Fantasma

Truly loneliness and isolation, but this time on a higher level: as if the transition from the jungle to the city not only meant a change of scenery but also a transition from one structure of the human self to another - the unconscious and the fantastic. It is as if the phantasm, embodied by Vargas as the main hero on the silver screen, only doubled Vargas' despairing isolation as a real person, instead of serving the human subject in a better light (as a proper psychoanalytic phantasm). No, Vargas is both in the world of illusory film and in the real world, all alone, sentenced to become a literal wandering "specter" (a literal "phantasm") alongside the other characters of the film ("Los Muertos" and "Phantom"). A crushing view of humanity, which cannot escape reality even in its dreams and films, from which it seeks to escape through them. The comparison to Hotel Monterey is fitting (hallways, elevators) and we can also appreciate the overall change of location - after all, the cold lines of lifeless architecture correspond better to the fate of the human characters (and make them precisely "human" indecent) than the vibrant green of the rainforest. (03.06.2015)