Cinephilia serves simultaneously as a narrative backdrop, thematic nucleus, and animating essence in A Useful Life, the dryly funny, unabashedly doleful new feature from Uruguayan writer-director Federico Veiroj (Acné). Veiroj's film screens this month as a part of the Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival, an offering consistent with the Festival's effort to offer notable works of South America cinema as a part of its programming in recent years. That effort has brought some truly remarkable films to St. Louis, such as Rodrigo Moreno's transfixing The Minder and Claudia Llosa's delicate The Milk of Sorrow. To their number one should add A Useful Life, a sly, meandering portrait of one man's thankless devotion to cinema. Equal parts elegy and giddy celebration, it's the sort of film that seems tailored to re-invigorate the viewer's love of life's pleasures both on- and off-screen.
Veiroj's film languidly observes the waning days of an arthouse cinema in Uruguay, where employee Jorge (real-life critic Jorge Jellinek) strives to enrich the cultural landscape of his city. This he does with a combination of exacting technical standards, literate programming selections, and a warm, personal touch towards the patrons. Regrettably, such fastidious regard for film art has fallen out of favor, at least with the wealthy benefactors whose donations had been keeping the cinema's projectors running. (A foundation mouthpiece laments that the theater is “not profitable,” which seems a wholly misguided metric for a non-profit cultural institution.) Jorge soon finds himself shutting off the lights for the final time, and thereafter cast out into a cold, philistine-laden world. Fortunately, there are consolations, chief among them potential romantic future with legal professor Paola (Paola Venditto), a future he puts in motion with a little help from the movies.
At its most elemental, A Useful Life functions as a sedate genuflection towards all the professionals, volunteers, and enthusiasts who endeavor to make the world richer and more exquisite by promoting great cinema. In contrast to the glinting romanticism of Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso, the style of Veiroj's film de-glamorizes cinema and casts it as a lonely, unappreciated pursuit. Much of the film's early scenes consist of Jorge going about the banal tasks of running the theater, which includes tallying donations and tearing tickets in addition to hosting a cinema-themed radio program. Verioj captures this all in crisp black-and-white, and without a shred of overt pity for the Jorge's fate. The pathos of the film is gloriously emergent, spilling forth from our observance of the man's obvious dedication and pride. In its final scenes, as a newly-unemployed Jorge wanders the streets, there is a passing sense of trembling peril. Fittingly, Jorge ultimately finds strength in the swelling music and genre cliches of the films he loves, and heads off into the future with a little spring in his step. It's the kind of concluding grace note that appeals to the downtrodden hearts of cinephiles, who will likely find ample pleasures in Veiroj's pithy, elegant film.
A Useful Life screens Plaza Frontenac Cinemas, 210 Plaza Frontenac, Friday November 11 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12, $10 for Cinema St. Louis Members. For advance tickets, call 314-725-6555, ext. 0, or visit cinemastlouis.org. St. Louis native Andrew Wyatt is the founder of the film aficionado website Gateway Cinephiles, where he has been an editor and contributor since 2007, authoring reviews, essays, and coverage of the St. Louis International Film Festival and Webster Film Series.
