FLAMENCO, FLAMENCO (Carlos Saura). 96 minutes. Opens Friday (June 29). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Carlos Saura has always used dance as an element of his filmmaking his breakout films Blood Wedding, Carmen and El Amor Brujo are informally known as the Flamenco Trilogy. And every now and then he just shoots people dancing.
Flamenco, Flamenco returns to the territory of Saura’s 1995 performance documentary, Flamenco. It’s just a collection of flamenco performances shot against massive backdrops inspired by paintings (and, in one scene, movie posters), increasing in complexity as the film goes on.
There are moments of striking beauty – six shrouded women dancing to Marcha Procesional against a painted sunset is a particular highlight – but mostly it’s just the same thing over and over again. The picture fades up, a text block tells us what number we’re about to see, and that number is performed. Fade to black, fade up to the next number. You get the idea.
Now, if you want to spend an hour and a half watching flamenco performances on a big screen, presented in rich colour and robust Dolby Digital sound, this is essential cinema. You’re also likely to be more forgiving of Saura’s eccentricities, like having a dancer walk up to the camera after a performance, or framing another dancer from head to hips while she performs some particularly elaborate footwork.
Me? Not so much. But I’m not the target audience.