The Window - La ventana Carlos Sorin

(aka The Window)

Directed by Carlos Sorin
Argentina | Spain 2008

As elegant in its storytelling as in its story, Carlos Sorin's The Window is a tale of age and mortality that firmly resists the cute tag reflexively assigned to movies with old people, and mines a rich, deep vein of melancholy and humor. Sorin has constructed a reflective poem, one that's never solemn, always insightful and sometimes hilarious. --Variety

Product Description
It is a significant day for 80 year old Antonio. After an absence of many years, his estranged son is coming to visit. All must be perfect. There will be a toast with very special champagne; an embrace; warm words that may finally bridge the gap between them... but before, Antonio must wait. Bedridden, he looks out his window at the Patagonian landscape and sees light and life, the past and the present, while sensing the future. He decides to secretly leave the house, unseen by his faithful caretakers, to take what might be a last walk in his fields, breathing the air, treading the earth, inhaling the scent of the land that had been his life. What could otherwise seem like insignificant memories or moments in one s life, take a special, beautiful meaning and weight in this poetic, humanistic film.

Distinguished Argentine filmmaker Carlos Sorín (Bombón, El Perro, Historias Minimas) once again trains his camera on the small stories written by life, on the humanity behind human beings. By casting the great Uruguayan writer and scriptwriter Antonio Larreta in the lead role, Sorin establishes a link between fiction and reality that makes the protagonist s fears, hopes and wishes even more palpable.

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Theatrical Release: September 7th, 2008

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DVD Review: Film Movement - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Film Movement - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:17:39
Video	1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.97 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: Film Movement Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Short: Seventy (3:21) • Short: The Race (1:01) • About Film Movement DVD Release Date: August 4th, 2009 Transparent Keep Case Chapters: 12

Comments:

We've been here before. This disc which exhibits combing from an interlaced transfer on a 4.25 Gig single-layered DVD is following Film Movement's other digital efforts - meaning that it's a great film but the transfer limitations are not doing it appropriate justice. Because of the pragmatic transfer there are visible artifacts disturbing The Window's most beautiful scenes. I actually caught one frame saying 'no data' (see below) at around 1 hour. Please Film Movement - get on the ball. It's only viable positive is the 16X9 enhancement. Subtitles are a large intrusive bright yellow but are removable.

The audio is only 2.0 channel - not that there are any instances that would utilize the separation. It's a very quiet film with minimal dialogue. Film Movement have once again added 2 shorts (Seventy by Alex Morante runs 3:21 and The Race, also on their Eldorado DVD, at 1-minute) as supplements - the shorter even sponsored by Stella Artois beer!?! While they fill some disc space neither are related to La Ventana in any way.

It's wonderfully gentle cinema (also see Sorin's other work including Intimate Stories) that put me strongly in mind of some of the films of of Manoel de Oliveira (see Belle Toujours). The limitations of interlacing, single-layering artifacts, plus the extravagant price for what they offer digitally, are discouraging but I don't see it available in any other versions (English-friendly) anywhere else in the world. We don't like to encourage this weak DVD rendering but some may greatly appreciate this film.