SPOTLIGHT ON MÓNICA DEL CARMEN:

SUNDOWN

View IN-PERSON at The Cinematheque: Sat, Aug 27, 8:45pm

Mónica del Carmen in attendance

Neil and Alice Bennett (Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg) are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Acapulco, Mexico with younger members Colin and Alexa, until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore in this suspenseful jolt from writer/director Michel Franco.

In one sense, “Sundown” is a bleak window into the corrosive effect wealth and privilege have on relationships and the psyche, and even with a final reveal that fills in some of why Neil is the way he is, it still doesn’t feel that explanatory. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for this taut, confidently unsettling film. – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

It is not a coincidence that Sundown takes place in Acapulco. It is shocking for me to witness the city where I spent childhood vacations turn to an epicentre of violence. Sundown springs from a necessity to explore a place that seems increasingly distant and foreign. This exploration of all perspectives present in Acapulco is also a character study, and a study of family dynamics. The sun occupies a primordial place; it hits always aggressively and directly. The image imperatively has to reflect two things: The characters’s emotional states and the violence prevalent in their surroundings. – Director Michel Franco

Neil y Alice Bennett (Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg) son el núcleo de una familia adinerada de vacaciones en México con los miembros más jóvenes Colin y Alexa (Samuel Bottomley, Albertine Kotting McMillan) hasta que una emergencia distante interrumpe su viaje. Cuando un pariente interrumpe el estricto orden de la familia, las tensiones latentes salen a la luz en esta cinta de suspenso del escritor y director Michel Franco.

MICHEL FRANCO is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, and producer. His second feature, After Lucia, won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. He worked with Tim Roth in his 2015 film, Chronic. Most recently, Michel won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice for his film New Order (2020). His films typically deal with themes of dysfunctional families, in particular Mexican upper classes.