Jonas Trueba’s , about a long-term couple celebrating their break-up with a party, has all the Spanish auteur’s stylistic hallmarks: downbeat, meandering dialogue, filmic and literary narrative games, the dishevelled, directionless protagonists and some self-reflexiveness. Trueba’s first visit to Cannes feels like the right move for a director whose devotion to the French New Wave is always in evidence. In Spain, Trueba and his Los Ilusos production company have built up something of a cult following, which could expand following the film’s Directors’ Fortnight screening.
Only two of the roles are named in the end credits: film editor Ale (Itsaso Arana) and wannabe actor Alex (Vito Sanz). In the opening scene, as Ale and Alex lie in bed together in their Madrid apartment, Ale suggests that they should take seriously an idea from her free-thinking, philosophical father (played here by Fernando Trueba, the director’s own filmmaker father ( ) – that it’s separations, rather than unions, that should be celebrated. Plotwise, not much happens: the film is content to stick with its initial premise and explore it.
By phone, or in bars and restaurants, Ale and Alex invite various friends and relations to their separation party and are met with a range of often comically revealing reactions. The film’s Spanish title is , meaning ’you’ll get back together’, and, as the couple work to set up the party, it feels increasingly likely that this will happen. Many of th.