THE MOVIE TELLER (TIFF 2023) – Review by Emma Badame
Cinematic love letters to the art and magic of movies are common enough these days. From Cinema Paradiso to Hugo, a good number of them have gone on to become a part of the pantheon of classics worshipped by so many of the films’ characters. Recent entries like Belfast and The Fabelmans have proven equally popular with audiences and critics too, proving there’s still life to be found in the well-worn oeuvre.
More often than not, these feel-good, nostalgic fables are told from the perspective of a young boy, eager to experience all the technicolor adventures on the big screen have to offer. With The Movie Teller (La Contadora de Películas), Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig has not only gifted to audiences a moving, captivating ode to both movies and the power they have to create and bind communities, but one told–for a change–from the perspective of an imaginative young girl with a talent for storytelling herself.
Set more than 50 years ago in the saltpeter mining communities of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the film follows one young girl, María Margarita (Alondra Valenzuela and Sara Becker), whose life revolves around her family’s weekly trips to the cinema. Acting much like a local church, the town’s picturehouse is where this particular community–or at least those who can afford it–gathers to worship each Sunday. The family’s matriach, María Magnolia (Bérénice Bejo), has long dreamed of a life beyond the mines–in the theatre or in the movies–and nurtures a similar love of the arts in her young daughter. When her husband (Antonio de la Torre) is injured in a mining explosion, their financial situation goes from bad to worse. They can only afford to send one family member to the cinema and, after her older brothers all fail at the endeavor, María Margarita is tasked with taking in the latest film, with instructions to recount the big-screen story to her loved ones when she returns.
Realising her true talent for telling tales, her family begins selling tickets to her ‘performances’, and she quickly becomes a beloved star to her neighbours and friends: “Rita Valentina, the Movie Teller.” Despite tragic loss, personal trauma, and an uncertain future, María Margarita finds solace and purpose in the emotional connection she forms with her audiences. Her abilities transport a riveted community to the far reaches of the world and allow them a few hours respite from their bleak, monotonous surroundings.
Interwoven with the country’s burgeoning political unrest in the 1960s and ‘70s, and the rise of Pinochet’s regime of terror, The Movie Teller celebrates the international appeal of some of Hollywood’s most memorable films. Scenes from Spartacus, From Here to Eternity, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and The Apartment frame themes of class, familial duty and dreams deferred. Each element on its own seems familiar and maybe even a bit trite, but Scherfig has combined them all to make this Spanish-language adaptation of Hernán Rivera Letelier’s novel feel fresh and even timeless.
The authenticity of the narrative is helped along in leaps and bounds by both the setting–filming took place in an abandoned former Atacama mining town–and by a riveting cast. Valenzuela and Becker steal the show as María Margarita at different stages of her life, perfectly communicating the character’s arc from innocence to uncertainty to a peaceful acceptance of her place in the world. And Bejo, de la Torre and the always excellent Daniel Brühl are each note-perfect in their integral supporting roles to both the film and to its central character, providing love, comfort and painful lessons in turn.
At its heart The Movie Teller is both a coming-of-age story, refreshingly acted and expertly told, and a love letter to the connective power of storytelling. It’s both intimate and monumental in scope, highlighting a very specific time and place but also speaking soundly to the here and now. Well worth the time of any film fan, Scherfig’s latest is a lovely, layered entry to this particularly nostalgic cinematic tradition.
The Movie Teller had its world premiere at TIFF 2023.
