The Baby's Room (4 Stars)

It's taken me a long time to get my hands on this film. It's the only film made by Alex de la Iglesia that's never been released with English subtitles. I was finally able to find a downloadable version on the web site DVD Lady. Unfortunately, the subtitles are poor quality with countless spelling mistakes, but at least they're understandable. For instance, the word forget is always spelt with two t's, i.e. "forgett". Apostrophes are either omitted or inserted in the wrong place, e.g. "I dont wan't to go home".

The film stands apart from all of De La Iglesia's other films. It's lacking his typical comedic elements. The reason is that he was commissioned to make a film for a horror anthology series; six films were made by six different directors. He was constrained in the content he could create, and he was even more constrained in his budget. He was only given one million Euros to make the film, which limited him in his use of locations. And yet I was surprised to read glowing reviews of "The Baby's Room". It's considered the best of the six films in the anthology, which hardly surprises me, but many critics also call it a masterpiece of supernatural horror. 

The film is about Juan and Sonia, a couple with a seven-year-old son who buy a large run-down building. The problems begin when they install a baby phone. They hear a man's voice in their baby's room, but when they rush into the room the baby is alone in his bed. So they buy a baby monitor with a camera. Juan wakes up and sees someone sitting next to his son. He rushes into the room and finds nobody. Is it possible that there are ghosts who're only visible on electronic devices, not to the human eye? That's the mystery.

Do I like it or not? Initially I was disappointed because it was so un-Iglesia-ish. As the film progressed and the secrets were slowly unveiled I became increasingly enthralled. I'm sure to watch the film again later this year. Wait for my next review.

Accion Mutante (3 Stars)

This is Alex de la Iglesia's first film, made in 1993. "Accion Mutante" remains one of the wildest debuts in modern Spanish cinema; a savage, anarchic mix of science fiction, black comedy and comic-book grotesquerie. Set in a future ruled by beauty and consumerism, the film follows a terrorist gang made up of physically disabled and socially rejected outsiders. The satire is broad, violent and deliberately ugly, but beneath the chaos lies a genuine anger at superficial society and media culture.

What separates "Accion Mutante" from De la Iglesia's later films is its rawness. Later works such as "The Day of the Beast" or "The Ferpect Crime" are still frantic and darkly comic, but they're far more polished and audience-friendly. "Accion Mutante" feels almost punk in comparison; dirtier, harsher and less interested in emotional warmth or commercial accessibility. The director's later films balance cynicism with affection for their characters, while this debut attacks nearly everyone with equal cruelty.

The influence of producer Pedro Almodovar can occasionally be felt in the exaggerated colours and grotesque humour, yet the film already contains the obsessions that would define De la Iglesia's career: social outsiders, collapsing morality, media hysteria and human beings reduced to caricatures by modern society. Even today, "Accion Mutante" still feels more dangerous than his later films.

Success Rate:  - 3.0

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The Last Circus (5 Stars)

Epic.

That's the only word that does this film justice,

Rather than tell a single story it meanders from one topic to another.

Does it have a message? Maybe, maybe not. It's entertainment. A snapshot of Spanish history from 1937 to 1973.

Let the images wash over you. You won't be disappointed.

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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Messi (4 Stars)

"Messi" is a sports documentary that often feels as if it would rather be a feverish piece of mythmaking than a factual account of a footballer's life. That is what makes it interesting. Instead of the polished, corporate style that dominates modern sports documentaries, Alex de la Iglesia approaches the material with the same exaggerated energy and restless movement that run through his fiction films.

The film is built around conversations in restaurants and cafés, with journalists, coaches, childhood friends and football figures discussing Lionel Messi almost as if they're trying to reconstruct a legend. De la Iglesia shoots these scenes with dramatic lighting and constantly shifting camera angles, giving even ordinary anecdotes a strange intensity. The documentary rarely settles into the calm observational rhythm associated with serious sports filmmaking. Instead, it rushes forward, fuelled by rapid editing, pounding music and a visual style closer to tabloid spectacle than sober biography.

At times, the approach feels deliberately excessive. Archive footage is cut together with such speed and excitement that Messi begins to seem less like a real person than an abstract force of movement. The film is less interested in analysis than in sensation. De la Iglesia treats football highlights almost like action sequences, lingering on impossible changes of direction and sudden bursts of acceleration with the awe of someone filming a supernatural event.

What's most distinctive is the tension between documentary realism and cinematic exaggeration. The interviews are real, the stories are real, yet the atmosphere often feels heightened to the edge of fantasy. That mixture suits De la Iglesia's sensibility perfectly. Even when the structure becomes repetitive, the film never looks anonymous. In an era where many football documentaries resemble extended television specials, "Messi" has the personality of an auteur film.

The Ferpect Crime (4 Stars)

Sometimes I don't understand myself. Alex de la Iglesia is one of my three favourite directors, alongside Sion Sono and Zhang Yimou. In the case of the last two directors it's difficult for me to buy all their films, because some have never been released with English subtitles. But at the moment my collection of Alex de la Iglesia's films is almost complete. "Dying of Laughter" (1999) has recently been released for the first time with English subtitles. I thought it was impossible to buy "The Baby's Room" (2006), but this week I discovered that it's available dubbed into German. That's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. I've ordered it, and when it arrives I'll have all 18 of his films.

Some time in the near future I'll do a marathon of his films, watching them all in chronological order, but I'll watch a few now, especially the ones I'm currently buying. While looking through my collection I saw "Crimen Ferpecto" ("The Ferpect Crime") and realised I couldn't remember what it's about. So I checked my alphabetical list of posts to see when I last watched it. Huh? It's not listed. So when did I buy it? According to Amazon, I bought it in 2008, two years before I started writing my blog. So I haven't watched it for almost 18 years? That's crazy!

"The Ferpect Crime" looks like a black comedy about murder and ambition, but beneath the farce it's really a vicious attack on the cult of appearance. Rafael believes that women only have value if they fit the glamorous image sold by department stores, fashion adverts and television. He's obsessed with beauty, charm and social status; so obsessed that he completely overlooks the humanity of the women around him.

The film's masterstroke is the character of Lourdes. Rafael dismisses her because she doesn't match the conventional standards of attractiveness pushed by consumer culture, yet she's the only person in the story who genuinely sees through him. De la Iglesia exposes the shallowness of judging women purely by appearance; the supposedly "perfect" world Rafael chases is hollow, artificial and morally rotten. Beauty in the film becomes another product on display, no different from the expensive goods in the department store.

What makes the satire work so well is that the film never turns into a lecture. It's fast, cruel and very funny, but underneath the dark humour there's a real sadness about how easily people absorb these superficial standards. By the end, Rafael's obsession with appearances has trapped him in a life that's far uglier than the woman he mocked.

Dying of Laughter (4 Stars)

"Muertos de Risa" (engl. "Dying of laughter") is one of Alex de la Iglesia's sharpest and most uncomfortable black comedies; it takes the format of a Spanish TV comedy double act and slowly poisons it from the inside.

The film follows Nino and Bruno, two comedians whose career is built on mutual humiliation, timing and a very public sense of cruelty that the audience keeps rewarding. What starts as satire about celebrity culture and the mechanics of laughter gradually turns into something darker and more claustrophobic, as success hardens into obsession and dependency.

What makes it work is the tonal control. "Muertos de Risa" never fully lets you relax into either comedy or tragedy; it keeps slipping between the two, often in the same scene. The humour is real but it always feels a bit contaminated, like you’re laughing at something that’s already turning sour.

The film is also about Spain's own transformation. The older entertainment culture, shaped in the late Franco and immediate post-Franco years of the 1970's, relied on shared references, collective humour and a sense of social constraint. By the 1990's, that world has been replaced by aggressive media visibility, celebrity obsession and a television landscape that rewards extremity over subtlety. Nino and Bruno feel like products of that shift; they start in a world where performance is communal and end in one where it’s entirely predatory.

Alex de la Iglesia captures that transition with typical excess and discomfort. The film suggests that Spain’s move from a more contained, post-dictatorship culture into a modern media society didn't just change what people watched; it changed what they were willing to do to each other in public for attention.

La Chispa de la Vida (4 Stars)

I buy every film made by Alex de la Iglesia. You know that. He's my favourite European director. I don't understand why he hasn't achieved more popularity outside Spain. "La Chispa de la Vida" was made in 2011, but I haven't been able to buy it until now. The first Blu-ray release didn't have English subtitles. The new release corrected this error.

What I like most about Alex's films is the zany humour, often mixed with satire. "La Chispa de la Vida" surprised me, and not in a good way. The first 15 minutes are painfully boring. It's about a marketing executive, Roberto Gomez, who's looking for a job after being unemployed for two years. No humour at all. He rushes from interview to interview, asking for favours from old friends, but nobody wants him. His biggest success was at the start of his career. When he was 17 he created the advertising slogan for Coca-Cola, "La Chispa de la Vida", engl. "Life's little spark". This is what propelled him into his career, but what we see when we read between the lines is that it was just luck. He didn't have the skill to create slogans on a regular basis.

Roberto's wedding anniversary is coming up, and he wants to spend it in the hotel where he went for his honeymoon. He wants it to be a surprise, so he drives to Cartagena without telling his wife. The hotel isn't a hotel any more, it's become a museum. A Roman arena was discovered next to the hotel, so the museum was built as the entrance to the arena. Roberto falls off a platform, and a metal bar pierces his skull, driving deep into his brain. See the X-Ray picture. This was so horrible that I felt it in my stomach. I wanted to turn away. It wasn't a nice sight.

At this point I felt like turning  off the film. It was stomach-churning. Fortunately, I remained in front of my television. This was the turning point.

Roberto is still alive and able to communicate. The pain is bearable, despite having a metal rod in his brain. Doctors come and say it's too dangerous to move him. They have to operate where he's lying. But Roberto has an idea. He's lying in an arena surrounded by onlookers. It's the main news on every television channel. So why not make money from it? He rings his former colleagues from advertising companies, and they're excited. They want an interview with him. They say they'll pay him 20,000 Euros if he survives, or two million Euros if he dies.

This is sick humour, but highly entertaining. It was enough to make me forgive the slow beginning. We see how greed is stronger than wanting to save a person's life. It's an unusual film, in which the main character is shown lying on his back for almost all the film. Like Tim Roth in "Reservoir Dogs", except Roberto isn't screaming in pain. He's on his phone, making deals to become rich from his injury. If he survives.

I'm sure I'll watch it again, but next time I'll be prepared. I'll have a strong drink in my hand when the ugly scene happens.

Veneciafrenia (5 Stars)

I watched "Veneciafrenia" two days ago, but after waiting so long to see it I had to watch it again as soon as possible. It's an incredible non-slasher film. What's most shocking is that the Jester can kill his victims in public, because the tourists think it's all a show. When Arantza lies dying on the bridge everyone applauds, saying that the blood looks realistic.

Two days ago I watched the film in Spanish with English subtitles. Today I watched the film dubbed into English. It was awful! The voices of the older characters sound much too young, and there's no emotion in any of the voices. Did they pick up strangers from the street as voice actors? They should be ashamed of themselves.

In a way, it's a shame that the film isn't a real slasher movie. The character of the Jester is so terrifying that I'd like to see him again.

Veneciafrenia (5 Stars)

Amazon Friday #37

This is a film that I've been struggling to see for more than 18 months. The difficulties highlight the stupidity of Amazon. It was made in 2021 by Alex de la Iglesia, one of my favourite directors. I waited in vain for it to be released on Blu-ray. Finally I read that it's an Amazon original film, so it wouldn't be released on Blu-ray. That's disappointing. The film was being streamed on Amazon Prime Video in Spain, but without subtitles. Earlier this year I found out that it's now available on Amazon Prime Video in America. If it had been offered for free I could have watched it with a VPN, but it's only available to Buy or Rent, and my German credit cards are refused. Today I found a solution at last, with the help of a very good American friend. I sent her $9.99 by Paypal to buy the film. Then I used a VPN to log into her account. I downloaded the film from Amazon using the excellent software AnyStream. It's not cheap, but it's an essential tool for me as a blogger. Finally I had the film on my hard drive, ready to watch.

Why is Amazon so foolish? If Amazon Studios really intend to boycott the physical media market for their films, they should at least make them available for streaming all over the world. If I hadn't paid more than $150 for my software tool and hadn't had a friend who trusts me with her password, I would have been blocked from seeing this excellent film. That's not right. I hope that an Amazon employee somewhere reads this post and passes on my complaints to his superiors.

When "Veneciafrenia" was released it was described as a slasher movie. That's what it looks like, especially in the opening scenes, but I don't like to give it that title. It doesn't follow the rules of the slasher genre. If you're expecting a crazed killer with supernatural abilities, you'll be disappointed. It's closer to a political satire, but it's a political satire with a lot of killing.

Five Spanish tourists are on holiday in Venice. They arrive in the middle of a protest against cruise ships and the tourists they bring. I can understand this. Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but it's ruined by tourists. The delicate bridges and narrow alleyways are clogged with foreigners taking photos. The native population of Venice rises up against this threat. Most are happy to stand at the harbour and wave banners, but there's an extremist fringe that wants to kill the tourists.

This is a beautiful film, typical for Alex de la Iglesia. It deals with a mundane scenario, unwelcome tourists in a foreign land, but it escalates into scenes of utter madness. It's a film that everyone should watch in the Halloween week. If they can.

Four's a Crowd (5 Stars)

I don't hesitate to buy any film made by Alex de la Iglesia. He's a reliable director who can't do anything wrong. His films always start off quietly and escalate. "Four's a crowd" is no exception. Anyone who's flicking around a streaming service for a random film might watch the first five minutes and think "This is boring". Be patient. This is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. I was laughing out loud as the action turned from one ridiculous extreme to another.

The original Spanish title is "El cuarto pasajero", i.e. "The fourth passenger". In this case, the official English title is an improvement, because the third passenger is just as relevant as the fourth.

Julian is a middle-aged businessman who lives in Madrid and works in Bilbao. Every Friday he drives home, and he returns to Bilbao on Monday. To make some money, he offers his services on a car-sharing app, taking three people with him. Lorena, aged 29, is a regular who travels with him every week. The other two passengers are different every week.

Julian has fallen in love with Lorena, but he's too shy to admit it. He's afraid she'll reject him because he's 20 years older than her. This Friday he's finally plucked up the courage to tell her. He's rehearsed a speech. The problem is his extra passengers; the third and fourth. The third is an extroverted man who won't stop talking. Additionally, he says he gets carsick on the back seat, so Julian can't sit next to Lorena. The fourth is a tall handsome man with a guitar, and Lorena is obviously attracted to him.

That's the setting. A simple enough story, a romantic comedy road movie. In the hands of any other director it really would have been boring. Alex de la Iglesia never does what's expected. His films are totally unpredictable. Maybe the film poster I've included above is a spoiler. But the car crash isn't the end of the story, it's just one of the many amusing episodes.

The Blu-ray has only been released in Spain, but it has English subtitles. Click here to buy it.

My Big Night (5 Stars)

What's this film about? I don't really want to tell you. I'm afraid that my description of the plot might make the film sound boring. But since you insist, here goes:

"My Big Night" is about a New Year's Eve television programme being pre-recorded in October.

That's it. I warned you that my description would put you off the film. But don't give up yet. I gave the film a five star rating, so there must be something special about it.

The television studio has recently fired 500 employees, so there are violent protests outside of the studio. Alphonso, a famous singing star, is appearing in the broadcast, so a coach of his fans has arrived from Denmark to see him. Alphonso's son has hired a hitman to kill his father. Alphonso has arguments with the teenage pop star Adanne, because he's scheduled to sing the first song after midnight. There's a woman who brings bad luck to everyone around her, including a camera boom falling on the head of the man sitting next to her.

I could go on and on with all the plot details, but I'll stop here. There are so many things happening at the same time that you'll need a scorecard to keep up. Or better still, just watch the film a few times. It's worth it.

The film hasn't been released in England or America, but the Spanish release has English subtitles.

800 Bullets (5 Stars)

Today I watched two films directed by Alex de la Iglesia with some good friends. It somehow feels better to watch more than one film at a time. I should do it more often.

"800 Bullets" is a genre buster. It seems to be one type of film, but it's really another. It looks like a western, but it's all make-believe. Julian Torralba used to be a stuntman in spaghetti westerns. He wore Clint Eastwood's poncho  in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". He's even kept it as a souvenir. Now Julian lives and works in Texas Hollywood, a replica of a western town, putting on daily shows for tourists.

The film is a culture clash. Three eras meet: the wild west of the 19th Century, the 1960's and the present. Julian lives everywhere except for the present. At least, he tries to avoid the present. He's jerked back to reality when his 12-year-old grandson Carlos comes to visit him.

If the film had been nominated for Academy Awards we'd have to decide who's the lead actor. Probably Carlos. The story is told from his perspective. It's a coming-of-age drama. Carlos visits the past in order to grow up, learning all the important things he needs to know in life: drinking beer, playing poker and fondling a woman's breasts.

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The Last Circus (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #16

This is an epic film about War, Revenge, Love, Hate and Madness. The story is woven around important events in Spanish history from 1937 to 1973. In the middle of personal tragedy that brought sorrow to all of Spain, leaving the country in ruins, the circus was the only thing left to make people laugh. But what happens when the circus fails in its mission and makes people cry?

Don't mess with a clown.

There's symbolism hidden in this scene. The clown goes to the cinema. The cinema is big and magnificent, while the circus is only advertised on a rubbish bin. The cinema replaced the circus as the main source of entertainment. Is that a good thing? Don't ask me, I'm biased.

Cinemas don't just make people laugh, they make people cry. Even clowns can cry.

The film he's watching is "Without a goodbye" (1970) starring Lesley-Anne Down and the Spanish singer Raphael. I'd like to watch it, if I can find it anywhere.

More symbolism? A film projector is set up in a cave surrounded by thousands of dead bodies. Films are shown in a place of death.

---

Balada triste de trompeta,
por un pasado que murió
y que llora y que gime,
como llora.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah, aay.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah, aay.

Con tanto llanto de trompeta,
mi corazón desesperado,
va llorando, recordando,
mi pasado.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah, aay.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah, aay.

Balada triste de trompeta,
de un corazón desesperado.

---

Sad ballad of the trumpet
for a past that died,
and it weeps and moans,
how it cries!

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah, aay.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aay.

With the weeping of the trumpet
my desperate heart
is crying,
remembering my past.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aay.

Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aah.
Aah, aah, aah, aay.

Sad ballad of the trumpet
from a desperate heart.

---

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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Witching and Bitching (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #27

The original Spanish title of this film is "Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi", engl. "The Witches of Zugarramurdi ". Normally I prefer film titles to be left unchanged, apart from translation, but in this case it's appropriate. In Spain the town Zugarramurdi is well known as the location of witch trials in the early 17th Century. Despite having shrunk to a population of 225, the town hosts a yearly gathering of witches on 21st June, the summer solstice. No dates are mentioned in the film, but we can assume that it takes place on the solstice.

It's very difficult to find this film on disc, except in Spanish and German. The version I watched today is the Spanish Blu-ray with German subtitles. It's available to rent or buy with Amazon Prime, which is better than nothing. Anyone who sees the film for the first time is breathless. What a brilliant film! It's the perfect mix of horror and comedy. Some reviewers have criticised it for being a rip off of "From Dusk Till Dawn", but I prefer to call it an homage.

To explain what I mean: the film begins with an armed robbery. The robbers flee to a remote town (Zugarramurdi) taking innocent people with them. They stumble on a coven of cannibalistic witches.

Yes, that's a clear parallel to "From Dusk Till Dawn", but "Witching and Bitching" is a lot more complex. It also has other messages. The witches are the agents of female supremacy. They worship the one true God, who's a woman. They're preparing a new world order in which men have only two purposes: procreation and food. That sounds like paradise to me. I wonder how many years I'd be allowed to serve as a stud before I'm only good enough to be eaten.

"And now, ladies, the meal begins!"

"Mommy, can't I play with one of them first?"

"You're still young, Eva. You need to eat more till you grow up to be like me. You can play with men all you like when you're older".

"Now let the celebration begin! The Goddess is coming!"

"Make way! Here she comes!"

"Men will see her and tremble with fear!"

This is an outstanding film, fast-paced, packed with action and humour from beginning to end. I can't recommend it enough, even if you're not a fan of horror comedies.

800 Bullets (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #32

I fear that this is a film that very few people know outside of Spain. It's been released on DVD in England and America, but it went unnoticed. I would never have heard about it if it hadn't been a strong recommendation from a Spanish friend. Thank you, Miryam.

I've reviewed the film a few times already, and I've concentrated on the chaos in the final scenes. Today I prefer to mention the beautiful coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Carlos. It's a story I can relate to. He's never met his grandfather. Neither his mother nor his grandmother ever mention him. It's as if he doesn't exist. When Carlos finally finds out about his grandfather, he runs away from home to be with him. That's when his life begins.

Julian Torralbo is a former stuntman who now lives in a fake western village putting on shows for paying tourists. It's a fantasy world, but his grandson Carlos loves it. It's more exciting than his dreary life in a Madrid suburb. That's one of the reasons Julian's wife divorced him. She wanted a man who lives in the real world.

Now Julian has a chance to do his duty as a good grandfather. He teaches Carlos the important things in life, like how to play poker.

Or at least, he teaches Carlos when he's not being distracted by the other players.

Is that a glass of beer in front of Carlos? He really is growing up fast.

Carlos learns how to shoot.

He's a good shot. His mother looks on disapprovingly.

Carlos goes to bed with a woman for the first time, a prostitute called Sandra. It's just preparation for the real thing. She takes her clothes off, but he doesn't. I wish I'd been initiated like this when I was 12.

It's a moving, deeply emotional film. The beauty of the story might be lost in the middle of the chaotic events that are typical for the films directed by Alex de la Iglesia. He's one of my favourite directors. I buy all of his films, because I know they'll be good without having to see them first.

The film has only been released on DVD in England and America, but the Spanish Blu-ray has English subtitles.

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The Last Circus (5 Stars)

My film viewing is very irregular. I watched this film only two weeks ago, but I had to return to it today, even though I have a few new purchases lying unwatched on my shelf. That's just the way I am.

On a different subject, today I saw my grandson playing Candy Crush on his tablet, so I tried it out. Is there any strategy to it? It seemed that I was just clicking at random, making the first patterns I saw. I've heard that it's a very popular game, but I really can't see what's so special about it.

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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The Last Circus (5 Stars)

This afternoon I went to the circus with my grandson Oliver. It was Circus Piccolo, a small family circus that visits my village once a year. Most of the performers are children, either teenagers or pre-teens. One of the clowns looked like he was three years old. He walked around with two older clowns making noises with his miniature trumpet. The circus has no animals. Most of the acts were acrobatics, but there was also a magician.

I felt sad that the circus was so empty today. Last year the tent was packed, but today there were only about 30 people in the audience. Everyone is afraid of getting infected with Coronavirus. It was easy for us to keep a social distance of 1.5 meters from other people, but with attendances like this they're in danger of going bankrupt.

As soon as I walked out, I knew I had to watch this film tonight. I was in a circus mood, and this is the best film I have that's about a circus; or about a clown, at least. I can't praise "The Last Circus" highly enough. In my opinion, it's one of the best films ever made. It's definitely in my top 20 films, probably in my top 10.

The film is about a young man called Javier who's born into a circus family. His father and his grandfather were both clowns. It's in his blood. However, his life is filled with tragedy. As a young boy he witnesses his father being arrested for fighting against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. 10 years later he attempts to free his father while he's doing slave labour at the monument of the Valle de los Caídos, but his father is killed before his eyes. He swears revenge.

There are distractions on the way. In 1973 he joins a circus and falls in love with Natalia, a trapeze artist who's the lover of Sergio, the main clown in the circus. Sergio beats Natalia repeatedly, and Javier wants to save her, but she refuses to leave him. As a result of the love triangle, violence breaks out between the two clowns. Sergio's face is badly mutilated, while Javier descends into madness.

"The Last Circus" has been described as a dark comedy, but I disagree with that label. There's nothing funny about it. It's a tragedy. Javier is destined to suffer from the beginning of his life, and nothing can stop it.

Everything about the film is stunning, from the plot to the cinematography. The story is wrapped around historical events in Spain from 1937 to 1973.

During the opening credits there's a series of 47 photos which I presume show important people and events in Spanish history from 1937 to 1973. I recognise only a few of the people. Can someone please tell me who all the others are.

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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