Engaged...

May 2, 2008 11:24 AM

La Cabina (The Telephone Box) 1, 2, 3, 4 Emmy winning short Spanish film. Saw this once as a kid and I’ve never forgotten it… There's no subtitles but that doesn't really matter.
posted by fearfulsymmetry (7 comments total)

Wow, flashback.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:43 AM on May 2

Well that was dark.
posted by quelindo at 12:05 PM on May 2

Ditto! It's fantastic how everyone in the youtube comments also saw this once as a kid and have never forgotten it. I must have been about 15 when I saw it and always wanted to track it down. Thanks!
posted by gravelshoes at 1:12 PM on May 2

Finally. Now I know it wasn't just a fever dream.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:11 PM on May 2

So that's why most cities have got rid of telephone boxes. Nice. Never seen it before. Thanks for posting.
posted by binturong at 4:16 PM on May 2

woah...this is one of those hive-mind moments.

these videos triggered a flood of long-buried memories from my 5th year and makes me realize this just might have something to do with my phone phobia.
posted by squasha at 5:45 PM on May 2

I wondered about the direction this was going to take. Once it became clear, it was inescapable to interpret it as a metaphor for Francoism (the "Spanish State", a monarchy without a king).

Seduced by modernity and order, then trapped inside, the transparency only allowing one to see in or out but not to speak. Over the course of time a foolish strongman tries to break it, a hapless technician, and then the gardia civil, the symbols of civilian authority, bumble comically to failure. The appearance of the firemen bespeaks emergency and drastic measures. Just when it seems they might succeed -- injuring our everyman in the process -- the anonymous teamsters show up and cart him out of view to cheers and laughter. It is only now that the full force of his situation settles in. As he is carted further from home, religion and industrial technology present false hopes. Others are obviously just as trapped, but communication is impossible. And then he is taken within to be handed over to an inhuman machine, his only choice a slow or a fast death.

I kept trying to see it in broader ways, but for me, it kept coming back to this narrative. I find that it is credited for "awakening resistances". I am not surprised.

At times, I nearly wept.
posted by dhartung at 3:09 AM on May 3