PARQUE VIA
Mexico, 2008, 86 minutes, Colour.
Nolberto Coria, Nancy Orozco, Tesalia Huerta.
Directed by Enrique Rivero.
Parque Via is the first feature-length film for Enrique Rivero. It is a multi-award-winning film around the world.
This is a very enigmatic film, quite slow moving, asking the audience to observe its central character – not necessarily empathising with him, but certainly being very much shocked at the ending.
Parque Via is a street in a fashionable part of Mexico City. Nolberto Coria portrays Beto, a retired man who is caretaker of an empty mansion which is for sale. There are attempts for the building to be sold but they fail. The building is owned by a wealthy woman who employs Beto. He lives a simple life in the house, we pay a lot of attention to the very small details of his life – especially at the beginning, following him through corridors and up several flights of stairs in a single take. He uses the services of a prostitute once a week – and is attached to her, getting her out of jail.
While the film presents the minute detail of Beto’s life and focuses on the visits of the senora to the house as well as his interactions with the prostitute, the film is a critique of Mexico and social strata, the gap between rich and poor…
Finally, almost inexplicably, when the senora collapses, Beto takes a shovel to her and bashes her. It is hard to know whether he has moved away to a comfortable house at the end or is actually in jail.
A disturbing, enigmatic allegory of Mexico.
1.The impact of the film? Slow moving, observing the character, the attention to detail, the shock at the end?
2.The many awards for the film? Appreciation in Latin America? Around the world?
3.The limited focus of the house and the exteriors? The senora’s house? The streets of Mexico City, the suburbs? The bar? The musical score?
4.The film as an allegory about class, poverty, wealth, brutality?
5.The portrait of Beto: with the washing, following him through the house, his room, the rituals of getting up, going to bed, keeping the house tidy, the garden? His age, retired, past life, his wife? His relationship with Lupe, her visit, regular? His helping her in jail? His friends? The visits of the senora, his deference to her? Her collapse, the shock of his bashing her with the spade? His motivations? The end, in comfort, a room of his own or a cell?
6.The senora, her age, wealth, reliance on Beto, the visits to the house, her wanting it sold? Her treatment of him – kind and haughty? Her collapse, audience reaction to her being bashed?
7.Lupe, at the bar, being available for dancing, the old men with their tickets for dances? Her going to Beto’s house, the relationship? Her arrest, release? Beto’s contact with her – and at the end?
8.The background characters, the children in the streets, the chauffeur, a sense of realism of ordinary people and Beto’s life in this context?
9.The overall impact and aftermath of the film, the seeming calmness and the culmination in brutality?
