“A Claustrocinephilia”: Exploring Cinema’s Role During the Pandemic

Por JC Maraddón
jcmaraddon@diarioalfil.com.ar

Few times in contemporary history have there been apocalyptic instances of the caliber of those that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, the consequences of which were then unpredictable, nor was it known what world we would find ourselves in if that ever ended. The lack of immediate precedents in which humanity had been stalked in this way, unleashed a wave of speculation that ranged from the strictest scientism to esotericism exacerbated by such extraordinary circumstances. All the voices and all the opinions gave their similarity, in a chorus that only managed to increase the panic.

From this column we outline during that period some conjectures about culture and the entertainment industry, which, like so many other areas, were also affected by the successive quarantines and accelerated their conversion to online media, in the absence of the possibility of consumption. face-to-face Among other things, we wondered during those dark days about whether or not the production of such content was essential, when billions of people around the planet had to remain locked up in their homes and only had cultural goods and services for their distraction.

Broadcast television, already in clear decline, reversed its downward audience curves in those months, while the provision of online inputs gave its operation a vertiginous pace, to satisfy a demand that had suddenly become extremely intense. No one knew how long the uncertainty would last and that made it necessary to take all kinds of forecasts in the production chain, while the rigid protocols that began to apply to prevent contagion made essential processes such as recording discs or filming difficult. of movies and series.

The perception of those who were isolated in their home, with exits restricted to the minimum possible, was limited to the panorama offered by traditional media such as radio and TV, together with the informational chaos of web portals and social networks. Faced with this dramatic scenario, a natural tendency to escape opened the door to memories of a past without the ghost of the deadly virus, which could be revisited, for example, by reading old books, listening to old songs or watching classic universal cinematography films. , which referred to times when the apocalypse had not yet loomed on the horizon.

In the first person and through the use of pastiche images from that bygone cinema, the Italian Alessandro Aniballi unfolded his experiences during isolation in an almost documentary format, which he recorded in a kind of intimate verbalized diary whose recording is heard off in “ A claustrocinephilia”, a film that participates in the international competition of the Bafici festival. Like a good film critic, Aniballi wants to direct his own feature film and the solitary horror of the pandemic is the one that triggers existential questions that he will answer through snippets of scenes from the films that remain in his memory.

Throughout 85 minutes, unforgettable film segments parade there, together with some moments in which we appreciate the director himself immersed in the anguish of a quarantine that, like many of us, he later found it difficult to leave. Oppressive in its climate but festive in its review of endearing works, “Una claustrocinefilia” remains on the bill in the online version of Bafici until Friday of next week and can be enjoyed for free by entering and logging into the event site, for which it is only necessary to provide an email address.