Three distinct elements make up the art of flamenco: guitar, song, and dance.
Similarly, three extraordinary movies make up a new Eclipse Series Blu-ray box set from the Criterion Collection, highlighting the historic collaboration between Spanish dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades and film director Carlos Saura. Working together in the early 1980s, the duo took a traditional Spanish style and framed it onscreen in an entirely new way.
Flamenco’s roots date back to the 18th century, and by the turn of the 20th, European artists and composers were widely embracing its passionate, folkloric style. The dance fell out of favor again after facing heavy criticism from both the Catholic Church, and intellectuals who thought it too representative of old ways. It wasn’t until the 1950s that flamenco was aggressively revived, largely because Spain needed an economic boost and international tourists were hungry for exotic flair.
By 1978, it was undeniable that the art form had turned a corner when Spain’s national ballet was founded with a flamenco dancer as its artistic director — Antonio Gades.
Watching the three films in this new set, it’s fascinating to see how Gades — who stars in all three alongside the brilliant Cristina Hoyos — fuses the stomping, rhythmic power of flamenco with the weightless grace of ballet.
Blood Wedding (1981)
Saura’s first film in the “flamenco trilogy,” Blood Wedding, is based on the famous play by Federico García Lorca. It is a breathtaking piece of filmmaking, particularly during a climatic duet and dance of death between Gades and Juan Antonio Jiménez. The performers hold themselves so steady that they create the illusion of slow-motion photography, all while performing in real time.
Blood Wedding is stylized as a dress rehearsal inside a dance studio. While the camera moves gracefully around the room, Saura would push the visual boundaries even further in his next collaboration with Gades.
Carmen (1983)
Inspired by both the Prosper Mérimée novel and the famous Georges Bizet opera, 1983's Carmen again finds Gades playing a choreographer casting a balletic production of the classic story. Here, life begins to imitate art when he falls in love with his star pupil—conveniently named Carmen and played by Laura del Sol.
A highlight of the movie comes during a rehearsal of the famous tobacco factory scene, transformed here into an electrifying dance battle between Carmen and her rival, Cristina (Cristina Hoyos).
The camera follows the dancers in packs as they race back and forth across the floor. It circles Carmen and Cristina, until Carmen suddenly grabs a knife. When Texas Public Radio screened this movie for our local audience a few years ago, there were more than a few audible gasps in the theater. It remains an amazing sequence in a movie that seamlessly breaks down the walls between fantasy and reality.
El Amor Brujo (1986)
The third film in the trilogy, El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician), is also framed as taking place on a soundstage, but the artifice is quickly forgotten as the ballet’s complex love quadrangle plays out.
Based on the music of Manuel de Falla, the movie injects unique, contemporary 1980s flourishes — such as the sister duo Azúcar Moreno performing a synth-pop tune during a wedding sequence.
More than anything, De Falla’s legendary orchestral score (conducted by Jesús López Cobos) is presented here with a soloist that has a much gutsier, raw singing style than a traditional mezzo-soprano voice. This choice pulls the music right out of the concert hall and drags it back to the gritty, folkloric roots of flamenco, giving me an entirely new appreciation for De Falla’s work.
Throughout all three of these films, the stories are dramatic with a capital D—full of jealous lovers, ghostly apparitions, sudden violence, and a brilliant blurring of the lines between stagecraft and reality. The physical interpretation of these themes is mesmerizing. Decades after their initial release, it is easy to find yourself admiring the sinewy bodies, poise, and rhythmic vitality of Carlos Saura’s masterful Flamenco Trilogy.
