Spanish director Manuel Arija De La Cuerda is destined for cult stardom, his ticket to international attention his stomach-churningly hilarious short film Mi Amore Vive En Las Alcantarillas - or My Love Lives In The Sewers in English - a coming of age story unlike any other. It's the story of an awkward young man still stuck living at home with his parents, a man with no friends to speak of and no social life whatsoever, a man who sees a ticket out of his dead end existence when he realizes that the seemingly random letters that keep appearing on his toilet paper are actually a series of messages. "Help me!" the paper cries, "I'm stuck in the sewer!"
What's a guy to do? Well, if you're this guy, once you realize that you're falling in love with your mysterious sewer dwelling penpal the answer is to coat various body parts with vaseline and stick them down the drain for a bit of good loving ...
I'm not making this up, The trailer lies beneath the break as proof.
Looking very out there.
I can dig it.
Just watching that reminds me how there's so little black and white cinema today.
I'm sure others will disagree, but I just think movies look so much more
real in b + w than color. And I've found most filmmakers who use it started out as cinematographers and photographers.
BenUmstead mentions the similarity to Lynch and I agree. The irony of course is that Lynch, from what I've seen, has always been fascinated with exploring color in his films.
I'd be one to agree with your comments on b+w films. There is an x-ray like nature to them: it creates an entirely unique world through film and yet is also able to peel away and give at least an impression of a more stark reality, an authentic self.
Lynch got pretty color obsessed by the 80s, which is a decade of color and saturation over load I'd say. He can still manage to go pretty monochromatic or desaturated with some stuff, but check out Eraserhead for Lynch in full on b+w mode.
I get a very Shinya Tsukamoto vibe from thing. Oh, and I really like the Cinema coming out of Spain over the past 18 months. Yummy.
Manuel is a very good friend of mine with a brilliant mind, a unique cinematographic voice, and style. MAVELA is an exceptional piece of work. I can personally tell you to make note of young Manuel Arija De La Cuerda.