Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes 6 Seconds
Duration: 87 Minutes 6 Seconds
Audio: Spanish PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Vicente Aranda
Cast: Teresa Gimpera, Marianne Benet, Marcos Martí, Antonio Ferrandis
Fata Morgana (1965) is a surreal Spanish thriller directed by Vicente Aranda (The Blood Spattered Bride) that is an arthouse mash-up of science fiction, thriller, a bit of giallo, as well set in Barcelona, opening with a cryptic bit of text that states that the events here take place after "the event" in London. What that event is is never explained, but Barcelona seems oddly empty, the streets are barren aside from a handful of oddball characters, and there's a silver van touring the streets announcing through a PA system that everyone should leave Barcelona as quickly as possible.
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Vicente Aranda
Cast: Teresa Gimpera, Marianne Benet, Marcos Martí, Antonio Ferrandis
Fata Morgana (1965) is a surreal Spanish thriller directed by Vicente Aranda (The Blood Spattered Bride) that is an arthouse mash-up of science fiction, thriller, a bit of giallo, as well set in Barcelona, opening with a cryptic bit of text that states that the events here take place after "the event" in London. What that event is is never explained, but Barcelona seems oddly empty, the streets are barren aside from a handful of oddball characters, and there's a silver van touring the streets announcing through a PA system that everyone should leave Barcelona as quickly as possible.
Our main focus here is fashion model Gim (Teresa Gimpera, Naked Girl Murdered in the Park) who decides not to vacate the city, and instead wanders the streets looking for her errant boyfriend Alvara (Alberto Dalbés, Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein). There's also a serial-killer analyzing professor (Antonio Ferrandis) who makes a prediction about who will die next in the city, and an officer named J.J. (Marcos Martí) who is seeking out the predicted victim to stop the murder from happening. There's also a wandering group of teens who early on find a billboard featuring an image of Gim, cut out her image and carry it with them around the near empty streets for some reason.
The film is a somewhat psychedelic meditation on celebrity, fate and perhaps spoofing genre tropes in the process and making some commentary on the Franco regime, but obscuring that subversive edge with a somewhat dystopian time and place. It's a strange film, there's an inexplicable quality about it that I find hard to put into words, but it's quite a fascinating watch that revels in experimentation and arthouse weirdness. An undercurrent of threatened violence is always there as well, the unexplained event and the threat of it happening in Barcelona, and Gim eventually finds her lover, but she finds him with his jealous former lover Miriam (Marianne Benet, The Night Fighters), who has connections to the event in London, and seems to be having some sort fo breakdown.
I did not find Fata Morgana to be immediately satisfying, there's too much unknown and undefined about it, but it was also quite engrossing, watching it play out, wondering what's happening here, and where will it all lead, I was on the hook, and while it didn't offer immediate cinema-satisfaction, upon re-watch it came more into focus, and I certainly appreciate the surreal, pop-art visual aesthetic and the odd hodge-podge genre blender of it all, though I found myself wanting it to be more of a thriller and less of a the arthouse mind-bender that it is.
Audio/Video: Fata Morgana (1966) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from wild side world cinema distributor Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1), being a new 2K scan of the OCN. The source looks terrific, grain is nicely resolved, and blemishes are at a minimum with only some white speckling. Depth and clarity please, and the colors looks natural and true, and while there are moments of what appear to be inherent source related softness from time to time for the most part it's colorful and well-saturated with strong primaries. Audio comes by way of Spanish PCM 2,9 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track sounds great, dialogue is clear and clean, and we get a cool, jazzy score from Antonio Pérez Olea (A Candle for the Devil).
Audio/Video: Fata Morgana (1966) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from wild side world cinema distributor Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1), being a new 2K scan of the OCN. The source looks terrific, grain is nicely resolved, and blemishes are at a minimum with only some white speckling. Depth and clarity please, and the colors looks natural and true, and while there are moments of what appear to be inherent source related softness from time to time for the most part it's colorful and well-saturated with strong primaries. Audio comes by way of Spanish PCM 2,9 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track sounds great, dialogue is clear and clean, and we get a cool, jazzy score from Antonio Pérez Olea (A Candle for the Devil).
Mondo Macabro offers up some solid extras for this release, we get an Audio Commentary from critic Rachael Nisbet, in which she dissects the film's themes and influences, the cast and crew, making comparisons to concurrent Italian and French film movements, different versions of the film, and so on. It's well researched and informative track. We also get a 25-min Interview with actress Teresa Gimpera who speaks about her early modeling career and breaking into film, as well as what it was like working for Aranda; a 20-min Interview with Angel Sala director of the Sitges Film Festival who offers as assessment of the film in context of the fantast-terror cinema at that time and how this film fits into that and compares with contemporaries like Jess Franco. Disc extras are finished-up with a 1-min Alternate Opening Sequence. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a new illustration by Justin Coffee that has a pop-art, giallo-thriller vibe about it.
Special Features:
- New 2k scan from original negative, fully restored and uncut
- New 2k scan from original negative, fully restored and uncut
- Audio Commentary from critic Rachael Nisbet
- Interview with actress Teresa Gimpera. (24:27)
- Interview with Angel Sala director of the Sitges Film Festival (19:20)
- Alternate Opening Sequence (0:59)
- Interview with actress Teresa Gimpera. (24:27)
- Interview with Angel Sala director of the Sitges Film Festival (19:20)
- Alternate Opening Sequence (0:59)
Buy it!
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