Rocío Gómez, Eva Molina & Júlia Hidalgo
DREAMING OF “LITTLE INDIANS”, LIVING TOUGH (comment on “Petit Indi”, a film by Marc Recha) A fox and a goldfinch, symbols of friendship and an alternative innocence that filmmaker Marc Recha introduces in this film, in which he presents the story of the young Arnau living in a world both tough and too real, sometimes oneiric and surreal. “Petit
Indi” is a film on the short travel from adolescence to adulthood, on the difficulty of this journey for a workingclass boy living a precarious life at the outskirts of Barcelona. Subtility, naiveness, silence and colorfulness are some of the traits of this piece of art, that film critiques like to compare with the style of painter Paul Klee for his surreal yet sometimes expressionist way of telling this "The Arrival of the Bridegroom", 1933 (retrieved from http://www.passionestampes.com/deco/affiches/klee/kleederkunftige.jpg)
story.
Fear, frustration and grief are emotions that arise when Arnau is forced to face an adult reality that he longs to escape from, creating his own world out in the nature, taking care of a fox and training a goldfinch; these are the symbols of his childhood and his innocence, that will inevitably be interrupted by certain aspects of the real world, as the pain of seeing her mother in jail or having to work at a young age to pay for a lawyer. The film shows explicit images of this forced adulthood through the dog races and bird-singing competitions, while also immersing the audience in the costumbrism of the impoverished neighborhoods. In this sense, Marc Recha masters in the ability of using as many words as needed, and opting for the use of strong sensorial images, as the scene of the killing of the fox, where we all can feel Arnau´s revenge feelings and
Scene from "Petit Indi" (taken from https://mubi.com/films/little-indi)
frustration over the bird´s death. One may think that Arnau is somehow a reflection of Marc Recha’s years as adolescent and this could be certainty correct. Having spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Hospitalet de Llobregat, Recha knows well
the difficulties and problems that you can live where money is scarce and family problems grow around you and he does beautifully capture it in this film.
Regarding his technique, Marc Recha uses different frames that break the story, which are symbolic and paused, always strongly related to Arnau’s feelings. Silence, present in many parts of the film, is used to Close-up of Arnau, in "Petit Indi" (retrieved from http://www.labutaca.net/criticas/petit-indi-de-lainocencia-a-la-madurez-del-canto-de-la-vida-a-ladesconfianza/)
internalize, to reach the purest essence of the boy. It is also remarkable the use of what is outside the field of action, “off
camera”, a filmaking resource that tries to awake the audience´s creativity and involvement:
scenes
of
Robert
Bresson´s “Mouchette” (1967) come to our minds at this point. On the other
hand,
Recha
treated
the
scenery as an actor that is not immutable, that progresses, changes and even grows old. He achieves to transmit the intensity of the intimacy that can be constructed between a
Scene from “Mouchette” by Robert Bresson (retrieved from http://theartofmemory.blogspot.com.es/2008/03/robert-bressongeorges-bernanos.html
human being and animals; in this we can appreciate the legacy of one of his teachers Marcel Hanoun, radical French filmmaker.
Basically, a beautiful and delicate piece of art, a story of a boy with a special sensibility and his pain over the lost of the innocence. A different approach to the subject that Marc Recha captures very well in this “Petit Indi”.
REFERENCES
Lacasadeloshorrores.com, (2016). Crítica de "Petit Indi", por Bill Haverchuck ~ LaCasaDeLosHorrores Cine. [online] Available at: http://www.lacasadeloshorrores.com/2009/11/existen-muchos-tipos-de-cineastas-y.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016].
Petrus, P. (2010). Petit Indi ~ Miradas de Cine: Archivo 2002-2015. [online] Miradas de Cine: Archivo 2002-2015. Available at: http://archivo.miradasdecine.es/actualidad/2010/01/petit-indi.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016].
El Confidencial, (2009). De repente, la madurez. Noticias de Televisión. [online] Available at: http://www.vanitatis.elconfidencial.com/television/2009-10-30/de-repente-lamadurez_496908/#lpu6dC3Zj3KfLgPc [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016].
Filmin, (2016). Marc Recha en Filmin. [online] Available at: https://www.filmin.es/director/marc-recha [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016].
Heredero,C.(1999).20 nuevos directores del cine español.Madrid, Alianza Editorial.
