Cinema

(de voertaal van deze avond is Engels).

Jeffrey's Underground Cinema has been showing neglected and forgotten films for the last decade. This night:  

BODAS DE SANGRE   1981
(Blood Wedding) 
Directed by Carlos Saura 
67 minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

A troupe of Spanish dancers arrive at an empty studio. They arrange their clothes, put on their makeup. Slowly they all get into position, and suddenly – bang – they start to dance, throwing us into another world. In fact it is the world of poet-playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, and his theatre piece Blood Wedding translated into flamenco dance. This sensual and explosive version of Lorca’s tragedy was envisioned by the acclaimed Spanish director Carlos Saura, who recently passed away. His approach is unusual… he takes the story and strips away all the inessentials – no sets or costumes, and little dialogue – letting the flamenco performance speak for itself. The result is pure rapture.

What we are watching unfold is actually a performance of Antonio Gades’s flamenco-ballet adaption of Lorca’s poetic tale, about a man who is still in love with his ex-partner, even though her parents are forcing her to marry someone else, leading to an inevitable duel. This stripped-down rendition of Gades’s version even robs us of the grandeur of the opera hall… instead it is all played out in a simple barren rehearsal space. Many of the actors are only even wearing their rehearsal clothes. What it lacks in spectacle and decor, it makes up for in raw power… the performances drive everything, and it’s exhilarating.

As the movie unfolds, director Saura also enters the real lives of the performers, and intertwines them with Lorca’s characters, allowing them to reflect each other. In this way the storytelling is always moving between fiction and reality, and shows how these ancient stories are still alive in our blood today. What also adds to the experience is the great cinematography and snappy rhythmic editing that helps to ignite the drama.This was the first of what would become Saura’s famous Flamenco Trilogy, and it still remains the best of the bunch.

This will be a high-defintion screening.

With a short introduction by Jeffrey Babcock

20:30 (doors and bar open at 20:00)
Free entrance / no reservations