Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peña made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus.
The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her, some guy starts eating her "contract", another girl enters and kicks random weirdos and to top it - we get a girl (Arantxa Peña) that so much loves cocaine that the bartender says her nipples are made of it. Wtf? Yeah - I was dazed and confused, but the visual style and the overall strangeness made me totally enjoy it. I didn't have the "brain power" to understand all of it (if there is something to understand), but it was cool to watch.
The second story, shot year after the first one introduces a young woman that really wants to work on a movie by "famed" Carlos Atanes. While the first couple of minutes were linear, when she meets Carlos everything goes spiraling down, up, left and right. Out of a sudden Carlos is meeting a girl with Praying Mantis type of an arm, some guy is being killed by a "throw away" bloody fetus and to finish in style - we get a massive bukkake scene. I don't know if the sperm was real, but I would say I am 99% sure - Carlos Atanes could deliver this without a doubt.
"Welcome to Spain" is closing this anthology. It is an extremely bizarre offering which is basically concentrated around a sick interaction between 4 people on a staircase. You don't know what is happening, but just imagine a combo of: puking in other people mouths, chickens flying around, eating rusty nails, fighting to the death for a food plate and masturbation. Out of the three, this one generated the most WTF's in my head.
Definitely not a story collection for everyone. Carlos Atanes makes completely strange scenarios very interesting with his powerful visuals. While I though this would be some crappy experimental wannabe art master piece, I must say that I quite enjoyed it. This is the first thing I need to show to my movie watching buddies.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2007
DIRECTOR: Carlos Atanes
WRITING CREDITS: Carlos Atanes
GENRE: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
CAST: Arantxa Peña, Manel Solás, Antonio Vladimir
COUNTRY: Spain
RUNTIME: 81 min
RATING: 5/10
Codex Atanicus Website/IMDB
Codex Atanicus Trailer Click here
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