THE AERIAL (LA ANTENA) World Cinema: Latin Showcase

White text on a black screen reads, “Once upon a time… there was a city without a voice.” A pop-up storybook city fills the frame and the black and white homage to silent cinema begins.

Although the inhabitants of the unidentified city have lost their voices, their words appear as text on the screen incorporated into the moving image when they communicate with each other; it’s as if they can read each other’s subtitles in the sky. Beautifully crafted, intricate sets recall Melies’, A TRIP TO THE MOON-the film even has its own man in the moon-while the symbolism owes a debt to Bunuel’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU, Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS and German Expressionism.

And in the surrealist tradition of expressing the subconscious through art, the faceless cabaret singer, the only person in the city with a voice, is the most evocative character in the film; it is her voice that brings this breathtaking achievement of cinematic art to life.