El Father Plays Himself

Fact and fiction intertwine as Mo Scarpelli examines her partner’s film featuring his volatile father.

The Father himself

It is not too difficult to recall documentary films of great distinction which took as their subject matter notable movies that went through rough times in the making. The ones that probably top the list are Burden of Dreams (1982) about Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, and Hearts of Darkness (1991) detailing Coppola’s filming of Apocalypse Now. The high claims that have been made for Mo Scarpelli’s El Father Plays Himself seemed to promise a work that might match even these two although the film being reported on is in this case the little-known La Fortaleza. The latter is the second feature of the Venezuelan director Jorge Thielen Armand who had proved his skill with its predecessor, 2016’s La Soledad. However, it was presumably not Armand’s talent that attracted Scarpelli but the fact that La Fortaleza is such an unusual project. It was set up to star Armand’s father, Jorge Roque Thielen, in a role written by his son and self-evidently based on the father’s own character and his troubled history.

El Father Plays Himself is indeed exclusively devoted to what happened on the shoot but, with La Fortaleza meaning nothing to us in its own right, it is undoubtedly the case that the prime focus here is on the father/son relationship and on the extent to which the role taken by the father who had not acted before can be regarded as a truthful portrait of the man himself. Armand was adamant that La Fortaleza would only be made if his father appeared in it despite the fact that, in addition to being inexperienced, he was an alcoholic who might well apply himself when sober but could easily become entirely disruptive when drunk. We see Rodrigo Michelangeli, a producer of both La Fortaleza and of this documentary, but never hear about how Armand managed to set up his film given all the risks involved. Even more significantly, although there is talk of the father approving and signing up for La Fortaleza regardless of the extent to which he would be playing an unattractive version of himself, we are told nothing about his attitude to footage of him at his least appealing being included in the documentary.

This piece is extremely well photographed by Scarpelli herself and there are plenty of potential spectators who are so intrigued by the whole process of filmmaking that any behind the scenes material fascinates them in its own right. But, even with the various crew members on view, the shooting process that we see here is less than spell-binding. The father’s changing moods may sometimes intrigue us but inevitably not in the unforgettable way that the eruptions of the infamous Klaus Kinski do in Burden of Dreams. We do, of course, speculate on Armand’s motives in setting up this film role which will enable him to confront his father about his real-life behaviour. However, it’s about an hour in before the issue comes to the surface and what we learn never quite explains why Armand should be so obsessed by the need to challenge his father. Meanwhile such details as the impact on the filming of the father breaking a finger come over as small stuff indeed, in contrast to which some rather dramatised touches towards the close feel set up in an arty way.

There is admittedly some interest in seeing a film that invites us to compare the reality of Jorge Roque Thielen as he works on the film with the version of him conjured up for La Fortaleza. That aspect does distinguish El Father Plays Himself from every other film about filmmaking but, even so, I was never convinced that there was a real justification for this cinema feature. Of course, a shortened version offered as an extra on a disc of La Fortaleza would be another matter altogether.

Original title: El Father Como Sí Misho.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Jorge Roque Thielen, Jorge Thielen Armand, Rodrigo Michelangeli, Carlos Luis Betancourt, Carlos ‘Fagua’ Medina, Jenny Navarro, Angélica Guzman, Alcione Guerrero, Rodolfo Cova, Diego Rojas.

Dir Mo Scarpelli, Pro Manon Ardisson and Rodrigo Michelangeli, Ph Mo Scarpelli, Ed Juan Soto.

Ardimages UK/Rake Films/La Faena Films-Ardimages UK.
105 mins. Venezuela/UK/Italy/USA. 2020. Rel: 6 August 2021. No Cert.