LITTLE ASHES
UK, 2008, 112 minutes, Colour.
Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson, Matthew Mc Nulty.
Directed by Paul Morrison.
Here is a film about the early adult years of poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca, and the eccentric artist, Salvador Dali. Film director Luis Bunuel also appears in many of the sequences, their friend, falling out with them, and a reconciliation with Lorca before Lorca’s death.
The film was directed by Paul Morrison, a psychiatrist, who went into documentary film-making and made some feature films including Solomon and Gaynor, in Welsh, a nominee for best foreign language film for the Oscars. It was a Romeo and Juliet-style love story set in a Welsh village. He then directed a warm-hearted film about anti-Semitism in London in the 1960s as well as the plight of migrants from Jamaica. It was also about cricket, Wondrous Oblivion, with Delroy Lindo.
This film is very different. It was lushly photographed in Spanish settings. The dialogue is in English although some of Lorca’s poems are spoken in Spanish with an English voice-over.
The film recreates the atmosphere in Madrid in the early 1920s, the young intellectuals, their sense of revolution against church, government, military dominance. This was to bring Lorca into great difficulty with the government during the 1930s, his socialist sympathies, his being arrested and executed during the Spanish civil war.
The film recreates the artistic atmosphere as well as going out into the beautiful Spanish countryside of the north as well as Andalusia where Garcia Lorca came from.
Javier Beltran, who had appeared only in a Spanish television series, is quite persuasive as Garcia Lorca. He is pensive, creative. However, gradually he becomes aware of his sexual orientation and his love for Salvador Dali which was rejected. (Dali in his later years admitted to some kind of relationship with Garcia Lorca, an ambiguous confession, which forms the basis for the screenplay of this film.) Luis Bunuel was well known as condemning homosexuality and his critique of Garcia Lorca.
Robert Pattinson (from the Harry Potter films and Twilight) portrays Dali in a most interesting way, his complete self-absorption, his eccentricities, his vanity as well as his creativity. While the film focuses on his ambiguous relationship with Garcia Lorca, it shows the influence of Bunuel in taking him to Paris (where they collaborated on Bunuel’s famous short film, Un Chien Andalou), his marriage to the Russian Gala and the intimations of his subsequent career.
Bunuel, however, while in the film is more on the periphery than the playwright and the artist.
The film moves into the 1930s with the rumblings for civil war, the consequences for Garcia Lorca, his taking his plays to the people and their public performances and the popular support for his work. It is a tragedy that he was abducted so quickly and at the beginning of the civil war and his immediate influence ended. However, his reputation lives on. Dali and Bunuel, because they lived longer and created a greater body of work, are much better known than Garcia Lorca.
1.Audience knowledge of Garcia Lorca, Dali, Bunuel? The atmosphere of Spain in the 1920s and 30s?
2.The reputation of Garcia Lorca in his time, his plays, his poetry? The influence of his popular productions? Social comment? Later reputation? Dali, the beginnings of his art, his eccentricities and vanity? Bunuel and his beginnings in cinema, Un Chien Andalou?
3.Spain and the introductory comments about the church, government and the army? The rise of fascism? Censorship? Uprisings leading to the civil war? The history of Spain in the early 20th century?
4.The settings, Madrid and the city, the students’ world and the artists’? The countryside of the north and its beauty? Andalusia? The countryside? Poetic photography of its beauty?
5.The inserts of Paris, the Moulin Rouge, the collage of Dali’s activity in Paris?
6.The world of cinema, using newsreel clips of the period, film clips? Clips of Paris in the 30s? The clips from the civil war? The clips from Un Chien Andalou? Showing Dali’s style?
7.The portrait of Garcia Lorca, a sympathetic person, his personality, as a writer, imaginative, his social life, his personal life, the discovery of his sexual orientation? His change with the rejection by Dali? His work from the 20s into the 30s? His social commitment?
8.The portrait of Dali: young, eccentric, vain, self-centred, the nature of his art, his relationship with his friends, his friendship with Federico, the bond between them, sharing, love, Dali saying he was unable to respond, Bunuel and his friendship, his condemnation of Lorca, his taking Dali to Paris, Dali’s success? His affectations, manner, accent, speaking French? His marriage to Gala? The return to Spain, his dismissal of Spain at art? His work, wanting to be apolitical? The meeting with Federico, his rejection of him, the impact of Federico’s death?
9.The sketch of Bunuel: the 1920s, his friends, sceptical attitudes, critique, his friendship with Garcia Lorca, taking Dali to Paris? His influence, the film? His going back to Spain, signing the document in support of Garcia Lorca? Bunuel’s future? Away from Spain? Finally returning in the 60s and 70s?
10.The group, their age, young, enthusiastic, revolutionary, the attitude towards the status quo in Spain, creative in the arts, the artistic movements of the time, surrealism, Dadaism? The influence on Dali? Their growing up, getting jobs, relationships, opportunities, their stances in Spain, politically? Beyond Spain?
11.Federico and Andalusia, his poetry, his dramas, his belief in God, the family and his visits? Dali and the holiday in Andalusia, sharing, joy? The lyrical scene of the swimming and their affection for each other? Garcia Lorca with Dali in the north? Federico’s reserve, sexuality, Bunuel and his talk, going to the haunt of the homosexual men, the encounter, his brutal kicking of the gay man? His friendship with Magdalena, her love for him? Her coming to the room, drunk, the sexual encounter, Dali watching and his behaviour? Federico hurt? Dali’s vanity, leaving and the effect on Federico? Writing him letters, the passing of eight years? Federico’s activity and politics, his speech about freedom, Bunuel signing the document? Dali returning, Federico meeting Gala, their talking, Dali’s vanity, his proposing to work with Lorca? Lorca’s final comment about Dali as a genius? Federico’s sense of duty, family?
12.The return home, playing the piano, his family, the brutal abduction, Federico in prison, being taken out, blindfolded, the young execution squad, the shooting of the hostages, Lorca’s death, not immediately dying, the contempt in the man saying ‘Queer’?
13.Dali’s character, his later appearance (and the growing of the moustache and cultivating it), his façade, the nature of his art?
14.Magdalena, the women in the group, her love for Federico, her frustration, getting a job with the paper, her drinking, the sexual advance, her later reaction, supporting him in the 1930s?
15.The civil war, the images and their meaning?
16.The group listening to the radio, the news of Federico’s death, Dali and his painting in black, grief?
17.The poetic aspects of the film, the whispers with the views of the crops? The beginning of the end? Garcia Lorca’s comment about contributing little ashes?
18.A film of portraits, backgrounds, insight?
