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Balada Triste de Trompeta

A Sad Trumpet Ballad

Spain/France 2010
produced by
Vérane Frédiani, Gerardo Herrero, Franck Ribière, Adtian Politowski (executive), Gilles Waterkeyn (executive) for Motion Investment Group, Canal+, Castafiore Films, La Fabrique 2, TVE, Tornasol Films
directed by Álex de la Iglesia
starring Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang, Sancho Gracia, Santiago Segura, Javier Botet, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Fran Perea, Joxean Bengoetxea, Raúl Arévalo, Enrique Villén, Terele Pávez, Joaquín Climent, Juana Cordero, José Manuel Cervino, Luis Varela, Gracia Olayo, Manuel Tejada, Fofito, Fernando Chinarro, Alejandro Tejarías, Paco Tallafé, Ignasi Vidal, Chusa Barbero, Diego Calderón, Alexander Estrella, Davide Sánchez Calvo, Mikel Bustamante, Juan Viadas
written by Álex de la Iglesia, music by Roque Baños

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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As a kid back in 1937 in the Spanish Civil War, Javier had to see his father, a clown, arrested by General Franco's men. Years later, Javier tried to free his dad when he was working on Franco's memorial for the fallen in a daring guerilla attack, but that only led to dad being shot by the over-ambitious and ruthless Colonel Salcedo (Sancho García).

1973, Spain is still ruled by Franco. Javier (Carlos Areces) starts a new job at a circus as sad clown, the sidekick to the funny clown of the circus, Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), an unlikeable and over-confident bastard who treats everybody but especially Javier like shit and gets a kick out of beating up his girlfriend, acrobat Natalia (Carolina Bang). The problem is, Javier has fallen in love with Natalia at first sight, and she shows him some affection as well and dates him every now and again behind Sergio's back - much to the dismay of Sergio of course, who gets overly violent when he finds out and hospitalizes Javier. When Javier learns though that Natalia has returned to Sergio after this, he breaks out of the hospital and beats Sergio's face to a pulp before making an escape in a state of borderline insanity - and falloing right into the hands of the killer of his father colonel Salcedo, who in the meantime has gotten quite rich and nowadaays he's organizing hunts for General Franco himself. Salcedo hasn't forgotten Javier, and now he makes him his hunting dog, just to humiliate Javier. However, when during a hunt, Javier bites Franco's (Juan Viadas) hand, his days seem to be numbered ... but then he goes totally mad, distorts his face until he looks like a living clown, and kills Salcedo before he goes on a killing spree.

Eventually, he homes in on Natalia, who has since broken up with the now horribly distorted Sergio for good, but Sergio hasn't given up on her yet, and soon the two men start fighting over her in more and more bizarre ways, ultimately atop the memorial - a giant cross - Javier's dad was killed while working on all those years back, and in the end, Natalia the acrobat makes a daring escape for the two of them by jumping down the cross tied to a roll of cloth, just like in her circus act ... only this time it breaks her neck.

Javier and Sergio are both arrested after this, upopn which they burst out in laughter because now finally they can see eye to eye ...

 

Álex de la Iglesia now and again puts out a masterpiece, but his cinematic output is above all else uneven - and Sad Trumpet Ballad is not one of his better films, for quite a variety of reasons: On top of everything, he seems to be disappointingly undecided in which direction to take his film to, and thus quotes everything from Universal horror classics to slasher flicks to war-movies to Troma productions without much rhyme or reason, and the weirdly disjointed screenplay fails to make the film come together as a whole despite everything. On top of that, attempts to squeeze this narrative into a sociopolitical context, give it a political subtext even, seems to be nothing short of embarrassing (and thus doesn't help the film one bit either). Add to this gags who vastly vary in quality and you are left with a mess. Graqnted, Sad Trumpet Ballad is not the worst movie ever, far from it actually, but it's not a particularly good film either,a nd despite the fact that de la Iglesia received a Silver Lion for best direction for it at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, it's one of his lesser films - and actually it's not even particularly well directed compared with some of his other movies.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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special appearances by
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