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La muerte de Mikel (1984)
This film is under-appreciated
I would like to challenge the rating of 5.9 for this movie. After the first viewing, I would agree that it deserves a 5.9. Yet seeing it twice and even a third time, the viewer begins to absorb the central theme of the Individual vs. the Collective that runs through the film.
First off, this is not a true Spanish film. It is a "Basque" film. It deals with the problems of identity formation for a Basque individual trapped by his "suffocating pueblo" which imposes on him (Mikel) a masculinity that masks who he truly is. Only by leaving the pueblo and going to Bilbao, does he ultimately discover who he truly is.
Uribe plays with this irony in Bilbao in the scene where Fama, the transvestite, performs a parody of Basque culture. Yet in this "cinema within the cinema," Mikel finds himself, and he transcends the borders of a rigid Basque identity.
This is also a film about ETA, the Basque separatist/terrorist group. It questions whether one can be both an individual at the same time as part of the collective, ultimately revealing that ETA suffocates the individual and is, for this reason, an extension of the paradox of Basque society in the post-Franco years, where ETA has come to lose the "Other" - the Francosist State against which it had formed its collective ideal.
To truly understand this film, which is the third part of a "Trilogy" called the "Basque trilogy," one must understand the state of Basque film at this time, which was still searching for its own identity in the "zine-clubs" of Bilbao.
Also, the film is rewarding for broaching the issue of "What is a Documentary." Uribe shoots many "documentary-like" moments, such as the black and white scene where Mikel recounts his past aid to the ETA militants. These moments are surreal - they bring us above the activity and into the deeply individual feelings of a man frustrated that his collective group does not experience these documentary moments, but is only a passive viewer.
In terms of modern cinematography, the film falls short. Yet its underlying message remains strong.
¿Qué he hecho YO para merecer esto!! (1984)
Deep movie
I don't think I spoil anything, but I am just covering myself here...
The true value in this movie lies in watching it twice. Almodovar re-inscribes Italian Neorealism from the 1950s in the Spain post-Franco. The neorealist shots of el barrio on the ring road surrounding Madrid are symbolic, as is the lizard, the grandmother, and the song on the television. With a background of Spain during the Franco years, one can appreciate this film much more. There are also deeply surreal moments, which give the viewer a voyeuristic sensation of watching "cinema within cinema." The presence of Germany is also wide open to interpretation, as it could mean Spain's classic philosophical problem of "la Espana invertebrada" and never having the "eye," or the intellectual advancement, that the Germans had. This movie also touches on the issue of Rural/City which was so prevalent after Franco's time, where the city had come to be associated with corruption. One asks, at the end of the film, if maybe the city is not as giving of opportunity as the optimistic Spaniards would like to think. Or is it?