Sevillanas (1992)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Carlos Saura

Writers:

Carlos Saura (screenplay)
Carlos Saura (story)

Release Date:

27 April 1992 (Spain)

Genre:

Musical

Plot:

Filmed like a documentary, "Sevillanas" consists of eleven short performances by Spain's most famous flamenco dancers...

Plot Keywords:

Flamenco

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Manuela Carrasco	...	Herself
Matilde Coral	...	Herself
Paco de Lucía	...	Himself
Merche Esmeralda	...	Herself
Lola Flores	...	Herself
Camarón de la Isla	...	Himself
Rocío Jurado	...	Herself
Manuel Pareja Obregón	...	Himself
Rafael 'El Negro'	...	Himself
Los Romeros de la Puebla	...	Themselves
Salmarina	...	Herself
Manolo Sanlúcar	...	Himself
Tomatito	...	Himself
Paco Toronjo	...	Himself
Carlos Vilán	...	Himself

Runtime:

53 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

Juan Lebrón Producciones

Soundtrack:

La liebre

A superficial overquick run through a few of the better-known flamenco artists

For `Sevillanas' Carmen Saura had not much option but to use a documentary form, as he simply linked together in no order a dozen flamenco artists - singers, dancers and guitarists - in a bare 50 minutes. The result is short and sweet, but evidently brings no depth to the subject: you might just be watching one of those `canned' ready-made musical programmes which are not much more than several video clips strung together and hurled at you from one of those sky channels.

The film has its moments: above all the duet with Manolo Sanlúcar and Paco de Lucía - which of course was far too brief. One cannot describe the deep empathy that flows between musicians playing this kind of music. You have to watch it and feel it. I will deal more lengthily on this matter in my comments on the biographical documentary of Paco de Lucía in about a week or so when it appears on IMDb. The documentary was shown here together with `Sevillanas' in a thematic programme dedicated to this great musician.

`Sevillanas' is a job half done for those of us who seriously would like a wider exploration of these exceptional musical forms, so unique to Spain, but now so universally acclaimed. Another fifty-odd minutes might have done something to remedy this feeling. In `Calle 54' (qv) Fernando Trueba did a much better job of exploring contemporary Hispanic jazz, an exquisite jewel.