The Fundy Film Society

Gloria

Gloria

Chile’s official Best Foreign Language Film entry for the 2014 Academy Awards, Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria is one of the most remarkable films of the year.

Gloria Cumplido (Paulina García) is in her late fifties and lives on her own. Divorced for more than twelve years, she has two grown children and a toddler grandson. While she loves her family, she is not ready to move into full-time grandparenting. Behind her coquettish demeanour and oversized glasses is a smart, savvy and vivacious woman who does not want to settle into a tepid relationship she is supposed to be grateful for: she wants a real romance, ideally with a partner who loves to dance. At night, Gloria visits her favourite clubs, filled with other middle-aged singles grooving on the dance floor. When she meets the recently separated Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), it seems that she has found one last chance at love.

Brilliantly scripted and energized by a keen sense for music, Lelio’s fourth feature sensitively portrays a woman facing the reality of aging. Bubbly and exuberant, Gloria is unwilling to compromise in affairs of the heart. García, who won a Silver Bear at Berlin for her performance, is breathtaking as Gloria: the camera never leaves her, as she perfectly transmits the world from the character’s unique, often hilarious perspective.

Lelio slowly captivates the audience as we accompany the title character on her search. Gloria always maintains her dignity despite her missteps, and one cannot help but cheer her on. Most rewarding is rediscovering, along with Gloria, that while couples’ dancing is nice, there is nothing quite as liberating and fulfilling as learning to dance on one’s own.

“Funny, melancholy and ultimately uplifting, Sebastián Lelio’s enormously satisfying spell inside the head and heart of a middle-aged woman never puts a foot wrong. Gloria is a work of maturity, depth and emotional insight. There’s not a single false note here.” (David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter)

“As endlessly watched as she is in this film, Gloria is an endlessly watchable creation—a wonderful example of an actress melting into a role, and a co-writer/director with almost superhuman levels of sensitivity and empathy for his characters. She’s allowed to be as many different things as a person can be (and to range from pretty to haggard and back again) and still be strongly, absolutely herself, which makes it completely impossible not to root for her.” (Jessica Kiang, The Playlist)