DONT LOOK DOWN (Mongrel, 2008) D: Eliseo Subiela, w/ Antonella Costa, Leandro Stivelman. Rating: NNN DVD package : n/a Rating: NNN
Standard erotica tends to go for sexual abandon and liberation through lust. Don’t Look Down ditches that in favour of sex as a controlled activity with a strong spiritual element and wraps it up in an airy sort of romantic comedy.
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Young Eloy sleepwalks into Elvira’s bed and there learns how to orgasm without physically coming. This, she promises him, will lead to long life, good health and happiness. It also leads to one surprising consequence for our hero and much tender, funny and prettily photographed sex.
When they’re not squeezing the weasel, Eloy and Elvira wander through Buenos Aires, engaging in stilt-walking, conversations with the dead and reminiscences about Eloy’s father’s secret life. The topics are serious, the tone light. The story goes exactly where you expect and doesn’t make a big fuss when it gets there.
Sex and spirituality are ongoing concerns for writer-director Eliseo Subiela, best known here for art-house hits Man Facing Southeast and The Dark Side Of The Heart. Pity he didn’t get to do a commentary.
EXTRAS Widescreen. Spanish audio. English, French subtitles.
