El mar (2000)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.2/10   

Director:

Agustí Villaronga

Escritores:

Antoni Aloy (writer)
Blai Bonet (novel)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

14 abril 2000 (Spain)

Género:

Drama

Plot:

Two boys (Ramallo and Manuel) and a girl in the Spanish Civil War are involved in the death of other two boys...

Plot Keywords:

Nun | Spanish Civil War | Animal Abuse | Bloody Body Of Child | Civil War

Premios:

2 wins & 5 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Gay slasher flick meets St. Clare of Assisi

Reparto

Roger Casamajor	...	Ramallo
Bruno Bergonzini	...	Manuel
Antònia Torrens	...	Sor Francisca
Hernán González	...	Galindo
Juli Mira	...	Don Eugeni
Simón Andreu	...	Alcántara
Ángela Molina	...	Carmen
David Lozano	...	Manuel Tur
Nilo Mur	...	Andreu Ramallo
Tony Miquel Vanrell	...	Paul Inglada
Victoria Verger	...	Sor Francisca
Sergi Moreno	...	Julià Ballester
Lorenzo Santamaría	...	Falangista (as Llorenç Santamaría)
Maria del Mar Bonet	...	Mare Manuel
Blai Llopis	...	Pare Manuel

También conocida como:

The Sea (International: English title)

Duración:

107 min

País:

Spain

Idioma:

Catalan

Color:

Color

Clasificación:

Argentina:16 | France:U | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | UK:18

Gay slasher flick meets St. Clare of Assisi

I'm studying Catalan, and was delighted to find El Mar, a movie with mostly Catalan dialogue, at my art-house video store.

Hmmm... not so delighted to have seen it.

Yes, as other reviewers have said, it's well-made, and beautifully photographed. Although the opening sequence of the children is shockingly violent, it's well-acted and convincing. (For the most part, that is... Would the Mallorquins strip a corpse in preparation for burial right in the middle of the town square, in full view of the dead man's 10-year-old boy?) Oh, well... minor detail. Up to this point, it had something of the feel of a non-magical Pan's Labyrinth, also set in the Spanish Civil War.

Fast-forward, and the three children who survived the opening incident have come of age. Francisca is a nun working at a tuberculosis sanatorium and the two boys, Manuel and Ramallo, both are patients. I know, but hey, coincidences happen.

The problem, as with so many Spanish movies (apologies to Almodovar fans), is that with one exception (Francisca) the characters are just so dang *weird*. Their motivations, personalities, and dialogue are often simply incoherent.

What's more, it descends into some horrific wretched excess. Be prepared for LOTS of pain and LOTS of blood. The reviewer who called it a "potboiler" is quite on track. If it had been made 40 years ago, the poster would've said: SEE FORBIDDEN LOVE!! RAPE!! MURDER!! MUTILATION!! FANATICISM!! ANIMAL CRUELTY!! BETRAYAL!!

The opening sequence is not nearly enough to make the personalities and relationships of the characters believable. To work, this should have had multiple flashbacks to flesh out the characters. As it is, it seems a bizarre and depressing cross between "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" and "Pulp Fiction." If that sounds like something you've got to see, by all means, enjoy. I think I go with something that doesn't make me feel I need to take a shower to wash off the gore and gloom.

As for the Catalan, it's the Mallorqui dialect, fairly different than the Barcelona dialect, though I was surprised by the comment that said that even Barcelonans apparently needed Catalan subtitles to understand it.