The lonely road to 'Eldorado'

If there's ever a movie version of Samuel Beckett's classic Absurdist tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot,” it should be set in southern Belgium, with its flat fields and deserted rural intersections. And the characters should be speaking French.

While we're waiting for that ... the recent independent film “Eldorado” probably will hold us over.

“Eldorado” will be shown Thursday night at 7 in the Historic Yuma Theatre, 254 S. Main St. Admission is $5.

The screening, part of Arizona Western College's “Thursdays at the Theatre” (formerly the Sun Cinema Series), includes an independent short film and a hosted discussion. Language is French with English subtitles. Run time of the feature is 81 minutes

Hope & Crosby this ain't

Yvan is a paunchy, disheveled 40-something who makes a living importing vintage American cars. He comes home one evening to find his home ransacked and the inept burglar hiding under the bed.

Instead of handing this skinny young guy over to the cops, though, Yvan surprisingly agrees to drive him to his parents' house over by the French border in his '79 Chevy station wagon. From their awkward conversations along the way, it turns out that Elie, as he calls himself, is a recently reformed junkie.

Of course the road home is never straight. Our Laurel and Hardy pair will have car trouble, they'll get drowsy and drive off the road, and they'll wind up sleeping in a deserted caravan park.

Open-air asylum

In this film, which has been called a combination Western/road picture/buddy movie, we actually meet only a dozen or so characters, and then only two or three at a time. Often those characters appear small against a wide, still landscape - perhaps symbolizing our inherent isolation.

And the often-absurd encounters never go quite as we might expect - a sort of cross between “O Brother, Where Art Thou” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”

One old guy, who collects cars that have been in fatal mishaps with pedestrians, wants to get drunk with them and tell their morbid fortunes. Another old nudist, who calls himself Alain Delon after the popular French actor, acts the Good Samaritan.

There's a gas-station attendant who can't be bothered to mind the store. Then there are Elie's parents…

Still waiting

The writer-director, Bouli Lanners, casts himself in the starring role as the gruff but trusting Yvan. Reportedly he got the idea from a personal experience.

The original soundtrack involves mainly an echoing blues guitar that parallels the isolation of the landscape. Many of the settings are starkly beautiful and remind us more of Montana than of Western Europe.

The pacing of the scenes is brisk, and the script avoids cliché and thwarts our expectations at every twist in the road. We're reminded that life isn't always predictable, or even explainable.

“Eldorado” is an existential trip worth taking.