Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody (2002)
An experimental four-part 2002 Franco-Chilean digital video series written and directed by Raúl Ruiz. The first part won a FIPRESCI Award at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2002 "for the director's personal exploration into his homeland, using DV in a rigorous yet playful manner".
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Reviews
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
A Masterpiece!
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
This is the first part of Ruiz's wonderful shot-on-DV film-essay COFRALANDES, CHILEAN RHAPSODY (aka IMPRESSIONS OF CHILE). As with many of his "no-budget" efforts, it inhabits an odd twilit zone of its own where sudden sojourns into the worlds of fiction and documentary begin and end without warning. There is a nominal plot setup involving a Frenchman, a German, an Englishman and a Chilean but, interspersed with Ruiz's trademark absurdist sketches (only some of which he had to devise), we also have talking heads reflecting on Chile's national character, language, literature, landscape and all manner of minutiae of yesteryear. The more you know about Chilean culture, however, the less surreal all this seems – and the more playful, droll and melancholic it becomes. I would recommend Cofralandes ("the land of plenty") to anyone interested in exploring Chilean national identity or the potential of digital video. The director's fans should also see it – for this is definitely Ruiz at his most radical. A possible influence on Godard's FILM SOCIALISME.