An utter disappointment

keithkhan

With such rich material that this film has to call upon- Spain in a heavily censored Franco era; the kitsch glory of Rafael Cara's music, fashion and architecture of the 1970's, this film recklessly rides rough through all, and we gain little pleasure in either a visual or text narrative.

The censorship storyline could be fascinating- but Franco's Spain is not explained. There is no context- or no comparison made between what people saw in the rest of Europe. "Hilda" the Rita Hayworth film, where she removes her gloves was considered too racy in Spain, and was censored. Instead, we see an old man, measuring skirts, and wielding scissors- but no explanation as to why he might be so important in a tv studio. And it's just slapstick- resulting in live Janet Jackson "nipplegate" moment, being broadcast on "nochebuena".

Rafaela's fun music is treated to a bunch of truly average dance routines- in planes, on boats, in telephone boxes. Ms Cara's dance ability is outstanding, and I am sure there are great dancers in Spain. But clearly they were all busy that day. Her dance is sexy and raunchy but performed within a vocabulary of 70's disco. Why they choose to make a pastiche of that "pulp fiction/ Saturday night fever moves" instead of exploring or referencing some of the crazy moves that existed in late 70's Spain?

And the design. Well, yes, it's bright and colourful. And all the anachronisms could be forgiven if it had a style. Rafaela Cara had a magnificent wardrobe- amazing catsuits. But the wardrobe department have gone to a bunch of party shops and stitched some digitally printed graphics onto some vaguely old fashioned garments. All the men seem to have a vaguely period jacket bought in Zara that someone thought looked right. The 70's, as encapsulated by Ms Cara was a spandex and sequinned sensation. It certainly wasn't all floppy collars and green eye shadow. Look at how chic "Baccara" are. This film is merely bright. No indication of social class, or background that we should see in a properly designed film. And several times the architecture and the graphics are just crass and wrong.

And I really felt no empathy with the lead character. She's neither a dancer, nor an actress. The role seems to call for a charismatic sexiness, a coquettishness of movement. This poor lead has an on button which is "cry" which she seems to do in every single scene. And somewhere she is meant to ooze a sensuality though the TV that she really lacks. Luckily, the second actress( for no narrative reason) seems to have most of the songs. At least she has an energy and vivacity!

I'm not sure why anyone would want to make an old fax paper copy of "Mama Mia", but the script writers obviously were locked in a room with that playing. It's really a tele novela of a script. A fluffy afternoon script you might vaguely watch when you are ironing. In comparison to some really well made popular cultural offerings coming from Spain- the very polished " La llamada" or "veneno" this film is a complete mess. I was so disappointed, because the source material is so rich.

score 1/10

keithkhan 28 January 2021

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6535321/