The Secret In Their Eyes

The Secret in Their Eyes Screening Report


The 561 enthusiastic film goers who attended our August 30 screenings seemed to agree that The Secret in Their Eyes was one of the best films we've shown to date.

It will be interesting when we do the ratings after our November screenings to see if it out ranks our current five highest rated films: Lives of Others and Hotel Rwanda: 9.2, Departures and Joyeux Noel 9.1 and The Kite Runner 9.0. Interestingly four of the five were foreign language films, three were nominated for Best Foreign Language Oscar and two won the Oscar as did The Secret in Their Eyes. For those who missed the movie it is out on video Tuesday September 21 and is a definite must see. It truly is one of the best films we've ever screened.

Click here for a very interesting interview with director Juan Jose Canpanella.

The FilmFest has donated $1000 to the Hamilton Out of the Cold Program and $200 to the Neighbour to Neighbour Food Bank.



Running Time
Rating
129 minutes
14-A
Release to VHS and DVD: September 21


The Secret in Their Eyes Synopsis

(This film is in Spanish with English subtitles.)


Recently retired criminal court investigator Benjamin, decides to write a novel based on a twenty-five year old unresolved rape and murder case, which still haunts him. Sharing his plans with Irene, the beautiful judge and former colleague he has secretly been in love with for years, Benjamin’s initial involvement with the case is shown through flashbacks, as he sets out to identify the murderer. But Benjamin’s search for the truth will put him at the center of a judicial nightmare, as the mystery of the heinous crime continues to unfold in the present, testing the limits of a man seeking justice and personal fulfillment at last.

The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) is a 2009 Argentine crime thriller film, written and directed by Juan José Campanella, based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La pregunta de sus ojos (The Question in Their Eyes). The film stars Ricardo Darín, , Javier Godino, Guillermo Francella and Pablo Rago. The movie is a joint production of Argentine and Spanish companies.

The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, making Argentina the only country in Latin America that has won it, and the first one to do so twice (having already won for The Official Story in 1985). This happened just three weeks after being awarded the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film of 2009 (the Goya Awards are the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards). As of 2010 it has become the second biggest box office success in Argentine film history, only surpassed by Leonardo Favio's 1975 classic Nazareno Cruz y el lobo (Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf).


Click on each image to see a larger picture.




Awards





Winner: 2009 Academy Award: Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: 13 of 17 nominations for Argentine Academy Film Awards

Winner Goya Awards: Best New Actress - Soledad Villamil

Winner Goya Awards: Best Spanish Language Foreign Film

Winner Havana Film Festival: Best Actor (Ricardo Darín), Audience Award, Best Director (Juan José Campanella), Best Music and a Special Jury Award at the Havana Film Festival





The Critics Comment




The New Yorker/David Denby
It’s powerfully and richly imagined: a genre-busting movie that successfully combines the utmost in romanticism with the utmost in realism.

Chicago Sun Times/Roger Ebert
Juan Jose Campanella is the writer-director, and here is a man who creates a complete, engrossing, lovingly crafted film. He is filled with his stories. The Secret in Their Eyes is a rebuke to formula screenplays. We grow to know the characters, and the story pays due respect to their complexities and needs.

Chicago Tribune/Michael Phillips
What are the odds that the year's most compelling mystery would end up hanging its hat on the year's richest love story.

The Globe and Mail/Rick Groen
The wonder is that the film balances its many genres, from the thorns of murder to the bloom of romance to the thickets of politics, with such easy grace.

St. Petersberg Times/Steve Persall
The movie grabbed me and wouldn't let go during a bravura set piece at a soccer game when Campanella's camera glides into the stadium, finds Benjamin's face in the crowd and doesn't stop moving (with only a couple of edits) for six breathtaking minutes.

Charlotte Observer/ Lawrence Toppman
To call it a masterpiece is premature: That’s a title to be earned only in retrospect. But I’ve seen it twice now and can’t imagine what I would change. It fits together tightly as a suspenseful puzzle, yet it’s also emotionally rewarding and sardonically funny.

New York Times/Manohla Dargis
An attractive, messy drama riddled with violence and edged with comedy that comes with a hint of Grand Guignol, a suggestion of politics and three resonant, deeply appealing performances.





Related Links



Internet Movie Database
Rotten Tomatoes
MetaCritic
Official Web Site




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