Going onto the HOME cinema in Manchester website for tickets to VIVA:The 29th Spanish & Latin American Manchester Film Festival on the day the line-up was revealed, I looked down the list,and was excited to find an obscure title was going to be shown with English Subtitles, that I could not find anywhere online with attending.
Arriving just 10 minutes before a screening started for a film I had been looking forward for over a month to see, the group (Invisible Women) who spent a long time going through the legal threads to untangle the title to finally get screened, handed out papers, which along with mentioning about a (great) discussion taking place after the screening on obscure women film makers in Spanish cinema, also revealed that "Subtitles have been done by University of Exeter MA Translation Studies students, supported by members of staff in Translation Studies, Film Studies, and Language Studies at the Universities of Exeter, Kent and Oxford." This led to me getting prepared to at last meet Barbara.
Note: Review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Mentioned in the introduction that the film maker had been told that her film was going to be played with English Subtitles for the first time, and that she was very happy about the news, co-writer (with Sara Azcarate and Concha Romero) / director Cecilia Bartolome drives into her feature film debut with meticulous tracking and panning shots which delicately follow Ana and her young daughter Barbara going off road to find their own path in life.
Appearing to be largely filmed in real locations, Bartolome closely works with Pain and Glory (2019-also reviewed) / future regular cinematographer of Pedro Almodóvar,José Luis Alcaine in covering Barbara and Ana in warm, natural light, which glows in a rustic atmosphere as mum and daughter explore each new pit-stop.
Introducing Ana partaking in some carnal knowledge in the opening scene, Bartolome cleverly uses sequences shot in a casual manner of Ana being naked, to express the growing comfort in her own skin that Ana begins to feel from getting away from her old life, to the where Ana walks around the house naked, only to discover in a playful comedy set-pieces, that she has unexpectedly given guests (who she was unaware of were at the house) an eyeful.
Living in a bourgeoisie lifestyle and marriage, which rather then offering any discreet charms, leaves her feeling trapped, and miserable with life itself, Amparo Soler Leal gives a sparkling performance as Ana, who Leal has develop an infectious grin with each new turn Ana makes to get away from the shadow of her old life, with Leal holding Ana's excitement from this new self-discovery, with a prominent sportive, encourage side Ana displays towards her young daughter Barbara (played with the perfect mix of curiosity and coming of age by Cristina Alvarez in her first ever screen credit) learning new things, from each stop they make on the road.
Revealing in the discussion after the screening, that without talking to the director about the move, producer Alfredo Matas took the print and dubbed it into Catalan, (with the version shown at HOME, being the longest ever cut of the title to be played) the screenplay by Bartolome, Azcarate and Romero brilliantly builds upon the opening of Bartolome's earlier short Margarita y el lobo (1969-also reviewed) in men attempting too make Barbara and Ana live their lives, in a manner that they deem fit, with Ana's husband trying to catch her committing adultery/ use it as a reason for divorce, in order to display that he is the one who (believes) he has all the power in the marriage.
Fleeing from everything they have been surrounded by in their lives, the writers superbly lace the Road Movie adventure that Ana and Barbara share, (which includes a sly gay subtext when the mum and daughter meet Curro) with excellent comedy detours from the new faces they both meet, as Ana decides to let her daughter find a path in life, by letting Barbara go.
Arriving just 10 minutes before a screening started for a film I had been looking forward for over a month to see, the group (Invisible Women) who spent a long time going through the legal threads to untangle the title to finally get screened, handed out papers, which along with mentioning about a (great) discussion taking place after the screening on obscure women film makers in Spanish cinema, also revealed that "Subtitles have been done by University of Exeter MA Translation Studies students, supported by members of staff in Translation Studies, Film Studies, and Language Studies at the Universities of Exeter, Kent and Oxford." This led to me getting prepared to at last meet Barbara.
Note: Review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Mentioned in the introduction that the film maker had been told that her film was going to be played with English Subtitles for the first time, and that she was very happy about the news, co-writer (with Sara Azcarate and Concha Romero) / director Cecilia Bartolome drives into her feature film debut with meticulous tracking and panning shots which delicately follow Ana and her young daughter Barbara going off road to find their own path in life.
Appearing to be largely filmed in real locations, Bartolome closely works with Pain and Glory (2019-also reviewed) / future regular cinematographer of Pedro Almodóvar,José Luis Alcaine in covering Barbara and Ana in warm, natural light, which glows in a rustic atmosphere as mum and daughter explore each new pit-stop.
Introducing Ana partaking in some carnal knowledge in the opening scene, Bartolome cleverly uses sequences shot in a casual manner of Ana being naked, to express the growing comfort in her own skin that Ana begins to feel from getting away from her old life, to the where Ana walks around the house naked, only to discover in a playful comedy set-pieces, that she has unexpectedly given guests (who she was unaware of were at the house) an eyeful.
Living in a bourgeoisie lifestyle and marriage, which rather then offering any discreet charms, leaves her feeling trapped, and miserable with life itself, Amparo Soler Leal gives a sparkling performance as Ana, who Leal has develop an infectious grin with each new turn Ana makes to get away from the shadow of her old life, with Leal holding Ana's excitement from this new self-discovery, with a prominent sportive, encourage side Ana displays towards her young daughter Barbara (played with the perfect mix of curiosity and coming of age by Cristina Alvarez in her first ever screen credit) learning new things, from each stop they make on the road.
Revealing in the discussion after the screening, that without talking to the director about the move, producer Alfredo Matas took the print and dubbed it into Catalan, (with the version shown at HOME, being the longest ever cut of the title to be played) the screenplay by Bartolome, Azcarate and Romero brilliantly builds upon the opening of Bartolome's earlier short Margarita y el lobo (1969-also reviewed) in men attempting too make Barbara and Ana live their lives, in a manner that they deem fit, with Ana's husband trying to catch her committing adultery/ use it as a reason for divorce, in order to display that he is the one who (believes) he has all the power in the marriage.
Fleeing from everything they have been surrounded by in their lives, the writers superbly lace the Road Movie adventure that Ana and Barbara share, (which includes a sly gay subtext when the mum and daughter meet Curro) with excellent comedy detours from the new faces they both meet, as Ana decides to let her daughter find a path in life, by letting Barbara go.
