Andrea Costantini
•Hector, a middle-aged man who has just moved with his wife to a house near the woods, is comfortably seated in the garden. He is observing the surroundings with binoculars when he notices a very attractive girl who is undressing in the woods, while his wife reaches him and tells him she is about to leave. Hector, as soon as his wife has left the house, ventures into the woods to look for the girl. He finds her completely naked, unconscious. While trying to understand what happened, a man with his face covered by a pink bandage stabs him in the arm with a pair of scissors. Fleeing from the maniac, Hector finds himself in a sort of laboratory, in which there is a strange machine. The theme of time travel is dear to science fiction, so much so that the films that deal with this subject are many. It is useless to cite them all because they would really be too many. The important thing is to have clear in mind the paradox that is at the base of these films. If at a certain point in our life we could go back in time, we might run the risk of encountering ourselves from the past. Now, it is useless to seek theories or physical explanations regarding the phenomenon because one would enter a vicious circle from which it is impossible to get out alive. We will limit ourselves to saying that the film "Timecrimes" ("Los cronocrímenes" in the original) is completely based on this concept of temporal paradox. Winner of several awards in festivals around the world, the Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo here in his first work after some short films (including "7.35 de la mañana", nominated for an Oscar in 2005) directs a film with a ridiculous budget, four actors (one of whom is the director himself in the role of the scientist) and a story barely on the bone. It seems little, but the film is one of those rare examples of cinema that leave you open-mouthed with astonishment. The very simple story is actually told with a masterfully intricate plot, continuously alternating the various facets of the paradox, misleading the viewer with the repeated deviations and, above all, making the details that are gradually revealed by the plot coincide. The screenplay works perfectly, both for rhythm (only a few drops at the end) and for involvement. One stays glued to the screen to try to understand where Hector wants to go with his plan implemented to repair the continuous damage caused by the time jumps. Since some scenes are repeated several times for plot necessity, some moments become redundant and the tension slightly dissipates. There are no lack of some tense parts, such as the (first) escape of Hector from the man with the pink bandage, guided by the scientist with the walkie-talkie. Despite the subject being almost the same as that narrated in films like Back to the Future, here there is a sensitive attention to detail and it is precisely this that the film lives on. It would be optimal to watch the film two consecutive times to fully learn all the signs sown throughout the scenes and one will realize that everything is fitted into a well-oiled mechanism. If there are defects, they are skillfully camouflaged. Once the mechanism is understood, in some scenes one easily arrives at the revelation of the plot twists before they occur, but despite this one cannot help but admire the project in its complexity. One could talk for hours about "Timecrimes", discuss the plot completely lacking in linearity, get lost between which of the Hectors did what, but the best thing to do is not to say anything more so as not to spoil the show. Sit down on the couch, insert the disc in the player and completely immerse yourself (and without any kind of distraction) in this gem, which in the rest of the world has the fame of a cult. And like most good films, in Italy it is known by few. Once again, the few means of Iberian cinema have torn apart the rich colleagues from overseas, who, obviously, have responded by whispering about a possible remake.
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