''Oriana'' is a 1985 Venezuelan film directed by
Fina Torres
Fina Torres (born Josefina Torres Benedetti; October 9, 1951) is a Venezuelan film director and screenwriter. She became internationally recognized by winning the la Caméra d'Or award at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival with her directorial debut f ...
and written by Antoine Lacomblez and Torres herself. Set in a hacienda or ranch, this drama tells the story of Maria, a woman that returns to the house where she spent a short time as a girl to discover some secrets about her aunt, the title character, who died and left the property to her.
The film won the
Caméra d'Or Prize at the
1985 Cannes Film Festival
The 38th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 20 May 1985. The Palme d'Or went to the ''When Father Was Away on Business'' by Emir Kusturica.
The festival opened with ''Witness'', directed by Peter Weir and closed with ''The Emerald Forest'', ...
as the best first feature.
It was Fina Torres first feature film and won many awards at the time. It was selected as the Venezuelan entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
58th Academy Awards
The 58th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 1986, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. Durin ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
[Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]
Plot
Maria, a Venezuelan woman returns to
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
when she learns that her aunt Oriana has died and willed her a crumbling and remote Venezuelan hacienda where Maria spent a short time as a girl just entering puberty. Maria goes to the hacienda, a fine, decaying old house in a tropical jungle at the edge of the sea, to prepare the place for sale; while visiting the house, Maria starts wandering through the halls and rooms and she begin to remember her visit years before. While going through her aunt's papers, she also start to find some clues to her aunt's behaviour. Maria is haunted by flashbacks to her childhood, when she spent several months at the hacienda in the company of only the beautiful and mysterious Oriana and Fidelia, a quarrelsome old retainer who constantly hints at terrible events that are best forgotten. In flashbacks, the film show the young Maria trying to understand the quiet but strange atmosphere that surrounds the place while sorting out why Oriana never leaves the hacienda and what secret may be in Oriana's past.
The young Maria, as she learns things, imagines her aunt's youth, cruel father, and first love. After these reveries within reveries, Maria, now a grown woman, eventually makes one more discovery by connecting some issues, finding evidence that someone never seen may also be living in the vicinity. After that, Maria decides not to sell the house.
Production
The film was produced by Arion Productions and Pandora Films and was based on the story ''Oriane, Aunt Oriane'' published by Colombian writer
Marvel Moreno.
Cast
*
Doris Wells
Doris Wells (born Doris María Buonafina; 28 October 1943 – 20 September 1988) was a Venezuelan actress, writer and producer.
Her best-known television appearances were in ''Campeones'', ''La trepadora'', ''La Hora'', ''Historia de tres herman ...
- Oriana
*Daniela Silverio - Adult Maria
*Maya Oloe - Maria, adolescent
*Mirtha Borges - Fidelia
*Rafael Briceño - Padre
*Philippe Rouleau - George
*Claudia Venturini - Oriana, adolescent
*Hannah Caminos - Oriana, child
Distribution
The film was limited released in 1985, but gained popular attention after its victory at the Cannes Film Festival. As for 2006, Facets Multimedia Distribution is the official distributor of the film in the USA for all media.
Reception
The film is generally referred to as a Venezuelan
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
love story, probably for the elements of the storyline but also for the narrative used on it and the camera work that creates a dark atmosphere through it. The film was first showed in the Toronto Film Festival on 14 September 1985. Later, it was presented in the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...
where it received a general warm and positive review. Nonetheless, there were critics that did not find the film quite likeable and complained about the slow rhythm and the structure of it, that is at some point hard to follow. The New York Times, considered the film "a pretty movie but not a very engaging one".
Awards
The film won the Camera D'Or in the
1985 Cannes Film Festival
The 38th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 20 May 1985. The Palme d'Or went to the ''When Father Was Away on Business'' by Emir Kusturica.
The festival opened with ''Witness'', directed by Peter Weir and closed with ''The Emerald Forest'', ...
.
It also won Best Film and Best Screenplay in the
Cartagena Film Festival
The Cartagena Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias), or FICCI, is a film festival held in Cartagena, Colombia, which focuses mainly on the promotion of Colombian television series, Latin American films and short ...
. Other awards include Best Film in the
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
NY Times review
{{Venezuelan submission for Academy Awards, state=autocollapse
1985 films
1985 drama films
Films directed by Fina Torres
1980s Spanish-language films
Caméra d'Or winners
1985 directorial debut films
Venezuelan drama films