Between the death of the great Tina Turner and the return of the Little Mermaid I feel like I’m in the eighties. I’m about to put on shoulder pads and go to an anti-NATO demonstration. For something this Friday the flesh and blood version of that masterpiece of drawings from 1989, ‘The Little Mermaid’, is released.
Putting it in context, we must know that this was the first Disney film of a new era in cartoons, the first that went beyond the sphere of children’s audiences. He provided an unquestionable musical quality, an unbeatable technique, and it was an unthinkable blockbuster. From then on, everyone started producing animated films, the scripts were made with winks for the older ones who took their children to the movies, we teenagers stopped being ashamed of watching a Disney movie, and soon the dubbing in South American was abandoned for the Castilian. That is to say, ‘The Little Mermaid’ was a turning point in the cinema.
From the hand of musical maestro Rob Marshall, here the animated feature film is covered almost shot by shot, with some songs added by the original author, Alan Menken, and the collaboration of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Apart from absurd polemics, if you liked that one you will like this one. An exercise in digital virtuosity and a call to the best of us (I confess that I have discovered that I still remember the lyrics of many of the songs). The Spanish contribution is Javier Bardem playing King Triton.
Nanni Moretti, a talent who lost his way since the wonderful ‘Mia madre’ (2015) (news arrive that he has redeemed himself with his recent film premiered at the Cannes Festival), is the luxury secondary of ‘The Hummingbird’, an Italian film that has the enormous advantage of being shot in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
We follow a man of those for whom life is three sizes too big, who realizes that he may have wasted a future by always choosing the wrong path (he looks like a Ciudadanos leader). Although the guy is liked despite living in an emotional labyrinth, the film shows us the self-indulgence behind using the past as an excuse and nostalgia as a trap. Stefan Sweig already told us about it in the shocking ‘Dangerous Mercy’.
‘Master(s)’ is a French remake of an Israeli film about a father and son who have reached the top of their career as conductors, and the rivalries as musicians and family members they have. An error that they tell in the trailer will reveal all the imperfections of that relationship. The melodrama develops with difficulty and kindness abruptly cuts dark paths that begin to be traveled. The magnificent soundtrack, which dives into the top forty of so-called cultured music, will make some discover the origin of the tunes of a few advertisements.
‘The Knights of the Zodiac’ is summed up in the Japanese reinventing the gods of Olympus to resurrect one of their most mythical animated series. It does not contribute more, but it does not give less either, and they even have the actor who best dies on screen, Sean Bean. The main attraction is some spectacular and routine special effects.
Today’s delicatessen is brought to us by Pedro Almodóvar who offers one of those creation games that he likes so much, the short filmed in English ‘Strange way of life’. It is a western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pasacal, which narrates the reunion of two cowboy friends, some Mesala and Juda Ben Hur any (with a more suspicious relationship than a vote by mail in Melilla). What results is a strange hybrid who is in danger of being left in no man’s land. A cover by John Ford, like a spaghetti western, with obvious plagiarisms of ‘Brokeback Mountainin’ (2005).
Off camera I can’t (and don’t want to) stop talking about the latest installment of Indiana Jones, which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. ‘Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny’ say that it is a more than worthy climax to the saga of the adventurous archaeologist. It’s going to be long for me the month left to be able to see her.
May you have a week, and some elections, of cinema.
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