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Directed by Alejandro Amenábar Cast: Ana Torrent, Fele Martínez, Eduardo Noriega, Miguel Picazo, Javier Elorriaga. 1998 |
My name is Angela. They are going to kill me.
Angela is tied up by the snuff film maker.
Chema is an expert in horror films.
Angela and Chema get in trouble.
Angela falls in love with Bosco.
One morning, while Angela is on her way to her Media Studies College, the train she is traveling on runs a man over. She feels a great need to see the body, but the crowd makes it impossible. Angela is desperate to see violence and blood with her own eyes.
Angela prepares a thesis paper on audiovisual violence, even though she is convinced that she is actually doing it because she hates violence and condemns it. Figueroa, her thesis supervisor, has agreed to look for films which show scenes that due to their violent nature have not been shown on television. In his search for such material Figueroa finds a snuff film which portrays the death of a former female student from the college who disappeared a year ago without trace. Figueroa suffers a horrible and mysterious death and Angela faces a new thesis supervisor who will bring her more problems than help.
Angela becomes friends with Chema, her classmate, who is into heavy metal, gore and violent films. Angela begs Chema to watch his collection of gore and porno films, and in the end he gives in and invites her to his house to watch them.
The friendship between Chema and Angela is the beginning of a horrible quest to find the male protagonist of the snuff films, since all the girls involved in such films always end up dead. Many surprises and dangerous people await Angela and Chema in their quest to give them the most fearsome moments of their lives.
The Characters
Angela: Ana Torrent
Angela is a Media student who is writing her final year thesis paper, writing about violence in the media. Looking for information, she goes to her thesis supervisor, Figueroa. He, trying to find material for Angela, finds snuff films in the college's video library. When one of these films gets to Angela, her life turns into a series of horrific events full of fear and angst.
Ana Torrent has starred in several films since she made her debut as a child in El Espíritu de La Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) in 1973. Her last role was that of the Virgin Mary in a Cuban film.
Chema: Fele Martínez.
Chema is Angela's classmate. He likes gore cinema and has many films on the subject. It is because of this that he meets Angela. She asks him for help on her thesis and from there Chema will get involved in the quest for the search of the snuff film-makers. Chema is a difficult character. He swears a lot, is very ironic and jokes about the most distressful situations.
Fele Martínez has worked in several projects after Tesis. And has starred in Alejandro Amenábar's second film Abre Los Ojos (Open your Eyes) with Eduardo Noriega and Penélope Cruz.
Bosco: Eduardo Noriega.
Bosco is another media student. He was friends with Vanessa, the girl who appears in the snuff film found by Figueroa. Bosco assures that Vanessa left on her own will and does not believe she was killed. Angela and her sister fall in love with his looks and charms and he uses this to make them do anything he pleases.
Eduardo Noriega had his first major role in Tesis and later played the main character in Alejandro Amenábar's Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).
Figueroa: Manuel Picazo.
He is Angela's thesis supervisor. Looking for violent films to give Angela for her thesis investigation he finds a snuff film where a girl is tortured and killed. He dies watching the horrific scenes of the film and Angela finds him dead in a projection room and takes the tape.
Alejandro Amenábar
Fele Martínez
Fele Martinez with his Goya Film Award for the best Newcoming Actor.
Alejandro Amenábar is the new revelation of Spanish Cinema thanks to his first feature Tesis. The director, who has Spanish and Chilean passports, feels Spanish but says he also feels a Chilean side inside him. When he remembers his childhood in Chile, his education and his family he feels his Chilean side arising.
Amenábar sees himself like a cinema alchemist, creating different formulas to make films. He is a meticulous director who takes care of all the details and whose purpose are the public's emotions. The public and critics loved his first film, Tesis, which was awarded 7 Goya Awards and became the glory of the new Spanish Cinema in 1998. The director from Madrid, born in Chile, states that he still has to direct may more films to show his real capabilities.
Amenábar started working in Tesis when he was just 22 years old and was attending his second year of Film Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. After the success of his first film he started working on the production of Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) with some of the cast from Tesis.
Amenábar comments that people should not talk about his success basing themselves on any particular film of his and they should talk about his work in general. He says there are still many more films he has to make before people can make assumptions bout what he is able to do. Tesis generated many expectations from the director and although it was a good promotion for his work he believes he has to deliver better after that.
Fele Martínez talks about Tesis: "The film talks about violence in the media. It refers to those Reality Shows which do anything to get the maximum audience. Tesis talks about where the limits are in those kinds of programs which have no scruples and show anything to get the public's attention. The main subject is snuff cinema and explaining the mechanisms of these films.
Tesis has created many new expectations for Spanish Cinema, especially for Alejandro, a 23 year old guy who has showed the old school directors what the new people are all about. He has showed that even being 23 years old and not having finished your degree you can still make good films. It does not have to be the typical Spanish cinema everybody is used to... The great pillars of today's Spanish Cinema are Almodóvar, Bigas Luna, Carlos Saura, Mario Camus and many others. What happens now is that there are other new directors like Alex de la Iglesia, Alejandro Amenábar... who are bringing new cinema which breaks the norm. It is a cinema more for the public. It is not so personal. The typical reaction of people when they come out from watching Tesis is: it does not feel like a Spanish film!
Alejandro does not believe that certain actors brings the public to see the films. Thank God, or else I would still be in Alicante! he gives chances to young people. it can't just be chance that since two years ago there are loads of new people, including me, in the industry. I think people are a bit tired of seeing the same faces on the screen. Spanish cinema has been quite sectarian: Tony Leblanc, Pepe Isbert, Conchita Velasco and all those people who were part of an era of Spanish cinema. Then came Alfredo Landa, José Luis López Vázquez and José Sacristán, and then Pajares, Esteso, Ozores, Fernando Fernán Gómez, etc... After them was Jorge Sanz, Maribel Verdú, Penélope Cruz and now us. And I suppose that when everybody is tired of our faces people will chose another set of actors...
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Genre: Length: 126 minutes Format: 1,85:1 Rated: 18 Awards: 7 Goya Awards:
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Special Features:
Language: Spanish Subtitles: None Buy the DVD
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