OCTOBER is yet another film in this year's Festival that features a lonely man living an emotionally impoverished life, using whores for release, and finding an unlikely salvation. Frankly, by this point, I'm getting tired of seeing alienating commercial sex, no matter how stylised the framing and how good the acting. Anyways, for what it's worth, in this film, the iteration sees a Peruvian money-lender called Clemente using whores for release and apparently knocking them up fairly often. One day, he finds himself landed with a baby, and while he tries to track down the mother, he hires a middle-aged woman as a child-minder. This sets up an Odd Couple relationship between the quietly subversive child-minder and the emotionally stunted Clemente. In many ways, OCTOBER is an impressive film. The production design, cinematography and performances are all strong and the tone is deadpan and bleak. But I just didn't engage with the characters - the humour wasn't dark enough for me - and frankly, I am pretty tired of the set-up of a soul-less man using whores getting redeemed by meet-cute x. I'd love to see director Diego Vega Vidal addressing another subject.
OCTOBER played Cannes 2010 and is currently on release in Peru and Germany. It opens in France on December 29th.
