Shakespeare, love, and a lot more mix in Matías Piñeiro's latest, HERMIA & HELENA

When I first saw Matías Piñeiro's charming, unusual and short (just 61 minutes) film, Viola, back in 2013, I was very taken with the work of this Argentine filmmaker. Since then Señor Piñeiro has made The Princess of France (all of 67 minutes) and now his latest film, HERMIA & HELENA, which lasts a nearly-normal 88 minutes. Unfortu-nately, he is not quite ready for full-length.

While his themes and concerns -- everything from Shakespeare to theater productions to love relationships of all sorts -- are on display, as usual, the movie runs downhill as it expands to include other Shakespearean devices such as the discovery of parentage.

As usual, the writer/director (shown at left) has again cast as his leading character, Camila, with the alluring and talented Augustina Muñoz (shown below), who provides beauty, appeal and some surprise as the young woman -- a theater grad student (or maybe already professional) working in New York City on a new Spanish translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream -- at the center of a whole bunch of ongoing and/or would-be relationships. Ms Muñoz, is always a pleasure to watch, but the actress cannot easily carry as much baggage as Piñeiro has given her here. All the relationships and characters we meet end up with so little weight or importance that they seem to disappear into thin air even as we're watching them. (Shakespeare could get away with this because he had such gorgeous, literate, amazing verbiage to offer. Piñeiro's dialog, while sometime clever, hardly comes close.)

Still, this worked well enough in Viola, where the themes were simply love and theater, and where the movie ended before it had time to curdle or bore. Here -- even with the added use of a little "magic" (à la that Midsummer Night's Dream) -- it all adds up to less than the sum of its many parts.

The scene involving the connection of Camila with the father she's never met proves so slight and bizarrely ungrounded by anything other than mere plot contrivance that what might be pivotal in most movies proves no more important nor deeply felt than anything else in the film.

The cast includes some of Piñeiro' usual Argentine actors, along with some new American and international actors (and filmmakers) from the indie scene such as Keith Poulson, Dan Sallitt, Dustin Guy Defa and Mati Diop. Everyone comes through nicely. But the movie -- for all its charm, smart performances and lovely visuals -- simply floats away.

From Kino Lorber, in English and Spanish (with English subtitles), Hermia & Helena opens this coming Friday, May 26, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Metrograph. Elsewhere? We'll have to wait and see. You can update the currently scheduled playdates by clicking here and then scrolling down.

Matías Piñeiro's VIOLA (yes, she from Twelfth Night) opens theatrically in NYC

What a delicious and novel experience is VIOLA, the new film from writer/
director Matías Piñeiro, and what a debt of gratitude we owe The Cinema Guild for taking a chance on this little delight by giving it a limited theatrical release. Only 61 minutes long, the movie merges its themes with its style (not to mention its probably minimal budget) so ingeniously that it becomes nearly sui generis.

The filmmaker (shown at right) is doing something with Shakepeare's Twelfth Night, but what, exactly? He's certainly not trying to give us the entire play nor even a good part of it. Instead we get a scene performed in front of an audience (take note: you'll see some of these characters again), and another scene rehearsed over and over, for reasons other than mere line memorization, so that the Bard's language (which sounds quite wonderful in Spanish) takes on its original meaning -- and then some.

This is a movie about performance (among other things) -- in theater, on one's job, between lovers. And as Twelfth Night is perhaps the Shakespeare play most about "performance," Piñeiro turns it into dual tales regarding young women's lessons in love. Foremost among these is Cecilia, played by the captivating Agustina Muñoz, shown above, below, on poster top, at bottom and in the penultimate photo.

Piñeiro gives us entry into the world of women in such a manner as to make these females seem so appealing, bright, and full of unique intelligence and life that at times we might imagine that we've never really seen this species until now. This is quite an accomplishment!

The movie begins with Sabrina (Elisa Carricajo, above, who is essaying the play's Olivia) breaking up a boyfriend via cell phone, and doing it so thoroughly and well that you marvel at her technique. We meet her friends and co-performers, and eavesdrop on their witty, thoughtful conversations.

Then, at the 24-minute mark, the story's lead character changes to that of Viola (María Villar, above, left, and below, right), whom we've glimpsed earlier, but probably didn't realize it, on her bike. She's a partner in a smart new delivery business, and as we observe her and learn more, the tale and its connections expand and then circle in on themselves.

By the finale, we've observed an exquisite little slice-of-life, young Argentine style. And we're thrilled, if in awe and a bit mystified, by these remarkable women. Is Shakespeare still relevant?
Don't even ask.

Viola opens this coming Friday, July 12, in Manhattan at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, along with a Retrospective of Señor Piñeiro’s films -- as part of the FSLC's Latinbeat 2013 series. See the complete schedule here.