End of the Century
It’s not until the 12 1/2 minute mark where anyone talks in “End of the Century.” The great thing about when people talk in Lucio Castro’s film, it is all about informing character, telling story, and has the same lovely effect as the silence that opens and closes the film. This is a film about two characters connecting, and it has the same type of allure as Linklater’s “Before” movies.
The film begins with Ocho (Juan Barberini) travelling through a city in Spain. As he sits on a beach, he sees a man go into the ocean he’s quite taken by, and goes out to see him. The man gets out, and Ocho gets out, as well; they hadn’t interacted. Later, Ocho sees him from the balcony of the Airbnb he is staying in; he is wearing a KISS t-shirt, and he comes up to see Ocho. His name is Javi (Ramon Pujol), and after some pleasantries, they have sex. They then spend the entire day together before Javi informs Ocho that they had met before, about 20 years ago. Could it be fate? Are they destined for one another?
Castro has a strong ability to visually tell a story in this debut film. So much of the movie is about actions, looks, and giving us a perception of what is going on that feels authentic, but also can be these character’s imaginations. One of the most interesting parts of the film is, when Javi reveals that these characters met before, it is 20 years ago, and Castro does not recast the parts, or make them up too much (if at all) to be younger; they just look the same as they do in the “present day” part of the story. In another movie, this might seem like a move designed simply to cut costs, but I appreciate the simplicity of the choice, and that it keeps us engaged with who these characters are at the present moment we first meet them, as we learn a bit about who they were then. It also helps that Barberini and Pujol have a natural chemistry together, and they do wonderful work together.
The last few minutes shows us another collection of moments between Ocho and Javi, this time with the daughter Javi has with his husband, who is back at home in Berlin when we first see the characters. Is this a reflection of what happened after the fact? Did Javi leave his husband to be with Ocho? Is the timeline of the film more complicated than we initially think? It’s something you’ll be left wondering about as the film concludes, as it makes you feel like the movie has a bigger story in front of us than we expected originally. Maybe, like Linklater, Castro will revisit these characters in the future, so we can know what really happened.
