El incendio

Crítica de Pablo Suárez - Buenos Aires Herald

Juan Schnitman’s El Incendio offers a mature look at the destructive nature of love

The dynamics of young couples have always been rich material for filmmakers interested in the connections made and missed between lovers, in what pushes them together and what pulls them apart. And just like finding your soul mate can often be a blessing, saying goodbye to love is always painful. As a perfect case in point, El incendio (The Fire), the first solo feature by Argentine Juan Schnitman (co-director of El amor primera parte), chronicles 24 hours in the life of Lucía (Pilar Gamboa) and Marcelo (Juan Barberini), both in their thirties and painfully falling out of love.

At the exact time when Lucía and Marcelo intend to move from the apartment they rent to the one they are about to buy, the business transaction has to be postponed due to an unforeseen complication. So the money they’d taken out of the bank must now be hidden in the rented apartment until the next day. Needless to say, this unusual situation brews a lot of tension and anxiety, which in a matter of a few hours will end up revealing how much discontent and unsolved conflicts the young couple had managed to bury for a long time — which they can’t do any longer.

A strong dramatic pillar in El incendio is how seasoned actors Pilar Gamboa and Juan Barberini play the two lovers with enormous confidence, as they eschew clichés, utilize precise body language, and go for emotional truth rather than empty dramatical tricks. Each of them swiftly embodies the explosive traits of their characters, who once were understanding but are now hostile, very kind in the past but quite unreceptive today. But it’s not only that their individual performances are true to life (Gamboa’s, is in fact, stunning), but most importantly they look and sound like a real life couple sunk into a deep crisis.

As this intimate drama unfolds, its unseen layers, escalating aggressions and verbal darts, open up old wounds and create new ones. Lucía and Marcelo know how to hurt each other and they do so, but they have no clue how to recover their lost love and if such a feat were even possible. And there’s also a ferocious sex scene that works efficiently as yet another way these lovers have to inflict pain on each other. Or perhaps it’s just blinding lust, the kind they hadn’t experienced in years.

With an austere mise-en-scene with nothing but the bare essentials, perfectly executed editing to express the nerve-wracking chaos, and long takes with an unobtrusive hand-held camera capturing the unbearable tension, Juan Schnitman creates a recognizable, most unfriendly environment for his couple to live in during 24 long hours.
A mature look at how fragile and destructive sentimental liaisons are, El incendio is the work a young auteur who knows what he’s doing — and better yet, who knows how to do it right.

Production notes
El incendio (Argentina, 2015). Directed by Juan Schnitman. Written by Agustina Liendo, based on a story by Juan Schnitman. With Pilar Gamboa, Juan Barberini. Cinematography: Soledad Rodríguez. Editing: Andrés Pepe Estrada. Running time: 95 minutes.