Viva la Muerte

Rating:
Summary: the spirit of surrealism and panic juxtaposition
Review: A film that quivers on the fringe, the fringe of ideas, of intuitive mysticism, as it probes into the artifices of intelectual snobery. It is playful, it is violent and disquieting, it touches and transforms conventions, in what has now become a classical preconception of surrealism
-That is: yes, in some aspects the film is outdated, since it is in fact a response to the time in which it was created - but as anything with actual content, it is, timeless. Though maybe not timeless for everyone.
The film is the creation of a man that is obsessed in probing the fibers of reality, and bringing out the bloody absurdity of man.
This type of movie is not concerned with moviemaking in the more orthodox sense that Tarkovsky or Kurosawa, for example, are. This is the vision of a creative man using film to express ideas, they are brought to us by a film. There is no way to compare the approach you might have in viewing the great film makers as in wiewing Arrabal. But he uses the medium quite well, and in his joviality you can spot the similarities with Jodorowsky.
This DVD release is quite good. Aside from the great movie you get an interview with Arrabal. In this interview, Arrabal delivers an image of a man that is immersed in his persona -he takes his shoe off and is holding it up to his head-, a person fractured and irreverent, in such a way that makes you wonder what his real intentions may be, is this intentional or not? it doesn't. But if you know anything about him it is clear he is an intelligent person. When you see the movie you are not concerned with these questions. You are just put face to face with ideas. And ideas are powerful depending on how you may put them to use. So there you are, faced with ideas tied together in panic fashion.

Rating:
Summary: Be Forwarned!!
Review: If you can't stomach real animal torture and real bloodletting then read no further. If you can remember this is a movie about atrocities so its not entirely inappropriate to have moments of the theater of cruetly. The "plot" if you can call it that concerns a young boy growing up in fascist Spain and it is a shocking, horrifying indictment of that era. Remember this film was made when Franco was alive and well albeit in France, not Spain who, however, promptly banned this film. This was a pleasent surprise to be on DVD and it is far better than the incoherent rambling El Topo. Anyway, if you can handle the strong images you may find this film fascinating. If not then make it a Blockbuster night.

Rating:
Summary: I cannot belive nobody has reviewed this!!!!!!
Review: Maybe Fernando Arrabal didn't enjoy the cult popularity that his partner and cofounder of " Panic" Jodorowsky did, but I'm pretty surprised that nobody has written anything on this nice and little seen movies, since they are to a certain extent better than what we have out there by Jodorowsky ( Fando & Lis, which is based upon a play by Arrabal by the way), and most fans of Jodorowsky would be familiar with Arrabal's name because of that. Besides, I don't think there's another non "studio" DVD edition that's as nice as what they did with this particular one. Arrabal is an important artist in many fields. This film and, of course, the other one that's on the market, are full with truly challenging imagery and narrative technique, and are better productions than " Fando y Lis". Even if you heard the name just because their films are known as brutal, offensive, violent and disgusting, and are not really into " art" filmmaking ( as many people would categorize this pieces) you should really chek them out: Either way, no other film comes closer to Arrabal's films. We are very lucky to have them uncut perhaps for the first and last time ever. Many people are waiting for stuff like "Saló" or " Cannibal Holocaust" to be released. They sould know that they may not be the daring landmark films legend's made out of them, at least not the only ones.

I hope this DVDs are selling good so they release sometime " The three of Guernica" (which is his best movie). and " The Automobile Graveyard". I guess they didn't want to risk it that much since Arrabal, as good as he is, is most well known in Europe than here in the U.S., where barely anybody remembers his contributions to theatre, fiction and movies. For example, he even directed a movie with Spike Lee in the 80s.

Rating:
Summary: Great Works of Art Turn Up in the Strangest Places
Review: When I first saw Viva La Muerte I was 21 and living in Melbourne, Australia. It ran for two months at weekend midnight screenings, and I've never been more impressed by a film. This is most definitely an art movie, and its mere existence makes most "art" movies turn into television commercials for the brainless masses. It is set in the spanish civil war, but it could be Iraq, Afghanistan or Bosnia or wherever the next war is engineered. It concerns a family torn apart by war. The mother has reported her husband to the authorities, telling them that he is a communist. Whether he is or is not is irrelevant. It is a convenient way for her to get rid of him. Their child, a seven or eight year old boy, keeps asking the mother where is his father. She tells him his father ran away because he is a coward. We see pictures of the father being horrendously tortured by the authorities. The brutal imagery used to define these events is quite blunt and never veers from the truth. It shows how communism is just a word, and that the human urge to hurt others and conveniently dispose of the unwanted is so readily utilized by people's self-interests. This film reminds us who we are, how we are naive and reasonably innocent when we are young, and how idealists are just fodder for the savage beings we so quickly develop into when we don't get what we want. It's a humbling film that reminds us of how far we have to go before we can declare we are good people.