Release Date: 19 April 2007
Runtime: 99 min
At a first sight, a silent movie completely aware of the era it represents. At a more intrinsic sight and when figuring out the release date, 19 April 2007, a movie meant to ridicule a few aspects of commonly known society and its futuristic purposes.
The beginning, the sequence of hands playing a typing machine – the surrogate for piano – along with the passionately performed melody on the soundtrack introduces the idea of a demiurge. This intro works as a premonition to what will follow, subtly allowing the audience to understand that at some point in the plot of the movie an influencing character will pop up, one that would demand authority and would seek for absolute control. And indeed does this character appear: Mr. TV, the one who took people’s voices away from them and who secretly tries, through the manipulative media and all sort of goods – especially the TV Food – to steal all the other means of expressing themselves as well.
Therefore, there is a main focus on the appearance of the city: at first it is presented as the paper city coming out of a book; it then shows itself as a cartoonish setting, with balloon men flying around and high buildings having the watermark – the swirl – of Mr. TV. What’s more, the place seems accessible to its inhabitans only, as the movie seems to hold a barrier that keeps the audience from sympathizing with larger spaces, spaces which would offer a wider view of what is actually going on and that would also place the plot into a more realistic setting. This way, the story-like feeling is somehow imposed and does not naturally, leaving the bitter taste of plasticity.
When it comes to characters, they are embedded in who they are meant to be. Ana’s father has broken glasses from the beginning of the movie, always wears the same coat as well as his father, while Ana’s mother never gives up her nurse cap. Ana herself seems the typical child who grows up without a united family and therefore tries to help the balloon man and the boy without eyes as she is trying to recollect the protection she lacks. The cliché comes with the picture of the once happy family, which the girl holds sacred, even though the end breaks it by showing the same family getting together again but this screaming in order to prove they have a voice
Moreover, the movie is characterized by synchronous gestures and facial expressions, as well as by a thin dramatization of details: the tears are prominent, the hands always play an important role and so the mouths and eyes, not to mention that characters are aware of the text above their heads or that appears on their right or left.
La Antena simply asks for another interpretation, one that is beyond its animations and childish fantasy: the persecution of Jews :“They have taken our voices, but we still have words”. There are only a few scenes when this becomes obvious, but the constant symbols all lead to the same outcome. The Mouse Man wears a Nazi uniform, the machine to which The Voice is tight shapes the Swastika, Ana father’s glasses and the grandfather’s beard are recognized, The Boy without eyes is placed on a machine resembling the star of David and, the most curious aspect, Mr.TV’s haircut creates a kippah.
To conclude, the destinies encountered on Calle Eclipse, in the City without a Voice sum up in a remarkably drawn story, which owns both a childish approach and a more skeptical one. La Antena is the beautiful example of the beauty of form, to which Esteban Sapir brings his accolade, succeeding to create a piece of art.
