I-ce
By John Esther
A film with Michelangelo Antonioni pictured all over it, if the late great filmmaker -- who was part of AFI's Milestones last year (featuring a horrible projection of Antonioni's The Passenger) -- would have ever dealt with such a working class protagonist, Lisandro Alonso's film is one of AFI's best pictures this year.
Slow, meticulous and without much dialogue, the film follows Farrel (Juan Fernandez), a lonely sailor coming back to his family for a temporary visit. Along the way the film encounters few and very lonely people, existing to work and live and not much else.
Most people would tend to view these characters as rather sad, lonely and perhaps even degenerate, but Alonso chooses to frame his characters in ways that give their lives beauty and meaning in a cold and indifferent landscape.
Unfortunately there are no more screenings of Liverpool at AFI Fest 2008.
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