goes without saying that I consider Álex de la Iglesia best English filmmaker of his generation and his films, with all its irregularities, as a rule general interest me. However, this does not prevent me from recognizing that their most recent proposal, trumpet Sad Ballad (2010), I feel completely and utterly failed, I would to even say that this is a tremendous mistake by the director for bringing Bilbao addressed the way it has, apparently with an excess of precipitation, since it has come a film that aims acid and subversive and that is just firecrackers and broad brush, even though it is full, paradoxically, some noteworthy ideas. Put another way: Sad Ballad trumpet film is absurd, and as deranged and unbalanced as their characters, which, no doubt, be interpreted as a deliberate part of its writer and director, but that claim is not properly translated into images is one thing that the film takes the point of view of its protagonists crazy, right, and quite another to believe this view is taken by the insane filmmaker to the point of affecting the film's narrative structure and coherence of what we want to tell: the characters, in fact, may be crazy, and the director can show that madness, but without falling into the trap of assuming it as their own, if he really wants the viewer to perceive more than the delusions of a sick mind. Despite all this, and many other things that can (and should) sign in the balance of the negative, sad ballad trumpet is not an empty film: raising is interesting, sometimes long, but by Unfortunately, in my opinion the wrong account. And honestly, I regret the outcome of poverty not only because of the church interested me as a filmmaker, but also because trumpet Sad Ballad had enough elements with the potential to carry out with them a great movie. The very start of the film and shows, with clarity and consistency, some of the few most abundant virtues and defects of the new proposal of the director. Witnessing a violent episode in the English civil war (was there anyone who was not?) That starts with a circus representation carried out by two
clowns, a clown making a fool (Santiago Segura) and the other clown ready (Fofito), in the humble setting of a village being bombed by the Nationalists, the audience is mostly children, and clowns entertain strive to abstract the small risk of death around them, in a scene that keeps starting undoubted echoes of Ay, Carmela! (1990), the adaptation performed by Carlos Saura from famous homonymous play by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra. The tension of the moment reaches its climax with the arrival on the scene of an ardent militia captain (Fernando Guillen Cuervo), who recruits the silly clown force and all those who be able to wield a weapon to repel the attack of nationals, who have encircled the town. This leads to a battle which ended with the slaughter of the militants and the capture, along with other prisoners, silly clown, wounded in combat. If, in the positive balance, we noted the paradoxical situation that causes a man dressed as a clown and woman's wig looks a few minutes later, involved in a suicide charge against a superior enemy (which it does, well , machete in hand: "So I'll more fear," he blurts out the militia officer), this simple point-point-diluted under the weight of the effects of the decision of the sequence, which stifles this and any other suggestions for the benefit of impact-free: In the Church can shoot, sure, but planning for the battle, whose choreography leaves much to be desired and in line with the aesthetics instituted (like it or not) Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan (Saving Private Ryan, 1997) as well as the abuse of short assembly (quite unusual in De la Iglesia, and did not feel well), which will be present throughout the film, Input spoil the proposals in this boot is to strong and ends up being rather confusing. What to make of Samuel Fuller is best left for another day that one is more inspired. 
Pretty much said so here goes for the rest of the film, consistent as that in the approach to ideas with the possibility that the filmmaker will be responsible for systematically destroying the basis of underscores. Let us follow the evolution of the plot. Remember that silly clown has been taken prisoner by the national well, the character has a son, little Xavier, who visits his father shortly after the latter has been taken prisoner, does it again later, in the prison in which it is held, and, finally, attempts a desperate maneuver to escape from his father works inside the Valley of the Fallen (sic) where he is serving hard labor. The scene of the first conversation with the father prisoner has a pass, that is of rather more conventional: the man, still with the remains of their makeup and costumes and silly clown, tries to reassure your child that you are not going to happen , though you can be sure that it will not. The conversation in prison boasts the demagoguery that also will permeate the story at its worst: Javier tells his father he would like to be like him, a clown silly, but it replies that no, that is to be a sad clown, because he has "had a childhood ... , and has to survive based on a very specific motivation: revenge, it can be argued that what we want from the Church with this scene is to provide a parodic version of so many conversations "transcendental" between parent and child characteristics of traditional melodrama, or that is, in short, a cartoon in tune with what will come next, but either way, the result has no force or melodramatic (it does not thrill) or sarcastic (not fun). What about the crazy sequence of the parent rescue attempt by a teenager and Javier in the works of the Valley of the Fallen?: Apart from unlikely and resolved without grace, does else return to highlight the demagogic nature of the script: Franco is the officer who oversees the work, or passing by: it is unclear, "the Colonel Salcedo (Sancho Gracia), is the same that led the troops national battle of principle, the same which the silly clown accidentally sprayed with artificial tears (which causes easy joke, of course, since then the military-la-have-sworn), and self-care: SPOILER - that kills the fool and the clown which later was reunited adult Javier, chance ("chance" which is just another quirk of script) to apply what is known as poetic justice, but we will return to that ... 
The action represents an important time shift: we are now in Madrid in 1973. The adult and Javier (Carlos Areces) offers to work as the modest sad clown circus company that officially directs the ringmaster (Manuel Tejada: From the Church to restore good performers like character), but in practice is governed by the star of the circus: Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), who makes silly clown. In the same company working as a girl trapeze artist, Natalia (Carolina Bang), which is the lover Sergio. Conflict that will occur between these three characters is raised immediately and bluntly: Javier is peaceful, quiet, introverted and physically unattractive, while, conversely, Sergio is violent, loud and as explosive as a bomb burst, but nevertheless succeeds in making the-kids-will-worship. The sequence in which Sergio Javier presented him in the caravan the first is determined, again, with a broad brush: the cries of Sergio are opposed to the timidity of Javier, and again, he puts his demagoguery: a question Sergio Javier about why you want to be a clown, Javier replica 
why it is Sergio, and this answer: Because if it were not, would a murderer "" Me too , "said Javier, we must say in all honesty, that for a couple of seconds of the Church can create a dramatic tension in the crossing of looks of the characters in this very moment (Carlos Areces and, above all, Antonio de la Torre, who bears the inks with apparent awareness that embodies a character who is little more than a puppet, contributing to). Shortly before this scene, we saw Javier staying obsessed with the first appearance on screen of Natalia, which De la Iglesia ironically displayed in a "sublime" (though, in the background, is also very conventional): the beautiful girl appears hung upside down from the rope contrapicado exercises and lit by sunlight. Needless to add that Javier is also "hanging" of Natalia but she, as I indicated immediately (underlined), "already has an owner , which together with its brutal contrast to Sergio enough to sow the seeds of ( predictable) conflict. From that moment, the crux of the story revolves around the gradual sexual tension that exists between Javier and Natalia, and violent tension that is brought to turn from Javier and Sergio jealous. In the latter drawing displayed undoubted echoes of what is possibly the best De la Iglesia film, laughing Dead (1999), another crazy story about two comedians hate, though, and interestingly, trumpet Sad Ballad elliptically filmmaker resolves the majority of scenes in which Sergio, the role of clown silly, and Javier, the sad clown, share the stage at the circus where they work, save it, not particularly bright, in which there is an accident that nearly ended in tragedy when both are working with an elephant and a baby. 
The three-sided conflict between Javier, Sergio and Nancy could have given a lot more room on paper given that it costs too much to see in it a kind of symbolic representation of civil war or, if preferred, the infamous "two Spains", so that Alice would become the symbol of Republican Spain, or rather, the Spain of the vanquished (I do not think of the Church has wanted to raise the film in political terms), while it would be Sergio Franco's Spain, or put another way, the most ancient and carpetovetónica Spain, and Natalia could be understood as the personification of Spain itself, seen in its most "carnal" as the Iberian Peninsula "Geography" is competing for the representatives of the "two Spains", the "winner" and "losing" in a fratricidal war, and who share the desire to possess / fuck / host someone, as suggested in most a point in the story even though, alas, the Church does not dare to take it to its logical (trumpet Sad Ballad film is a more cautious than it sounds) in the background is a masochist who likes be owned / fucked / host. Thus, the debate between its two suitors Natalia seems to reflect in depth the tragedy of a Spain whose children are divided (and, I fear, remain divided) between tradition and modernity, old and new, locked in a battle of puppets or as presents from the Church of clowns in a seedy circus. An idea with possibilities, it is true that the director squanders first, under the weight of a script that is not supported by any side (note, let the absence of his usual co-writer Jorge Guerricaechevarría, who could have carried out the adjustments that, at first glance, such a script needed), but if it is true that the scripts are not always the best films of its director, but his characteristic sense of image and mood, that often helped him to overcome the irregular case more than one of his films, sad ballad trumpet ends up being the sad exception that proves the rule. is why it has many, many times when we have the sad feeling that the ferocity of the story is only a crude smokescreen to mitigate the dramatic and structural deficiencies of a plot that, besides being a utter nonsense is not on the job of staging their proper treatment filmmaker also crazy. I have said that De la Iglesia confused madness of the characters to display by staging, so to speak, too "crazy" in a poor overlap form and substance, far from enriching the film, it impoverishes alarmingly. The pace is very fast, in tune, presumably,
with mental and emotional turmoil of the characters, but the result is not exciting, but hit and confusing: there are times when there is little time to see some pretty pictures that, almost casually, you "escape" here and there our man because, despite everything, knows how to make movies: I note that time-warning: SPOILER - in which, having suffered brutal aggression by Javier, Sergio is transported to the vet (the only doctor who is near the place) ... Elephant riding circus and become a makeshift ambulance, or shortly after-care: SPOILER - the scene, determined outside the field of healing hasty face shattered by the veterinarian Sergio (Luis Varela) that if anything is shining through the provision, absolutely great, from the always excellent Terele Pávez in the role of the veterinarian's wife: the actress provided here accurate measurement of crudity, hyperbole and black humor that is missing, Unfortunately, the rest of the film. The problem is that pretending to be a grotesque and caricature work around crazy characters and also extreme, Sad Ballad trumpet ends up being a mere firework that neither depth nor takes advantage of raising, content to wallow in gratitude. The result is a film that is full of sequences "impact" that do not add anything relevant
to becoming the story: the most obvious example is the shameful sequence Javier first dinner with members of the circus company in the restaurant, during which then repeat for the umpteenth time, mood Sergio brutal, showing appalling jokes and giving a beating, one more, Natalia: the time in which intercourse with Natalia Sergio leaning against the moon the restaurant, while the other side of the glass is hidden a terrified Javier, is worth a sexy Italian comedy of the seventies in the service of Alvaro Vitali. There is even a scene from a supine stupidity, which seems even poorly assembled at the assembly table: one in which, seeing that a furious about Sergio, Javier can not think of a better place to hide the caravan Share the first with Natalia, which is at that moment in his underwear, and finally, Natalia and Javier just hiding together in a small compartment of the trailer, while the angry Sergio enters the vehicle made a fierce, well, the cut scene there, giving the impression that it had to be longer ... 
Thankfully, from the Church does not look with favor to none of the protagonists, rather than try to emphasize, with uneven success, the unfortunate nature of the character of Javier, pathos Sergio in the fiend (scene where she cries in the street for now, his face distorted, children no longer want), and the condition of Natalia male victim of abuse. Ultimately, Javier and Sergio, and to a lesser extent Natalia, are monsters, and what happens to them merely be highlighting its monstrosity (warning: SPOILERS ): Javier end up giving free rein their long-suppressed violent impulses destroying the face of Sergio and his own (see how to "makeup" always a clown, with the help of a facelift with caustic soda and a hot iron applied to her cheeks and lips) , and the new face of Sergio will become a kind of externalization of his inner monster. But the problem, big problem Sad Ballad trumpet is that this monstrosity, this sinister farce, wants to be both an indirect reflection of an era Crazy also "monstrous" and "apayasada" of the last gasps of Franco, viewed by many references to popular culture the time (the No-Do, Eurovision, the Tele Clowns, Kojak, Fraga bath in Palomares, television appearances of Torcuato Fernandez Miranda 
and Arias Navarro, etc., etc.). And not only fails, but when you try to force the parallel, more ideas emerge then missed the whole (warning: SPOILERS ): the insufferable block in which, as already mentioned a few lines ago, a fugitive Javier Sergio justice after attack and have been hiding in the woods, going into the hands of Colonel Salcedo, the murderer of his father (which, of course, will take revenge ...), and ends with a reference to one of the famous hunting Francisco Franco and the obvious joke of the moment in which Javier bites the hand of the Generalissimo (John Viadas), the sequence in the film Free showing the film a movie starring Raphael - Without a goodbye (1970), by Vicente Escrivá - in which the popular singer is singing, clown makeup, also, the song Sad Ballad trumpet film's title of de la Iglesia, or the moment when, in full pursuit of his beloved Natalia, Javier ends up being privileged witness to nothing less than the assassination of Carrero Blanco (is priceless, again by a demagogue, that fleeting moment in which the insane Javier encountered with murderers ETA car fleeing the scene of the attack and asked: "And you what circus are you? "). The climax of the function-care: SPOILER important - takes place on stage at the Valley of the Fallen, not so much to close circular narrative as to give rise to one of those pompous resolutions so dear to De the Church and we must recognize that, although in its general nonsense that stretches beyond what is necessary (see, without going any further, the painful episode and dispensable starring the acrobatic circus rider), the sequence does gala in certain moments not only the technical expertise of Bilbao, but also the odd juicy point, but also lacking in development: the interior of the infamous memorial is full of skulls "fallen" (sic), which gives
these scenes a fleeting but funny macabre atmosphere reminiscent of butchers cave Texans The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper, 1986). It is the only reference that can be targeted: Tim Burton takes the cake in terms of winks, both in regard to the circus atmosphere (more burtoniana that Fellinian) as to the decoration of the Casa del Terror amusement park-there are some echoes of that of Ed Wood (idem, 1994) - the sad clown scary design-Carlos Areces, with burns and their guns, it seems one of the clowns that appeared in Batman again (Batman Returns, 1992) - and some moments at the top of the cross the Valley of the Fallen "vaguely reminiscent abandoned cathedral Batman (idem, 1989) - after passing by Mount Rushmore With death on the heels (North by Northwest, 1959, Alfred Hitchcock). But none of this would matter, would be even less, if the film containing those references would have been up to its promise. THIS CONCLUDES MY COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG ENTRIES FOR THE YEAR 2010. ME IS JUST WANT TO READERS THAT HAVE PATIENCE TO HOLD MY SANTA musings (AND NOT TOO) A HAPPY NEW YEAR. BY HERE WE SEE IN 2011 .
Moonrise (1948), Frank Borzage, for which start by saying: "Without knowing myself thickness of his films-that very few people should know in its entirety: it covers over a hundred films shot between 1913 and 1961 - and given that this is a movie I've seen (short) recently in this moment should not hesitate to include "Moonrise" among the masterpieces of Frank Borzage . " 
The Lineup (1958), " one of the first films of Don Siegel police in which better perceived influence of" western "and a sort of sneak preview of some of his greatest contributions after police led by the so-called agents law and order. " 
The review of Mao's Last Dancer (Mao's Last Dancer, 2010), Bruce Beresford, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 2010), Michael Apted, and Tron: Legacy (idem, 2010), Joseph Kosinski, complete my work for this issue of the magazine. 
