CRONICAS
Spain, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
John Leguizamo, Leonora Watling, Damian Alcazar, Jose Maria Yazpik.
Directed by Sebastian Cordero.
Media ethics again. The context is a reporting team from Miami (The Hour of Truth) who are following the mystery of a murdering paedophile in Ecuador.
The audience knows almost immediately the identity of the murderer so that is not a mystery. The suspense is in waiting to find out what the celebrity reporter is going to do when he realises that he knows the identity and can make media capital out of it. However, there is the question of the police (and an officer who refuses bribes) and what the law requires concerning information, finding graves of victims as well as the rights of the accused.
The film moves with great pace showing the pressure under which the media reporters work. John Leguizamo is effective as the reporter. Leonor Watling is his producer and there is an intense performance by Damian Alcazar as the suspect.
1. The film and the media? Police work? Investigative journalism and police investigations? The media and sensationalising, ethical issues of investigation, staying within the law? Police and the media?
2. The Ecuador settings, the countryside, the village, the mud and dust, the homes, the prison?
3. The Miami television, their sensational program, An Hour With The Truth, the compere?
4. The opening, Venicio and his emerging from the water, washing, washing his clothes? His return home, with his son, the information about the children raped and murdered, his reading the paper? The hold-up with the traffic and the funeral? His son, the boy running in front of the car and his running over him? The father, the crowd, the lynch mentality, the brutality towards Venicio? Manolo stepping in? The police arriving? Taking him and the boy's father to prison?
5. Manolo, his reputation, investigative journalist, sure of himself, his big cases? A public celebrity? His working with Ivan and Marisa? Ivan and his filming, intrusive, getting everything about the dead children's parents, the funeral, the lynch mob? Marisa as producer, Manolo egging him on?
6. The interview with Venicio in the prison? Venicio and the father abusing him during the night, covering him with excrement? His showering, the interview with Manolo, offering to give him information about the monster, the serial killer? Manolo and his suspicions about Venicio and his information or his wanting to confess? Going back to the prison, the interview with him, the interview with the son, the visit of his wife, her pregnancy? The editing of the material along with the lynching? Sent to Miami? The producer, Victor, and his being Marisa's husband? His being on the phone all the time, decision-making? The plan for Manolo and his crew to go to Colombia to interview hostages?
7. Venicio, his personality, in prison? His being the killer? His concern only about himself? Wanting to give further information - or confess? The effect of the broadcast, his being able to go free, his telling his wife he would not return home, taking his boy into the countryside, his not wanting the boy to hear the information about himself - did he kill him? The final image of the deserted building in the countryside?
8. The work of the journalist group, their clashes with the police, the police being incorruptible? The further investigations, speculation, the information given by Venicio about the grave site, their digging it up and finding the body? Manolo giving the anonymous phone call information to the police? Covering the finding of the body on television, live link to Miami?
9. Manolo and his relationship with Marisa, the sexual encounter, fidelity and infidelity? The reaction, Ivan wanting to know? The tensions between them?
10. The ethical issues, giving information to the police, concealing it, letting Venicio out - and the possibility of his murdering again? The going to the jail, the discussions with the police, their being held up on the way to the airport, Marisa not giving the information to the captain? Their going to the plane and taking off?
11. The film and its abrupt ending - open-ended? Audiences and the response to media personalities, their skill in investigation, the working outside the law? Media ethics and callous attitudes towards career?
