‘I prefer dark horror movies’

The International Film Festival Rotterdam is back in town. EM asks some movie worshippers about their passion for film and the must-sees at the festival. Today: Mauro Stel, first year of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Erasmus University College.

In his hometown in the Netherlands Mauro annually helps out at a local film festival, which holds outdoor movie screenings during summertime. He states this commitment as a main reason for his interest in film.

Horror movies

In Mauros opinion movies always tell a story but it is the visual component of films, which make them so engaging. “They are a great means to change the world in a sense, but also to let people think of the situation we are in. Politically and socially.” A movie which made Mauro think of our situation was ‘The Hurt Locker’, posing the question about the necessity of war.

And of course movies are entertaining. For that purpose he prefers horror movies with a mysterious and sometimes dark atmosphere. Especially the ‘SAW’ and ‘Wrong Turn’ films come to his mind.

Mauro plans on watching three movies at the IFFR. They sound quite different from another, but let him speak for himself:

‘Vergiss mein Ich’:

“It’s about a woman who has retrograde amnesia and I can imagine that it can be very hard to live with such a disorder. And that sort of stirred my interest. My grandfather also suffers from amnesia and I’m really curious to see how the director incorporated these characteristics of amnesia into the movie.”

‘Nebraska’:

“I actually picked this movie because I have been to the United States myself a couple of times. I was struck by the beauty of the American countryside and the typical life on the countryside there. And I hope this movie captures this natural feeling of living in an artificial symbiosis with nature as well as pursuing the American Dream.”

‘L’amour est une crime parfait’:

“When reading the festivals booklet I read the caption of this movie and it was a rather odd description, which stirred my interest. That’s a typical horror movie but the abundance of humor makes the movie funny to a certain extent. And I always like it when situations are made less important and things are put into perspective. I hope that it matches the Hitchockian standard.“ ET