Never read anything about this film, so when it showed on cable, I decided to see it. The idea of making theatre in the streets seemed an interesting idea. To bring drama to the masses, in that environment, is to be commended.
Approaching Achero Manas' picture, without having any background to the history behind it, doesn't make much sense to an ordinary viewer. Maybe to audiences in Spain, it might resonate, or at least, given the publicity surrounding some of its most daring pieces, they could bring a proximity, which to me, seemed illusive, at best.
First of all, the group, as I gathered, was active in Madrid in the past. We see Alfredo organizing his troupe of actors, then we are given glimpses of some of their work in the center of the city. The director brings another dimension by adding an explanation as to why things worked, or didn't, and its ultimate demise, by presenting actors, mostly in their 50s or older, talking directly to the camera telling us about their experiences when they were young. If we are to believe them, it would have put the action as having taken place in the 60s, in a Spain where Franco still dominated and most of the actions of the Noviembre group would not have occurred, and not in the recent past. If the director wanted to add this sort of device, he would have achieved more reality by presenting the same actors we see, throughout the film, as part of the Noviembre group, doing the explanations.
Some of the Noviembre theater pieces aren't even interesting! One wonders what was the big deal about them. Maybe the fact that it was never done in Spain? In other western countries, where street performances happen on a daily basis, these performances they did, seem very tame and pointless. Only their piece about the assault to apparently innocent bystanders have any real punch, the rest, doesn't amount to much.
Unfortunately this Spanish film seems to have been made for only a few, that knew the in joke, not for the rest of us outside of Spain.
Approaching Achero Manas' picture, without having any background to the history behind it, doesn't make much sense to an ordinary viewer. Maybe to audiences in Spain, it might resonate, or at least, given the publicity surrounding some of its most daring pieces, they could bring a proximity, which to me, seemed illusive, at best.
First of all, the group, as I gathered, was active in Madrid in the past. We see Alfredo organizing his troupe of actors, then we are given glimpses of some of their work in the center of the city. The director brings another dimension by adding an explanation as to why things worked, or didn't, and its ultimate demise, by presenting actors, mostly in their 50s or older, talking directly to the camera telling us about their experiences when they were young. If we are to believe them, it would have put the action as having taken place in the 60s, in a Spain where Franco still dominated and most of the actions of the Noviembre group would not have occurred, and not in the recent past. If the director wanted to add this sort of device, he would have achieved more reality by presenting the same actors we see, throughout the film, as part of the Noviembre group, doing the explanations.
Some of the Noviembre theater pieces aren't even interesting! One wonders what was the big deal about them. Maybe the fact that it was never done in Spain? In other western countries, where street performances happen on a daily basis, these performances they did, seem very tame and pointless. Only their piece about the assault to apparently innocent bystanders have any real punch, the rest, doesn't amount to much.
Unfortunately this Spanish film seems to have been made for only a few, that knew the in joke, not for the rest of us outside of Spain.