Will it be a movie or a novel? Médem started with the idea of creating a new movie, Pericles and Aspasia, it seems that due to the lack of funding the project was put on hold, and Médem turned to put it into a novel. He didn't give up with eventually filming the story, he thinks even to advance in parallel with the book and the movie.
5th Century of Classical Greece. Aspasia is a young and beautiful woman born in Miletus who moves to Athens where she turns into a hetaera. Being a liberated woman and a relevant figure in Athens, noted for her conversationalist and adviser skills, she becomes the lover of prominent statesman Pericles. Together they will face the great political events of their time while their relationship will suffer defamation by Athenian society.
Book or movie, it doesn't matter. It would be an episode in the history of antique Athens filtered through the heavily sensual lens of Médem: the magic of Eros dissolving everything.
Médem has admitted literature has greatly influenced his cinematic vision. Magical Realism and Latin American literature have made an impression on him, as he mentions authors such as Borges, Garcia Márquez, and Cortázar, but also remarks he likes to read more history than fiction.
I watched three movies by Julio Médem so far and they are great works of art, of exquisite beauty. They are extremely intense sexually, only there is something very deep related to their heavy, almost unbearable, eroticism. If I were to make a comparison with the movies of Wong Kar-Wai (also of great artistic value), in the works of the Hong-Kong director time is dissolved by Eros: there are no more time sequences, only moments of love, of longing, of lust. In the works of Julio Médem, Eros is breaking the narrative in multiple plans of reality and imagination, each plan of the narrative dissolving the other plans, and claiming to be the unique truth. Eros in the movies of Wong Kar-Wai dissolves the time. Eros in the movies of Julio Médem dissolves the reality.
Otto and Ana are kids when they meet each other. Their names are palindromes. They meet by chance, people are related by chance. A story of circular lives, with circular names, and a circular place (Círculo polar) where the day never ends in the midnight sun. There are things that never end, and Love is one of them.
Sunt cateva randuri pe care le-am gasit pe imdb despre Los Amantes del Circulo Polar. Si urmeaza pe imdb vreo sapte pagini de comentarii
Otto si Ana s-au intalnit prima data cand erau copii in clasele primare. Numele lor sunt palindroame. Nume circulare, destine care evolueaza si ele in cercuri, visele sunt si ele cercuri, spre Cercul Polar, unde ziua nu are sfarsit pentru ca lumina se invarte la nesfarsit. Nici dragostea nu are sfarsit, pentru ca tine de destin si nu de lucruri atat de marunte cum e viata sau moartea.
Daca nu va plac filmele lui Julio Medem, nu are rost sa vedeti nici filmul acesta. Vi se va parea fie copilaresc, fie absurd, fie melodramatic, fie toate la un loc.
Daca nu stiti nimic despre Medem, poate e mai bine sa vedeti mai intai Lucia y el Sexo - stiu si eu?
Los Amantes del Circulo Polar - am stat sa il vad aseara, tarziu. Vazusem Lucia y el Sexo - si voiam neaparat sa il vad si pe acesta. M-a descumpanit. Mi s-a parut copilaresc, absurd, melodramatic.
Noaptea e un bun sfetnic. M-am trezit cu gandul la film. L-am inteles dintr-odata. Nu e copilaresc, nu e absurd, nu e melodramatic. E un film care evolueaza in cercuri, urmarind cu o delicatete extraordinara dragostea care evolueaza intre doi copii pe masura ce cresc - si relatiile lor complicate cu parintii lor.
E o poveste pe muchie de cutit. Tatal lui a divortat si traieste cu mama ei. Toata lumea ii considera pe cei doi copii frate si sora vitregi.
Dar asta e harul lui Julio Medem, sa mearga pe muchie de cutit, pentru ca este un pasionat al virtuozitatii.
Oare moare Ana la sfarsit? Poate ca da, avand in ochi pastrata imaginea lui pentru totdeauna, in ultimele clipe visand ca in sfarsit il reintalneste acolo, la Cercul Polar. Poate ca nu, poate ca el este cel care moare undeva in munti, cu multi ani in urma, visand in ultimele clipe ca ea se apleaca asupra lui. Povestea se roteste in cercuri si nu se termina la sfarsitul filmului -pentru ca filmul nu are sfarsit. Filmul la care lucreaza acum Julio Medem se numeste Caotica Ana.
Iar ea, Ana, este Naiwa Nimri, o femeie cu o senzualitate cu totul speciala, cu un glas parca incarcat de dorinta si de pacat greu.
No tengo palabras, ii scrie Naiwei Nimri un entuziast, solo decir que sacas la luz y la oscuridad de quien te ecucha y te ve, una deliciosa ambiguedad.
Si filmul asta, ca si Lucia y el Sexo, este incarcat de o senzualitate grea, ambigua, nebuna. Si am inteles deodata mult mai bine Lucia y el Sexo.
Pentru ca si evolutia mea ca spectator despre filmele lui Medem se aseamana unui mozaic, ale carui piese se aranjeaza incet in cercuri, fara sfarsit.
Dati-mi voie sa va istorisesc o amintire. Cu multi ani in urma, intr-un tramvai un baietel a fost asezat din intamplare pe un scaun in fata unei fetite. Ochii lui m-au invatat ce inseamna entuziasmul in fata frumusetii. Fetita a inteles totul, cu precocitate. Si a inceput sa ii vorbeasca. Iar el nu putea sa scoata un sunet. Ochii lui spuneau totul.
