|
By PAUL BRENNER
In "Vengo" -- French
director Tony Gatlif's celebration of the gipsy
musical soul (now available on DVD through Home
Vision Entertainment) -- narrative film is laid
bleeding and dying underneath a sensual,
enervating barrage of flamenco, Sufi, and belly
dancing and singing. The passion of the music and
dancing render Gatlif's coat-hanger plot about a
family blood feud in Andalusia completely
superfluous -- like a Shakespearean soliloquy in a
porn film.
The film stars the great flamenco dancer Antonio
Canales in a charismatic role as a doomed uncle to
his mentally-handicapped nephew. The clouds float
heavily over Canales's head as music and dance
explode all around him. Dining, drinking,
weddings, standing in the road are all occasions
for rhythmic clapping, dancing and singing. One
scruffy but well dressed man even pauses under a
tree and picks up the music of the branches --
"This tree's got duende. Sounds like a lament."
Even a death scene becomes musical as a dying man
falls in front of an automobile repair shop and
the mechanical sounds are cut to a beat like a
modern day Mamoulian film. But in an act of
perversity worthy of Bunuel, Gatlif hog-ties
Canales and the only semblance of dancing the
flamenco legend performs in the film is a soft
shoe with a cell phone in the middle of a barren
road. If you are contemplating suicide, Gatlif's
beautiful scope paean to Music as God will rouse
you from your funk and you'll find yourself
dancing in abandon with the implement of your own
demise held loftily above your head.
The DVD extras include a fascinating short subject
about gipsy life called "Los Almendros-Plaza
Nueva," and interview with Canales and fellow
actor Antonio Dechent, a filmography of Gitlif,
and trailers for "Vengo" and "Swing" (another
Gitlif musical film). |
