[Ana, 2014] film review

[Ana, 2014]

by Dontrell Lovet't

from, [PscyhoNeuroFilmography]

Based on "Autopsicografia" by the portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa


As one would expect from any film or production based on a poem, [Ana] opens with a profound depth- a woman confessing her love of another, to what is seemingly a therapist. She confesses that she cannot live without the "perfect" love of her life nor she could without her. In a devil's avocation, her therapist tells her that humans love perfection because we can't have it and to describe her lover as "perfect" is an idealizing standard; all relationships have problems and as such, it is all in her imagination. In a turn of events, the film turns to see from the therapist point-of-view- she understands her perfectly, even goes so far as to live vicariously through her words about her lover. But even so, this woman who she loves is truly only a figment of her imagination, a being so frail yet holds so much significance in not only her life and mind but the life and mind of the therapist.

In an effort to free this woman from her figmented, perfect lover (and perhaps himself as well), he wants her to think of her as someone she once had who has left her life. This then leads the film to see the woman's lonesome and destructive life without her feminine figment, a treacherous trial where one is set free by their peers and convicted by the judge's render alone. Though with an unvarying endeavor, the woman, though she knows her figment is just that, she has declared her life empty without her, that if her life has any worth, it would be better to live with the figment than without it, that she would prefer "to continue insane but keep her by my side." 

It is in her refusal to relinquish her figment that in her sincerity, the therapist begin to be endeared by her "inhumane devotion," which his identification with her leads him to believe he may be insane as well. He feels envious of a woman created "in delirium," envying her madness, contemplating if we in our human imperfection are capable of creating such a perfect design if we ourselves have never known it. 

It is then that we see the therapist return home alone, grab a bottle of wine and two glasses, sits in chair, across from the figment in his patient's mind and tells her that he loves her.

[Ana] is a film under the influence of perfection so much so it itself is perfection, its poetics mirrors the poetry of Pessoa, where one "insane" patient deliriums are so robust, so fruitful in their dream life as to be taken in by someone who is "sane" and of this world.