The Old Memory (1978) User Reviews

A classical documentary about Spanish Civil War

[Francisco Aguilar · 10/10 · 6 January 2000]

This is an excellent interviewees-film about the opinions and memories of the different participants (winners and losers) of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). According to the classical documentary format -which in a way I imagine this film help to fix-, it collect the facts that took place above all in Barcelona at the very beginnings of the war, and the montage is made in a way that you can see a fictitious dialogue between politicians of different parties and wings. The historical truth is, of course, impossible to seize and eventually you keep the impression that reality itself escapes from you. No fiction picture can do the same as well as the good documentary ones, including "Roger and me" (Michel Moore,1989), "Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie" (Marcel Ophuls, 1989) or the films by Fred Wiseman. I must say that the length of the film (around 4 hours) is similar to some of them. And every part of it it's as exciting and informative as the best, I can assure you!