Advantages of Travelling by Train

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Advantages of Travelling by Train
Poster
SpanishVentajas de viajar en tren
Directed byAritz Moreno
Written byJavier Gullón
Based onVentajas de viajar en tren
by Antonio Orejudo
Produced byLeire Apellaniz
Juan Gordon
Merry Colomer
Starring
CinematographyJavier Agirre
Edited byRaúl López
Music byCristobal Tapia de Veer
Production
companies
  • Morena Films
  • Señor y Señora
  • Logical Pictures
  • Ventajas de Viajar en Tren AIE
Distributed byFilmax
Release dates
  • October 2019 (2019-10) (Sitges)
  • 8 November 2019 (2019-11-08) (Spain)
Running time
102 minutes
Countries
  • Spain
  • France
LanguageSpanish

Advantages of Travelling by Train (Spanish: Ventajas de viajar en tren) is a 2019 black comedy film directed by Aritz Moreno in his feature length directorial debut and written by Javier Gullón. The film is based on the novel Ventajas de viajar en tren by Antonio Orejudo and stars Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro, and Ernesto Alterio, among others. The plot concerns about a series of tales within tales triggered by a conversation on a train.

The film received four nominations at the 34th Goya Awards including Best New Director and won the Feroz Award for Best Comedy Film.

Plot[edit]

After arriving home to find her husband completely crazy, young literary editor Helga Pato is forced to put him into a psychiatric clinic in the north of the country. On the return train journey, a stranger, to help pass the time, suddenly asks her: “Would you like me to tell you about my life?”

He is Ángel Sanagustín, a psychiatrist who is investigating the story of the worst clinical case he has ever come across, that of Martín Urales de Úbeda, a paranoid. From the account of Martín sister's Amelia, Ángel develops the story of Martín (rejected and been thrown a croquette by his father), who served as a fighter pilot in Kosovo, where he began a relationship with Dr. Linares, a cooperator working in a local hospital for kids, and who uneasily became a female escort involved via one of her clients (Cristóbal de la Hoz) in a heinous plot pertaining child sexual abuse, child pornography, and organ trade.

It is only then revealed that Martín is not a fighter pilot and he was not in Kosovo, but he is a former garbage man working in Murcia who lost his arm during a bad working night, and later became utterly paranoid about fellow garbage collectors' true intentions. Furthermore, upon the story of Ángel's visit to Urales de Úbeda's family house near Las Ventas, Amelia is revealed to be Martín, who had otherwise gathered years of undisposed garbage in the basement.

After finishing Martín's story, Ángel gets off the train stop to buy provisions and invite Helga, leaving behind a red file full of stories, as the train starts again without waiting for him. Then the fiction develops Helga's backstory, starting with her disenchantment from a relationship with a best selling author and then her ensuing relationship with Emilio, a stand owner in Retiro whom with she begins a new romance upon meeting with their pet dogs, spiralling into an abusive relationship as Emilio gradually submits Helga to behaving like another dog. Upon reaching her lowest point and fantasizing with killing Emilio with a hammer and feeding his brain to dogs, Helga decides to kill him via poisoning. Yet rather than killing him, the supplied drug turns Emilio into a feces-gazing near-catatonic state, and so that is the reason why she gets rid of him in the psychiatric clinic. Helga is fascinated by the stories in the red file. Another story is that of the failed romance in Paris between Gárate (a man born with severe flaws in his skeleton with deluded expectations about relationships, women and, broadly construed, life in general) and Rosa (a woman with one leg shorter than the other one). Helga decides to try to publish the red file, and so she begins a search for Ángel, going to the latter's purported house in Galapagar, where she is told that Ángel is not a psychiatrist but a man suffering from a condition of personality disorder. Upon visiting the house in Las Ventas, Helga meets with Ángel in the garbage-ridden basement, which explodes in a seemingly spontaneous combustion. After surviving the incident and being seen giving consent to a neurosurgical intervention, Helga takes another train, meeting with a man looking like Martín.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Penned by Javier Gullón, the screenplay adapts the novel by Antonio Orejudo [es].[2] A Spanish-French co-production,[3] the film was produced by Morena Films and Señor y Señora alongside Logical Pictures and Ventajas de Viajar en Tren AIE, and it had the participation of ETB, and Movistar+, and support from ICAA and the Basque Government.[4] It was shot in Madrid, Gipuzkoa and Paris.[3] Shooting began on 10 December 2018.[4]

Release[edit]

Macarena García, Luis Tosar, Aritz Moreno, Ernesto Alterio, and Belén Cuesta during the presentation of the film at the 2019 Sitges Film Festival

The film premiered in the Official Fantàstic Competition at the 52nd Sitges Film Festival in October 2019.[5][6] Distributed by Filmax,[4] it was released in cinemas in Spain on 8 November 2019.[7]

Reception[edit]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.[8] Ricardo Rosado for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas gave the film three out of five stars calling the movie "brave and free", writing that "the movie can celebrate its own insanity unlike any other".[9] Mikel Zorrilla from Espinof gave the film four out of five stars calling the film "a daring debut film that never ceases to surprise".[7] Rubén Romero Santos of Cinemanía rated the film 31⁄2 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be "the most daring Spanish film of 2019" as well as susceptible of "hurting sensitivities".[10]

Accolades[edit]

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2019 75th CEC Medals Best Actress Pilar Castro Nominated [11]
Best Adapted Screenplay Javier Gullón Nominated
25th Forqué Awards Best Actress Pilar Castro Nominated [12][13]
34th Goya Awards Best New Director Aritz Moreno Nominated [14]
Best Adapted Screenplay Javier Gullón Nominated
Best Art Direction Mikel Serrano Nominated
Best Makeup and Hairstyles Karmele Soler and Olga Cruz Nominated
2020 7th Feroz Awards Best Comedy Film Advantages of Travelling by Train Won [15]
Best Director Aritz Moreno Nominated
Best Screenplay Javier Gullón Nominated
Best Main Actress Pilar Castro Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Quim Gutiérrez Nominated
Best Original Soundtrack Cristobal Tapia de Veer Nominated
Best Film Poster Advantages of Travelling by Train Nominated
33rd European Film Awards Best Comedy Nominated [16]
7th Platino Awards Best First Feature Film Nominated [17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Ya tenemos trailer y poster finales de Ventajas de viajar en tren". Morena Films. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Silvestre, Juan (19 September 2019). "Nuevo tráiler de 'Ventajas de viajar en tren'". Fotogramas.
  3. ^ a b Juliachs, Ignasi (6 October 2019). "'Ventajas de viajar en tren' sorprende gratamente en una jornada del festival con mejor nivel general". La Vanguardia.
  4. ^ a b c "Se rueda 'Ventajas de viajar en tren', opera prima de Aritz Moreno, producida por Morena Films y Señor y Señora". Audiovisual451. 19 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Ventajas de viajar en tren (Advantages of Travelling by Train)". Sitges Film Festival. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. ^ Tones, John (9 October 2019). "Sitges 2019: 'Ventajas de viajar en tren'. Un divertidísimo viaje a los abismos de la mente" [Sitges 2019: 'Advantages of traveling by train'. A hilarious journey to the depths of the mind]. Espinof (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. ^ a b Zorrilla, Mikel (8 November 2019). "'Ventajas de viajar en tren': una atrevida ópera prima que no deja de sorprender al espectador". Espinof (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Advantages of Travelling by Train (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  9. ^ Rosado, Ricardo (8 November 2019). "Crítica de 'Ventajas de Viajar en tren'". Fotogramas (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  10. ^ Romero Santos, Rubén (4 November 2019). "Ventajas de viajar en tren". Cinemanía – via 20minutos.es.
  11. ^ Sanchez, María (3 January 2020). "Nominaciones a la 75 edición de las Medallas del CEC". Acción (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Premios Forqué 2020: de 'Dolor y Gloria' a 'La trinchera infinita', todos los nominados". El Confidencial. 21 November 2019.
  13. ^ Aller, María (11 January 2020). "Así queda el palmarés de los Premios Forqué 2020". Fotogramas.
  14. ^ Lang, Jamie (2 December 2019). "'Pain and Glory,' 'While at War,' Endless Trench' Lead Goya Nominations". Variety. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  15. ^ "Así quedan las nominaciones a los Premios Feroz 2019". Fotogramas (in Spanish). 29 November 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  16. ^ Grater, Tom (10 November 2020). "European Film Award Nominations: 'Another Round', 'Corpus Christi', 'Martin Eden' Lead The Way". Deadline. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  17. ^ "Premios Platino Xcaret 2020: "Dolor y gloria" y "La casa de papel", las grandes triunfadoras" (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 August 2021.

External links[edit]

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