‘Do not look in the eyes’: The secrets of a wardrobe

Inaugural film of the last 67th edition of Valladolid Seminci, where it won the prize for the best Ibero-American film, ‘Don’t look in the eyes’, the return to the big screen of Navarrese director Félix Viscarret, arrives in commercial theaters. Six years after launching ‘Vientos de La Habana’, which adapted the novel by Leonardo Padura, and after directing the series ‘Patria’, an adaptation of the novel by Fernando Aramburu, for television, the director dares with a writing by the famous Juan José Millás, filming ‘From the Shadow’which was a bestseller, in a feature film that ends up playing with the audience as if it were a Matrioshka gamebecause the film escapes any genre convention such as thriller or terror.

The plot invited the film well to be a sort of current version of “While you sleep” or “The uncertain inhabitant”Having as a premise a man who has just been fired and no one claims, he locks himself up in a vintage wardrobe and ends up living secretly in the home of the furniture owners. Hand, Viscarret, who co-wrote the script with David Muñoz, is closer to the spirit of ‘Open your eyes’ or even ‘Parasites’continuously playing with the public, leaving as the main result that, after all, the magic of cinema lies in arousing the curiosity to see beyond what is apparently shown.

Cinema is, without a doubt, the art of trompe l’oeil, the visual deception to tell a story. Under that concept, “Don’t look at the eyes” moves in a way that keeps the viewer with a constant intrigue that raises the question of how real what is captured on tape is real.as Viscarret combines daydreams with other scenes that presumably match the plot. This is where the film becomes a Matrioshka game, because nothing ends up looking as it seems, especially in relation to the family that the protagonist, Damián, ends up watching over. Added to this is that Viscarret mixes genres, the film, at the moment, is a thriller, but also a melodrama, it has moments of comedy – especially black humor -, including horror. In short, keep a calm rhythm that allows you to maintain the suspense in a balanced way, without shrill.

A film that keeps the audience waiting until its surprising outcome

It is from their point of view what generates it mix between a feeling of discomfort and morbidity, testifying to a life that shouldn’t be shown. In that atmosphere, the film unfolds, leaving an impression of bewilderment. This is the greatest virtue of him, from the moment he plays with the viewer until his surprising result. In between, its protagonist is unmasked. Here, It is time to vigorously applaud Paco León, who surprises with a dramatic vein in which he represents very well how the face of a psychopath is well masked behind the image of a worldly man.because his actions end up revealing a personality as naked as the overexposed intimacy of the family he watches over.

On the other side, as the film seems to move under two realities, there are the magnificent Leonor Watling, Álex Brendemühl and María Romanillos. Although Brendemühl and Romanillos have their moments where they stand out, it is Watling who ends up taking the lead role. The actress has a complex character, a woman on the border between sanity and madness, beneath that diffuse line, it ties in strangely to the role of León, as if communicating from other dimensions. On the other hand, the part of the family also exposes itself when one chooses to look where one does not run the risk of discovering situations in which one should not intervene, but which are disturbing, creating the feeling of frustration and helplessness at not being able to do anything, even knowing it.

Never has a wardrobe had so many drawers, compartments and niches. Félix Viscarret returns from the front door with a drama with thriller hints that invites you to let yourself be carried away by this labyrinth full of unknowns, with a fascinating tandem of lead, which end up revealing the most primitive instincts in relation to the look at the forbidden. With a nod to the theme of low shots, since the film adaptation of “From the Shadows” refers in the title to the theme “Don’t look into people’s eyes”, we are faced with a fascinating exercise that shows that, after all, everyone is that cat that curiosity has ended up killing.

Note: 7

The best: The moments in which he raises the viewer’s doubt of what he sees is real or not, with a style management that causes a captivating confusion.

Worse: It gives the impression that its end is hasty and the texture resolution has some tremendous overtones.