Little Ashes
During 1920s Spain, indications of a social revolution were being sparked. Conservative, traditional values of the socialists were beginning to be challenged by artists, poets, the avant-garde … anarchists. Through the martial law proclaimed by dictator Miguel Primo De Rivera, the press was censored, dancing and sports were prohibited, artists voices were stifled and queers were sentenced to 15 years “hard labor.”
In the semi-biographical film Little Ashes, a circle of young student artists push the limits not only as artists but as individuals during this social unrest leading up to, and during, the Spanish Civil War.
The movie centers around the fleeting romance — set against the backdrop of a tedious political era — between Salvador Domingo Felipe Dalí y Domenech, the famous eccentric Surrealist painter and Frederico García Lorca, beloved Spanish poet and playwright.
The film opens with Dalí (Robert Pattinson, Twilight), an 18-year-old “dandy,” who enters the School of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing in Madrid in 1922 where he meets and befriends Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and film student Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Lorca, a descendant of Andalusian gypsies, is also somewhat uncharacteristic with the conservative school’s student body.
Early into Dalí and Lorca’s budding friendship, Lorca begins having “impure thoughts” about Dalí; while Dalí’s interest in Lorca is more like a schoolgirl crush — nervous around him, secretly follows him and practices what he’s going to say to him. Eventually they begin an affair — one that seemingly is one-sided.
Over several years their romance never matures, even through Lorca’s many advances. The closest outward display to being a couple is when they discuss, in the presence of Buñuel, what Dalí should wear to dinner. Eventually, Dalí’s bursts of juvenile behavior (on the brink of insane) lead to Lorca’s spiteful question, “Who are you pretending to be today?” and to him falling in the arms of Magdalena (Marina Gatel), a fellow student — in a carnal, yet defining scene.
Beltrán’s portrayal of Lorca as a gentle romantic is captured in his stark burnt-almond eyes — the intense desire he feels for Dalí burns the entire film … it’s an incredibly moving performance.
McNulty gives a fine performance as Luis Buñuel, the bitter outcast, so to speak; and Gatel is stunning as Magdalena, Lorca’s daring admirer.
In the real world Salvador Dalí was an arrogant and hugely eccentric man, and as painter he was simply brilliant. These attributes are unfortunately downplayed in the movie. Yet, what few scenes of Dalí’s eccentrism and arrogance are suprisingly believable in Pattinson’s portrayal (Still not necessarily the best choice to play Dalí, but adequately done.).
For instance, during a dinner party crawling with civil guardsmen and elitists, Dalí bellows (Pattinson in a believable drunken state) “I would love an enema.” Then while sitting at the dinner table, he addresses one guard, “Do you know who I am? I am Salvador Dalí, the savior among art.”
And everything around him is “putrescent.”
Little Ashes is a compelling film, albeit not chronologically accurate; and the true relationship between Dalí and Lorca is not readily known with any complete certainty, which gave way to director Paul Morrison’s and writer Phillippa Goslett’s interpretations. And the film they have created is a decent, heartfelt depiction of two brilliant, influential and tortured artists, whom I believe never truly found themselves, which makes the film inspirational and educational for those still trying to find their way.
Little Ashes opens Sept. 4 at the Tower Theatre, 879 E. 900 S.