Nine Lives

Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Screenwriters: Rodrigo Garcia

Institute History

  • 2005 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Nine different characters at emotional crossroads, very different yet hauntingly the same. Nine women who find themselves captives of relationships, both past and present. One undeniable connection: amazing performances from the most talented actresses working in cinema today.

In theory the construct of Nine Lives is simple, but the execution makes it sublime. Writer/director Rodrigo Garcia is a master at capturing every nuance of a scene, both in words and images. And they are scenes in the purest form, raw yet ripe. Garcia mines these gems of drama to their fullest potential. His genius lies in his strategic employment of the camera; he finds just the right moment in the arc of the characters' lives to study them. You don't need to meet these characters beforehand to learn exactly who they are. All is revealed if you watch closely.

Each of the women portrayed in Nine Lives feels an urgency, a need for the action to be played out. Each vignette, in its own way, is a fateful and beautiful moment. Desires crack the surface of resolution, conflict seeps into dialogue, and anger flickers in the women's eyes. The short time spent with each character reveals an amazing amount of personal history, at once recognizable and poignant.

— John Cooper

Screening Details

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