a Cloud Maker

REC - 2007

by Jaume Balangueró and Paco Plaza


It´s Often delightful to watch a film,
in which its whole creation process
appears not to be trimmed by
any out side intervention.
The so called ''film Industry'' has long proved to be
'Art´s worst nightmare', and
expression´s ''utmost bonds''...
[Thou we all would love to be hired by them...]

In 'REC' we are exposed to a slightly
different version of the experience
introduced by "the Blair Witch
Project" [film by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
In which a group of film makers head up to a forest to 'document' the
weird facts surrounding an urban tale.] Here, we are
more literally than usual, spectators
of a TV crew recording a special for
a late night show, showing a firefighter´s
team, their facilities and daily routine by
following them wherever they were to go.
But as you may have guessed, something went wrong.

Because of this simple and plausible
atmosphere, the film gains depth and
a perfect set up for the introduction
of elements of conspiracy and terror.

In 'REC' the camera tells
the story, so much so that although the
picture doesn´t clarify who, if some one
at all, survived from the experience,
we at least know some how some one
got to the camera, or else we would not be
exposed to the material.

It´s funny the ponder about how the
'nouvelle vague' [a 60´s French Cinema Movement]
Sort of introduced a discontinuity of frames
as a form of language, and that without a
factual explanation (I Won´t get into the perceptual intentions
of the involved authors) to illustrate a sensorial way
of understanding the narrative,
In 'REC', the discontinuity there
present is simply a form of elevating
the camera to the status of
truth teller. Here the lack of continuity
of plans (AND NOT OF RACCORD let this be clear) is in a
chronological persception, and
not in a sensorial subversive one.
Fact is that this idea is powerful, for the
script of the film sort of completes itself inside
our brains, since we know the camera (more
in such films than in any other kind) to be our friend,
feeding our curiosity and
softening our feelings of loss,
when the characters one by one are gone.

When terror takes control (in a screenplay persepctive)
we know the camera survived,
and that there´s nothing we can do
to aid nobody, here we actually consider
the fact that it´s all just a recording,
and that we are just seeing a fact concluded
much before we begin watching it.

And that´s the greatest innovation of such films,
of with REC is assuredly a great exponent.
It being a well done metalinguistic
exercise, and that is much of what
sustains its suspense and latter what
caused all the admirers and fans all over the world.