DVD Review - A King and His Movie

This offbeat comedy from Argentina tells the story of a highly driven director named David Vass (Julio Chavez) who is obsessed with making a film about the King of Patagonia. This king actually was French but somehow won over the indigenous population of Patagonia.

The production starts off with enough money to pay a professional cast and crew to work on the film. But when David's associate Arturo (Ulises Dumont) tells him that the man with the money has left town things start to get chaotic. Even though most of the cast and crew has abandoned him David remains steadfast. He will make this film no matter what. He starts hiring regular people to play the parts including a man named Oso (Miguel Dedovich) to star as the King (who happens to be good in his role).

When they get to Patagonia they start shooting the film. Eventually things go from bad to worse. However, no matter how bad things get David persists on finishing the film.

Carlos Sorin directed and co-wrote (with Jorge Goldenberg) this film. It is supposed to be based on his own of experience of trying to get a film made with hardly any money. The film is funny and certainly a surreal take on the filmmaking process. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I found myself laughing quite a bit of the time. But the thing that impressed me the most was how much passion David had in regard to making this film. That is the most important thing one can have when doing anything. And when you see a really good film (or read a great book or see a fantastic painting, etc.) you can imagine how much of the person's soul went into what he/she was doing. And in the end that is the most important thing one can contribute to any creative project that they undertake. I highly recommend A King and His Film especially to those of you who like movies about the art of filmmaking.