"El ciudadano ilustre" or "The Distinguished Citizen" is an Argentinean 2-hour film from 2016 that was the country's official submission to the Oscars last year, but did not manage the same successes like other entries from the South American country recently as it did not even make the short list of 9. However, it's all good because the movie managed a great deal of recognition at all kinds of other award shows. It is at this point probably the career-defining work for directors Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn and it seems Duprat's brother Andrés was in charge of the script here. This is a film not based on real events, the story of a Nobel Peace Prize winner for Literature and right early on in his acceptance speech we see that he is a complicated character indeed as what he talks about, the simple man's worries that his works may no longer be about as proved through this prestigious award, eventually satisfies the upper class again. What follows afterward is a return for him to his roots and exactly to these simple men's worries.
The main character is definitely not a saint as we find out on many occasions, even if many of the conflicts are not really because of him. The best example is his main antagonist as he cannot accept the writer's artistic integrity that he picked another painting. Still, even that one makes a point asking why the protagonist did not even return for his dad's funeral. This is not a film about returning home and finding one's true roots. It is actually the opposite as it is about returning home and finding that all roots are gone basically and that the people there, partially because of envy, do not like you anymore, even if they try their best at not showing their disapproval for the most part. The film starts relatively light, but becomes darker and darker the longer it goes in showing us how he does not fit in there anymore. References about violence and death are the logical consequence. I think this was a really good character study with many interesting moments and I also liked that it was not all bad at the end, for example he helped a young writing prospect and maybe he saw himself in him too when he was younger obviously. The film delivers from both comedy and drama perspective I think. The only major thing I did not like was in the end that the daughter's ex-boyfriend pulled the trigger. I was missing a bit of a connection there. Sure he was a brute and may be angry and sad that she left him if she really did, but it felt slightly unrealistic to me. Maybe the guy who invited him to dinner would have been the better choice. But then again I like the idea that it was one of his closest that fired the shot, even if the filmmakers eventually weren't brave enough to really kill him off. Eventually, we see him again in the world where he belongs to. As a whole a film that was fun to watch from start to finish and filmmakers can learn a lot from it I'm sure. It's witty, deep and relevant and on a subjective side-note it has the stunning Belén Chavanne in it, a Gaucho mix of Emma Stone and Tracy Spiridakos. Minor flaws keep me from giving this one an even higher rating. But I still definitely very much recommend seeing this one. It really took way too long to finally reach Germany. But the wait was worth it and I give it a comfortable thumbs-up.
The main character is definitely not a saint as we find out on many occasions, even if many of the conflicts are not really because of him. The best example is his main antagonist as he cannot accept the writer's artistic integrity that he picked another painting. Still, even that one makes a point asking why the protagonist did not even return for his dad's funeral. This is not a film about returning home and finding one's true roots. It is actually the opposite as it is about returning home and finding that all roots are gone basically and that the people there, partially because of envy, do not like you anymore, even if they try their best at not showing their disapproval for the most part. The film starts relatively light, but becomes darker and darker the longer it goes in showing us how he does not fit in there anymore. References about violence and death are the logical consequence. I think this was a really good character study with many interesting moments and I also liked that it was not all bad at the end, for example he helped a young writing prospect and maybe he saw himself in him too when he was younger obviously. The film delivers from both comedy and drama perspective I think. The only major thing I did not like was in the end that the daughter's ex-boyfriend pulled the trigger. I was missing a bit of a connection there. Sure he was a brute and may be angry and sad that she left him if she really did, but it felt slightly unrealistic to me. Maybe the guy who invited him to dinner would have been the better choice. But then again I like the idea that it was one of his closest that fired the shot, even if the filmmakers eventually weren't brave enough to really kill him off. Eventually, we see him again in the world where he belongs to. As a whole a film that was fun to watch from start to finish and filmmakers can learn a lot from it I'm sure. It's witty, deep and relevant and on a subjective side-note it has the stunning Belén Chavanne in it, a Gaucho mix of Emma Stone and Tracy Spiridakos. Minor flaws keep me from giving this one an even higher rating. But I still definitely very much recommend seeing this one. It really took way too long to finally reach Germany. But the wait was worth it and I give it a comfortable thumbs-up.