Carlos Sorin's - Intimate Stories

(aka 'Intimate Stories' or 'Minimal Stories' or 'Historias mínimas ')

Directed by Carlos Sorin
Argentina / Spain 2002

Argentinean filmmaker Carlos Sorin's deadpan and beguiling road-trip drama Intimate Stories makes use of the road itself as a major character. In vignettes of coincidence and cooperation played out between Fitz Roy and the distant port of San Julián, the imposing physical presence of blacktop extends in an endless ribbon over the vast, extraordinary steppes of Southern Patagonia. But while this piquant, tapas-like movie (a 2003 film- festival favorite only now being released) asserts that landscape is a kind of destiny from which one cannot escape, Sorin takes delighted, serious interest in how far a person can advance psychologically, even if all roads lead back to a home at the end of the world.

In a persuasive demonstration of innate human dignity, all but two of the cast members are nonactors who enact their parts with easy naturalism. An old man with a guilty conscience hitches rides in search of his dog; a young provincial woman and her baby journey by bus to claim a prize on a TV game show; a traveling salesman frets about the perfect gift to impress a woman he fancies. Strangers meet, then move on. Paths cross, then unravel. Only the highway itself remains constant in Sorin's sweet, shaggy travelogue.

Excerpt from Entertainment Weekly located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: September 26th, 2002 - San Sebastian Film Festival

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: New Yorker - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	New Yorker Video - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:27:30
Video	1.85:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.40 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: New Yorker Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Featurette: The Making of INTIMATE STORIES • Trailer DVD Release Date: July 18th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters: 20

Comments:

I would say that this is a notch above NY'er usual standard of digital presentation. Non-progressive but anamorphic - the colors look fine, if a little dull, and contrast slightly blended. Sharpness is surprisingly strong - subtitles are well done. Overall it looks quite good. There is an 11 minute 'making off...' featurette that is pretty much standard fare - plus a trailer.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the film - a simple, quirky and delightful comedy / drama. It was also interesting to see so much of Patagonia's impressive geography. I recommend this wonderfully realized slice of life from another, often unseen, part of the globe.