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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.
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