BLOOD WEDDING Movie Review

Bodas de Sangre

The first in an acclaimed trilogy of dance films by Spain's Carlos Saura, Blood Wedding achieves its power through the purity and simplicity of its concept and execution. Star and choreographer Antonio Gades drives his dancers through a rehearsal of his ballet adaptation of Garcia Lorca's story of thwarted passion and bloody revenge, and for once a filmed ballet generates real heat from the screen. Saura's not afraid to use facial close-ups to accentuate the story's power, but he never fails to keep his focus on his dancers’ bodies in their entirety. Chopping bodies into a series of over-edited close-ups in an attempt to make dance on film more “cinematic” is one of the usual failings of this kind of thing, yet Saura has far too much feeling for the rhythm of this piece—and for the talents of Gades and co-star Cristina Hoyos—to fall into that trap. A model of its genre, Blood Wedding was followed by Carmen (1983) and El Amor Brujo (1986), both created with the full collaboration of Gades.

NEXT STOP … Carmen, Flamenco, Tango (1998)

1981 71m/C SP Antonio Gades, Christina Hoyos, Marisol, Carmen Villena; D: Carlos Saura; W: Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades; C: Teo Escamilla; M: Emillo De Diego. VHS XVC, CTH