Take the most colorful, surreal Chanel #5 commercial imaginable and crank up the weirdness by about 300% and you’ll come close to approximating Miguel Crespi Traveria’s truly bizarre Spanish short “Puta de Oros.” The plot concerns a trendy young man who rents himself out for social events, only to wind up victimized by the hypocrisy of having to hire a guest. I paraphrased that from the program, because there’s no way in hell I would ever have gleaned that from this flashy collage of sights and sounds. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Maybe it’s my general ambivalence toward “art films.” Whatever the reason, “Puta de Oros” just didn’t make any sense. Was it colorful and pretty to watch? Sure. Was it shocking and outrageous? You bet. Especially the nude jumping jacks scene in a public plaza. But was it a good movie? Not in a narrative sense. But throw in some product shots and it could pass as the most colorful, surreal Chanel #5 commercial imaginable.
