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 It's August 18, 1936. Civil War has broken out in Spain. Federico Garcia Lorca (Cristian Olave), Spain's greatest poet and dramatist, is hiding out in the Granada home of friend and Falange member, Luise Ortiz Rosales (Gabriel Oliva). Lorca—wanted for his outspoken liberal views, homosexuality, and artistic convictions—awaits the arrival of the Nationalist soldiers to arrest him. As his world falls apart, Lorca's final voice is heard through a letter.
The story found in this film was both interesting and well told. Essentially, to expand upon the introduction above, it involves Lorca's benefactor and friend, Luise Rosales, returning to his home to worn Lorca that Franco's thugs are on their way to kill him. To Rosales' distress, Lorca does not choose to flee, but insists that Rosales help him write a letter to an old acquaintance. Despite the madness he perceives in this, Rosales acquiesces to Lorca's request, listening as his friend verbally responds to questions that this acquaintance had asked in a recent letter. When the letter is almost done, the sound of the Franco's Blackshirts can be heard at the door, demanding Lorca present himself. With time run out, Lorca urges his friend to leave by a secret route, so that Rosales may pass along the legends Lorca wishes to live on and so that Lorca may face his final fate alone.
This is one of the more difficult critiques I've done because this film really has no designs for a particularly broad audience, but is specifically targeted for a more niche audience (of which I am personally not a part). That audience is one that is already familiar with Spanish literary figures in general, and with Lorca in specific. Moreover, my supposition is that they are already familiar with the particulars of Lorca's earlier life, and do not require as much information as those who are not familiar with him. For that audience, there is probably quite enough information within this film to provide a scintillating continuation (or conclusion) to a story they already know and love.
For a broader audience, however, we weren't given as much information as I would've liked. (And what was there predominantly came in the form of title cards at the ending of the film, when confusion has already become more likely for broader audiences. )
Personally, I don't think that the intended audience would've been offended if a bit more backstory were given to explain who Lorca was, why the Fascist regime of Franco's was hunting down artists like Lorca, and how they figured out where Lorca was hiding out, and this definitely would've helped out a more general audience. (Of the places that were part of early 20th century Europe, general audiences are likely least familiar with Spain, especially during the years right before World War II.)
As a filmmaker, I can certainly understand if they didn't want to put in any more title cards, couldn't afford to recreate some of the earlier parts of Lorca's life, or did not wish to leave the main room this film would be set in. However, having just finished a film myself which required a lot more production value than we could afford to (or desired to, for artistic reasons) show visually, I really began to wrap my brain around one trick that many filmmakers overlook: the power of audio augmentation. (Even though this gets into what our audio section normally deals with, the fact that it deals with content is why it's being included here.) By using additional radio clips and audio flashbacks in our introductory scene, we were able to showcase a world that has been encompassed by destruction, even though we weren't able to show it visually. The effect turned a serene setting that wouldn't seem to fit into a post-apocalyptic world into an isolated place of respite hidden from the deadly world outside. Since Letters from Lorca deals with a Spanish speaking country, this might not have been the right fit for this film, but it's something to consider for future films.
As this film was created specifically to be released on the 75th anniversary of Lorca's death, it seems clear that they tried to make the film as historically accurate as they could. As such, if the film could be sold to History channel to be used in one of their retrospective works on Spain, then I think that the augmentation of the story the History Channel would explore, when intercut with the film that was created by Mr. Torrilla, would easily provide all the backstory that is needed here.
As it stands right now, however, it's an interesting en trenche de vie ("slice of life") film that explores the time immediately preceding Lorca's death and questions how he might have gone out, while refraining from attempting to answer many questions about how he got from the home to the olive orchard he would be killed in or how anyone knew he was dead (since, apparently, his body was never recovered). While I personally would've liked them to try and look at these latter elements, it wasn't necessary for the film to still work well.
I try to always watch a film for awhile before I look at the specifics of what equipment they used. I don't want to form a bias about a film by assuming a certain look from a certain camera ahead of time. With that said, the team who shot this film did use a REDOne and they were skilled enough to know how to get extremely film-like visuals out of the camera, both through setting and through the exquisite use of lighting. David Starks' cinematography reminded me quite a bit of Roger Deakins' work, which is truly high praise. (For those of you unfamiliar with Deakins' by name, he is an amazingly prolific Hollywood cinematographer responsible for a massive number of films, including the Cohen brothers' remake of True Grit and the critically acclaimed Robert Redford film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.) Perhaps my favorite shot was an opening shot that features a dolly-crane move that starts at a side-lit Lorca's waist as he reads a letter from a friend and then cranes up, following thel line of his vest, and stopping on his face as he is interrupted from his reverie, his eyes opening to look straight through the camera.
Film editor Fernando Viquez did a very impressive job of bringing the somber reality of this situation to the screen. Additionally, colorist David Carstens did a lovely job on the final color grading of the film. The costuming by Ovely Aguilera worked very well with this final look, contributing to the slightly sepia tinged coloration present in the final grade.
Finally, the motion graphics designer, Jesse Randall, deserves props for the great job he did with creating the evocative intro sequence which shows Franco's tyranny through the use of revealing and vanishing splotches of newsreel footage, while a translation of one of his spoken speeches flows in stylized script across the screen. (Additionally, the intro credits for the DVD are well done, presumably by Randall as well.)
Philip Bladh recorded Letters to Lorca's dialogue extremely well, while Ryan DeRemer (the Sound Designer and Editor) did a great job on creating the stark sound design, and blending it with the dialogue and the music in a powerful way. The original music by Pancho Burgos-Goizueta was evocatively tragic, with the large portion of the score dominated by strings, but unafraid to strip it down to a piano when called for.
For just over $6,000, Torrillo and his team were able to shoot a powerful short film that looks like it was shot for much more. (The credited $7,200 budget includes publicity/marketing, which we don't include in the main budget here at MFM.) This should be the goal of all micro-budget filmmakers: to make good films that look like they were made on a much larger budget. Considering that Torillo and his team were able to squeeze RED Rental, insurance, transportation, and paying their technical team into that budget, that's pretty impressive.
If you are into the history of Spain or into the poets of the 20th century, then I believe the appeal of this will be quite long lasting. For folks who aren't into these elements or into filmmaking, the appeal might not be so high. For me, I found the work quite interesting, of superb production value, and will definitely show it to others. (Especially my adopted sister, Bethany, who has spent extended periods of time in Spain and will appreciate the work that was done to make sure that the accents of the main speakers was Castillian rather than South American.) Additionally, any filmmaker who wants to learn from technical excellence would do well to observe this film and learn what they can from it!
Letters from Lorca was a beautiful film that was clearly a work of passion by Torrillo and his team. It's one they should certainly be proud of and which definitely deserves some form of extended distribution, whether this be in association with a Spanish historical society, a poetry association, the History channel, or as the basis for an extended Lorca feature film. Whether this will occur through discovery at a festival, direct approach of a cable channel like History, or through the more common hybrid self-distribution model is anyone's guess, but I wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing future films they set their hands to.
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Content |
8.0 |
Visual
Look |
10.0 |
Use
of Audio |
9.0 |
Use
of Budget |
9.0 |
Lasting
Appeal |
9.0 |
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9.0 |
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The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films, Jeremy Hanke founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted. |
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