Hitch would smile

Oriol Paulo

vorweg: Ich muss heute etwas aus der Kategorie "Aspi-Heaven" schreiben, sonst implodiere ich. Diese Woche läuft bisher echt nicht gut.

Every now and then I stumble across a new director whose style I really like. Examples are Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) or Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio, In Fabric). I then look up their oeuvre in the hope of finding new films that I might like. Of course, over the years a director's style may change, the quality might deteriorate (I really miss Seventies' and Eighties' Dario Argento). Still, there is always the chance of finding a masterpiece.

The Spanish director Oriol Paulo has not yet created a masterpiece, but I really like his style. Obviously influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, his mystery thrillers have labyrinthine plots with a lot of twists and turns, and even if the endings might be predictable for some, it is the ride that really counts. Paulo has visual flair, wonderful music, actors that he uses in several films (e.g. Ana Wagener, Mario Casas) and who supply him with intense acting to carry a story that might sometimes not only be a little improbable, but completely impossible.

I don't care about that. His thrillers are thrilling, and even if they don't belong to the category of films I can watch over and over again I am eating up everything he presents. Sometimes there is a science fiction element that I dig, and even if his films are a bit trashy, not really original and often formulaic by the book, the execution is good.

I will recommend the following films and miniseries:

El Cuerpo (The Body, 2012)

Durante la tormenta (Parallelwelten, 2018)

Contratiempo (Der unsichtbare Gast, 2016)

El Inocente (Kein Friede den Toten, 2021)

Give Contratiempo a try and see if you like his style - I certainly do. And I love listening to the Spanish language.

post scriptum: Das hat gut getan! Paulos Filme sind auf Netflix zu finden.