El dirigible (1994) User Reviews

Comments on El Dirigible and question about Uruguayan Cinema

[roietbradley · 7/10 · 21 January 2007]

I just want to comment that I agree with el senor who said this film is less about the plot and more about the ambiente, I think he said. Absolutely! This film is a beautiful piece of cinematographic art that makes very little sense in terms of the story, but that carried me away with its images of Montevideo. I happened to watch it for the first time while living in Montevideo, so I recognized many of the locations. I also fell absolutely in love with one of the tracks, i think near the end of the film, swearing to find it and keep it forever. It ended up being La Casa de al Lado by Fernando Cabrera. One of the most beautiful and enchanting songs I have ever heard to date. I lost my recording a few years ago and would love to have it again. Anyhow, this movie is worth watching just for the b&w photography. I wish it were more accessible. I've tried to get it online, but with no luck.

Last thing, what os happening in Uruguayan cinema these days? I left Uruguay in 1997 after living for two years in Tacuarembo with high hopes for Uruguayan cinema, even if in collaboration with portenos or europeans. Por favor, avisame.

For Bradley

[fedecooldeville · 4/10 · 21 April 2009]

I saw this movie a long time ago, I was just a kid and didn't really get it. Anyway I was amused by the atmosphere and poetic images. Though it is also rough on the edges and depicts a kind of desolated image of Montevideo. Currently in Uruguay there it has been edited in DVD. Currently cinema industry in Uruguay is moving forward pretty well though at a slow pace, something that is totally understandable if you have in mind the type of country that it is. I cant believe to find you here Bradley!!!! I am Susana Gonzalez son Federico. I was reading on the user comments on this title and it was a great surprise to find you here, mom lost total contact with you, she will be really happy to know about you again. Have you changed your e-mail? Get in contact!!!! Regards F

The death of a famous uruguayan writer, unleashes a strange search for the missing last interview he gave, before his disappearance

[Mazoruler · 8/10 · 30 November 1999]

A fascinating, often surrealistic tale, where various excentric and mysterious characters struggle to resolve (or not) a mystery that links the death of one of Uruguay´s most famous exiled poets and the suicide, at the beginning of the century, of an ex president of that Republic. Among the characters, a french reporter join forces with a translator and a juvenile delicuent named "Moco", to find the lost last interview that the poet gave before dying. A strange and often puzzling film in which the atmosphere sometimes turns more important than the plot itself. This was the first movie to be filmed in Uruguay in almost two decades.

Excellent piece of Uruguayan cinema

[alvimann · 9/10 · 27 January 2016]

I have seen this movie as a kid and I did not understand it at all. Now I have watched it again and I now I understand some of the clues and turn of it.

I agree that this film is less about the plot and more about the ambient, giving the viewer a quiet, sympathetic and charm view of Montevideos city and moreover the ambient inside the "Palacio Salvo" building is also so great that each of those scenes could be taken from the movie and seen as short films without loosing their artistic value.

Also, the unexplainable scenes with the firemen using their water as "rain" make the plot much more confusing as it is. The characters have some sort of connection between them that could carry on with the plot and the intrigue, but there are a lot of questions that remains in the mind of the viewers: What is the connection between Baltazar Brum's suicide and Juan Carlos Onetti exile?, Why the French reporter is looking for the missing image of Brum's suicide? What is the connection between her and the "Moco" juvenile thief?, and so on.

Excellent piece of film art. Thumbs up!