LITTLE ASHES REVEALS THE LOVE AFFAIR BETWEEN SALVADOR DALÍ & FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA
Directed by Paul Morrison, the slowmoving triple biopic Little Ashes begins in 1922, when Salvador Dalí y Domènech (played by Robert Pattinson) and Federico García Lorca (played by Javier Beltrán) are students so infatuated with each other’s genius that they fall in love. The film ends in 1936 with García Lorca’s execution by the fascist forces of Francisco Franco and the sorrow of Dalí on learning the news in Paris. Along with fellow student and filmmaker Luis Buñuel (played by Matthew McNulty), the three were members of the Generation of ’27 that advanced conservative Spain into avant-garde directions. Even before 1922, García Lorca was rumored to be gay, but his advances with Dalí are successful despite homophobic hostility from Buñuel. That year Dalí works on the stage sets for García Lorca’s second play Mariana Pineda, which is eminently successful, and García Lorca gives the name “Little Ashes” to a new painting by Dalí (meaning: everything in the end becomes ashes). Buñuel, portrayed as a latent homosexual who once goes to a cruising spot to beat up someone who wanted to service him, moves to Paris in 1925 and the following year successfully persuades Dalí to join him, meet Picasso, and achieve world fame. After a short time, Dalí returns to Madrid to finish his art degree but, after tonguelashing his examiners at the Fine Arts School for their incompetence, is expelled. In 1929, Buñuel and Dalí collaborate in the 16-minute surreal film Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog), which García Lorca interprets as an attack on him, whereupon the two former lovers become estranged. García Lorca relies on female “fag hag” companionship, while Dalí marries and so allows fame and fortune to go to his head that he alienates Buñuel, who returns to Madrid in 1931 to befriend García Lorca (who has recently returned from a short stay in America). Next, politics divides the principals in the 1930s. While Dalí is fascinated with Nazi rhetoric, resulting in his expulsion from the surrealist group, Buñuel and García Lorca side with democratic forces. (García Lorca’s execution is alongside his socialist brother-in-law.) The later lives of Buñuel and Dalí perhaps merit another film, but most filmvewers will find García Lorca the most admirable of the three. A title at the end claims that the film reveals hitherto unappreciated details of the gay relationship. MH
ANGELS & DEMONS PROVIDES A TRAVELOG OF ROME
Following up the Da Vinci Code, the film Angels and Demons provides yet another treasure hunt for something important, but this time a bomb of several megatons in the form of a canister containing anti-matter stolen from an experimental CERN lab in Switzerland. The flask is supposed to explode at midnight somewhere in the Holy See after four Cardinals are executed in a plot hatched by members of the secret Illuminati, who seek revenge for their ostracism since the time of Galileo because they supported science while the church did not. Searching for clues in major landmarks of Rome and the Vatican are Harvard Professor Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks), who is summoned while swimming alone in the Crimson pool, and CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (played by Ayelet Zureer). Amid the suspenseful mystery story, directed by Ron Howard, filmviewers learn about the hierarchical power structure of the church, the process of selecting a new pope, and the existence of a vast library to which the professor, an expert on the history of the Catholic Church, was hitherto barred because of his failure to believe in God. If the film indeed attracts tourists to see the landmarks this summer, the principal beneficiary will be the travel industry, as filmgoers did not sufficiently reward Hollywood for its efforts ($88 million in box office receipts thus far to defray a $150 million budget). MH