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem), and Fedja Stukan (In The Land Of Blood And Honey)
Variety reports that writer-director Fernando Leon de Aranoa explained his view of the project to the press last year:
“Fast,...
Written and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa (Mondays In The Sun), who adapted the story from the novel Dejarse Ilover, by Paula Farias, A Perfect Day tells the tale of five conflict zone aid workers who all have various agendas. They find themselves having to work together to left a dead body out of a well, so a community can have access to water. The film stars Academy Award winners Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) and Tim Robbins (Mystic River), who are ably supported by Olga Kurylenko (Oblivion) Melanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem), and Fedja Stukan (In The Land Of Blood And Honey)
Variety reports that writer-director Fernando Leon de Aranoa explained his view of the project to the press last year:
“Fast,...
- 2/10/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Known for his portraits of people and connection to their employment such as Princesas (or unemployment via Mondays in the Sun), Fernando Leon de Aranoa is perhaps moving into a terrain that was touched upon with Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land. Variety reports that the filmmaker has managed to package an international ensemble cast comprised of Melanie Thierry, Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko and Fedja Stukan for his English language debut going by the commonly used title of A Perfect Day. Production begins this month in Granada, Spain with Mediapro and Leon de Aranoa’s Reposado Producciones producing. Javier Mendez and Patricia de Muns are exec-producing.
Gist: Based on Paula Farias’s novel titled “Dejarse Llover”, this is about a motley group of aid workers in a conflict zone have divergent takes on their profession and the state they’re in. Sophie (Thierry) still wants to help people,...
Gist: Based on Paula Farias’s novel titled “Dejarse Llover”, this is about a motley group of aid workers in a conflict zone have divergent takes on their profession and the state they’re in. Sophie (Thierry) still wants to help people,...
- 3/12/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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