

But creating an empirical timeline to Don Celso's life or determining which characters exist and which are simply imagination is besides the point. Memory is reality, and history is insignificant: the old and the new co-exist and pass each other in the street. This is magical realism of the sort that flourishes in Chile, beating in time with its literary brothers Roberto Bolaño or Isabel Allende. The movie is in fact inspired by the writings of Hernán del Solar, leading Chilean writer but little known in the English-speaking world as his works haven't been translated and published in English. (Get on that right away, New Directions!) What it lacks in linear narrative it fills the senses with color, movement, illusion and the fantastic: the physical freezing of time into floating bubbles, other-earthly ships in bottles, bright warm color and surreal tricks with special effects backgrounds. This is a gorgeous movie, deserving to be seen in a theater. Don't wait for the DVD, and check your reality at the door. Night Across the Street is a determined chameleon of a film that will baffle at the same time it warms the heart.
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