Amalia Ulman’s debut film “El Planeta” explodes with vibrant black and white cinematography; it switches between the gorgeous scenery of a Spanish city and the claustrophobic confines of antique stores and studio apartments. Leonor (Leo) and her mother Maria struggle to survive in a sluggish economy, occasionally grifting, shoplifting, and defrauding to get a taste of the good life.
Leo (played by Director Amalia) has big, beautiful eyes and looks like a young Shelley Duvall in “Brewster McCloud.” Even though she’s in her early 30s, she seems as world-weary as someone twice her age. She seems to have friends in the movie industry, but is crippled from working with them because of her poverty. In one scene, a friend asks her to join him on a movie set in London, and you can feel her boiling frustration as she tells him she’ll let him know in a couple days if she can come there, when she knows she doesn’t have the money to do it.
At the Brink of Heartbreaking and Comedic
Leo’s mother Maria (played by Amalia’s mother Ale Ulman) is the definition of vapid and self-obsessed. She’s willing to do anything to get another piece of jewelry or another shiny trinket for their tiny apartment; this is despite the fact they can’t afford heat and the electricity is dangerously close to being shut off.
Throughout the film, the two women mourn their cat that passed away recently. The apartment is practically a shrine to the cat, with a huge pillow on the couch with the cat’s face on it, several knick-knacks and photos of the cat around the apartment, and even numerous videos of the cat on their phones that Leo watches whenever she’s feeling down. It seems the cat is the only thing either woman truly cares about, because they hardly ever say anything to each other.
Ale Ulman in “El Planeta.” (Photo: Holga’s Meow).
Key Focus on the Gap Between the Rich and the Poor
Despite the coldness between the two and the economic desperation they’re facing, the film contains some funny moments. In one scene at the beginning of the film, Leo meets with a man to work out an arrangement for getting money to stay the night with him. He tells her what kinks he’s into and what he wants her to do. Leo, who’s inexperienced in such things, fights to not look horrified at what he’s describing, and eventually she tries to politely tell him she’s not interested. It’s a scene that goes from casual to awkward to totally uncomfortable, and it’s hilarious.
Amalia Ulman’s debut film ‘El Planeta’ explodes with vibrant black and white cinematography…”
As a statement on the huge gap between the rich and the poor, it works perfectly; it shows the advantages the rich have and how they can easily maneuver around society’s rules and laws, where the poor are continually blocked at every turn from improving their lives.
The film ends on a simultaneously sad and comical note. It’s an abstract ending that provides no easy answers, but closes out the film with perfect ambiguity.
“El Planeta” is available to stream on HBO Max, Direct TV, Spectrum on Demand, Alamo on Demand, and Amazon Prime.
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