If the brilliant Italian director, Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 81/2), made a sci-fi picture, the metaphorical images, particularly the ocean tide, where the earth begins and the abyss of heaven never ends, would be similar to By Day and By Night, a minimalistic science-fiction film from Mexico. The film is essentially about the apocalyptic effects of an overpopulated metropolis, and the split lives of a family; a man, woman, and a little girl, all searching for their own freedom outside the futuristic habitat. One can only see the other when they’re asleep, and are scientifically engineered with a special enzyme. By day, the woman is awake, and by night, both the man and the girl are awake. Unfortunately, the lovely threesome can’t ever experience one another’s companionship simultaneously.
The quiet story and the empty, yet luscious landscape works as an allegory for the oppression and overpopulation of the Mexican underclass, and metaphorically expresses the ancient Mayan culture of Mexico’s history. The philosophical messages slowly emerge from the science-fiction backdrop. By Day and By Night doesn’t refer to the sci-fi, popcorn extravaganza of Star Wars (1977), but more in touch with Kubrick’s hypnotic masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
The best part of this slow-paced film is the meticulous framing and image composition. The director and actor, Alejandro Molina, has a terrific photographic eye. He certainly knows how to frame his actors in every shot, and in the process, clearly distinguishes the foreground from the background. For instance, there’s a scene where the family is running away from the dreary futuristic city, and the shot of the car driving through a desolate road contains a beautiful cactus-flower in the foreground, suggesting they are the only living things in the midst of the open landscape, and in this case, the desert habitat. Another terrific shot is where one of the actors is situated on a moving-dolly, and as he progresses across the screen with a blank emotion, a shadowy mural of ancient Mayan ruins steadily move forward from the background, expressing the film’s cultural overtones.
To my dismay, I couldn’t understand the story or the convoluted interpretation until the last 40 minutes or so. Perhaps, I was so enamored by the filmmaker’s graceful image construction that I slowly lost interest in the story, or maybe, the story wasn’t interesting enough to keep my attention. Either way, I was bored, plain and simple. This is a serene futuristic drama about love, emotions, and family values, but the sci-fi elements could’ve been dropped. In addition, the gradual pacing works against the realistic conflicts of the family portrayed. There are some films where the slow placing is deliberate, and builds to a stunning conclusion. In By Day and By Night, the camera lingers for too long for majority of the shots, dragging the pace. For those interested in brilliant cinematography and composition, it’s worth a look, but I need more of a reason than the elegant look of a film to stay interested. .
**1/2 (out of four)
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