Thesis (film)

Thesis is a 1996 Spanish thriller film written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar and starring Ana Torrent, Fele Martínez and Eduardo Noriega. It is Amenábar's first feature film. Its distributor is United Universal Pictures and CIA.S.R.C and the 1996 film is based on Amenábar's original script about a murder at a university.

Thesis premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival.

With notable critical and public success, the film marked the beginning of one of the most successful directors of Spanish cinema. He won several awards, including the Goya Award for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best New Director.

Synopsis

Ángela (Ana Torrent) studies Image and Sound at the Complutense University of Madrid. During the film, she is preparing a doctoral thesis on violence in the audiovisual world.The protagonist carries out a research work while collecting information from violent films to complete her project. In Thesis she is introduced to the character of Chema (Fele Martínez); a classmate of Ángela's, obsessed with gore and pornographic cinema. Ángela asks him for help with her thesis and Chema accepts. He invites her over to her house to document her collection of her snuff and gore films. A friendship begins between them that runs throughout the film.

As a complement to her work, Ángela's thesis director, Figueroa (Miguel Picazo), agrees to get violent material from the faculty video library for his student. The day after looking for the videos, Ángela finds Figueroa dead of a heart attack in the projection room. The student steals the cassette of the video that gave the professor the heart attack and shows it to Chema. The crime scene tape turned out to be a snuff movie about a real case of a former college student (Vanessa), the girl appears tortured and murdered.

From there, Ángela and Chema find themselves involved in the murder and try to discover the culprit. Following the clues they come to a suspect: Bosco.

Bosco (Eduardo Noriega), in addition to having the same camera with which they recorded the snuff film of the murder (Xt-500), was a close friend of the victim (Vanessa).

During the film, Chema and Ángela continue investigating the case, trying to reach the end and find the real culprit.

Production

Beginnings

The beginning of the thriller in the life of the director, comes to Amenábar from a very young age. When he came back from school he didn't go out to play much, his introverted way made him read a lot of mystery books and from there he got many ideas for scripts like Thesis .

During his childhood he also admired horror movies, as a source of inspiration for his future works, the director turned to films such as At the end of the stairs (1980), Portrait of a murderer (1986) and other American thriller classics.

Thanks to these influences, he shot his first short at the age of 19 and when he turned 21 he surprised the film industry with his first feature film; Thesis.

Project source

Throughout his university career, Alejandro Amenábar has worked on several short films independently. During his Image and Sound course at the Complutense University of Madrid, he has created shorts such as La Cabeza (1991), The strange obsession of Doctor Morbius (1992) and Moon (1994).

Amenábar did not finish his degree but he sent some of his shorts to agencies and contests. Specifically, Hymenóptero (1992), came into the hands of José Luis Cuerda who was in charge above all of seeking financing for Thesis and future films. Cuerda (the executive producer) was attracted by the short's script and music, both original. From the age of 17, Amenábar was already clear about his profession and had been handling the camera long before entering university. He wrote his own scripts, directed and edited his own films with very little outside help.

With the support of Cuerda, Alejandro Amenábar began recording Thesis in his last year of college. When he was just a few years old, he wrote the script for Thesis together with director Mateo Gil and began as associate producer and director in his first feature film.

Shooting

A large part of the film was shot at the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid, where Amenábar studied. The filming took place in August 1995, when these facilities were empty. The chalet that was used as the residence of the character Bosco Herranz, would have been rented to the Asturian doctor Ángel Sopeña Quesada, in the wealthy neighborhood of Puerta de Hierro. Most of Thesis shows a city of Madrid in the nineties

A total of 25,000 shots were shot, of which 3,200 were finally used. In them, the ratio of the shots was 5:1.

The character of Jorge Castro, played by the actor Xabier Elorriaga, is inspired by a professor with the same name who taught the subject of Production at the Faculty of Information Sciences. Amenábar never passed this specific subject because, according to the professor, he never got to sit his exams.

Throughout the film, Amenábar and the cinematographer (Hans Burmann) used implicit recording techniques that he has commented on in various interviews. One of them, for example, is the fact of not explicitly showing macabre or violent scenes but rather, what the director does during the filming of Thesis is to hide scenes such as the train accident so that the viewer of the film can imagine the disaster and not see it directly. To do this, play with lights, shadows and especially with sound effects.

In a film review on the Cinemagavia website, they describe this phenomenon: 'From the seat, the viewer wants to see an image that forces them to cover their eyes. However, Amenábar traces the film's route with great skill and all that is needed is Ángela's expressions and the viewer's imagination to achieve the ingredients of this great psychological thriller.'

Another recurring technique of Alejandro Amenábar throughout Tesis is to include intertextual references and cameos in his scenes. Throughout the film, Amenábar has made several references to his own works or to other cult films. For example, Hymenoptera is the director's third short film and throughout the film Thesis references it on multiple occasions.

First of all, the character of Bosco by Eduardo Noriega, bears the name of the protagonist of Himenóptero (1992).

Hymenoptera also served as a great inspiration in Thesis for the theme of violent recordings. Both of Amenábar's works share a similar approach and refer mainly to gore cinema.

The director stated: Later I understood that some aspects of the character of Himenóptero could be transferred to Thesis, as I did in The Others, where some wink comes from that one. The stay during a summer with Himenóptero helped us to explore camera movements, especially what it implied to play with it in hand, although I neglected the interpretation a lot'

Amenábar uses the technique of cameos and small interconnections in Thesis. In a scene from the film, in the database of the XT-500 camera computers, the name of the director himself appears.

Another cameo in the film is when José Luis Cuerda, another of the Tesis scriptwriters, appears. Finally, references are also made to other films such as The Legend of the North Wind, My Private Idaho and Cannibal Holocaust which appears as a design on a T-shirt of Chema.

Post production

Soundtrack

The film Tesis contains an original soundtrack by Alejandro Amenábar. With the help of the theater and film composer Mariano Marín, they arranged the music for the film around the year 1996. Marín has won the 2021 MAX Award for Best Theatrical Production and the 2021 MAX Award for Best Musical Production.

It was not the only time that Amenábar and Marín worked together on a film project. Mariano Marín composed and performed the soundtrack for Open your eyes (1997), the feature film that Amenábar produced the year after Tesis (1996).

The soundtrack that accompanies Tesis is based on an entrance, a leitmotif, background music and finally a closing theme. There are a total of about 19 musical works and each one is adapted to the situations of the film, to give a sense of terror accompanying the images. The B.S.O has a total duration of twenty-three minutes and fifty-three seconds.

In addition, journalist Antonio Sempere compares this soundtrack to the composition of an opera. He confirms that Amenábar consciously makes the music according to the action of the film and that it always follows a time line.A perfect example of this combination of sound and scene is the composition during Ángela's erotic dream with Bosco in the film. In that scene you can hear sounds of slow and romantic music that capture the scene.

The record production company in charge of these compositions was Las producciones del escorpión in Madrid (now extinct).

The music department also includes Mariano Marín (composer) and Javier Vacas, who is in charge of mixing the sounds together with Alfonso Puig.

Premiere

Reception

Alejandro Amenábar on the red carpet of the Goya Awards

Tesis, in general terms, enjoyed a good reception and mostly favorable reviews in his native Spain, even winning seven of his eight nominations at the 1997 Goya Awards (only missing Best Actress for Ana Torrent). Thanks to the records of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, you can see the cinematographic reception of Tesis. The film was released on January 22, 1996 through United International Pictures and CIA.S.R.C.

On the one hand the film received 258,947 viewers in the year of release alone. 134 341 176 pesetas (about 807 406 euros). Finally, when the Ministry published Based on these data in 1997, the film had earned, since the date of its release, a total of 134 377 676 pesetas (about $807,626).

Thesis ranked as the 11th highest grossing film of the year, in 1996. But it was not so well received everywhere, due to some explicit scenes during the film. In Mexico, Argentina, Chile, the United States and some areas of France, Amenábar's film was censored. In these countries, even the footage was changed and certain scenes were removed; the duration of the film was reduced from 125 minutes to 116.

Criticism

On the Rotten Tomatoes website, Tesis has been rated 86% according to the Tomatometer. Sensacine ranks it 4.2 out of 5 and receives positive reviews such as "It delights us with this debate about morbidity and depravity, it builds a well-structured thriller." survey and with the participation of 94,252 people, rated Thesis with a 7.7. On that same website there are multiple reviews from anonymous users who rate it as outstanding.

There are several websites that collect reviews over the years. One of them is Espinof, where the majority of opinions are positive. The writer Sergio Benítez opines on this website: & # 39; With this his first film, Alejandro Amenábar had categorically risen as one of the most interesting voices that the cinema of our country would have. 39; They call it the 'cum laude' from Amenábar.

Another review site is Cinemagavia. Audiovisual Communication experts and students see Tesis as a film with a 'good script, developed with skill and an excellent direction'. They also rate it with a 7.5.

In general they are good reviews, but on the other hand there are also criticisms about Amenábar's little experience as a director. "Eduardo Noriega is a drag on the film as a whole due to its few expressive resources," is a film critic from the Alohacriticon website.

In the digital magazine Hobbyconsolas, even the plagiarism of Amenábar's script is questioned. , respectively. '

Cultural journalists from newspapers such as El País also criticize Tesis, 'It has a serious problem, and that is that its script is simply deplorable' they point in the culture section.

Criticism of the soundtrack

Other blogs and articles on the internet have also criticized the original soundtrack of the film. The BSOspirit website notes: 'He composed an effective computer-based soundtrack. With a little program and some keyboards, both brought up a score that together with the images looks quite good but when heard in isolation leaves something to be desired.'

Director's Notes

Tesis was scheduled to be presented at the Berlin festival, on April 12, 1996. But three days before, (April 9) it was screened for film critics and the media at the Renoir cinemas in Madrid. Amenábar tells as an anecdote, that among the public of that projection was his professor of filmmaking from the Faculty of Information Sciences in Madrid. This professor, Jorge Castro, was a film critic and had come to do an article about the film without knowing that the director was his student.

Amenábar affirmed that this same professor had previously failed him the subject and it seemed to him an ironic situation.

The director has commented on several occasions that he did not finish his studies and that for him, film studies do not make much sense; they do not determine the quality of him as a director.

In interviews with El País, he was honest: "The university is only good for making some friends."

«I already work on what I like and the university teaches almost nothing. I think I'm not going to finish the race, what for? My only regret is not being able to teach, which I would like to do."

Full cast

• Ana Torrent: Angela Marquez.
• Fele Martínez: Chema.
• Eduardo Noriega: Bosco Herranz.
• Xabier Elorriaga: Jorge Castro.
• Miguel Picazo: Figueroa.
• Snows Herranz: Sena Marquez.
• Rosa Campillo: Yolanda.
• Francisco Hernández: Angela's father.
• Rosa Ávila: Angela's mother.
• Teresa Castanedo: TV presenter.
• José Miguel Caballero: the concierge of the Video Library.
• Joserra Cadiñanos: the vigilante.
• Julio Vélez: the train manager.
• Pilar Ortega: in charge of Sales.
• Olga Margallo: Vanessa Romero.
• José Luis Cuerda: Professor 1.o.
• Emiliano Otegui: Professor 2.o.
• Walter Prieto: the train guard.
• Florentino Sainz: the old man.

Awards and nominations

XI edition of the Goya Awards

Medals of the 1996 Film Writers Circle

He also received a short film script award from the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. Apart from these, Thesis won the audience award at the Annecy Festival.