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Thursday, August 29, 2024

EL 7º DÍA / THE 7th DAY (2004)

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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