Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14932 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-13
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

DVD Description
The tale of four peoples lives intertwined by destiny, Intacto asks many questions. What if one day you woke up to find your luck had run out? What if luck could be traded like picture cards, bought, sold or even stolen? Would you bet your life to become the luckiest person in the world? A master gambler presides over a mysterious contest that draws together people with supernatural luck with extraordinary consequences. Intacto is a provocative and enigmatic tale with a strikingly cool visual style that cannot fail but impress. The film hails from the producer of The Others and Open Your Eyes, Fernando Bovaira, and was written and directed by hot new Spanish talent Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The film also boasts a powerhouse performance from the legendary actor Max von Sydow, veteran of more than 125 films over a 50-year career, and its star, Leonardo Sbaraglia, is one of the most famous of the new generation of film stars in Argentina.

Nominated for six Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards) and winner of four – for Best New Director, Best New Actor (Leonardo Sbaraglia), Best Leading Actor (Eusebio Poncela) and Best Editing (Nacho Ruiz Capillas), Intacto is a superb example of contemporary Spanish cinema.

Special Features
DVD Technical Information:

• Language: Spanish
  
• Subtitles: English
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  
• Disc Format: DVD 5: Single Sided Single Layered Disc
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
  
• Colour
  
• Running Time: 104 mins

Synopsis
INTACTO, from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, follows a group of people who have "the gift" of being extremely lucky and they play into a suspenseful world of gambling and superstition. The film begins and ends in the Canary Islands, where ringleader Sam (Max von Sydow), a Holocaust survivor, runs a casino. His right-hand man Federico (Eusebio Poncela) is stripped of "the gift" in a terrifying exchange that Federico sees as worse than death: Sam hugs him and in doing so steals his luck away. Desperate for revenge, Federico latches onto Tomas (Leonard Sbaraglia), the miraculous sole survivor of an airplane crash. He convinces Tomas to test his luck in various games (one involves running full-speed, blindfolded, through a heavily wooded forest to see if he is "lucky" enough to avoid running into a tree.) By training Tomas to be a winner, Federico hopes to eventually have him challenge Sam. Thrown into the complicated mix are an untouchable bullfighter (Antonio Dechent), and a car accident survivor (Monica Lopez) who want to break up this obsessive gambling ring.
INTACTO uses its stirring orchestral score by Lucio Godoy, its puzzling plotline, its bleak desert settings, and its fast-moving nighttime driving scenes to create a mood of mystery and intrigue.

Customer Reviews

Out of luck ???
The premise of this film is that some people can steal luck from others. The idea is bizarre but interesting, and the director (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) and some great actors managed to make a great movie out of it.

The main character, Thomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), the only survivor of a tragic crash that killed the other 236 passagers in the plane, is one of the "fortunate" people that can steal luck. He is not so fortunate, though, because he is arrested by the police while he is in a hospital recovering from the crash, due to the fact that he is a thief. Despite that, not all is lost for him.

A strange man called Federico (Eusebio Poncela) helps him to escape, on the condition that Thomas will bet for him in a secret and very exclusive ring of betting, and that they will split the earnings. As a consequence, Thomas is introduced to to a secret society of "fortunate" people addicted to betting all kind of things in different games. The stakes are high: money, houses, people... The questionn is: how far is Thomas ready to go?.

On the whole, I can say that I highly enjoyed this movie, and that I recommend it to you. I have never seen a plot similar to this one. Whether that means that I don't watch enough movies, or that is an extremely original film, I don't know. All the same, watch it: you have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain :)

Belen Alcat

Good luck.
Possibly one of the most accessible world/art DVD films I've seen, it remains a real gem in my cinema collection.
The plot centres around an underground gambling ring run by and visited by people who have supernatural luck. Original, brillant and always interesting the film explores it ideas well and it feels like no other film. The narrative flows so gracefully you really don't notice how much skill is on show. The acting is flawless and unlike, some American or Japanese films, it never breaks its spell over you and brings you outside the story.
If you're new to world cinema this is a great place to start. It's film that's different but understandable. Emotional but not draining and best of all you'll probably enjoy it.
No extras but I don't care.

What if luck was finite and contagious?
The central plot of Intacto revolves around a number of extraordinarily individuals for whom good luck seems to follow them in abundance. They make fortunes, survive fatal accidents, and benefit from unlikely coincidence. But at a cost; the luck they have is stolen from others. If they survive an accident, it's at the expense of everyone else.

Intacto is an engaging film and, like most slightly sci-fi thrillers, an interesting thought experiment in the "what would you do" category. Good performances all round, particularly from Max Von Sydow who is always good to watch. The film dives between Spanish and English, reflecting it's funding origins, so probably not one for those with poor eyesight or an allergy to subtitled foreign films. For everyone else, though, I would recommend you give it a go.