Flamenco

Rating:
Summary: Watch it!
Review: I saw this video in Europe a couple of months ago and was just shocked by the energy I felt. This is a real journey to the spontanious(spell?). However, the price is rediculous.

Rating:
Summary: Great Show but Awful quality tape
Review: I was looking foward to see this video because I have been familiar with all those artists since I was a kid back in my country.
Once I started the tape most of it had broken images. Once in a while I would be able to enjoy without a headache what was going on. I have no idea if anyone has had the same fate with the VHS as I have because I didn't read any negative reviews. So I guess I was blessed with the worst quality video of them all.
What I regret is how $$$ it was. I am so dissapointed I don't even want to go through the trouble of spending money to return it.

Rating:
Summary: sad to say
Review: If this film repesents flamenco, then flamenco is 80% singing - 20% dancing (half of which is subordinate to singing). This should be listed as a concert film - not a dance film.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Flamenco
Review: Performance as art, flamenco as art and performance is what this film captures. Minimilist in tradional theatrical enticements this film captures the pure essence of the total flamenco experience. No fancy Hollywood set designs, extravagant staging is nil, this is pure art, the performances stand alone. At times the lighting only reveals a siloutte, never detracting from the pure essence. The film captures an indoor gitano gathering where all participants are involved, from just handclapping and chorus to center stage vocals and dance, all the gitanos interact and compliment one another. The beauty in this film comes from different angles, the authenticity, the various styles of flamenco, the emotions the artists emote and the feelings that are brought out in the viewer. So many different people perform that it is hard to identify indidviduals, which may be just the intent of the director as the cohesion of the gitano family in performance seems to be most important. One of the intriguing aspects of this performance is that there are so many "older" performers, who dominate and captivate the viewer. If one listens and closes ones eyes momentarily, it is hard to imagine one is listening to people well into their sixties and older. A brilliant moment is when a young gitano of maybe twelve years of age performs a stunning dance, a visually blazing with speed dervish solo and then is suddenly joined by an elder gitano who accompanies him. The juxtaposition is unforgetable as the young boy and elder each pay homage to each other, in unison, dancing off the set. The guitar work is fabulous by various masters including a sensational set by Paco de Lucia and even the modern interpretations of flamenco by Ketama. The rich vocals are guttural at times but the emotions of the sounds come from the deepest parts of the soul. The sounds of pain and passion, love and desire, grief and hope, solice and community, the soul of the gitanos comes through loud and clear. This is one to not be missed for complete flamenco that includes guitar, dance and vocals, Andalusian nights are calling, los gitanos te esperan.

Rating:
Summary: JEWEL!!
Review: The first reviewer lacks knowledge of the many different elements and styles of FLAMENCO.

This film captures FLAMENCO in its many forms with the best performers alive. It is a real treasure that you will want to watch over and over. HIGHLY RESOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: Flamenco - compelling
Review: This film is a delight for Flamenco aficionados. I can't think of any other video that I have watched over and over, as I do this one. It's all about soul, and it has captured mine.

Rating:
Summary: Poor work !
Review: This is a very dissapointing video. If you're expecting to see a long Joaquin Cortes performance, forget it!. He only appears for 1 or 2 minutes. Also, if you enjoy "baile" Flamenco this is not for you, there's too much "cante". Poor quality in general. This video is overpriced (...)

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginner afficionado.
Review: This is not what I was looking for. I got bored and fell
asleep in the middle of the video.

Rating:
Summary: All the power, passion and artistry of contemporary flamenco
Review: This is THE flamenco film. Carlos Saura, famous for his work with the great Antonio Gades ("Blood Wedding," "Carmen" and "El Amor Brujo") and for his portrait of Andalusian folklore in "Sevillanas," creates one of the best flamenco films ever made.

The focus in this work is on the performers and their performances. Sets are minimal and there is no "story" except that generated by the lyrics of the flamenco songs themselves. The director is careful to capture not only the larger aspects of the performances but also to zero in on the emotional engagement of the performers with their art . Flamenco is as much about the performer's struggles with the art and the emotions that underpin it as it is about a stage presentation. This is an intimate film despite the fact that it was shot in a train station. The sets, lighting and camera work continually direct your focus to that intimate space created by the performers.

The conceit of the film is a journey not only through flamenco's different styles as embodied by some of the art's greatest contemporary performers, but also a journey into the night. Not only is the night evoked through lighting effects, but the deep inner recesses of the soul are suggested as well, that inner wellspring from which flamenco itself arises.

This is the most profound exploration of flamenco ever captured on film. To understand flamenco, there is no better place to start than with Carlos Saura's masterpiece, "Flamenco."

Rating:
Summary: Not what I thought...
Review: Those not in the know tend to think of Flamenco in terms of women with fans and flying skirts and men in boots and macho attitudes. Well, yeah, but there's more, much more. This movie, filmed in a converted Spanish railway station, presents the full range of the Gitano's art, from traditional to modern, individual to group, expressing all the pain and joy of a true, very serious artform. A delight.