back to browsing

Intacto [DVD] [2003] [Multilingual] [Region 1]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

With INTACTO, from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, a group of people who have "the gift" of being extremely lucky play into a suspenseful world of gambling and superstition. The film begins and ends in the Canary Islands, where ringleader Sam (Max von Sydow), a Holocaust survivor, runs a casino. His right-hand man Federico (Eusebio Poncela) is stripped of "the gift" in a terrifying exchange that Federico sees as worse than death: Sam hugs him and in doing so steals his luck away. Desperate for revenge, Federico latches onto Tomas (Leonard Sbaraglia), the miraculous sole survivor of an airplane crash. He convinces Tomas to test his luck in various games (one involves running full-speed, blindfolded, through a heavily wooded forest to see if he is "lucky" enough to avoid running into a tree.) By training Tomas to be a winner, Federico hopes to eventually have him challenge Sam. Thrown into the complicated mix are an untouchable bullfighter (Antonio Dechent), and an auto accident survivor (Monica Lopez) who want to break up this obsessive gambling ring.

INTACTO uses its stirring orchestral score by Lucio Godoy, its puzzling plotline, its bleak desert settings, and its fast-moving nighttime driving scenes to create a mood of mystery and intrigue.
Read More...
Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 8134-D
Credits

Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Antonio Perez Dechent, Max Von Sydow, Max von Sydow
Critic Reviews

"...Xavier Jimenez's cinematography fits the film's tenebrous tone and there's some particularly accomplished art direction from Cesar Macarron..."
Box Office
"...Wonderfully spooky...a sharp brainteaser of a film, a compelling mind game you compulsively play along with....Smart and carefully worked out..."
Los Angeles Times
"...INTACTO noodles around big, vague ideas, then stirs them into a baroque swirl of imagery linked in its very Spanish decorative style to such striking Iberian whoppers as LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE and OPEN YOUR EYES..."
Entertainment Weekly
"...Intriguing....The story is unusually persuasive, dovetailing a complex set of characters and their various numbed situation..."
Sight and Sound
"...Superior....[A] mind-warping, inventive thriller....Technically assured....Original..."
Total Film
"...[With] ingenious construction..."
Chicago Sun-Times