EL OTRO (THE OTHER)
Argentina, 2007, 83 minutes, Colour.
Julio Chavez.
Directed by Ariel Rotter.
The Other is a very sombre and serious film from Argentina. It was written and directed by Ariel Rotter whose previous film, Solo Por Hoy (Just for Today), is the opposite of this film, a light-hearted look at people sharing apartments in Buenos Aires (2001).
Giulio Chavez (who won the best acting award at the Berlin film festival in 2007) portrays a middle-aged lawyer who seems to have a satisfying life at home, a pregnant wife, a satisfactory practice. However, when he goes on a journey to the provinces for legal work, he decides to stay, booking himself into a hotel, assuming a number of roles and being accepted in these roles (one of which includes his attending his own funeral).
The film is unvarnished in its straightforward style, focusing on the character, his dilemmas – and relying on the actor to convey the significance of his inner psychological and spiritual states. The film does not reach a conclusion. The process of identifying with the man who becomes The Other is what is important.
1. The Argentinian film industry? A thoughtful film? Not mere entertainment? Reflections on life?
2. The title, the focus on Juan? His assuming other identities? The other person that he could have been?
3. The settings in Buenos Aires, the opticians, home? With his father? The train travel? The provincial town, the hotels, the funeral? The background to his self-investigation? The musical score?
4. The opening, the reading of the letters on the optician’s chart? His wife telling him about her pregnancy? The effect? His regard for her, watching her sleeping, watching her pregnant? His return and the same gaze?
5. Juan and his journey, ordinary business, lawyer, going to see the local lawyer, the signing of the documents, going to the house, looking at the house and its property?
6. His signing into the hotel, the memory of the man next to him on the train, finding him dead? Assuming his identity? Not satisfied with the hotel? Going to the next one – and the proprietress, her looks, advances, asleep in his room, helping him? Her knowing that he was a doctor – and her calling him in the emergency, the effect on his identity, his wanting to leave, getting him into the room, calling the ambulance, his giving mouth-to-mouth, the old lady, seemingly dead, the breathing, coughing and coming awake? His achievement?
7. Wandering the town, not going home to his wife, the possibilities of never returning?
8. Going to his own funeral, looking at the coffin, the man mistaking him for Roberto? His interest in the story of the man? The woman, watching him, following him? His taking her, the sexual encounter, explaining himself, the promise to return? Not returning?
9. The effect of the time away from Buenos Aires and home? His return to his father – his continued care for his father, bathing him, urging him to be in the care of the hired woman? His father and his tenderness, the father’s crankiness? The bond between the two? Telling him about his wife’s pregnancy, the issue of his mother and the father’s not wanting to talk to her?
10. The midlife crisis – and the possibility of his finding himself, his wife, child, a future?
