A Blissful Filmmaker Known As Karl Marx

A Blissful Filmmaker Known As Karl Marx, written, directed and starring Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato, follows the title character as he lives again in a new body. He intends to be rich and famous in the film industry. He calls a friend of his, Friedrich and explains his aspirations to him as he plans to direct films that make people fall asleep and to be known as ‘The Master Of Boredom.’

The premise is intriguing, and this is a unique concept, thanks to the self-shot angle, which the filmmaker clearly wanted to convey to the viewer. However, the narrative quickly becomes grating due to repetitive dialogue and completely stagnant pacing, which amounts to nothing due to a wide variety of issues with the piece. Firstly, the central character is incredibly self-motivated in his ambitions, and this quickly becomes irritating to witness as a viewer due to inaudible dialogue and themes that come off as self-indulgent. The lead performance is agitating, although that may be the point, given his characterisation. The musical score is impactful and propulsive, lending the piece the needed energy, but it swiftly becomes overused to the point of absurdity.

The dialogue is recurrent over and over again, and it makes the viewer question the exact intention the filmmakers were trying to express to the audience. The narrative has no clear objective of where it is going, and the direction is flat due to the complete lack of camera movement, as it is entirely stilted thanks to the self-shot formal decision. The cinematography sporadically changes from close-ups of Karl to shots from the floor directly confronting him, with some indistinct photography which becomes jarring and disorienting to witness. The runtime is incredibly aimless, and trimming down the footage to a shorter piece could have been beneficial to convey the themes more naturally. Sadly, the narrative remains entirely endless, and this makes the whole experience a burden to sit through, as it amounts to a minor one.

Karl repeatedly exclaiming ‘The Master Of Boredom’ is admittedly funny, and you have to commend his commitment to the bit, but this doesn't make the experience any less daunting to endure. The piece does employ some engaging concepts and a ballsy narrative that becomes an endurance test for the viewer as he breaks the fourth wall by succeeding in his plans with flying colours to make the audience ‘bored’. However, the director could have easily achieved this with much denser and polished formal choices. On the other hand, some of the comedic elements do work; for example, Karl’s expressive gestures are generally comical as he makes light of planes approaching above him, and this may work for the audience, given their level of tolerance for the character before the credits roll abruptly.

A Blissful Filmmaker Known As Karl Marx is a conceptually ambitious piece that fails on almost every technical level. While its comedic elements do land partially and the self-shot formal choice is commendable, it sadly doesn't pay off in the end as it becomes a chore to sit through and genuinely aggravating to witness nothing occur within the near two-hour runtime. Perhaps Karl Marx got the last laugh, as I was indeed ‘bored’ by this movie.