Tesis (1996)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Alejandro Amenábar

Writers:

Alejandro Amenábar (screenplay)
Alejandro Amenábar (story) ...

Release Date:

12 April 1996 (Spain)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Me llamo Ángela. Me van a matar. [English Tagline: My name is Angela. They're going to kill me.]

Plot:

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...

Plot Keywords:

Violence | Film School | Oral Sex | Tunnel | Snuff Film

Awards:

14 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Ana Torrent	...	Ángela
Fele Martínez	...	Chema
Eduardo Noriega	...	Bosco
Xabier Elorriaga	...	Castro
Miguel Picazo	...	Figueroa
Nieves Herranz	...	Sena
Rosa Campillo	...	Yolanda
Paco Hernández	...	Padre Angela (as Francisco Hernández)
Rosa Ávila	...	Madre Angela
Teresa Castanedo	...	Presentadora T.V.
José Miguel Caballero	...	Conserje Videoteca
Joserra Cadiñanos	...	Vigilante
Julio Vélez	...	Encargado tren
Pilar Ortega	...	Encargada C. Ventas
Olga Margallo	...	Vanessa

Also Known As:

Thesis (UK) (festival title) (USA) (video title)
Faszination des Grauens (Germany) [de]
Halálos tézis (Hungary) [hu]
Snuff (Sweden) (DVD box title) [sv]
Snuff-Movie (Sweden) [sv]
Tesis (Greece) [el]
Tesis (France) [fr]
Tez (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong and perverse violent content, brief strong sexuality and strong language.

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Germany:18 (video premiere) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Las Producciones del Escorpión S.L.

Trivia:

The film had a relatively small budget of P116 million - equal to about 696,000 EUROS.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: When Angela runs out of Castro's office, a boom mic is reflected in the door, just before he yells to her.

Quotes:

Bosco Herranz: What color are my eyes?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Muchachada nui: (#3.11)" (2009)

Very good first feature

A promising director: it's what I thought after the screening of Amenabar's first feature. There is a compelling story told with bright creative ideas.

Eventually I felt the first part of the movie was really great and the following went a little under. Sure, it is more difficult to bring all sorts of things together after you built up an exciting suspense. Still you don't feel bored once you are getting to know what it is really all about, but you got more free 'RAM space' to think it over. Perhaps accelerating the rhythm would have kept Tesis on the same high level of suspense. Perhaps it would have been a mistake to change the pace.

Among things you can take away with you is the background theme about our attraction for the morbid. It opens and closes the movie and really gives it one further dimension - one could say it's a bit didactical but it's a least flaw for a first major effort.

Next step Senor Amenabar: a little less personal work (as compared with the experimental Abre los ojos) but still something personal (The Others is the least interesting work so far).