songey2002
Watched this film time ago, and at the time like everyone else got confounded with the mish mash of imagery and bare bones plot.
However a recent viewing revealed some clear connections between the scenes and images in the film, bear with me, this isn´t a full fledged analysis but more of a series of observations.
First this is a deeply mexican film, it touches on some ideas that have been long discussed regarding Mexico´s status as a developing country and the mentality and behaviour of its people
in comparison with first world people/countries, hence the aparently disconnected rugby game and sauna sequences.
-The first scene with the little girl is more of a pure image rather than a idea: if you know Mexico you might notice that the warm and tender are right next to the raw and savage.
-The devil in the house is obviously an alusion to the personal demons of the characters, right next to this scene we see Juan brutally beating his dog, and going to a help group to confess his porn addiction, there he mets "Siete" (Seven)
an all around despicable individual on his supposed path to righting his life.
And from there we see the the warm-up to a rugby match in an English school, that is a group of kids in a first world institution are learning to channel and shape their aggression.
-The sauna sequence could very well be located in other place than Mexico, in it, we see a sort of orgy, that is, sexuality here is organized and ritualized.
Compare with Juan and "Siete" ´s afflictions.
Appropiately most of this happens in the countryside, nature untamed and all that.
These are some of the things that made me see the movie in a much more connected and coherent manner, the obvious signal with these movies is to see if the images and sequences we are seeing resonate and rebound between them and why and how, and that may be part of the Reygadas plan.
briandoering86
An urban family, having moved to the countryside of Mexico, experiences raw drama and ambiguous fantasy in this cinematically fresh and rewarding film by Reygadas. The cinematography is ethereal and at times haunting when combined with such unsettling imagery. That's not to say the films imagery is horrifying in itself. The imagery of Post Tenebras Lux is unsettling in that it's picturesque and lush while also being new and confounding. This is partially due to it's hypnotic, almost tunnel vision take on the 4:3 ratio. This way of presenting the story only adds to it's mysterious nature. The narrative in itself is overtly expressionist as it's partial auto-biographical and moves with fluidity removed from reasoning. It's a film that's entrancing and bewildering at the same time - an atmosphere that just seems to work. It certainly worked to make one of the most original films of the year.
Boyd
And the peasantry seem no better in this hopelessly art school amateur mess of a film ... In fact it looks like it is just some scenes that were shoved in for god knows what reason to pad out the brief but mediocre narrative ... No there is NOTHING clever going on here ... The film reeks of arrogance and comes across as something that was made by some awful rich kid with too much confidence and not nearly enough talent To be honest it is a film you really have to see ( once ) just to understand how money has completely destroyed art ... Bright glowing BULLdemons... HIDEOUS spoiled brat children ... WTF British public school rugby practice ( give me a break you brat ) Even such an obvious brat director completely fails to mar the beauty of the country itself though ... Mexico has such a rich cinema history and I bet there's many ex directors screaming "GORD HELP US" in their graves after this silly little thing came out DRIVEL ... With a capital D ( obviously )
cinematic_aficionado
After the dark, light. This is the nearest translation of this highly tentative piece of cinema whose story involves Mexican urban life, a couple in a whorehouse, a British rugby match with a guest appearance of devil himself.At the epicentre a man and his family. On the surface he has it all; a nice house, a beautiful wife and two healthy adorable kids. Beneath that, not all that shines is gold as he struggles with addiction and needs pornography to inspire spousal intimacy.Unfortunately and despite the high dose of creative filming the above is the only cohesive bit in this film. The added layers that aspire to connect to the title by juxtaposition of moments of light and darkness drove the film onto a one way street with lights out.A very mixed experience
AD
