10/10/2024 - A DJ in Madrid takes an experimental drug to bring back his late girlfriend through lucid dreaming in Nacho Vigalondo’s unexpected hallucinogenic fantasy

Undoubtedly, many would indulge in familiar physical, sensual and emotional pleasures if they could reunite with a dead lover. But in Nacho Vigalondo’s latest film, Daniela Forever [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile], protagonist Nick would much rather hear his every word agreed with while bringing his girlfriend along with him to partake in everyday exploration. The Timecrimes [+see also:
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interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] and Colossal [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] (2016) writer-director returns with a visually imaginative piece that’s much more contemplative than its marketing might lead you to believe. Daniela Forever has just enjoyed its European premiere in Sitges’ Official Fantastic Competition after world-premiering last month in the Platform strand of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Vigalondo begins with a decidedly blank-slated premise: after the death of his girlfriend Daniela (Beatrice Grannò), Madrid-based DJ Nick (Henry Golding) begins taking an experimental pill that allows him to lucid dream on the advice of his friend Victoria (Nathalie Poza). Nick ignores the pharmaceutical trial’s therapeutic intentions to instead indulge in his own fantasy life with Daniela, going to unexpected places. While the screenplay and visual style of Daniela Forever allow for easy comparisons to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception, the movie is tonally its own beast – indeed, it's a tone that Vigalondo uses to manipulate the film in creative and unforeseen ways. It’s much more rewarding – and, frankly, accessible – to read the feature less as a sci-fi/romance blend than a journey of sci-fi existentialism that interrogates the nature of desire, attachment and loneliness.

From the start, Vigalondo makes clear the intense distinction between the “real world” and the “dream world”, setting up a disconcerting dichotomy. The latter, in widescreen, explodes with light, a bright colour palette, extreme wide-angle lensing by Jon D Domínguez that appears to bend the oneiric landscape, and a soft, pulsating electronic score by Catalonian pop band Hidrogenesse (Carlos Ballesteros and Genís Segarra). The confining feel of the real world, composed mainly of static shots, slaps you in the face with its 4:3 aspect ratio shot with Betacam camcorders, generating a drab and alienating environment that has a Black Mirror-like, dystopian feel. Vigalondo’s directorial inventiveness shines in his Kaufman-esque distorted dream geometry, and use of shifting sound and visual effects.

Golding gives a standout performance as the harrowed Nick, who moves from states of childlike greed and play to distress while being able to control every aspect of the dream. Interestingly, blandness in Nick’s character motivations can be attributed to an acute state of depression, apparent in the real-world visuals – and hardly a kiss ever passes between the couple in the dream world, let alone anything more. Nick plays God as Daniela, often a robot and a shell of her bubbly self, becomes his plaything: he tells her how to think as well as who she can and can’t see. He’s more concerned about self-indulging, playing with the limits of the dream world and receiving a default level of attention from Daniela.

While Daniela Forever drags in the middle and some interactions between the couple feel contrived (and perhaps intentionally), Vigalondo’s slow-burn story forces viewers to carefully consider the small and unsettling changes that occur in the dynamic between the two. This is neither a thriller nor a film with a simple resolution: complicating the story is Nick’s encounters with Daniela’s ex-girlfriend Teresa (Aura Garrido), who strangely begins appearing in his lucid dreams. The filmmaker twists the boundary between the two worlds up through its cryptic, surrealist ending, leaving viewers to speculate on its final meaning – just like a dream itself.

Daniela Forever is a Spanish-Belgian production by Sayaka Producciones, Wrong Men, Señor y Señora and Mediacrest Entertainment. US-based XYZ Films is handling its international sales.