Thesis
by Alejandro Amen?bar
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ana Torrent, Eduardo Noriega (II), Fele Mart?nez, Miguel Picazo, Xabier ElorriagaDirector: Alejandro Amen?bar
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of Thesis
Movie Review: A restrained film about violence and gore
Summary: 5 Stars
As part of her thesis on Audiovisual Violence and the Family, university student Angela (Ana Torrent) obtains a snuff movie that she comes to believe shows the murder of a fellow student. With the help of another student, Chema (Fele Martinez), Angela attempts to solve the murder of this student.
Structurally, "Tesis" is just a murder mystery, but it is a well executed mystery. Amenebar sets up a number of plausible suspects early in the piece and then spends the rest of the film shifting the suspicions of Angela, and of the audience, between these characters. Normally I find it pretty easy to guess the killer in mystery films, but in this film I found myself still guessing up until the final reveal (this was assisted by the fact that, as this is a Spanish film, I was not familiar with any of the actors in it, so couldn't go for the standard solution that the killer is the biggest name actor in the film after the detective).
Given that this was Amenabar's first feature, it is not surprising that it contains some flaws: the central message of this film is hammered home in a pretty heavy-handed way, and some elements of the film are pretty far-fetched (yes, of course a university would have a snuff film in their video collection. Don't they all?). However, overall, the quality of this film is so high that it is easy to overlook these flaws.
Just as "Boogie Nights" was a movie about pornography, that wasn't actually pornographic, "Tesis" is a movie about cinematic violence that shows very little blood and gore. In both cases, it is the restraint exercised on the part of the directors, P.T. Anderson and Alejandro Amenabar, respectively, that make these films great and elevate these directors to the highest level of their craft.
Summary of Thesis
Spanish director Alejandro Amen?bar grabbed the attention of American audiences with his dreamy thriller Open Your Eyes, but he earlier sent shock waves throughout Spain in 1996 with this disturbing debut. Thesis is a quietly creepy psychological thriller about a young college student, ?ngela (Ana Torrent) investigating the social fascination with sensational violence for her thesis project. In her search for violent video footage, she stumbles onto what may be a real live snuff film, a videotape that her professor was watching before his untimely death. With the help of a geeky gore junkie she uncovers a conspiracy that may include her handsome but sinister new boyfriend, her thesis advisor, and even her weirdo partner. When she uncovers one too many secrets lying in the catacombs of the university basement, she realizes that she may be the next victim. It goes on perhaps too long, and Amen?bar's pointed observations on the lure of violence and the dark side of human nature are lost as the spiraling mystery spins into a first-person nightmare, but his skill at weaving a paranoid world where evil may lurk behind every friendly face is undeniable. Thesis is reminiscent of Brian De Palma's early thrillers: dark, stylish, subdued, and bubbling with the characters' guilty (and ultimately dangerous) fascination with the transgressive. --Sean AxmakerArt House & International DVD Video
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