Our series of exclusive reviews from Raindance comes to a close with two final reviews by two of our correspondents who saw Little Ashes last week. The first review was enthusiastically written by Elaine as the second review was written by Cilla, who had such zeal to see Little Ashes that she traveled all the way to London from Australia to see it! Despite our conclusion of reviews, we have more Raindance coverage to reveal. Stay tuned!

 - - - 

 - - -

[ From left: Philippa Goslett, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gattel and Paul Morrison with Raindance director, Elliot Grove, during Q and A. Photo by: Xavier Rashid ]

 The year is 1922....

This is where Paul Morrison's adaptation of Philippa Goslett's screenplay begins. Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel already are friends in this version of events, when the young and flamboyantly dressed Salvador Dali joins them at University. His tendency to get himself noticed is targeted at these friends and the attraction from Garcia Lorca toward Dali is almost immediate.

Little Ashes is beautifully shot against an amazing soundtrack, not least the scene when Garcia Lorca and Dali are together in Cadaques. The underwater scene was shot like a beautifully choreographed dance and it's hard to believe that the whole movie was shot in 6 weeks. Goslett admits that the events portrayed in the movie happened over several years in reality and she took a degree of artistic license in making it appear that they happened over a matter of months.

I found the whole movie totally absorbing and the inclusion of segments of Garcia Lorca's poems being read throughout the movie adds a depth and poignancy to it.

I believed the actors in their roles. Robert Pattinson played the part of the exhibitionist Dali fantastically convincingly, Matthew McNulty played a brilliantly homophobic Buñuel, but the show was stolen completely by the leading man, Javier Beltran as Lorca. The passion he felt oozed from the screen.

Click READ MORE to see Cilla's review!

When I went all the way to London to watch the Little Ashes premiere at the Raindance Film Festival from the "Land Down Under," I thought I was just there to watch Robert Pattinson's most brilliant performance to date. Although I am a huge fan of Pattinson's, and I'm still convinced that his portrayal of Salvador Dali in Little Ashes is one of his most outstanding performances, I am pleased to say that Little Ashes delivers a lot more than what I expected.

Little Ashes focuses on the tragic but extraordinary life of the Andalusian poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Lorca died when he was 38, tragically murdered because of his left-wing convictions during the Spanish Civil War. Little Ashes highlighted the most important and interesting part of his life, when he was a young student in Madrid, forming lifelong relationships with filmmaker Luis Buñuel and the world-renowned Surrealist painter Dali. Soon after their meeting, Lorca realized that he was attracted to Dali in a way he wasn't supposed to and he struggled with this fact for quite a while. Eventually, after noticing a slight encouragement from Dali, he succumbed to his desire and they began to form a relationship.

Little Ashes has a number of graphic but beautifully shot scenes between Dali and Lorca. My favorite one is probably the choreographed swimming scene on the lake under the moonlight, accompanied by Miguel Mera's poignant composition.Dali and Lorca's bodies were beautifully intertwined, and there was so much conveyed by their movements and facial expressions without any actual exchange of words between them.

I left the theater feeling breathless and captivated - eager to watch the movie all over again. The movie was beautiful, intense and deeply moving - just like Lorca's poems and Dali's paintings.

All the center performances deserve thumbs up - especially Javier Beltran, who played the central character of the movie with the precise combination of sadness and youthful idealism. He made me want to lay my hands on anything I could find on Lorca. And I did buy a book of Lorca's poetry titled Ode to Walt Whitman the following day. Last but definitely not least, I must also mention Pattinson, the main reason of why I desperately wanted to see Little Ashes. Through the details of his mannerisms, he successfully showed us how Dali developed from the shy and awkward student at the Resedencia de Estudiantes into the eccentric painter and massive personality that he was in his later years. He definitely deserves to be labeled as one of Hollywood's most promising young actors, and I can't wait to see what he's going to do next.

[ In photo: Marina Gattel and Carlo Dusi. Photo by: Xavier Rashid ]

Comments

B

i

u

Quote

Code

List

List item

URL

Name *
Email (For verification & Replies)
URL
Code   
ChronoComments by Joomla Professional Solutions

Submit Comment