DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - LAKE TAHOE
1. Why do you think the film is titled LAKE TAHOE?
2. Discuss the visual tone of the film. Why do think Fernando Eimbcke and cinematographer Alexis Zabé chose to shoot nearly all of the film in wide, static frames? What were the only scenes in which the camera moved? What effect did the movement have on those scenes?
3. Don Heber’s dog is named Sica, an homage to the Italian neorealist director Vittorio de Sica. In what ways do you think LAKE TAHOE was influenced by Italian neorealist cinema?
4. How does Juan change throughout the film? How is this change reflected in his relationships with the other characters?
5. After losing her own mother, co-writer Paula Markovitch wrote: “How could that be, that everything had changed so much, and at the same time, that nothing had changed?” Do you think LAKE TAHOE expresses this duality?
6. David’s mother reads Juan a passage from the Bible at the breakfast table. What is the significance of this passage?
7. A major theme of the film is escape. In what ways was set design and art direction employed to express this theme?