Following the domestic trailer for the Cannes 2012 drama The Hunt, another film that debuted at the festival is gearing up for a summer release and we’ve got a new look for the occasion. Carlos Reygadas‘ Mexican countryside drama Post Tenebras Lux was picked up by Strand Releasing, and after two teasers, they’ve debuted the official U.S. trailer and a gorgeous poster.
While we called it “unique” at Cannes, we were mixed on the film, saying the biggest problem is “the disconnected narrative of the couple, a through-line that barely holds attention due in large part to the amateur performances on display. Reygadas would have been better off steering in the direction of his previous film, the The Tree of Life-esque Silent Light, instead of trying to focus on the couple’s turmoil.” Let us know what you think below, following the one-sheet and trailer.
Synopsis:
POST TENEBRAS LUX (“light after darkness”), ostensibly the story of an upscale, urban family whose move to the Mexican countryside results in domestic crises and class friction, is a stunningly photographed, impressionistic psychological portrait of a family and their place within the sublime, unforgiving natural world. Reygadas conjures a host of unforgettable, ominous images: a haunting sequence at dusk as Reygadas’s real-life daughter wanders a muddy field and farm animals loudly circle and thunder and lightning threaten; a glowing-red demon gliding through the rooms of a home; a husband and wife visiting a swingers’ bathhouse with rooms named after famous philosophers. By turns entrancing and mystifying, POST TENEBRAS LUX palpably explores the primal conflicts of the human condition.
Post Tenebras Lux arrives on May 1st.