Vet Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura (1932-2023), whose films often feel like officially sanctioned gateways into modern (post-Franco) Spanish culture, ready for some putative World’s Fair exhibit, tossed his dog-eared Iberian Baudecker away to good effect for one of his strongest films, a ghastly true-crime inspired tale of family feuds in the isolated town of Extremadura. (Per Saura, the characters and situations fictionalized, the crimes all too accurate.) More Hatfield & McCoy than Capulet & Montague, the conflict began a few generations back with contested land rights, but heated up in the 1990s with the seduction (and quick abandonment) of a girl across family lines. Poached by a handsome young stud, it proved mere appetizer to tit-for-tat stabbings, arson, and shootings. Horrifically believable escalation, beautifully organized by Saura in a take-no-prisoners cascade of folly, madness & pointless death grudges. And in a sleepy town peopled with tourist friendly archetypes. But a closer look shows the country clan failing on the land and the village family now anxious to move to a big city after the father survives a stabbing and his jailed attacker slips toward insanity. The end, when it comes, seven times worse than expected. The film, twice as good.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Saura stylishly opens with museum-quality monochrome stills of the countryside before bringing in color. It gives a timeless quality that makes you wonder how this might have played if he’d stuck to b&w.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Since this plays like a modern Greek Tragedy, do like the Greeks and have a comic chaser, something farcical on the same subject. Another Hatfields & McCoys tale? Buster Keaton’s feature debut, OUR HOSPITALITY/’23, just the thing. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/01/our-hospitality-1923.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The two murdering brothers look a lot like Eli Wallach (but thicker) and Anthony Quinn (but leaner). Act like them, too.
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