Post Mortem (2010 film)

Post Mortem is a 2010 Chilean film directed by Pablo Larraín and set during the 1973 military coup that overthrew former President Salvador Allende, inaugurating the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The film competed in the 67th Venice International Film Festival, Antofagasta Film Festival, Havana Film Festival and the Guadalajara International Film Festival. The film's main character Mario Cornejo is based on a real person with the same name.[4]

Post Mortem
Directed byPablo Larraín
Produced byJuan de Dios Larraín
Written by
  • Pablo Larraín
  • Mateo Iribarren[1]
Starring
Music by
  • Alejandro Castaños
  • Juan Cristóbal Meza[2]
CinematographySergio Armstrong
Edited byAndrea Chignoli[1]
Production
company
Fabula
Release date
  • 5 September 2010 (2010-09-05) (Venice)
Running time
98 minutes
Country
  • Chile
  • Mexico
  • Germany[3]
LanguageSpanish

Plot

Mario (Alfredo Castro) is a pathologist's assistant in Santiago who is responsible for noting down the pathologist's commentary during the post mortem. The job has given him a grey, deathlike appearance. Previously, in the days of the military coup, Mario became involved in a love affair with a show dancer, Nancy (Antonia Zegers), who lives across the street with her younger brother David and her father, a communist and Allende supporter. On the morning of September 11, the date of the coup, a military raid takes place in Nancy’s house. Her brother and father are arrested. Mario then begins a frantic search for Nancy, who has disappeared, all the while having to endure pressure from the military who want to hide the real cause of death of the bodies piling up in the morgue.

Cinematography

The film has a projection aspect ratio of 2.66:1, which is ultra-wide and very unusual.[5] One reviewer observes that "Post Mortem’s muted color scheme reflects the drab ‘70s world that only adds insult to injury for Pinochet’s trampled victims."[6] With director of photography Sergio Armstrong, Larrain shot the film on Russian Lomo lenses, the type used in the 1970s by Andrei Tarkovsky and other Russian filmmakers. The lenses are intended for 35mm film, but Larrain shot on 16mm film achieving a look he describes as "very special".[4] Larraín describes the process of lighting the film as follows:

And then when we were shooting, we were doing all kinds of lighting setups, and we never liked anything that we had. One day we had an electrical problem and all the lighting we had set up went down before we started shooting. So I asked for somebody to turn on the lights for the room, and when I looked at the monitor I realized that I really liked the idea of using very regular light coming from the ceiling, but a lot of them. We created this very plain array so the film would have this public lighting look. It also made sense because there is a certain politic to it. And after the test we realized that it actually did work because it creates such muted colors with very little shadows and we liked that. It was plain, it was grainy, and the color palette was very special. So we only used regular lightbulbs, hung up all over the set but mostly from the ceiling.[4]

Reception

The film is well-received by critics and considered further proof of Larraín’s talent, previously noted in Tony Manero. It received four stars from both The Guardian, which called it “an eerie portrait of a disturbing time”[7] and Time Out, which praised the “humorously unconventional framings, expressively washed-out colour tones and mysterious low-key performances” that bring together “human comedy and historical tragedy to unique, and surprisingly emotional, effect.”.[8] The New York Times critic A. O. Scott wrote that “the achievement of Post Mortem is to take rigorous and unsentimental measure of the unpleasantness”.[9] Post Mortem has also been popular on the Rotten Tomatoes public film reviews website, where it has an 88% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average score of 7.08/10.[10]

Cast

Awards

See also

References
  1. "Archive of films: Post mortem". Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  2. Jay Weissberg (5 September 2010). "Review: 'Post Mortem'". Variety. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  3. "La Biennale di Venezia: Post Mortem". 67th Venice International Film Festival. 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  4. Violet Lucca (19 April 2012). "Projecting and Excavating the Past: An Interview with Pablo Larraín". Film Comment. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  5. M. Enois Duarte (3 January 2013). "Post Mortem Blu-ray Review". High-Def Digest. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  6. Michael Tully (12 April 2012). "Post Mortem — A Hammer to Nail Review". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  7. Post Mortem review The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw, September 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  8. Post Mortem review Time Out, Wally Hammond, 6 September 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  9. A Quiet File Clerk at the Epicenter of Political Turmoil New York Times, A. O. Scott, 10 April 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  10. Post Mortem (2012) Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  11. Antofagasta Film Festival Website
  12. Post Mortem gana mejor película en el Festival de Antofagasta www.cinechile.cl, 15 November 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  13. Havana Film Festival Website
  14. Cinta chilena Post Mortem gana cinco premios en La Habana www.thisischile.cl, 20 December 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  15. Cartagena Film Festival Website
  16. La película chilena 'Post Mortem' ganó el Festival Internacional de Cartagena www.semana.com - 3 March 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  17. Guadalajara International Film Festival Website Archived 2013-03-01 at the Wayback Machine
  18. Post Mortem takes top prize www.hollywoodreporter.com, 4 January 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
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