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Reviews
Elisa y Marcela (2019)
Remarkable
A beatifully shot and crafted film, as one has come to expect from Isabel Coixet, but also a brave one, one that in addition seems to defy the increasingly conservative trend towards what's dealt with (and shown) in maintream movies and what is not (paraphrasing Sir Elton John's recent remark on his biopic, life is not meant to be pg-13!). The following might qualify as spoiler: I would have switched the roles between the actresses, as perhaps Greta Fernández would have looked more convincing as a man. As she is, however, I find her the more interesting actress. Coixet assigns her the role of Marcela, portrayed at first as a rather naive character promptly and easily seduced by the more assertive Elisa (portrayed by an also magnificent Natalia de Molina), but subtly (yet without pause) she develops Marcela into the more forceful of the couple and the one who makes the ultimate sacrifices for their love, as is not only purposefully falling pregnant to facilitate their getting away with their "marriage" facing the town's folk but also surrendering her newborn daughter to the portuguese thitherto childless couple that facilitates their trip to South America, where they will find refuge and peace in a remote location in Argentina. The big question Ana, Marcela's left behind daughter, poses to her biological mother upoin their encounter, many years later, of whether the whole affair and scandal was worth the effort, remains with a somewhat ambiguous reply, and I think Coixet does that on purpose as this is no fairy tale. Yes, they were left finallly in peace in the remoteness of Argentina's Patagonian regions, but what Ana finds is a couple of rather lonely oldish women, cut off from the world, Marcela a probable heavy drinker, who as time went by might have drifted somewhat apart but remained together as they had no other recourse. Neither of them could return to Spain or Portugal due to a threat of incarceration, and if they went to a more populated area in Argentina they might have faced a similar fate. Remember the action takes place in the beginning of the 20th century, in a Spain where a civil registry did not exist until the 1930's and where the Catholic Church had a heavy presence, especially in the province where Elisa and Marcela met, rural Galicia. Not an easy choice then, not an easy ending.
Horay then for Isabel Coixet, a film maker one has grown to respect more and more over the years, and thumbs up to her two valiant protagonists.
Knight of Cups (2015)
There's still someone out there making meaningful movies
In this generally fatuous and superficial era, a movie like this will provoke utter rejection, the general public loading it with epithets like "slow", "static", "needlessly long", "abstract", "pedantic and pretentious" and so forth. And all those it may well be if movie watching is reduced to seeing endless motor car chases, gun shots, piles and piles of blood, meaningless and gratuitous violence (the pornography of violence), serial killers and law- ignoring policemen. Nothing of the sort is present in this beautifully shot and largely improvisationally acted, but immensely thought-provoking, meaningful study on the angst and concerns of a man amidst his middle age crisis.
Of course, this is not the kind of movie you will play when you've just arrived home from a hard day of work, but if you focus on it from the right perspective and mindset you'll have a very rewarding experience.
Bravo Terrence Malick, that there's a man from within the Hollywood machine brave enough to make a movie like this in such an environment is heartening indeed.
Carlos, Rey Emperador (2015)
Very good historical show
TVE kind of continue their successful "Isabel" series with this one on her grandson Charles, known in Spain as King Charles I and in Austria/Germany as Emperor Charles V (whence the series name, Charles King & Emperor). They decided to jump ahead some 25 years after Queen Isabella's death, leaving Joan the Mad's reign aside and going straight on to Charles's arrival in Spain from Flanders, where he had grown. The series is very well made, although of course TVE don't seem to have the seemingly limitless budget of, say, HBO's Game of Thrones (which has nothing to do with this one on Emperor Charles V, but doubtlessly budgetary restrictions do impose some restrictions). Charles's reign was one of not only significant turmoil in continental Europe, but also the real beginning of Spain's conquest of the Americas, so he had quite a lot in his hands, from Luther in Germany to revolt in Castile (where he was seen by many local noblemen as some kind of foreign usurper) to the conquest enterprise. Each chapter is thus followed by a supplementary programme called "Charles's world", in which what was seen in that day's chapter is commented on by historians, TVE's staff and the actors themselves and thus illuminates further what the viewer has just seen and not only history-wise. I would urge viewers in the non-Spanish speaking world to pressure their cable or satellite TV providers to incorporate this series, or in the case of regular broadcasting, the likes of the BBC, the CBC, the ABC or PBS to air this show, a great example of what TV should be like.