Tan de repente
Encyclopedia
Tan de repente is a 2002 Argentine
and Dutch
black-and-white
comedy drama film
directed by Diego Lerman
and written by Lerman, María Meira, and Eloisa Solaas, based on the novel La prueba, written by César Aira
. The drama features Tatiana Saphir, Carla Crespo, Veronica Hassan, among others.
A young, naive clerk at a lingerie store learns about love and her own identity.
They take Marcia to the coast to see the ocean—which she has never seen before—before ending up at Lenin's Aunt Blanca's (Beatriz Thibaudin) house. Lenin has not seen Aunt Blanca for nine years, and they discover Blanca rents out rooms to two lodgers. Blanca proves fascinating to Lenin and the two begin redeveloping a connection. Lenin confesses that she has not spoken to her mother in three years.
When they are alone Mao makes love to Marcia, then leaves her alone. We learn that Marcia is quite lonely since her boyfriend recently dumped her. She feels abandoned by everyone.
Marcia, Mao, Lenin, and Blanca all affect each other in unexpected ways, and as a consequence, develop new relationships that each of the women had lacked in their lives.
magazine, liked the film and wrote, "A delightfully unpredictable sleeper that proves new Argentine cinema really exists, Suddenly, by 26-year-old Diego Lerman, starts scary, moves through deadpan comic and comes out with a whimsical tenderness for its characters that audiences will share...[The film is] lensed in beautifully composed black-and-white by cinematographers Luciano Zito and Diego del Piano, [the] film looks like a realistic road movie topped by irony, with a melancholy air under its bravado. Cast is right on target, with Saphir, Crespo and Hassan all playing straight in different ways, yet all ultimately quite believable."
Critic Elvis Mitchell
like the direction Diego Lerman gave the film and wrote, "Mr. Lerman, an Argentine, gives this story a spareness and is at his best when there is little or no dialogue...The stoic volatility of the opening 10 minutes matures into another movie altogether, one in which a tenderness develops among the threesome as they understand one another. You find yourself rooting for Mr. Lerman to pull off this maneuver. When Suddenly finds its soul in the last half-hour, the title begins to make a lovely sort of sense."
Nominations
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
comedy drama film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Diego Lerman
Diego Lerman
Diego Lerman is a film director, producer and screenplay writer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina.-Diecting and screenplay filmography:* La Prueba...
and written by Lerman, María Meira, and Eloisa Solaas, based on the novel La prueba, written by César Aira
César Aira
César Aira is an Argentine writer and translator, and an exponent of Argentine contemporary literature. He has published over fifty books of stories, novels and essays...
. The drama features Tatiana Saphir, Carla Crespo, Veronica Hassan, among others.
A young, naive clerk at a lingerie store learns about love and her own identity.
Plot
The film begins as Marcia (Tatiana Saphir), a frumpy and overweight salesgirl who seems to lead a banal and dreary existence, goes to work one day. As she walks she catches the eye of a feisty butch punk woman named Mao (Carla Crespo) who tells Marcia she wants to seduce her. Marcia tells Mao that she's not a lesbian, but Mao is relentless. With the help of her friend Lenin (Veronica Hassan), Mao manages to talk Marcia into getting into a cab that the two lesbian women then immediately car-jack.They take Marcia to the coast to see the ocean—which she has never seen before—before ending up at Lenin's Aunt Blanca's (Beatriz Thibaudin) house. Lenin has not seen Aunt Blanca for nine years, and they discover Blanca rents out rooms to two lodgers. Blanca proves fascinating to Lenin and the two begin redeveloping a connection. Lenin confesses that she has not spoken to her mother in three years.
When they are alone Mao makes love to Marcia, then leaves her alone. We learn that Marcia is quite lonely since her boyfriend recently dumped her. She feels abandoned by everyone.
Marcia, Mao, Lenin, and Blanca all affect each other in unexpected ways, and as a consequence, develop new relationships that each of the women had lacked in their lives.
Cast
- Tatiana Saphir as Marcia
- Carla Crespo as Mao
- Veronica Hassan as Lenin (real name: Veronica)
- Beatriz Thibaudin as Blanca
- María Merlino as Delia
- Marcos Ferrante as Felipe
- Ana María Martínez as Ramona
- Susana Pampin as Woman in Car
- Luis Herrera as Truck Driver
Critical reception
Deborah Young, the film critic at VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine, liked the film and wrote, "A delightfully unpredictable sleeper that proves new Argentine cinema really exists, Suddenly, by 26-year-old Diego Lerman, starts scary, moves through deadpan comic and comes out with a whimsical tenderness for its characters that audiences will share...[The film is] lensed in beautifully composed black-and-white by cinematographers Luciano Zito and Diego del Piano, [the] film looks like a realistic road movie topped by irony, with a melancholy air under its bravado. Cast is right on target, with Saphir, Crespo and Hassan all playing straight in different ways, yet all ultimately quite believable."
Critic Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell is an American film critic, host of the public radio show The Treatment, and visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He has served as a film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the LA Weekly, The Detroit Free Press, and The New York Times...
like the direction Diego Lerman gave the film and wrote, "Mr. Lerman, an Argentine, gives this story a spareness and is at his best when there is little or no dialogue...The stoic volatility of the opening 10 minutes matures into another movie altogether, one in which a tenderness develops among the threesome as they understand one another. You find yourself rooting for Mr. Lerman to pull off this maneuver. When Suddenly finds its soul in the last half-hour, the title begins to make a lovely sort of sense."
Awards
Wins- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent CinemaBuenos Aires International Festival of Independent CinemaThe Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The festival is managed by the Ministerio de Cultura del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, it is not...
: Audience Award, Diego Lerman (tied with Lavoura Arcaica); SIGNIS Award - Special Mention, Diego Lerman; Special Award, Diego Lerman; 2002. - Havana Film FestivalHavana Film FestivalThe Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Spanish-language filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, and in English as Festival of New Latinamerican Cinema of La Havana.The festival takes place...
: Best Actress—Tatiana Saphir, Carla Crespo, Veronica Hassan, Beatriz Thibaudin, María Merlino (to the female acting ensemble); Grand Coral - First Prize, Diego Lerman (tied with Cidade de Deus); Special Mention, Lita Stantic (producer), also for Un Oso rojo; 2002. - Huelva Latin American Film Festival, Huelva, Spain: Best New Director, Diego Lerman; Silver Colon, Best Screenplay (Mejor Guión Original), Diego Lerman and María Meira; 2002.
- Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film FestivalThe Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
: Don Quixote Award, Diego Lerman; Silver Leopard, Lita Stantic (producer) and Diego Lerman (director/producer); Special Mention, Carla Crespo, Veronica Hassan, Tatiana Saphir, Marcos Ferrante, María Merlino, Beatriz Thibaudin (to the acting ensemble, unanimously); 2002. - ViennaleViennaleThe Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria.The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are Gartenbaukino, Urania, Metro-Kino, Filmmuseum and Stadtkino...
, Vienna, Austria: FIPRESCIFIPRESCIThe International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
Prize, Diego Lerman (for a plot-twisting riot-girls road movie announcing the strength of an Argentine New-New-Wave); 2002. - Clarin Entertainment Awards: Clarin Award, Best First Work - Film (Cine: Mejor Ópera Prima); 2003.
- Istanbul International Film FestivalIstanbul International Film FestivalThe Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts , a non-profit organisation. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey...
: Golden Tulip, Diego Lerman; 2003. - Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Milan, Italy: Best Film, Diego Lerman; 2003.
- Molodist International Film Festival, KievKievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
: Sunny Rabbit Prize, Diego Lerman; 2003. - New York Lesbian and Gay Film FestivalNew York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film FestivalNewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of international LGBT film/video in the world....
: No Limits Award, Diego Lerman; 2003. - Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Supporting Actress (Mejor Actriz de Reparto), Beatriz Thibaudin; 2004.
- Glitter Awards: Glitter Award, Best Lesbian Feature; 2004.
Nominations
- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Film, Diego Lerman; 2002.
- Locarno International Film Festival: Golden Leopard, Diego Lerman; 2002.
- Molodist International Film Festival: Best Film Award, Best Full-Length Fiction Film, Diego Lerman; 2003.
- Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best First Film (Mejor Ópera Prima), Diego Lerman; Best New Actress (Mejor Revelación Femenina), Carla Crespo; Best Screenplay, Adapted (Mejor Guión Adaptado), Diego Lerman and María Meira; 2004.
External links
- Tan de repente at the cinenacional.comCinenacional.comCinenacional.com is a web portal and web-based database about Argentine cinema.The site provides a vast array of information, including: films, television programs, directors, actors, cinematographers, film editors, production designers, and other production professions in Argentina...
- Tan de repente film review at Cineismo by Josefina Sartora