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God's Crooked Lines

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God's Crooked Lines
Theatrical release poster
SpanishLos renglones torcidos de Dios
Directed byOriol Paulo
Screenplay by
Based onLos renglones torcidos de Dios
by Torcuato Luca de Tena
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBernat Bosch
Edited byJaume Martí
Music byFernando Velázquez
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures España
Release dates
  • 24 September 2022 (2022-09-24) (SSIFF)
  • 6 October 2022 (2022-10-06) (Spain)
Running time
154 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish
Budget€7 million
Box office€5.5 million

God's Crooked Lines (Spanish: Los renglones torcidos de Dios) is a 2022 Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Oriol Paulo and starring Bárbara Lennie. Written by Oriol Paulo and Guillem Clua with the collaboration of Lara Sendim, the screenplay is an adaptation of the 1979 novel of the same name by Torcuato Luca de Tena. The plot follows Alice Gould (Lennie), a woman entering a psychiatric ward in order to investigate the mysterious circumstances pertaining a death in the facility.

The film had its world premiere at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival on 24 September 2022 ahead of its 6 October 2023 theatrical opening in Spain. It earned six nominations at the 37th Goya Awards, including Best Leading Actress (Lennie) and Adapted Screenplay.

Plot[edit]

In 1979,[1] Alice Gould de Almenara enters a psychiatric ward. Left at the gates by a man, she is interrogated by Dr. Ruipérez, who reads a letter by Dr. Donadío. Alice insists that she has been "legally abducted" by her husband Heliodoro so he could seize her riches. Dr. Castell introduces the facility to Alice, who begins to do investigative fieldwork on the death of Dr. Raimundo García del Olmo's son Damián. Alice (or Alicia) gets acquainted with Ignacio Urquieta and the twins (Rómulo and Remo) as well as the Gnome, a sexual molester protected by the Elephant Man, who shows animosity towards Rómulo. Alice attends sessions by Dr. Arellano.

Running along the primary timeline, a secondary timeline starts in a rainy night, in which a fire and riot take place and a corpse is found in one of the cells. In this timeline Urquieta is incriminated by the cops (after which a forensic doctor also comes into action) and later cleared from suspicions.

In the main timeline, Urquieta is interrogated by Alicia whether if he suffers from schizophrenia, the condition Alice believes Damián's killer suffers from. It starts raining and it becomes evident that Urquieta suffers from an irrational fear of water. Urquieta later reveals that Damián was at odds with the Gnome.

Alicia is hit in the forest by the Gnome, waking up tied to a bed with Arellano telling her she is the presumed killer of the Gnome although she has trouble remembering what happened after the hit. Alice personally meets Director Samuel Alvar, claiming that she has already exchanged letters with him upon guidance from García del Olmo so she could know how to enter the institution. Alvar denies this. Alicia attacks Alvar and tries to escape, only to be sedated.

Alicia tells Castell her suspicions about Damián's murder and asks for a meeting of the medical council. Alvar claims that Alice has been interned upon recommendation by Donadío on behalf of Heliodoro. She claims that she tricked Ruipérez and feigned a mental illness to enter the facility, telling how she met García del Olmo and set out an investigation to determine what happened to Damián. How García del Olmo gave her instructions that she should feign a condition of paranoia to be able to enter the facility and how they managed to get Donadío to attest her condition and Heliodoro to sign the permission to withhold her. Alvar tells that Alice, offended because the man she chose to marry only wanted her money, tried to kill him by poisoning; Heliodoro, after recovering from a seizure, found Alice hiding poison; and knowing herself caught, she decided to fabricate a private investigator persona.

After failing to identify a man whom Alvar identifies as García del Olmo, Alice is electro-shocked, and taken to the Cage, where she becomes convinced that she has been framed by Heliodoro, who hired someone to impersonate García del Olmo. She tells Arellano and Castell that in case her bank accounts are emptied there can be a plausible explanation for the behaviour of Heliodoro, Donadío and Alvar. Castell confirms that Alvar has been overpaid by Heliodoro for Alice's internment. Alicia escapes from her cell and develops a plan to light a fire while Urquieta frees the rest of patients. Urquieta finds one of the twins dead in a cell, it becoming evident that the events of the secondary timeline pertain to the aftermath of Alice's plan. Alicia crosses paths with the forensic doctor, who tells her about Rómulo's death. Alicia knocks her down and impersonates her. She cracks the identity of the twin's killer (the Elephant Man). Cops confirm that Alice's account was emptied.

Castell convenes a meeting of the council to discharge Alice. Alice meets with the living twin and reveals that the dead one is actually Remo. Alvar renounces his vote, while the other four doctors clear Alice. Alvar lets Donadío into the room. To Alice's dismay, Donadío turns out to be the man she identified as García del Olmo.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Tarragona's Tabacalera

The film was produced by Nostromo Pictures, Atresmedia Cine and Filmayer.[2] Written by the director Oriol Paulo alongside Guillem Clua and Lara Sendim,[6][2][7] the screenplay of God's Crooked Lines is the second film adaptation of Torcuato Luca de Tena Brunet's 1979 best-selling novel Los renglones torcidos de Dios, after Tulio Demicheli's 1983 Mexican adaptation Los renglones torcidos de Dios [es].[8][9] Production began when Atresmedia Cine and Warner Bros., who had the rights of the novel, approached Paulo in June 2019, when he was about to start filming The Innocent.[10] He had read it when he was 14 years old after his grandmother, an avid reader of mystery novels, recommended him.[8][11] Paulo was initially hesitant to accept the offer, because the novel had a universe that was too broad to him.[12] His approval of their offer came six months later after rereading the novel and developing fascination of the main character, Alice Gould, whom he described as an "upper-class woman, so brutal, so intelligent and with such a verbal argumentative ability.[8][13]

Bárbara Lennie, the lead actress. She described Alice as one of her most complex roles, and referred to it as "a heroine and antihero at the same time".[11]

Paulo worked with co-screenwriter Guillem Clua to make improvisation on the story and adapt the novel into a film.[13] They had to make the audience fit in with the 1970s environment of the novel, such as making the language sound more contemporary, and eliminated parts of the novel that they found unimportant.[10][12][13] The practice of insulin shock therapy, which is in the novel, was replaced by electroconvulsive therapy due to its cruelty; besides, it was already considered so even in the times of its publication.[8] Paulo said that the film could have been a horror or a social drama, but he was requested to make it a psychological thriller because of his interest in the genre.[10] Along with co-producer Ángel Blasco, he collected information about Torcuato from the author's family and met several psychiatrists for advise and supervision on the script.[8] In order to understand what sanatoria were like in the 1970s, photographs from archives and film libraries were used.[8]

The lead actors are Bárbara Lennie and Eduard Fernández. Lennie, whose mother was one of the psychiatrists to whom the production team consulted, played Alice Gould.[8] It is the character of a woman who enters a mental institution by claiming that she is investigating a crime that has happened there.[8] Paulo stated that while rereading the novel, he visualized Lennie in the role of Alice, whom he found having many qualities that the character has, among which are intelligence and mental agility, and being the only suitable actress to play it.[8][10] She read the novel for a week and agreed to star the film in September 2020;[8][14] he immediately thought of Fernández as her co-star.[10] Fernández portrayed Samuel Alvar, the director of the psychiatric hospital, and prepared himself by conversing with psychiatrists.[15] Paulo described the pair as "two forces with a lot of egoism, a lot of character and that bring the tension of the book to the screen".[10] Newcomer Samuel Soler played the dual roles of Rómulo and Remo,[10][13] and digital effects were used to make it possible.[11]

The production team watched several old films for inspiration of how a film was shot back then, including Shock Corridor (1963) for the rain scenes.[13] With a budget of €7 million, the filming lasted for nine weeks, starting in May and ending in August 2021. It was shot in several locations of the provinces of Tarragona and Barcelona, including Terrassa,[16] with Bernat Bosch as the cinematographer.[17][18][19] The old Tabacalera building [ca] built in 1923 in Tarragona and a former Mercedes car plant in Barcelona were used to portray the psychiatric hospital.[20][21][19][17] They respectively stood in for the hospital for the outdoor and indoor scenes. Antonio Valcárcel was the costume designer;[18] describing his part as "one of the most satisfying jobs of his career", he had to design clothes that would match the high-class sphere to which Alice belongs, and also the austerity of the 1970s psychiatric center, which required him and Paulo considerable investigation owing to scarcity of documentation at the time.[12][18] Fernando Velázquez worked as composer whereas Jaume Martí was responsible for film editing.[22]

Release[edit]

The film was presented in the Perlak section of the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2022.[23][24] It was originally scheduled to be released theatrically in Spain on 7 October 2022 by Warner Bros. Pictures España.[2][25][26] The theatrical release date was later moved forward one day to 6 October 2022.[27] After a two-month theatrical window, it was released on Netflix on 9 December 2022.[28] By the time of its streaming debut, it was the third highest-grossing Spanish film of 2022 at the domestic box office, with an in-year gross around €5.5 million.[29]

Reception[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 69% of 13 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[30]

Rubén Romero Santos of Cinemanía rated the film 3½ out of 5 stars, deeming it to be "a thrilling and elegant" exercise of narrative shell gaming.[31] Beatriz Martínez of El Periódico de Catalunya rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, considering that "the intrigue finds a perfect balance between stylization and magnetism", also praising the "titanic" adaptation work, "in which not only the language is cleaned and distilled", "but also the stale substratum from the novel".[32] Raquel Hernández Luján of HobbyConsolas rated the film with 50 out of 100 points ('so-so'), considering that it fails at respecting the heart of the novel (the dignification of the mentally ill and the value put on the work of the staff), praising the art direction and costume design while negatively assessing the direction of actors and the overextended footage achieved by a number of consecutive closures.[33] Juan Pando [es] of Fotogramas rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, considering that it is "the kind of film that attracts viewers to the theaters and does not disappoint them", while noting that its footage could have been trimmed and its outcome simplified.[34]

Paula Vázquez Prieto of La Nación concluded, "with modest ambitions and a clear goal of entertainment, [the film] fits into the narrative without much originality but with the necessary rhythm to embrace all its pieces in each new turn that the revelations offer."[35] Marshall Shaffer of Decider wrote, "The ambiguities of God's Crooked Lines only serve to inspire ambivalence. Flashes of intrigue and undeniable intentionality will undeniably draw in some patient viewers. But the film does not make a strong enough case for how much effort it would take to come to one's answer to the unresolved ending by untangling the web of competing narratives."[36]

In regard of the writing, Javier Ocaña of El País commented that while the original ending of the novel has been slightly modified, the film "remains faithful to the novel".[37] Hernández Luján was disappointed that the film reveals too much of its main plot in the beginning and has an unnecessarily complicated storyline, adding that the film is enjoyable only if the viewer has not read the novel version yet.[38] Federico Marín Bellón of ABC wrote negatively of Paulo's intention of modernizing the language.[39] Reviewing for El Mundo, Luis Martínez wrote that the film "ignores the real and almost forced possibility of turning the plot into a metaphor or the text into a context", concluding that it is "an obsessive and delirious thriller".[40] According to Vázquez Prieto, the film fails to give a surprising plot twist after "the 'crazy' adventures of [the lead actors'] characters on their backs".[35]

Marín Bellón applauded Lennie for showing her versatility as an actress and delivering a flawless performance, noting the mysterious atmosphere that she brought to her role.[39] Romero Santos praised the entire cast, calling Lennie outstanding.[31] Similarly, Avinash Ramachandran of The New Indian Express opined that Lennie "owns the screen" and the other actors are "stunning in equal measures".[41] Juan Orellana of ElDebate.com believed that without her presence, "the splendor of an iron script and the effectiveness of a Cartesian montage would be of little use", and the mysteriousness of her character was well portrayed by her.[9] Pando positively compared Lennie's portrayal of Alice to those of Peter Breck's reporter Johnny Barrett in Shock Corridor and Leonardo DiCaprio's policeman Edward Daniels in Shutter Island (2010).[34]

Top ten lists[edit]

The film appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best Spanish films of 2022:

Accolades[edit]

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2023 15th Gaudí Awards Best Actress Bárbara Lennie Nominated [45]
Best Supporting Actor Eduard Fernández Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Oriol Paulo, Guillem Clua Nominated
Best Art Direction Sylvia Steinbrech Nominated
Best Costume Design Alberto Valcárcel Won
Best Makeup and Hairstyles Montse Sanfeliu, Carolina Atxukarro Won
Best Visual Effects Lluís Rivera, Alex Villagrasa Nominated
Best Sound Aitor Berenguer, Laura Díaz, Marc Orts Nominated
10th Feroz Awards Best Soundtrack Fernando Velázquez Nominated [46]
Best Trailer Pedro J. Bernardo Nominated
78th CEC Medals Best Actress Bárbara Lennie Nominated [47][48]
Best Adapted Screenplay Oriol Paulo, Guillem Clua, Lara Sendim Won
Best Music Fernando Velázquez Nominated
37th Goya Awards Best Actress Bárbara Lennie Nominated [49]
Best Adapted Screenplay Guillem Clua, Oriol Paulo Nominated
Best Original Score Fernando Velázquez Nominated
Best Art Direction Sylvia Steinbrecht Nominated
Best Costume Design Alberto Valcárcel Nominated
Best Makeup and Hairstyles Montse Sanfeliu, Carolina Atxukarro, Pablo Perona Nominated
31st Actors and Actresses Union Awards Best Film Actress in a Leading Role Bárbara Lennie Nominated [50]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Entrevistamos a Oriol Paulo, director de "Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios"". Aullidos. 6 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d "Concluye el rodaje de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios' de Oriol Paulo". Audiovisual451 (in Spanish). 24 August 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Silvestre, Juan (15 September 2022). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': te presentamos, en exclusiva, a los personajes". Fotogramas.
  4. ^ Silvestre, Juan; Rosado, Ricardo (2 June 2022). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': primer tráiler de la esperada adaptación". Fotogramas.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Los renglones torcidos de Dios". La Vanguardia. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  6. ^ "Los renglones torcidos de Dios», a la sessió sorpresa". Regió7. Prensa Ibérica. 28 September 2022.
  7. ^ Boquerini (14 September 2021). "Oriol Paulo reúne a Barbara Lennie y Eduard Fernández en un psiquiátrico". El Correo (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ramon, Stephen (7 October 2022). "Oriol Paulo y el peso de adaptar 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios'". Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  9. ^ a b Orellana, Juan (6 October 2022). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': una brillante adaptación de la novela de Luca de Tena". ElDebate.com. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "Entrevistamos a Oriol Paulo, director de 'Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios'". Aullidos. 6 October 2022. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  11. ^ a b c Meseguer Barcelona, Astrid (6 October 2022). "Oriol Paulo: 'La línea que separa la cordura de la locura puede ser muy fina'". La Vanguardia. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Martínez, Beatriz (5 October 2022). "Oriol Paulo: 'Bárbara Lennie lo tiene todo, el enigma, la fuerza, la dualidad, el carisma, la inteligencia'". El Periódico de Catalunya. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d e Tormo, Luis (29 September 2022). "Oriol Paulo y Eduard Fernández nos hablan de Los renglones torcidos de Dios". Cine, cultura y turismo. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  14. ^ Hernández, Nuria (25 September 2020). "Bárbara Lennie, la actriz de moda: infancia entre Madrid y Buenos Aires, un amor sobre las tablas y Postigo, su mayor cómplice hoy". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  15. ^ Fernández, Nuria (5 October 2022). "Eduard Fernández: 'Yo he ido al psicólogo. Somos aún un poco catetos en el tema de la salud mental'". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  16. ^ Boladeras, Mercè (7 October 2022). "S'estrena una pel·lícula rodada a Terrassa". Diari de Terrassa.
  17. ^ a b Mantilla, Daniel (14 March 2022). "Así se gestó la complicada adaptación al cine de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios'". El Español. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  18. ^ a b c Martínez, Beatriz (2 August 2021). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios' cobra vida en el cine". El Periódico de Catalunya. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  19. ^ a b Planes, Joan (22 December 2022). "La antigua Tabacalera de Tarragona: el escenario de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios'". La Razón. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  20. ^ "La Tabacalera, localització principal de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios' amb el suport de l'Ajuntament i la Tarragona Film Office". Ajuntament de Tarragona (in Catalan). 23 June 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  21. ^ Trasobares, Ana (7 October 2022). "La película 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios', ¿es fiel a la novela?". esquire.com.
  22. ^ "Los renglones torcidos de Dios / God's Crooked Lines". sansebastianfestival. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  23. ^ Sisó, Paula V. (24 September 2022). "Llega 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios', la adaptación de la novela de Torcuato Luca de Tena". Antena 3.
  24. ^ Hopewell, John (15 July 2022). "San Sebastian Festival's 2022 Spanish Film Lineup: Emerging Talent, Fresh Titles From a New Establishment". Variety.
  25. ^ "Oriol Paulo roda 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios' a Barcelona" (in Catalan). Barcelona Film Commission. Catalunya Film Commission. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  26. ^ Aller, María (17 February 2022). "Las películas más esperadas del año 2022, ordenadas". Fotogramas.
  27. ^ Alonso, Begoña (16 September 2022). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': la esperada película protagonizada por Bárbara Lennie adelanta su estreno". elle.com.
  28. ^ Bean, Travis (10 December 2022). "The Best New Movies And Shows On Netflix Today: December 10, 2022". forbes.com.
  29. ^ Cazallas, Javier (9 December 2022). "Después de triunfar en taquilla, Los renglones torcidos de Dios llega a Netflix". HobbyConsolas.
  30. ^ "God's Crooked Lines". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  31. ^ a b Romero Santos, Rubén (5 October 2022). "Crítica de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios'". Cinemanía – via 20minutos.es.
  32. ^ Martínez, Beatriz (6 October 2022). "Los renglones torcidos de Dios', de Oriol Paulo". El Periódico de Catalunya.
  33. ^ Hernández Luján, Raquel (6 October 2022). "Crítica de Los renglones torcidos de Dios, muy lejos del material original".
  34. ^ a b Pando, Juan (6 October 2022). "Crítica de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': Dentro del manicomio". Fotogramas.
  35. ^ a b Vázquez Prieto, Paula (16 December 2022). "Netflix: Los renglones torcidos de Dios es un efectivo policial ambientado en un manicomio franquista". La Nación. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  36. ^ Shaffer, Marshall (12 December 2022). "Stream It Or Skip It: 'God's Crooked Lines' on Netflix, A Twisty Murder Mystery Set Inside an Asylum". Decider. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  37. ^ Ocaña, Javier (7 October 2022). "'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': irresistible inyección de locura basada en la famosa novela del tardofranquismo". El País. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  38. ^ Hernández Luján, Raquel (6 October 2022). "Crítica de Los renglones torcidos de Dios, muy lejos del material original". HobbyConsolas. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  39. ^ a b Marín Bellón, Federico (7 October 2022). "Crítica de 'Los renglones torcidos de Dios': Bárbara Lennie nos vuelve locos". ABC. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  40. ^ Martínez, Luis (6 October 2022). "Los renglones torcidos de Dios: un thriller de atar". El Mundo. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  41. ^ Ramachandran, Avinash (16 December 2022). "'God's Crooked Lines' review: A Twisty Treat". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  42. ^ Sanguino, Juan; Rando, Paloma (28 December 2022). "Las 10 mejores películas españolas de 2022". Vanity Fair.
  43. ^ "Cine: las votaciones de nuestros críticos 2022". El Cultural. 20 December 2022 – via El Español.
  44. ^ Mantilla, Daniel. "Las 10 mejores películas españolas de 2022". Series & Más – via El Español.
  45. ^ "'Alcarràs' y 'Un año, una noche', favoritas en los Premios Gaudí: lista de nominaciones". Cinemanía. 14 December 2022 – via 20minutos.es.
  46. ^ "Premios Feroz 2023 | Palmarés completo: empatan 'As bestas' y 'Cinco lobitos' en cine y 'La ruta' y 'No me gusta conducir' en series". Cinemanía. 29 January 2023 – via 20minutos.es.
  47. ^ "'As bestas' y 'Cinco lobitos', las más nominadas a las Medallas CEC". Cine con Ñ. 15 December 2022.
  48. ^ Sánchez Sequera, Marcos (7 February 2023). "'As bestas' brilla en los Premios del Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC)". Audiovisual451.
  49. ^ "Estos son los ganadores de los Premios Goya 2023: lista completa". El Periódico de Catalunya. 12 February 2023.
  50. ^ Aller, María (14 March 2023). "Premios Unión de Actores 2023: 'As bestas' y 'Cinco lobitos', las películas más premiadas". Fotogramas.

External links[edit]

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