''Crane World'' ( es, Mundo grúa) is a 1999 Argentinefilm, written and directed by
Pablo Trapero
Pablo Trapero (born 4 October 1971) is an Argentine film producer, editor, and director.Pablo Trapero at the
Lita Stantic
Élida Stantic (born April 7, 1942), and more commonly known and credited as Lita Stantic, is an Argentine cinema film producer, producer, screenplay writer, and film director, director.
Stantic is one of the most important producers working in t ...
and Pablo Trapero. It features Luis Margani, Adriana Aizemberg, Daniel Valenzuela, among others.
The movie was partly funded by Argentina's INCAA as well as by the Dutch Hubert Bals Fund.
The picture is about working class life in Argentina that's gritty (filmed in sepia, black and white). The film follows the fortunes in the life of Rulo, an unemployed suburban man, who tries to earn a living as a crane operator in Buenos Aires.
In a survey of the 100 greatest films of Argentine cinema carried out by the
Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken
Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken is a museum of cinema of Argentina located in Buenos Aires. It was established on 1971 and holds a collection of 65,000 reels of film.
History
The Cinema Museum of the City of Buenos Aires was created on O ...
in 2000, the film reached the 9th position. In a new version of the survey organized in 2022 by the specialized magazines ''La vida útil'', ''Taipei'' and ''La tierra quema'', presented at the
Mar del Plata International Film Festival
The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...
, the film reached the 39th position.
Plot
The film tells of Rulo ( Luis Margani), a moderately successful musician in the 1970s.
Today he's divorced and an unemployed forty-something day-laborer living in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
in the late 1990s. He's anxious for whatever work he can find. He lives with his son who's also musically inclined, and his mother ( Graciana Chironi).
His best friend Torres ( Daniel Valenzuela), who has connections in the Argentine construction industry, finds him work as a large crane operator.
Rulo is dating Adriana ( Adriana Aizemberg), who runs a sandwich shop.
He lands a job as an excavating machine operator in distant
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
. The workers live in a remote farmhouse and the relationship between management and labor is difficult.
One day the workers are not fed during lunch so they refuse to work until they eat. Rulo soon discovers that making a fresh start at a late age proves to be harder than he first thought.
Pablo Trapero, in neo-realist fashion, used extras and bit players when he filmed.
Distribution
The film opened in Argentina on June 17, 1999. Later it was presented at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
on September 17, 1999.
The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Sundance Film Festival,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
New Directors/New Films Festival
The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, and organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society o ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
; and others.
Critical reception
Film critic Stephen Holden, film critic for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', liked the look and tone of the film and wrote, "
he picture
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
is a stylistic throwback to 1940s Italian neo-realism. The movie's grainy, sepia-toned cinematography and low-key naturalistic performances by a cast of nonprofessionals enhance its slice-of-life authenticity."
Film critic Diego Lerer, a member of FIPRESCI, wrote an extensive essay about director Pablo Trapero's cinema films. He reviewed ''Mundo grúa'' favorably and believes Trapero's film is advancing the "New Argentina Cinema Wave" and his films continues to break away from the older Argentine storytelling. He wrote, "Trapero's film dared to break even freer from the classic narrative models. Even though the film has a story, and one that advances with utter efficiency, ''Crane World'' respects the characters' internal rhythm like none of the other films by young Argentines had done so far...In Trapero's film, the scenes are developed in all their length."Lerer, Lerer . FIPRESCI, "Cinemas of the South: Pablo Trapero: Family Pictures," 2006.
Awards
Wins
*
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
: 'Cult Network Italia' Prize; Anicaflash Prize; both for Pablo Trapero; 1999.
* Havana Film Festival: Special Jury Prize; Pablo Trapero; 1999.
* Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Actor, Luis Margani; Best Director and OCIC Special Award, Pablo Trapero; 1999.
* Fribourg International Film Festival: Don Quixote Award; Ecumenical Jury Award; FIPRESCI Prize, For a first feature film offering a direct and truthful look at a personal strive for a decent life and solidarity; SAA Script Award; all for Pablo Trapero; 2000.
* Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best First Film, Pablo Trapero; Best New Actor, Luis Margani; Best Supporting Actress, Adriana Aizemberg; 2000.
*
Rotterdam International Film Festival
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...
: FIPRESCI Prize Tiger Competition, Pablo Trapero, For the sober and coherent realism with which it portrays the main character's humanity; Tiger Award, Pablo Trapero; 2000.
* Toulouse Latin America Film Festival: Grand Prix, Pablo Trapero; 2000.
Nominations
*
Valladolid International Film Festival
The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing fi ...
: Golden Spike, Pablo Trapero; 1999.
* Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Film, Pablo Trapero; 1999.
* Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Director, Pablo Trapero; Best Film; Best Original Screenplay, Pablo Trapero; 2000.
*
Goya Awards
The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain.
The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sci ...
: Goya, Best Spanish Language Foreign Film, Pablo Trapero, Argentina; 2000.
cinenacional.com
Cinenacional.com is a web portal and World Wide Web, web-based database about Cinema of Argentina, Argentine cinema. It is the most comprehensive site for information about the Argentine film industry, with a vast array of information on films, tel ...