Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a trio of reviews for ALATRISTE, the historical action drama that just got released in Spain. The English trailer we posted a while back was pretty neat, but these reviews are a little disheartening. They're all in the "mixed-negative" range, unfortunately. It sounds like a jumbled mess of a movie... But don't listen to me. These guys have actually seen the movie! Here are the reviews, beware of spoilers!
Hi Harry i sent you that post about Captain Alatriste´s english promo footage the other day.
So finally i went to see the most expensive and awaited film in spanish history..." Alatriste"...and i was extremely disappointed.
First of all i have to say that this movie is not a swashbuckling adventure as some might be looking for misguided by the smart marketing campaign nor i have read any of the novels the film is based on. So my review will focus on the film itself as such not as an adaptation nor as projection of my expectations as of i was going to see beforehand.
The movie is from a technical point of view is amazing in terms of art direction, wardrobe and mainly cinematography. The portrait of XVII century´s Spain is not only more than accurate it is realistic in such a manner that you feel like witnessing a documentary study about old spaniard life and traditions shot at the time. The attention paid to details in this movie is so high and done with such care that you can feel the love offered to this project.
The acting is high quality too, even people with very small parts use everything in their hands to give believable performances like for example Blanca Portillo´s incarnation of inquisitor Fray Emilio Bocanegra ( yeah she is a woman playing a male character much like Linda Hunt did in The Year of living Dangerously ), her portrayal of the latter character is subtle but strong enough to feel the shades of double moral, corruption and danger that emerge from such an individual. And then... then there is Alatriste, a loner , an outsider yet always surrounded by the people he cares, a man of honor that doesn´t doubt to offer his skills as a fighter, as a soldier to earn some good money doing some not very honarable jobs but that he perfectly knows the boundaries of what he can or cannot cross, and above everything he is a man loyal to his country even if he agrees or not with the methods and politics of its superiors and it is all perfectly captured in Viggo Mortensen´s performance.
At this point one might ask itself why i was disappointed with such a film after praising so many good qualities in it? Well imagine this film as a perfect manufactured present box, you get excited all about it cause its a nice box, expensive, made out the finest materials. You think, wow, if this box looks like that what it holds inside must be incredible, and it all comes about what the box has inside, about the present itself...then you open the box and there is nothing. That is exactly the problem this film has, it doesn´t know how to capture the viewer in a way that makes him get involve with the action nor the characters. The direction is hollow, static, there is a lack of movement, of dynamism. Some of the shots look like real paintings and this is done on purpose to add some poetic even epic quality to what is presented to us, not to say that is a straight reference of how painters of the period used the technique to capture the most relevant facts of the time but even if this aesthetic choice is incredibly well acomplished it kills the film so much is overused. This is a film not a painting...move the camera, grab your viewer and make him participate of the action. Even when the painting effect could have been used to give an scene an effective transition and emotional impact is then used with disadvantage... is this scene the region of Breda ( Spain is trying to get its hands of the holland territory during the Imperial Wars but this one is showing resistance in what was called the war of Flandes ) finally falls prey to Spain´s army and surrender, this moment is witnessed by Iñigo, a child took under the care of Alatriste, well the scene of the surrending is actually shot to look like the painting it was made of the event and that is presented to us later on, instead of dissolving the actual shot with the one of the painting being brought to palace being witnessed again by Iñigo but now 10 years older, they used a circle shaped fade out from the surrending to a circle shaped fade in to the face of Iñigo but now 10 years older. I tell you if they would have used a dissolve of the actual shot of the surrending to match the one of the actual painting and then pull away to reveal Iñigo is now ten years older they would have accomplished one hell of an effect, think more or less what was done in Frida.
The editing through out is pretty bad, the scenes jump from one to another in a very rough manner, it doesn´t flow correctly, there is a lack of rythm, some cuts are made too fast instead of staying on the characters or the action a little longer before making the cut. And then, there is the script, i cannot say the script is bad in the sense the dialogues are very good and the character development is well staged, but there is so many subplots, both political and emotional, that after a while one gets lost and is hard to tell what really is going on and why, specially with Elena Anaya´s character which motivations and plans are not very well presented and one wonders what is she doing and why ( possibly a consequence of the fact of bringing plots from all five books as staging a completely different story at the same time).
As a said this is not a swashbukling adeventure film , is a historical period film and i didn´t have a problem with that, i truly enjoy period films such as Queen Margot for example, but the problem is that is too way too long and convoluted for it´s own good and it fails of grabbing the viewer therefore making him loose interest half way.
If you post this call me Mathesonlegends
Review #2, and the it's the nicest of the bunch...
Hello,
I'm writing from Madrid, Spain, to give a brief review/run-down of Viggo Mortensen's new film Alatriste-
This past Friday nite was the premiere here in Spain of the new film Alatriste, starring Viggo Mortensen as the mercenary from the Arturo Pérez-Reverte novels. This Spanish production boasts the biggest budget in Spain's film history (estimated at around 20 million euros) and included a cast of up to 10,000 extras, including a good friend of mine, Simon Cohen, who plays the part of King Felipe IV. My friends and I went with him to cheer him on, even though it's a non-speaking role.
The film itself wasn't bad at all. It's long, two and half hours, and it tended to drag in some parts. Viggo was excellent as the title character, muted, stolid and somewhat tragic, and the scenes and costumes of Madrid in the seventeenth century were fantastic, as were the battle scenes, which were fascinating in their detail. You really get a feel of what life was like back in the Spain of the 1600's. All in all, this is a very Spanish movie, in the feel, the characters, dialogue, and pacing.
The main problem with the film was that it tried cramming the five Arturo Pérez-Reverte "Capitan Alatriste" books into one film, which, if we remember Ralph Bakshi's The Lord Of the Rings, it doesn't work that well. Watching the film, I felt lost at several points, and felt that several crucial scenes were simply not filmed, that there were wide gaps in the story that, in order to follow the story, you had to have read all of the books and/or been adept at Spanish history. There's already mention of including 20 minutes that were cut from the film into the DVD release, which may help some. The leaps from scene to scene didn't always make sense, and I was reminded of Gangs Of New York, in that the story seemed to move far too quickly. At the least, in my opinion, this story should have been spread out into a minimum of three films.
Anyhoo, the scenery is beautiful, the acting is very nicely done, especially by Viggo, Eduardo Noriega as the Duque de Guadalmedina, and Juan Echanove as Francisco de Quevedo.
As for my friend Simon, well, he definitely resembles the king but unfortunately appears only briefly in a few scenes to do some nodding, walking, thinking, and a few other pantomimetic movements.
Ah well, at least he got to wear some fab costumes.
You can call me El Mamarracho. Thanks.
Review #3!
With all the attention Spanish-related films are getting nowadays with Pan's Labyrinth, Goya's Ghosts, it was with a positive attitude that I saw Alatriste with Viggo Mortensen (in what I would assume to be his Spanish language debut) at a local multiplex in Barcelona. The film opened on September 1st there, and after having seen the posters around town, and wondering why Viggo Mortensen was in a film I'd never heard of, I found myself intrigued enough to buy a ticket.
Now, after reading the expectations from various people on the site this evening, I felt slightly deflated. Because for as fun and exciting as the new trailer seems to be, what I experienced on Saturday was neither. It was, excuse they pun, muy triste.
There may be a problem: Spanish is not my first language. But when I have no trouble understanding 6 Spaniards on TV having a conversation (meaning 6 Spaniards on TV all speaking at the same time, one louder than the other in an ever-increasing spiral, until the 10 minute commercial break) I think I SHOULD be able to understand a film in Spanish.
My apologies for bringing what I consider bad news... What's wrong with the film then? Well, my impression is that it is a filmed book. Which of course it is, but I mean, there is no real adaptaion to speak of. I haven't read the book, but the point is, if you ask me what the story is, I would have to give you a summary of what happens in the film. It's a filmed book, which, while beautiful, ends up being a stiff and unengaging affair.
Let me give you an example: Throughout the film Viggo (Captain Alatriste) must protect a boy who is the son of a friend who dies in battle. - Why does he do this? Because he's asked. - Who is this friend? No idea, some guy who happens to die with Alatriste in battle and doesn't say much besides an inaudible mumble. - What, so he doesn't ask him to look after his son and keep him away form the hardships of battle? No, that's left for his daughter (I think) who we never see. We see and hear a letter being read where she asks Alatriste take care of her brother (and by 'see' I mean we see the actual letter printed over the images on the screen).
Or how about this: Viggo is having sex with some woman, and there is a slow fade, and there he is standing in the street surrounded by some men who tell him that he's under arrest (or that he has to surrender or something like that). What? Where is the build up? The tension? Surely it would have been more interesting to see him exit the house and walk for a while, and feel the presence of presecutors and have him try to avoid them only to find himself surrounded by them. Or anything except, FLOMP, there you go.
Where did all the emotion go? I don't mean the superficial emotion of Elena Anaya suddenly, out of the friggin blue, lying stark naked on a bed moaning something which we are to interpret as her affection for Viggo's protegé. Where is the emotional connection with the audience? It doesn't help that Viggo's admirable effort in acting with Spanish seems hindered by the language barrier. Despite my telling myself that it's a character trait, his overpronouncination and slow speech compared to the rest of the actors, pulled me out of the film.
There are a few other peeves that just add to the frustration. One is the fact that the film was presented in 16:9, and tell me, which epic historical films have you seen that have been anything less than 2.35:1 (i.e. widescreen, not the TV kind)? throughout I kept wanting to see more on either side of frame, and it just felt cheapened. Like an expensive mini-series that happened to be screened at a cinema. I'm not sure if that was the projectionist's fault or if that's the aspect ratio of the film itself. Another is weird framing on occasion and editing that sometimes felt unnatural (I don't mean to blame the editor, because they don't have final say in the edit).
So was it all a disappointing piece of shit? No, there were some moments of humour, and some very good scenes, and above all, great acting all round. I I have to say that I have nothing but admiration and respect for Viggo Mortensen for going out on a limb and doing something so cool as to take a lead role in a completely Spanish film. I hope the film is successful enough to get other people to do things like that. It's a trend worth encouraging, i.e., instead of trying to get film stars of non-English speaking countries to act in American films, to try to get American actors that are able to, to act in foreign language films.
But in the end, Alatriste was a series of disappointments starting about 20 minutes in, once the grace period is over, until the last frame. A few words of non-idiocy: If you're going to have a climactic battle, make sure you have more guys than that it looks like you could fit them all in a bus (or that you didn't have enough money for the digital extras). And Just because it worked for Truffaut in 400 Blows (you know what I mean), doesn't mean it's going to work by itself. I don't even think language should be a barrier, considering the amount of good "foreign film" but when a story isn't told through the juxtaposition of images, you're not watching a film anymore. You're watching a book.
Sincerely Yours / H
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