Sundance Journal 2009 Day 2: Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds

The Egyptian theatre on the main was the lieu for the world preem to Alexis Dos Santos’ sophomore feature. Part of the world dramatic comp, Unmade Beds is a portrait of youth, coming-of-age pic poses its two featured vagabond characters in separate story-lines and mostly delves into the theme of abandonment and the squatter culture which seems to have left quite the impression on the Argentinean filmmaker. 

Dos Santos’ handheld, intimate framing of actors Deborah Francois and Fernando Tielve is a throwback to certain stylistic elements from the Nouvelle Vague of French cinema infused with a very broad soundtrack selection that tries in vain to pump emotional content to the context of duel searches for human contact. Francois (L’enfant) has her best moments in scenes where silence explores the back-story of the character, where as Tielve (The Devil’s Backbone) has what initially appears to be a promising story-line about sleeping in a series of strangers’ bed, but his wanting to re-connect with his father is naive-like and such charades grow tiresome.

Ultimately, when an uncoached approach for directing his actors is combined with a narrative outline that isn’t rigid enough, it makes you want to re-sketch how the characters explore their own fates. Read my full length review soon!