The Watercolorist (Daniel Rodriquez, 2008): Peru

Reviewed by Chloe Seaman. Viewed at The Santa Barbara Film Festival.

The Watercolorist is a film that is more about the characters emotions rather than the actions taking place. Though it is the external forces that lead to the artist’s emotional downfall, it is really how he feels that drives the story.

It is about a man that is prevented from pursuing his dream of painting a watercolor when all his neighbors insist he do something for them. A woman insists that he give her obnoxious son painting lessons while she has a sexual affair with some man at her house. And then there is the manager of the apartment that insists he paint murals for the downstairs of the apartment. All the neighbors push the artist to an emotional limit and things start to go down for him when he cannot and does not want to handle it all.

Being called “The Watercolorist” and being about an artist, I had expected the mise-en-scene to be bright and colorful but it was quite the opposite; and with smart intentions. Every thing from the apartment to most of the characters clothes was darker colors like dark brown and grey. There was the occasional shot of a watercolor painting or a bouquet of flowers that brought the movie to a lighter emotional level. The choice of having a darker mise-en-scene was an aspect that is significant in setting the mood and also to match the emotional frustration and downfall of the artist. If the look of the film consisted of bright happy colors, it would not correspond to the feelings of the artist. Another interesting aspect of the mise-en-scene is the artist’s wardrobe. He wears light blue throughout the first part of the film when characters are being presented and issues are just starting to be seen. Then when the artist starts to become really frustrated and his problems become more apparent to him, his wardrobe changes slightly. He no longer wears light blue everyday, he starts wearing black and white.

The performance by Miguel Iza as the artist was also an aspect of the film that made it different than a lot of films I have seen. It is probably because his character – even though he is the main character – does not have a lot of lines. Instead, he must convey all the changing emotions of his character with simply acting. It is a difficult thing to do, but when it’s clear what the character is feeling without the use of words, it really takes the film to another level.

I was pleasantly surprised after watching this film and although it is not the best narrative, it has the artistic elements in the filmmaking that make it worth watching.