Canta la noche

In one of the final scenes of En la ciudad de Sylvia, we see a brief shot of a bored barmaid, who absentmindedly puts a flower in the front of her blouse.This shots lasts about six seconds, but it it is key to understanding the rest of the film. A barmaid with a flower in the front of her blouse echoes one of Manet's most famous paintings, Le Bar aux Folies-Berges.

The theme running throughout Manet's most famous paintings, like Le dejeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia, as well as the previously mentioned Le Bar aux Folies-Berges, is that of voyuerism.In Le dejeuner sur l'herbe, we are looking in on a situation that is pretty suggestive. The woman in the picture returns our gaze. In Olympia, we see a naked young woman, spread out on a divan. The suggestion is that she is a prostitute, and that we are about to be her next client. Le Bar aux Folies-Berges is less sexually suggestive, but still retainst the theme of voyeurism. We see a barmaid, standing behind the bar, with the curious flowers in her blouse.

It is this little detail that ties it to the shot in Le Ciudad de Sylvie and emphasizes the theme of voyeurism in the film (among others).

Why is this important? Many films have a theme of voyeurism.

The director, Jose Luis Guerin, has also professed an interest in Walter Benjamin. (As an aside, it is interesting to note that the main character is also a quintessential Flaneur). Benjamin suggested, as Brecht did, that art should not only try to affect an awareness and possible change of social relations in the audience, but also try and affect the medium itself. Guerin attempts this by focusing on the theme of voyeurism. Some parts of the film are mildly uncomfortable; we see the main character follow a woman through the streets.But we, as the audience, are also gazing at this woman, following her. Earlier in the film, we have gazed upon several other woman, along with the main character, looking for the elusive sylvie.

An interesting article here also discusses some other ideas:

The unnamed hero/stalker’s ambiguous, uncertain search even seems to touch the heart of the woman who has been trying to elude him, and she offers him a fleeting kiss as she gets off the tram. She remains iconic, the one to be pursued. As elegant as Guerín’s new film is(22) – and his films are always thought-provoking – this is no tale of Dante and Beatrice, despite the fact that the protagonist stays in a hotel named “Paradise”. If the artist/protagonist descends into hell – and the bar Les Aviateurs he revisits after his failed attempt to reconnect with “Sylvia” seems close to an inferno of shallow temptations – then he needs to continue his journey upwards, and not just in outward forms.