Flamenco
dir Carlos Saura
with Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar, Joaquin Cortes, Farruco,
Farruquito, Mario Maya, Matilde Coral, Enrique Morente,
Jose Merce, Merche Esmeralda, Jose Menese, Manuela Carrasco
95/Spain
Review by Rich Cline
Made in 1995 but only now getting a British release, Flamenco is a precursor to Saura's 1998 stunner Tango. Only where Tango wove a cleverly layered story into its examination of tango music and Argentine history, this film simply presents various styles of flamenco music straight to camera. Like a 98-minute music video, it moves from one minimalist setting to the next with coloured lights, flamboyant costumes and lots of performers.
And it's not terribly gripping if, like me, you know nothing about flamenco. Without a story, you merely have the singing, dancing and guitar playing to hold your interest. Sure, these are the world's top musicians and dancers, old and young, and Saura as usual has some intriguing visual tricks up his sleeve. But the film simply never grabs the uneducated audience ... and it leaves us just as oblivious at the end as we were at first. This isn't a documentary--no information whatsoever is presented--it's a performance piece. Experimental, colourful, vaguely interesting. And rather dull.
[U] 6.Jul.00
US release 25.Apr.97; UK release 7.Jul.00
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