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Lethal Loneliness
Documentary explores companionship and crime
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Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo / Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo is the sort of film borne and bred of a lifetime of movie–watching. Its narrative scope is set squarely in a modern documentary space that recognizes plot points and storylines in order to present its audience with a more clear (and undoubtedly more entertaining) view of the story. This isn’t to say that the reality of the story told in Yulene Olaizola’s debut film is not present. On the contrary, Olaizola’s exploration of a friendship her grandmother shared with a man whose presence in her Mexican town may have left a sinister mark.
Airing at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo / Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo explores the notions of loneliness and friendship as a woman ages through the true tale of Rose Elena Carvajal, the filmmaker’s grandmother. The narrative focuses on Carvajal’s boarding of an eccentric, homeless man more than thirty years her junior whose odd behavior seems to weave a tale of murder and deceit that proves horrifying in retrospect.
However exciting and suspenseful the tale of Carvajal’s boarder–turned–possible–serial–killer may be, the rookie filmmaker handles the real meat of the story deftly, never losing sight of what makes the film special. It is not the shocking and gut–wrenching murder mystery that audiences will find truly enthralling, but the questions of age, solitude and friendship that Oliazola raises that really reel the audience in. What can lead a woman to lend a blind eye to monstrous behavior? At what cost does humanity crave companionship?
Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo / Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo we be playing twice this month: November 1 and 28 at 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm respectively. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.icaboston.org/programs/film/intimacies/.