As she progresses in her investigation, accompanied by Chema, Ángela enters a dark and dangerous world, confronting secrets and conspiracies related to the murder.
From there, Ángela and Chema become involved in the murder and try to uncover the culprit. Following the clues they come up with a suspect: Bosco.
The film explores themes of obsession, violence and media manipulation as Angela struggles to uncover the truth behind the murder.
The film received several Goya awards, which are the most prestigious awards in Spanish cinema, among the awards "Tesis" received are: Best Film, Best Director for Alejandro Amenábar, Best Original Screenplay, Best New Actress for Ana Torrent.
These awards recognise the quality and the impact that "Tesis" had on the Spanish film industry.
This is a good low-budget Spanish thriller that introduces the subject of snuff consumption to an audience that at the time was much more naive.
The story, which plays around audiovisual violence, was a very original idea, and became revolutionary thanks to its great execution. The truth is that despite talking a lot about morbidity, it is a light film.
To justify themselves, they explain that we are all morbid and we are hypocrites to say that we are not attracted and so on, which is fine and true, but it is also true that it is not explicit for lack of budget, not for a poetic question. But well, the fans will always say that it is made this way "on purpose".
Beyond the outstanding direction of the film and high level performances, I didn't like the characters either.
Chema of course, despite being actively unpleasant, is the most interesting by far. Adding comic dialogue and having a handful of memorable one-liners, he kept me waiting to see what ironic/sarcastic line he was going to say every time he appeared on screen.
Ana Torrent plays Angela very well, but to say that her character is questionable is an understatement, which makes Chema's nagging even better.
Bosco, on the other hand, didn't stand out much to me. His sadistic side was missing, and his way of seducing was too simple, even cheesy.
I understand that Eduardo Noriega is very handsome and that he doesn't need to do too much, but they could have exploited this fact by giving him a more complete script.
It has very memorable scenes like the story of the princess and the dwarf (which I didn't know and surprised me) and that abrupt but convincing ending.
Undoubtedly a solid film that, without being a marvel, more than delivers, managing to raise the standards of Spanish cinema.
Since I like watching movies, and those who know me know it, I always receive recommendations, something I like, especially when it comes to small hidden gems, movies made with a low budget but that get a very good result, like Coherence. So, a few weeks ago I spoke about Borgman a Dutch origin film, which I had been recommended, and today I'm talking about Tesis, a spanish movie.
Year: 1996
Category: Thriller.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar.
Cast: Ana Torrent, Fele Martínez, Eduardo Noriega, Xabier Elorriaga, Miguel Picazo, Nieves Herranz, Rosa Campillo, Paco Hernandez, Rosa Avila.
Plot
A university student is doing a thesis on audiovisual violence until her research leads her to find the video of the murder of a student at the same university.
Opinion
Ángela, a young university student in Madrid, is doing a thesis on audiovisual violence, which is why she asks Professor Figueroa, the director of her thesis, to help her get videos that have been censored for having a very high degree of violence. The teacher, who decides to help her, goes to the video library, where he discovers a hidden room in which allegedly violent videos are stored. While that happens, Angela gets Chema, a classmate, to invite her to his house, where he has a collection of very violent videos, and even though the house of this fellow seems like a psycho's den, she decides to spend the day watching videos with him.
The next day, in the university, Professor Figueroa does not attend the class, so Angela decides to look for him in the university's viewing room, where she sees him killed, apparently, he suffered an asthma attack while watching the tape, which is why Angela instead of telling the police, decides to take the tape and flee without telling anyone. Due to the panic Angela can not watch the tape so she decides to save it. However, the next day Professor Castro, now a substitute for Figueroa, informs the class that the professor died while watching a movie that disappeared. Given this fact, Chema deduces that Angela was the one who took the tape and extorts it for her to show it to him, something to which she agrees. Finally both see the tape, which shows the murder of a university student who has been missing for two years.
I must say that the first impression I had of the film was very bad, it seemed that it was an independent film with very low budget, as it is, only €721,214 for the year 1996, however, after a few minutes the movie starts to improve, becoming a wonderful Thriller.
It's the only work I've seen from the director, Alejandro Amenabar, who did it quite well, managed to create a psychologically disturbing atmosphere during the course of the whole film, causing a suffocating suspense that reaches its peak in a scene that, for me, it is the best made of the film, the one in which the lighting time begins to run out, and the protagonists find themselves in a truly threatening situation.
As for the performances, I must say that I did not like them, except for the protagonist, who also does not do a very special job, the rest of them seem very mediocre actors, of the worst performances I've seen, they do not convince me a bit, the only thing that has in their favor is that they are faces that I have never seen, and that I hope never see again, they are the weakest part of the film, and it is not worthwhile that I dedicate myself to talking about each performance separately.
The script works well, although after a certain moment I feel that the film is too long, its as if there were a few minutes left over that the director could have saved the viewer. Regarding photography, I must say that the only thing I liked was that the staging has a rather gloomy tone, managing to generate its own environment, getting the viewer to have greater immersion in the film.
Finally, I must say that it is an entertaining film, it is worth seeing, although it is not a truly special work, it has some positive and some negative things, so from a certain perspective it is balanced.
Trailer
Score
7/10
An entertaining Thriller, but not essential, quite acceptable if you want to try some independent and low budget movie.
[Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=531662)
[Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=531662)
[Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=531662)
[Image](https://www.elespanol.com/series/cine/20210404/tesis-curiosidades-no-sabias-maestra-descubrio-amenabar/570194094_0.html)
[Image](https://www.hola.com/actualidad/galeria/20200224161468/tesis-serie-alejandro-amenabar-gt/1/)
[Image](https://mundocritica.com/tesis)
