Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

The Secret in their Eyes

Okay, so I’m slow to catch on.

El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in their Eyes) already won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, and here I am only now recommending it to you. And I saw it on a plane, which is hardly the cinephile way. Quality issues apart, imagine two hours of reading subtitles on that washy little seatback screen.

But I still loved the movie. Its storytelling and emotional tone won through. Someone once described my own stuff as ‘melancholy mysteries’ and I’m guessing that’s why I connected so well with it.

Yeah, it’s all about me.


4 responses to “The Secret in their Eyes”

  1. It was Virgin Atlantic from London to Los Angeles… on the same flight I also saw CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFF, which was another gem amongst the usual routine fare.

  2. I get to vote in the Baftas, which precede the Oscars and have a detectably different slant to them. I haven't seen THE SOCIAL NETWORK yet, but people whose taste I trust are recommending it, and from the wave it's pushing before it I'm guessing it will find favour with the voting crowd. The big hitters so far seem to be TOY STORY 3 and INCEPTION – there was so much buzz about the latter that I went into it revved-up for a much more challenging movie than it actually was, so I was continually looking for narrative twists and flourishes that weren't actually there. There's a smaller movie called WINTER'S BONE – despite a title that evokes a minor college's mimeographed poetry magazine, it's worth keeping an eye on.