[Little Ashes] Critiques

je viens de trouver sur un site une critique par quelqu'un qui a vu le film

Citation :

I saw Pattinson at Raindance in Little Ashes and he gave an exceptional performance. Its a very difficult role and he pulled it off with aplomb. He doesnt have the largest role (that goes to Beltran as Lorca) but in my opinion the Dali role is much harder. He shows he is as comfortable with comedy as he is the more dramatic moments. I loved the performance.

traduction

j'ai vu pattinson à raindance dans little ashes et il fait une performance exceptionnelle. c'est un rôle très difficile et il le fait avec aplomb. Il n'a pas le rôle le plus important (qui est celui de beltran qui joue lorca) mais mon avis est que le rôle de dali est plus difficile. il montre qu'il est aussi bien à l'aise dans les moments de comédie que dans ceux plus dramatiques. j'ai adoré la performance.

une autre critique sur le film

Little Ashes was shown tonight at the Cine Lumiere in London as part of the “Lorca on Film” film series. The film was introduced by director Paul Morrison and screenwriter Philippa Goslet. Anja was there and sent us her report:

What can I say, I laughed and cried, I love when a film moves me like that. Outstanding performances by both Rob and Javier, beautiful settings, music and supporting cast. At first I just saw Rob, then I began to see Saldavor. Rob really put his heart and soul into the role.

After the film, Paul and Phillipa did a Q&A. Phillipa said she drew the first draft back in 2000. Someone asked if they had considered filming the movie in Spanish to which Morrison replied “every other day!” He continued “the story has been around for over 20 years and no Spanish film maker has ever told it. These two great artists belong to the world and we wanted to tell their story to a wide audience. The poetry readings were kept in Spanish, we had to do that for Lorca.”

When asked about the casting, Morrison explained that to begin with, they had a big budget which drew some big names but it just never felt right. After careful consideration and changes to the budget, Rob was approached - originally for the role of Lorca! But soon Morrison realized that Rob could identify so much better as Dali, as they share the same kind of intelligence. Rob “completely immersed himself into the role of Dali”. Morrison spent a lot of time with Javier and Rob on his own, until the chemistry was right.

During the break before the Q & A, I spotted Rob’s parents and had a chance to say hello. I told them how much I loved their son’s work. They told me it was their second time of seeing it. Rob’s sisters were also there. The theatre was at full capacity and I think a lot of people will spread the Little Ashes love!

Anja

.robert-pattinson.co.uk

Review of Little Ashes (15)
Pattz gets arty…

TOTAL FILM RATING ***
BY: Shonette Laffy Apr 21st 2009

Were it not for a certain heartthrob du jour appearing in this sultry biopic of Salvador Dalí’s student days, Little Ashes might have passed quietly under the radar.

But since wrapping on this, leading man Robert Pattinson has become global teen catnip thanks to Twilight, so the crafty release date delay should ensure a built-in audience of quivering schoolgirls looking for their ‘R-Pattz’ fix.

They’ll be in for a shock. There’s no dreamy neck-nibbling to be had here – just good honest arthouse gay sex, masturbation and nudity.

Taking memories from Dalí’s contradicting autobiographies and set against the rise of Fascism, Philippa Goslett’s screenplay weaves an intriguing tale of lust, ambition and liberalism as Dalí (Pattinson) metamorphasises from shy dandy arriving at art school in ’20s Madrid to his bonkers bug-eyed persona – via an infatuation with fellow student, writer Federico Lorca (Javier Beltrán).

Pattinson proves his range exceeds looking sexy with fangs as he throws himself into the role with credible Spanish accent, pube-flashing and maniacal paint-splattering.

Though he’s confessed to being uneasy acting his gay love scenes, he’s convincing in (relatively tame) mano-a-mano clinches; and by the time he’s poncing about Paris in the trademark Dalí moustache he’s deliciously repellent and narcissistic – a nation of teenagers will weep.

What’s more, Pattinson is easily matched by newcomer Beltrán whose quiet, nuanced performance provides the smouldering heart of the pair’s bromance. But as with most artist bios, the unique genius of Dalí is a tricky beast to translate to screen, leaving director Paul Morrison (Wondrous Oblivion) to essentially paint a gorgeous mood piece with stunning images of the artist’s hometown, beautifully shot interpretations of Lorca’s poetry and smoky evocations of Europe’s pre-war avant-garde scene. Muy bonita!

Jane Crowther

Verdict:

Leaving questions dangling, this isn’t the definitive take on Dalí art-lovers may crave. Still, shot on a shoestring, it’s nevertheless a lush, involving period drama that proves there are other strings to Pattinson’s bow.

http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/little-ashes

TRADUCTION

Critique de Little Ashes (15)
Pattz devient un véritable artiste

Note du film ***
Par : Shonette Laffy 21 avril 2009

Il n'est pas sur que si le beau Rob n'apparaissait pas dans cette sulfureuse biographie de Salvador Dalí (pendant ses années à l'université), Little Ashes aurait pu autant attiré l'attention.

Mais en tenant compte de cela, le rôle masculin principal, Robert Pattinson, est devenu l'idole des ados grâce à Twilight, donc le fait que la date de sortie du film ait été repoussé assure que le public composé d'écolières tremblantes à l'idée de voir leur R-Pattz sera bien là.

Et elles vont être choquées. Il n'y aura pas de morsure au niveau du cou – juste une relation homosexuelle, de la masturbation et de la nudité

tirant des souvenir des biographies contradictoires de Dali et dans un contexte de montée du fascisme , le scénariste Philippa Goslett nous livre une histoire intrigante faite de luxure d'ambition et de libéralisme alors que Dalí (Pattinson) passe du dandy timide, dandy qui arrive dans une école d'art dans un Madrid des années 20 à une autre personne –par le biais de sa relation avec un étudiant l'écrivain Federico Lorca (Javier Beltrán).

Pattinson prouve qu'il peut se montrer très sexy dans ce rôle où il a un accent incroyablement espagnol,où il se dénude et interprète à merveille ce peintre maniaque.

Bien qu'il ait avoué avoir été mal à l'aise lors des scènes d'amour homosexuel ,il est convainquant (bien apprivoisé) dans ses corps à corps; et quand il arrive à Paris où il affiche sa marque de fabrique la moustache de Dalí il est simplement délicieux et narcissique – une nation d'ados vont avoir la larme à l'oeil.

De plus, Pattinson va bien avec le nouveau venu Beltrán dont la performance sobre et nuancée garantit la crédibilité de ce duo romantique. Mais comme la plupart du temps avec les bio d'artistes le génie inégalable de Dalí est bien difficile à rendre à l'écran,laissant le réalisateur Paul Morrison (Wondrous Oblivion) peindre essentiellement un merveilleux tableau avec des images éblouissantes de la ville natale de l'artiste , la poésie de Lorca a été magnifiquement été interprété et les évocations d'une Europe d'avant garde et d'après guerre sont très belles

Jane Crowther

Verdict:

Laissant des questions en suspens , il n'y a pas une prise complète sur Dalí Pourtant , réalisé avec un petit budget, c'est toutefois un régal, évoquant une période dramatique qui prouve que Pattinson a d'autres cordes à son arc

critique du film par le site backstage.com

Little Ashes
par Simi Horwitz

L'action se situe en 1922 à Madrid pendant une période de bouillonnement artistique et d'agitation sociale et politique avant la Guerre civile espagnole. Little Ashes est un film obsédant racontant les relations fragiles entre le peintre surréaliste Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson), le dramaturge-poète et révolutionnaire Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran) et le cinéaste Luis Bunuel (Matthieu McNulty), connus pour leur sens de l'esthétique surréaliste et leur position politique radicale.

Traité avec une forme de légèreté, le film explore l'homosexualité dans une culture dominée par la religion, l'intense jalousie auto-destructive, le culte de célébrité et l'outrance de l'amour propre. Ce film est à bien des égards étonnamment moderne et jamais ennuyeux. le scénario de Philippa Goslet est subtil, la réalisation de Paul Morrison est habile et les acteurs crédibles.

Pattinson est remarquable dans le rôle de Dali, personnage à la sexualité ambigüe, follement excentrique avec ses tenues exubérantes, sa suffisance affichée et ses manières affectées. Il est une étude du narcissisme dans lequel tombe son personnage. Pour son premier long métrage, Beltran dresse un beau portrait d'un homme sensible profondément amoureux de la mauvaise personne. Il se montre blessé et vulnérable. McNulty a un petit rôle mais réussit à transmettre en quelques brèves apparitions la répulsion que Buñuel éprouve pour la relation "homo-érotique" qui existe entre Dali et Lorca tou en faisant allusion à sa propre attirance non avouée pour Dali. Gatell Marina est aussi touchante dans le rôle de cette femme éperdument amoureuse de Garcia Lorca.

Dans une des scènes les plus troublantes du film, Garcia Lorca a des rapports sexuels avec Magdalena (Gatell) tandis que Dali les observe. La variété des émotions sur leurs visages - angoisse, humiliation, plaisir, conspiration - est mémorable.

L'époque et les lieux sont également filmés de façon éclatante : la présence militaire qui se fait de plus en plus sentir, les élégantes maisons de la bourgeoisie espagnole, les bistrots fréquentés par des étudiants et des artistes. Beau travail de la part du directeur de la photographie Adam Suschitzky et du chef décorateur Pere Francesch.

info via spunk ransom

Ca s'est une bonne critique

Citation :

Pattinson est remarquable dans le rôle de Dali,

car dans l'article du guardian que j'ai traduit aujourd'hui le son de cloche est différent

Critique par le site reuters.com

"Ashes" paints handsome but meandering portrait

By Stephen Farber

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It can be fun to watch well-known historical figures spinning around in a piece of fiction. An ambitious new U.K.-Spain production, "Little Ashes," scrutinizes some of the most intriguing figures in 20th century art: surrealist painter Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson), master filmmaker Luis Bunuel (Matthew McNulty) and poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran).

Lorca is probably the least well known, but he's the central character in director Paul Morrison's romantic drama, which revolves around the friendship of the three Spanish masters, who met in Madrid in the early 1920s.

"Ashes" makes no claims to be an entirely accurate biopic; it's a speculative, impressionistic portrait without a lot of dramatic force or psychological depth. But it's an elegantly designed film that fascinates as often as it frustrates. Box-office prospects seem limited, despite the following that Pattinson has developed since mesmerizing young girls in "Twilight." That teenage audience is unlikely to turn out for a film about Spanish artistic history, and the Regent Releasing film, which opens Friday (May 8.), isn't quite compelling enough to demand attention from discerning adult viewers.

Once it gets past a tedious introductory section in which new student Dali arrives at university, the film zeroes in on the intense homoerotic flirtation between Dali and Lorca. There isn't a lot of documentation about this affair, and the script by Philippa Goslett is maddeningly murky, though Pattinson and Beltran strike some sensual sparks. Although Lorca is known to have been gay, Dali's sexuality is more ambiguous (he was married for decades), and the film implies that he essentially was asexual, thus able to serve as a magnet for men and women. The film also hints that Bunuel, jealous of the friendship between Dali and Lorca, might have been something of a closet case himself. As he hurls homophobic slurs at his classmates, he seems to be wrestling with demons of his own, which never are made entirely clear.

Anyone who looks to the film for a lucid analysis of these three seminal artists will be disappointed. Yet the film is often enjoyable to watch, partly because it is so beautifully shot by cinematographer Adam Suschitzky, who takes advantage of the rich settings, including Dali's home in the seaside town of Cadaques and Lorca's in the pastoral environs of Andalusia.

Pattinson captures the initial shyness and growing flamboyance of Dali, and Beltran makes a handsome foil. Although the female characters aren't as well drawn, Marina Gatell as a writer in love with Lorca and Arly Jover as Dali's brazen wife, Gala, bring the right sassiness to their roles. All of the technical credits are outstanding; it's the diffuse script that disappoints.

Critique par le site entertainment weekly

Little Ashes (2009)

By Owen Gleiberman

It's not too hard to see why Robert Pattinson was chosen — months 
 before he put the gleam in 20 million Twilight fans' eyes — to play the young Salvador Dalí in Little Ashes. With his hair slicked back in elegant '20s style, and those giant, saucerish orbs popping out of their sockets in mock amazement, Pattinson looks startlingly like Dali even before he starts to grow the artist's trademark upside-down mustache. The actor makes a great entrance, emerging from a car in ruffles, a Louise Brooks haircut, and a high theatrical pout, all to greet — or, more accurately, to ignore — his fellow students at a 
 university in Madrid. But don't get your hopes up: This androgynous exhibitionist turns out to be the most wilting of wallflowers on the inside.

Little Ashes tells the tale, largely speculative, of Dali's student romance with the budding leftist poet Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran), and the movie has the dubious distinction of using their moony homoerotic love affair didactically, as a way to trash Dali the artist. The relationship, which climaxes with a midnight swim that looks like an outtake from an 
 Esther Williams water ballet, is supposed to express the "real" Dali. Whereas the raging, antibourgeois, satirically mad surrealist he becomes is treated as a fraud — a cover-up 
 for his tender self. Even if you buy that (and I didn't — I love Dali's visionary vulgarity too much), Pattinson and Beltran are stuck with a rudderless script, and they make a soft, dull pair. I wish the film had more of Matthew McNulty's firebrand performance 
 as Luis Buñuel, whose collaboration with Dali on the revolutionary short film Un Chien Andalou comes off here as an arty caprice that interrupted the cause of true love. I can't imagine what Dali or Buñuel would have made of such bourgeois sentimentality. C–

TRADUCTION

Critique par le site reuters.com

"Ashes" peints un beau mais sinueux portrait

By Stephen Farber



LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)

Ce peut être rigolo de voir de figures historiques dans une fiction. Un production anglo hispanique ambitieuse “Little Ashes” se focalise sur une figure intrigante du 20ème siècle, le peintre suréaliste Dali (R Pattinson) le réalisateur Luis Bunuel (Mc Nulty) et le poète dramaturge Lorca (Beltran)

Lorca est sans doute le moins conu, mais il est le personnage central du drame romantique de Morrison, qui tourne autour de l'amitié de 3 maitres espagnols qui se sont rencontrés à Madrid au début des années 1920

Le film ne se dit pas film autobiographique, c'est un portrait spéculatif et impressioniste sans force dramatique ou profondeur psychologique. C'est un film bien réalisé qui fascine comme il frustre. Les résulats au box office semblent limités, malgré l'engouement suscité par Pattinson auprès des jeunes filles fan de Twilight. Il est improbable qu'elles aillent voit le film sur cet artiste Espagnol et la sortie du film vendredi 8 mai n'est pas suffisante pour attiré les adultes, qui ont plus de discernement
Après une introduction ennuyeuse dans laquelle le nouvel étudaint dali arrive à la fac, le film est nul en ce qui concerne le flirt si intensément érotique de Dali et Lorca. Il n'y a pas beaucoup de documentation disponible sur cette affaire et le script de P Goslett est glauque, m^me si Pattinson et beltan sont sensuels. Bien que Lorca soit connu pour ses penchants gays, la sexualité de dali est plus ambigue (il a été marié pendant des années) et le film sous entend qu'il était asexuel, donc il attirait les hommes et les femmes. Le film montre aussi que Bunuel, jaloux de leur amitié avait lui aussi un squellette dans le placard. Tenant des propos homophobiques face à ses camarades, il se battait en fait contre ses propres demons, qu'on a jamais clairement définis

Tous ceux qui viennent chercher une analyse lucide sur ces 3 artistes sera déçu. Pourtant le film est agréable à regarder, grâce à ses magnifiques plans (Adam Suschitzky) qui tirent avantages des riches paysages, parmi lesquels la maison de dali dans la ville balnéaire de cadaques et les environs de Lorca en Andalousie

Pattinson a bien saisi la timidité et la flamboyance grandissante de dali, et beltran fait un bel appât M^me si les femmes ne sont pas bien explitées, M Gatell en écrivain amoureuse de Lorca et A Jover en femme de Dali( Gala) apporte une bonne touche à leur rôles. Toute la partie technique est magnifique c'est le script qui est décevant

TRADUCTION

Little Ashes (2009)

By Owen Gleiberman

Ce n'est pas difficile de voir pourquoi Pattinson a été choisi - des mois bien avant le succès de Twilight – pour incarner Dali dans Little Ashes. Avec ses cheveux en arrière dans un style élagant des années 20 , Pattinson ressemnle parfaitement à dali bien avant qu'il ne laisse pousser sa moustache, qui deviendra sa marque de fabrique. L'acteur fait une entré remarquée , sortant d'une voiture, avec une coupe à la Louise Broooks, et il a une moue théâtrale, pour accueillir – ou plutôt pour ignorer- ses camarades à l'université de Madrid. Mais ne vous réjouissez pas: cet exhibitioniste androgyne se révèle être la plus belle tapisserie de l'intérieur

Little Ashes c'est l'histoire , largement spéculative de la romance étudiante de Dali avec le poète gauchiste Lorca (Beltran) et le film distingue l'histoire d'amour homosexuelle (qui a détruit dali l'artiste). Leur relations qui culminent dans ce bain de minuit qui semble être extrait d'un ballet aquatique de esther Williams, est censé exprimer le vrai Dali. Tandis que le surréaliste rageur, anti bourgeois, fou qu'il est devenu est traité comme si c'était un fausse image de lui- une couverture pour son côté tendre. Même si vous n'y croyez pas ( et moi non plus – j'aime le dali visionnaire et trop vulgaire) Pattinson et beltran sont coincés par le script et ils forment un couple ennuyeux. J'aurais aimé que le film montre plus les performance de Nulty (Luis Bunuel) dont la collaboration avec Dali sur le court métrage Un chien Andalou vient ici comme un caprice artistique qui interrompt le cours de luer histoire d'amour. Je ne peux imaginer ce que Dali et Bunuel aurait pensé d'autant de sentimentalisme bourgeois

eh beh il se fait un peu beaucoup casser le film

ptiteaurel

en voici une autre du suntimes.com

Little Ashes (R)

by Roger Ebert

It was a ripe time to live at the Students' Residence in Madrid and study at the School of Fine Arts. When he arrived from Catalonia in 1922, Salvador Dali met the future poet Federico Garcia Lorca and future filmmaker Luis Bunuel. Dali was a case study, dressed as a British dandy of the previous century, with a feminine appearance. No doubt he was a gifted painter. He was to become a rather loathsome man.

"Little Ashes" focuses on an unconsummated attraction between Dali (Robert Pattinson) and Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran), who in the flower of youthful idealism and with the awakening of the flesh, began to confuse sexuality with artistry. Not much is really known about their romance, such as it was, but in the conservative Catholic nation of the time, and given Dali's extreme terror of syphilis, it seems to have been passionate but platonic.

It found release in their roles in the developing Surrealist movement, in which church, state, ideology, landowners, parents, authorities, laws all were mocked by deliberately outlandish behavior. In 1929, Dali wrote and Bunuel directed probably the most famous of all Surrealist works, the film "Un Chien Andalou" ("The Andalusian Dog"), with its notorious images of a cloud slicing through the moon and a knife slicing through a woman's eyeball. In a time before computer imagery, it was a real eyeball (belonging to a pig, not a woman, but small comfort to the pig).

By 1936, Garcia Lorca was dead, murdered by Spanish fascists. The story is told in the film "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" (1997). Bunuel fled Spain to Mexico, then later returned as one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Dali betrayed his early talent, embraced fascism, Nazism and communism, returned repentant to the church, and become an odious caricature of an artist, obsessed by cash. "Each morning when I awake," he said, "I experience again a supreme pleasure -- that of being Salvador Dali." Yes, but for a time, he was a superb painter.

"Little Ashes" is a film that shows these personalities being formed. Because most audiences may not know much about Dali, Garcia Lorca and Bunuel, it depends for its box-office appeal on the starring role of Robert Pattinson, the 23-year-old British star of "Twilight" (which was shot after this film). He is the heartthrob of the teenage vampire fans of "Twilight," but here shows an admirable willingness to take on a challenging role in direct contrast to the famous Edward Cullen. Is it too much to hope that "Twilight" fans will be drawn to the work of Garcia Lorca and Bunuel? They'd be on the fast track to cultural literacy.

Biopics about the youth of famous men are often overshadowed by their fame to come. "The Motorcycle Diaries," for example, depended for much of its appeal on our knowledge that its young doctor hero would someday become Che Guevara. "Little Ashes" is interested in the young men for themselves.

It shows unformed young men starting from similar places, but taking different roads because of their characters. Garcia Lorca, who is honest with himself about his love for another man, finds real love eventually with a woman, his classmate Margarita (Marina Gatell). Dali, who presents almost as a transvestite, denies all feelings, and like many puritans, ends as a voluptuary. Bunuel, the most gifted of all, ends as all good film directors do, consumed by his work. I am fond of his practical approach to matters. Warned that angry mobs might storm the screen at the Paris premiere of "Un Chien Andalou," he filled his pockets with stones to throw at them.

"Little Ashes" is absorbing but not compelling. Most of its action is inward. The more we know about the three men the better. Although the eyeball-slicing is shown in the film, many audiences may have no idea what it is doing there. Perhaps Dali's gradual slinking away from his ideals, his early embrace of celebrity, his preference for self-publicity over actual achievement, makes better sense when we begin with his shyness and naivete; is he indeed entirely aware that his hair and dress are those of a girl, or has he been coddled in this way by a strict, protective mother who is hostile to male sexuality?

Whatever the case, two things stand out: He has the courage to present himself in quasi-drag, and the other students at the Students' Residence, inspired by the fever in the air, accept him as "making a statement" he might not have been fully aware of.

I have long believed that one minute of wondering if you are about to be kissed is more erotic than an hour of kissing. Although a few gay Web sites complain "Little Ashes" doesn't deliver the goods, I find it far more intriguing to find how repressed sexuality express itself, because the bolder sort comes out in the usual ways and reduces mystery to bodily fluids. Orgasms are at their best when still making big promises, don't you find?

TRADUCTION

Il fut un temps mûr à vivre à la résidence des étudiants de Madrid et étudier à School of Fine Arts. Lorsqu'il est arrivé de Catalogne en 1922, Salvador Dali a rencontré les futur poète Federico Garcia Lorca le future cinéaste Luis Bunuel. Dali était une étude de cas, vêtue comme un dandy britannique du siècle précédent, avec une apparence féminine. Sans aucun doute, il était un peintre de talent. Il allait devenir un homme plutôt détestable

« Little Ashes » se concentre sur une attraction non consommé entre Dali (Robert Pattinson) et Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran), qui, dans la fleur d'idéalisme juvénile et avec le réveil de la chair, a commencé à confondre la sexualité avec talent artistique. On ne connait pas grande chose de leur romance, telle qu'elle était, mais dans la nation catholique conservatrice de l'époque et compte tenu de la terreur extrême du Dali de la syphilis, elle semble avoir été passionnée mais platonique.

Elle s'est épanoui dans leurs rôles dans le mouvement surréaliste en développement, dans laquelle église, état, idéologie, les propriétaires fonciers, parents, autorités, toutes les lois ont été raillés par comportement délibérément surréalistes. En 1929, Dali a écrit et Bunuel réalisé probablement le plus célèbre de tous les travaux surréaliste, le film "un chien Andalou" , avec ses images notoires d'un nuage tcoupé par la lune et d'un couteau percutant l'oeil d' une femme. Bien avant l'imagerie par ordinateur, c'était un vrai (appartenant à un cochon, pas une femme, mais c'est un maigre réconfort pour le porc).

En 1936, Garcia Lorca était mort, assassiné par fascistes espagnols. L'histoire est dit dans le film "la disparition de Garcia Lorca" (1997). Bunuel fui l'Espagne pour Mexique, puis plus tard y a retourné comme un des cinéastes de plus grandes du monde. Dali trahit son talent de ses débuts, adhére au fascisme ,au nazisme et au communisme, retourné repentant à l'Église et devenu une caricature odieux d'un artiste, obsédé par l'argent. « Chaque matin lorsque je reveille , "a-t-il dit, je rencontrais à nouveau un plaisir suprême—celui d'être Salvador Dali. » Oui, il fût un temps où, il était un peintre superbe

« Little Ashes » est un film qui affiche ces personnalités en formation. Parce que la plupart des gens savent pas beaucoupde choses sur Dali, Garcia Lorca et Bunuel, cela dépend de son attrait au Box-Office le rôle vedette de Robert Pattinson, la star britannique de 23 ans de Twilight (qui a été tourné après ce film). Il est la coqueluche des fans de vampire chez les adolescentes de "twilight", mais ici montre une admirable volonté de prendre un rôle difficile en contraste direct à le célèbre Edward Cullen. Est-ce trop espérer de fans de twilight seront attirés par le travail de Garcia Lorca et Bunuel ? Ils seraient sur la voie rapide pour l'alphabétisation culturelle.

Les films biographiques sur les jeunes hommes célèbres sont souvent éclipsées par leur renommée à venir. The Motorcycle diairies, » par exemple, dépend pour beaucoup de notre connaissance du héros , jeune médecin qui deviendrait sun jour Che Guevara. "Littles Ashes" s'intéressent aux jeunes hommes pour eux-mêmes.

Il montre jeunes hommesen devenir à partir de lieux similaires, mais prendre des routes différentes en raison de leurs personnages. Garcia Lorca, qui est honnête avec lui-même sur son amour pour un autre homme, trouve l'amour véritable finalement avec une femme, sa camarade Margarita (Marina Gatell). Dali, qu'on présente presque comme un transvesti, refuse tous les sentiments et comme de nombreux puritans, finit en cédant à la voluptuosité. Bunuel, les plus doué de tous, devient un bon réalisateur, consommée par son travail. J'adore son approche pratique des problèmes. Averti que la foule en colère pourraient râler à la première de Paris de "un chien Andalou", il a rempli ses poches avec pierres pour leur lancer

« Little Ashes » est absorbants mais pas convaincant. La plupart de son action est interne.Plus Nous savons sur les trois hommes mieux c'est . Bien l'épisode de l'oeil transpercè est présent dans le film, de nombreux spectateurs n'ont aucune idée de ce qu ça fait là. Peut-être l'eloignement de Dali envers ses idéaux, le début de la célébrité, sa préférence pour l'auto-publicité aen dépit de la réalisation de soi, prend plus de sens lorsque nous commençons avec sa timidité et naivete ; il est en effet tout à fait conscient que ses cheveux et ses habits sont ceux d'une fille, ou a il a été choyé de cette façon par une mère stricte, protectrice, qui est hostile à la sexualité des hommes ?

Quelle que soit le cas, deux choses sortent du lot : il a le courage de se présenter en quasi-drag queen, et les autres étudiants à la résidence des étudiants, inspiré parl'air du temps, l' acceptent comme celui qui assume quelquechose dont il n'a pas conscience.

J'ai longtemps cru qu'une minute à se demander si vou si on va vous embrasser est plus érotique d'une heure de baiser. Bien que quelques sites gays se plaingnent "Little Ashes" ne montre pas les bons aspects. , Je trouve beaucoup plus fascinants de trouver comment la sexualité refoulée s' exprime,car ça sort de façon habituelle et réduit le mystère de fluides corporels. Les orgasmes sont à leur apogées lorsqu'ils tiennent encore de grandes promesses, vous ne trouvez pas ?

Citation :

“Mr. Pattinson, interrupting his career as a virginal vampire heartthrob, looks distractingly like Louise Brooks and conveys little beyond a kind of free-floating, inscrutable freakishness.” - A.O. Scott, New York Times

Citation :

“Pattinson and [co-star Javier] Beltran are stuck with a rudderless script, and they make a soft, dull pair.” - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Citation :

“Pattinson’s performance? Imagine if Prince played the lead in Amadeus. - Lou Lumenick, New York Post

source : bbcamerica.com via spunk ransom

"Little Ashes"

By David Hudson

"The tangled three-way friendship of Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca - important artistic figures of the 20th century whose paths crossed in Madrid early in their careers - could make for a fascinating movie," offers AO Scott in the New York Times. "Instead, we have 'Little Ashes,' directed by Paul Morrison and written by Philippa Goslett, a painfully sincere study in creative passion, sexual ardor and political zeal that embalms a mad and exuberant historical moment within the talky, balky conventions of period-costumed highbrow soap opera."

"Come for the surrealism, stay for the gibberish," sighs Ray Pride. "Terrible in a dull way that used to be more commonly called 'unreleasable,' 'shelved' or 'deservedly forgotten,' Paul Morrison's 'Little Ashes,' starring 'Twilight' biter Robert Pattinson, doesn't rise to the level of dreadful."

"While Pattinson may be the name that draws the crowd (and his performance is certainly discussion-worthy), the most fluid interpretations here come from Javier Beltrán as Lorca and Marina Gatell as Magdalena, his rejected girlfriend who becomes his closest companion and constant supporter." Sarah Silver in Reverse Shot: "Some of the film's intentionality may be difficult to decipher (is Pattinson's fish-out-of-water act as Dalí indicative of sheer brilliance or mere callowness?), and some choices baffling (the cacophonous recitation of Lorca's poems in Spanish, with simultaneous English translation dubbed over top), but I can attest to having been moved by 'Little Ashes,' perhaps in the quietest moments when it wasn't even trying."

"'I brake for genius,' Morrison seems to want to tell us, and he gives us a cheesy score and lots of laughable quotes about art and life," writes Mimi Luse in the L Magazine.

ifc.com

Review: Little insight in 'Little Ashes'

by Walter Addiego

Three students inflamed with avant-garde ideas crossed paths in Madrid in 1922 but wound up at very different artistic and political destinations. "Little Ashes" focuses on the intense bond between two of them - Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí - and on how far they were able to practice what they preached.

The film posits a sexual affair between the two in a nation that, at the time, was anything but liberated about such matters. García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) is unruffled by his gayness, but "forbidden love" troubles Dalí ("Twilight's" Robert Pattinson).

In the end, the painter embraced a lavish and money-grubbing life, along with right-wing political beliefs. García Lorca was assassinated by Franco supporters enraged by his homosexuality and sympathy for the working class.

Director Paul Morrison ("Wondrous Oblivion") nicely re-creates the period, but puts too much weight on the sexual relationship as determining the men's artistic courses. And the movie gives short shrift to a third student who would go on to fame, Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty), who is written off as a homophobe.

Finally, the actors' adoption of Spanish accents doesn't help much.

sfgate.com

Little Ashes is Pattinson's Attempt to Expand Past Twilight Fan Base

By Melissa Anderson

Hoping to expand his fan base beyond Twilight-loving tween girls to Chelsea twinks, alabaster beauty Robert Pattinson plays bi-curious Salvador Dalí in this silly portrayal of the 1920s Madrid university days of the painter and his pals, gay poet/playwright Federico García Lorca and gay-bashing Luis Buñuel.

Written by first-time scripter Philippa Goslett, Little Ashes (named after one of Dalí's paintings) is a typically bombastic lives-of-the-artists production made even more stilted by having all the actors (including the Spanish ones) speak accented English; the first several minutes contain so much Castilian overlisping that someone surely must have sprained a tongue.

Pattinson—first presented as a twitchy weirdo in ruffled pirate shirts and hairdos reminiscent of Antony Hegarty's before a fantastic sartorial makeover featuring costume designer Antonio Belart's pick of excellent sweater vests—has difficulty conveying cracked genius, at one point seeming to mimic Jame Gumb's prance in front of the mirror in The Silence of the Lambs until settling on just bugging his eyes out. Though Dalí's first smooch with García Lorca (Javier Beltrán), in the phosphorescent waters of Cadaqués, is steamy, the pleasures of man-man love—and the movie—evaporate quickly when the wildly ambitious painter announces, "I'll bring Paris to its knees!" after he's conflicted about being on his.

villagevoice.com

Little Ashes

by Xan Brooks

It's quite an achievement to make a discreet, diffident film about the rumoured love affair between tyro artists Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca - but I'll be damned if Little Ashes doesn't manage it.

The setting is 1920s Madrid, where our star-crossed twosome are either ogling each other in cricket jumpers or kissing in moonlit ponds, awaiting the day when they (plus fellow student Luis Buñuel) will be variously whisked to global stardom or shot dead by the fascist regime. Dalí is played (a trifle uncertainly) by Twilight star Robert Pattinson, although Paul Morrison's film was actually shot before it.

Its belated release is presumably based on the not-unreasonable assumption that a significant number of teenaged fans will be prepared to endure a low-budget period romance on the understanding that they will, at some stage, get to see their idol in the buff.

guardian.co.uk

Review: 'Little Ashes'

The historical fiction sets painter Salvador Dali, poet Frederico Garcia Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel as friends at a Madrid university.

By BETSY SHARKEY, Film Critic

"Little Ashes" is a trifling historical fantasy, gossip wrapped in gossamer, beautiful to watch but it takes only a light wind to leave the story in tatters.

The setting is an imaginary Madrid, circa 1922. The Catholic Church and the intellectuals are locked in a battle for the Spanish soul. At the university, ideas and emotions are roiling the lives of three friends, the esoteric is debated in bedrooms and bars over massive quantities of alcohol. They will grow into important creative forces: painter Salvador Dalí, poet Frederico García Lorca and filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

Throw in rumors of an affair between Dalí and Lorca, a disaffected Buñuel departing for Paris with Dalí soon following, a heartbroken Lorca struggling with his sexual orientation and you have some idea of the many loose threads of Philippa Goslett's script that filmmaker Paul Morrison tries to stitch into whole cloth, a feat he never quite manages.

The most familiar face in the film will likely be Robert Pattinson, better known as the lean pale vampire whose flights through the midnight world of "Twilight" have set teenage hearts everywhere beating faster. He is the strange, shy Dalí who turns up looking like he's from an earlier era, all ruffles and velvet. Dalí is a quick study though, and a few rips here and there and he's fashioned himself into something both modern and unique, a trick that fails Pattinson, who is more parody than performance. Dalí's love affair with Surrealism has already begun, and he's talented enough and vulnerable enough to catch Buñuel's eye.

Played by Matthew McNulty, Buñuel is the one who will pull Dalí into his inner circle, where experimentation and anarchy run high. Though Buñuel is seduced by Dalí's talent, it is Javier Beltrán's Lorca who will fall in love with the man.

Lorca and Dalí are locked in a long, slow tease until a summer ocean swim leads to a kiss. For a while, it seems as if the relationship will turn into something interesting for them and for us as well. But it is a time of great repression and the affair becomes little more than a haunting memory, while the film dances lightly over potentially rich themes of homosexuality, the church and the times.

Soon Dalí would leave Lorca and Spain to work and collaborate with Buñuel, including "Un Chien Andalou," Buñuel's legendary Surrealist short whose close-up of a woman's eye as it is sliced by a razor shocked more than 80 years ago (and the few seconds used here earned the film "a brief disturbing image" warning from the MPAA -- some things are still shocking.)

Thanks to director of photography Adam Suschitzky, "Little Ashes" is beautifully spare in its look, and the pacing has a sort of decadent languor to it, opposites that in this case attract. It is the narrative that confuses, darting here and there, telling half stories before abandoning them for others as it tries to cover inner turmoil, creative turmoil, political turmoil, religious turmoil and a lot of other turmoil too exhausting to mention here.

With a nicely nuanced performance from Beltrán, Lorca is the one we get to know and understand best, but he's not on screen enough to become the strong center this film needs. "Little Ashes" is a case of too little of this and too much of that, and like the rumored affair, nothing of substance to hold on to.

latimes.com

Little Ashes

by Scott Tobias

The trouble with instant stardom, to star and moviegoer alike, is that all an actor’s creative skeletons come pouring out of the closet; suddenly, the Darwinian nature of the movie business goes awry and projects destined for straight-to-DVD purgatory (at best) find their way into theaters. Just ask poor Ellen Page, who seemed to headline a middling Canadian arthouse movie every other month after Juno’s runaway success. Now Robert Pattinson, the dark-eyed-yet-sensitive teen pin-up sensation from Twilight, has surfaced in Little Ashes as no less a figure than the great surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. His performance gets crazier as Dalí’s mustache does likewise. It’s an embarrassing example of an actor who has committed himself wholly to a part he was never suited to play, and the film’s florid, soap opera conception of biography does him no favors.

Opening against the repressive backdrop of Madrid, Spain in the ’20s, when a country run by an iron-fisted conservative government ran up against the unruliness of the Jazz Age and the avant-garde, Little Ashes depicts the relationship between three great artists-in-training: The dramatist and poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran), Dalí, and filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). The 18-year-old Dalí’s arrival at their university raises eyebrows, both for his unusual manner and dress and his outsized artistic ambitions, and García Lorca and Buñuel adopt him into their inner circle. Over time, García Lorca develops an attraction to Dalí that’s forbidden by law, but the two men eventually share intimacies that quickly curdle into betrayal.

Director Paul Morrison and his screenwriter Philippa Goslett take generous liberties with the historical record. Though rumors have swirled regarding García Lorca and Dalí’s relationship, Dalí insisted in typically frank, wry terms that he rebuffed his friend’s advances: “Nothing came of it, but I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dalí’s asshole.” It’s too bad that Dalí’s irreverence is so overwhelmed in Little Ashes by his cold self-absorption, and too bad also that Buñuel goes AWOL for most of the movie. But the film’s biggest problem, beyond the overheated melodrama and paper-thin period trappings, is that the trio’s fictionalized dalliances diminish their real art.

avclub.com

Little Ashes
Lorca’s love for Dalí is shown as celebrity mongering with Merchant-Ivory banality

By Armond White


Little Ashes is a melodrama about the gay closet focusing on poet Frederico García Lorca’s love for painter Salvador Dalí when both were students just before the Spanish Civil War. As schoolmate Luis Buñuel womanizes in the distance, Lorca and Dalí torment and tease each other due to social and personal repression. Director Paul Morrison and screenwriter Philippa Goslett aren’t stupidly PC like Kirby Dick; instead, being starstruck weakens their love story.

Superficial celebrity-ogling (a form of gossip-mongering) gets in the way of portraying Lorca, Dalí and Buñuel as individuals forging their sexual identities.This pre-fame prism lacks the sense of danger that might explain Lorca’s daring and Dalí’s deviousness as two sides of the same closet crisis. Robert Pattinson braves Dalí’s eccentricity and grows with it. Javier Beltrán makes Lorca more priggish than heroic.The filmmakers sabotage their political sympathies with dull casting.

Their aesthetics are also drab. Imitation surrealist montages—from Lorca and Dalí swimming in azure pools, B&W études in the style of Un Chien Andalou (even pilfering the famous eyeball slashing)—don’t make up for the overall Merchant-Ivory sense of classy banality (youthful dalliance in college linens).

Just recently, John Maybury’s Edge of Love captured the personal folly of pioneering artists and, of course, Alan Rudolph’s Investigating Sex and The Moderns set the bar for films about cultural innovators who move the culture forward despite their messy lives. Little Ashes is named after a Dalí painting inspired by Lorca, but in this rarefied genre, the real masterpiece is Rudolph’s Dorothy Parker bio, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

nypress.com

Little Ashes

by Lauren Wissot

Little Ashes examines a love affair between renowned poet Federico García Lorca and surrealist genius Salvador Dalí during their college days in Madrid in 1922, where the legendary Luis Buñuel formed the husky hetero point to their bizarre triangle. But you won't buy any of this while watching British director Paul Morrison's predictable flick, whose characters bear absolutely no resemblance, physical or otherwise, to their real-life namesakes. We get no inkling that these amigos would go on to become three of the greatest masters in their respective crafts since they've been reduced to a stereotypical sensitive poet, a goth Johnny Depp type, and a raging homophobe. The movie stars exactly one actual male Spaniard, Javier Beltran as the doomed writer, and two of Morrison's fellow Englishmen, Robert Pattinson as Dalí and James Dean lookalike Matthew McNulty as Buñuel. Indeed, beginning with the ridiculous casting, Little Ashes is less a film than just a series of bad ideas piled on top of one another, many courtesy of first-time screenwriter Philippa Goslett.

With a melodramatic score that alternates between sad violin and romantic guitar, and repetitive reaction shots of Lorca and Dalí in all their dreamy-eyed longing, Little Ashes is broadstroked filmmaking at its most tedious. (Lorca and Dalí's moonlight swim to the sound of Spanish strings is practically a Calvin Klein commercial.) Platitudes like "Spain is rotting from the inside" and a scene in which Lorca kneels and prays to be rid of his "impure" thoughts are so over the top as to be comical, a grotesque sex scene between Lorca and Marina Gatell's Magdalena, in which Dalí masturbates in the corner until both men climax simultaneously, is just downright hilarious. Perhaps the only saving grace is that all three actors are hot, which makes Little Ashes seem a mere excuse for the director to film straight boys he wants to screw. This is all fine and dandy, but if you're going to shoot a film with mediocre talent and a terrible script then at least do it as porn. At its heart, Little Ashes is just a blue movie without the benefit of actual sex.

In all seriousness, there's nothing sexy or funny about twisting history to fit a personal agenda—gay, straight, or otherwise. Yet this is exactly what Morrison has done by re-imagining these complicated, legendary artists as one-dimensional characters in a homo harlequin romance. By sticking a modern-day English lens on Spanish sexuality circa 1922 (a time and culture in which the gay/straight binary wasn't fixed), Morrison gives his film the feel of a bunch of actors running around in period costume in 2009, thereby losing a crucial sense of historical context.

Besides bordering on the slanderous with the film's portrayal of Buñuel (a gay-basher forever scowling and growling "faggot" and "maricón"), Little Ashes is particularly insulting to the memory of the martyred Lorca. "He's still alive. Only one way to kill a queer," Lorca's executioner says as the dying poet twitches, as if Lorca's only crime were the love that dare not speak its name. But the real-life Lorca was murdered for agitating a fascist dictator—in other words, battling for his countrymen as a whole, regardless of their gender or sexuality. Heroes are made, not born, and Lorca is beloved by all of Spain not for being a homosexual who desired a single individual, but for being an artist who died for his love of humanity; a great poet and activist who, incidentally, happened to sleep with men. And right about now, he's surely rolling in his grave.

slantmagazine.com

SALVADOR DALI – ENTHRALLING MASTERPIECE

by Lee Hartgrave

Salvador Dali was handsome as a young man in school. He become a famous artist and world re-known later in life and his looks also became rather bizarre looking. He dressed in outrageous costumes throughout his like and most would assume that he was Gay. But then he claimed that he was not Gay.

Dali said in an interview with French surrealist poet Alain Bosquet. “He tried to screw me twice (Frederico Garcia Lorca). I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn’t homosexual, and I wasn’t interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it.”

That was then – but later in his life he did admit to a relationship between himself and the Famous Lorca, who was murdered in Spain. The movie follows their lives. Lorca has sex with women, but is drawn to Dali. He can’t seem to stay away from him. Dali gets married – but the reason is not clear. We never see him bedding with his wife. She, on the other hand, was very interested in getting Lorca in to bed in front of Dali. That apparently was where Dali got his thrill. He liked to watch – not do it.

There is a scene in the movie where Lorca, the poet is having sex with his Lady Friend at the time. On the floor, in the corner of the room Dali is masturbating.
One biographer says that Dali “was terrified of being touched by anyone.” However, in the movie there is definitely more than touching going on. There was kissing and sexual touching and more.

This story is very dramatic. It is a tale of love and betrayal, and a tale of complexities of young love, sexual identity and love lost. Boy’s will be Boy’s – even in Macho Spain. Dali, of course went on to become a huge name around the world. He did everything, painting designing, Theater and movies and his looks became even more bizarre.

The period that the movie takes place is during Franco’s reign in Spain. And it magnificently captured that on the screen. The filming and locations are one of the most beautiful things you are likely to see on film. There is powerful acting all around by the actors. Everyone is mesmerizing. Robert Pattinson (Dali) is addictive and brilliant.

Javier Beltran plays the poet (Frederico Garcia Lorca) and is remarkable, Mathew McNulty as Luis Bunuel plays a man who was probably Gay, but beat up on Gays to hide it. His performance is superb.

Dali -- Fool, buffoon, extraordinary talent…you make the decision when you see the movie. All of us will probably come out with different viewpoints. But no matter what – this is a salute to love’s possibilities. And, as you will see – there are many.

beyondchron.org

'Little Ashes': Tortured Artist

By Kurt Loder

Robert Pattinson trapped in strange new movie.

Some months before he began filming "Twilight," the movie that would ignite his career, Robert Pattinson shot a low-budget art-house film in Spain called "Little Ashes." "Twilight" was released last November; now comes the earlier picture. We can only imagine how Pattinson must feel about this.

The movie, directed by Paul Morrison, has an interesting subject: the 1922 meeting of three soon-to-be-renowned Spanish artists — filmmaker Luis Buñuel, painter Salvador Dalí and the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca — at the Residencia de Estudiantes, a Madrid arts institute. García Lorca is played by the Spanish TV actor Javier Beltrán, who somewhat resembles the young writer. Buñuel is portrayed by an Englishman, Matthew McNulty ("Control"), who looks nothing at all like the great director. And Pattinson has been cast, disastrously, as Dalí.

Actually, it's hard to imagine who could play this outlandish character — a man who appeared to believe that life itself was too small to contain him. In Pattinson's attempted impersonation, we see the pampered young Dalí arriving at the Residencia in a hugely ridiculous frilly shirt and jaw-length bowl-cut hair. Tottering out of his grand car into a bustle of fellow students, he looks like a marionette with a few strings missing, or a rag doll in need of repair. He seems trapped and terrified. But since social reticence is not a quality we associate with the overbearingly outré Dalí, we soon begin to wonder if it isn't the actor himself who feels desperately out of place in this strange film.

The picture's focus is on the relationship between García Lorca, a closeted and tormented homosexual, and the flamboyantly odd painter, whose sexual inclinations are anybody's guess. (He claimed to be exclusively heterosexual.) Dalí knew the poet was in love with him, but always insisted that on the two occasions when García Lorca came on to him sexually, he turned him down. The movie would have it otherwise. (After a while, we wish that we could, too.)

There are some truly shameless scenes here. We see García Lorca shooting lovelorn glances at Dalí, then scurrying off in a fit of guilt to confide to a plaster Madonna that "I have had impure thoughts." We see the boys recumbent on a beach, Dalí with his head propped on his friend's thigh as García Lorca reads his poetry aloud. There's an artsy nude moonlight swim that with only the tiniest of adjustments could be converted into a cologne commercial. And there's a spectacularly lurid interlude in which García Lorca, desperate to demonstrate an acceptable manliness, has sex with a woman on a bed while Dalí watches (possibly masturbating, not sure) from a dark corner of the room.

For a movie that was shot on hi-def video, "Little Ashes" has surprisingly warm tones; and the costume design — all those dapper period two-tone shoes, argyle sweaters and creamy wool suits — is first-rate. But as soon as Pattinson steps forth with Dalí's famous up-twirled mustaches pasted to his face (they look like a pair of bent centipedes huddled on his upper lip), the picture — such as it's been up to that point — collapses. The actor is in a hopeless position. There's probably no way to deliver a line such as "I would like an enema"; but there's no reason anyone should be called on to say, "I'm going to Paris to see Luis — he's going to introduce me to Picasso and the Surrealists." There's barely a moment when you don't feel embarrassed for Pattinson. You want to call his agent to come rescue him from this film. Or maybe just call him a new agent altogether.

mtv.com

Our Take: The Blitz Team Reviews, Shannon
Written by Shannon McShane

The official Little Ashes premiere was on Sunday, May 3, closing the Miami and Fort Lauderdale's Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. We had Project Manager, Shannon McShane in attendence for the festivities and she was even captured in this photograph taken by the Miami Herald. Allow her to enlighten you with her critique on the film.

How do you ‘review' a film that you've thought about every day for over a year? That you've promoted in every way you could, having never done anything like that before? I've been fortunate enough to correspond with some of the actors, the producers, as well as Paul and Philippa - director and screenwriter respectively. I mean, the anticipation...and the pressure!

Basically? I loved it. However, that's how I feel about it now. During the film, while watching it? I was enthralled. Moved. Completely captivated by everything going on.

Now, I don't know how to talk about this film, without talking about it. So, there will be ‘spoilers' and all that. Every single scene deserves its own review! However, as the official release draws near, I'll try to keep some things to myself, and allow all of you the glory of experiencing the greatness yourselves.

Little Ashes, as most Independent films are, was filmed on a small budget, but to look at it, to watch the cinematography and beauty in each scene, you would never know it. That distinction can only come from a great director. I'm sure Paul Morrison would say his job was fundamentally easy given what he had to work with: an amazing script by Philippa Goslett, actors who gave their all to do these historical figures justice, and the hundreds of others who put their time, energy, and money into the film. However, it takes the vision of the director to combine all of that, and more, to present such a masterpiece of cinema.

Before I delve into the subject that all reviews will touch on, (the actors) I need to talk about the underdogs of most film: The costume designer, Antonio Belart and the musical score composer, Miguel Mera.

Going hand in hand with the art direction, cinematography, and beautiful scene locations were the costumes. The perfectly tailored suits, the vibrant colors and subtlety matching the mood of every scene. It was as if every piece of clothing Belart carefully chose added a finishing touch to the emotion.

Likewise, from its most climactic arc to its softest strains, the music influenced every detail in the film. Some say that the best movie score is the one you don't take notice of, but I have long disagreed with that sentiment. To hear every note of the underscoring rise in the same rhythm of your heart, well...that's what Mera's beautiful compositions did for me.

Marina, Matthew, Robert, and Javier...the stars not behind the cameras. Marina Gatell's lovelorn Magdalena made unrequited love tangible. A memorable and bold performance. Matthew McNulty's performance as filmmaker Luis Buñuel was determined and agonizing all at the same time. His character's range of emotions tip the scales repeatedly, and just when you want to hate Buñuel, you can't help but feel for him. Matthew played every facet with ease and confidence.

Robert Pattinson's performance, as the "master of surrealism" Salvador Dalí, was by far one of the most challenging roles I've ever seen. I mentioned the range of emotion that McNulty went through in the film as Buñuel, but that doesn't come close to describing the extremes Robert took Dalí to. I'm (only a little) surprised to say, he pulled it off. I only say I was surprised because Pattinson has been built up so much that you have begin to wonder if he's capable of living up to the hype and the expectations. But here? In Little Ashes and as Dalí? Unquestionably so. And while Dalí was a little crazy, in this film he was also funny, and Robert played the comedy like an old pro having the audience erupt in laughter on numerous occasions. I have a feeling that at this stage in his life and in his career, Pattinson is only beginning to scratch the surface of his talent.

Finally to the star, Federico Garcia Lorca. Or should I say Javier Beltrán? There wasn't a distinction that I could see. Beltrán was Lorca, and he was phenomenal. The emotion that poured out of his eyes alone could capture the soul of every person watching his journey as Lorca. The depth. I can't wait to see what Javier Beltrán continues to do; and hopefully Spain will share him with us!

I suppose now it's time for best and worst of the film. There was one thing that I thought the film lacked. Merely, that it left me wanting more! Every scene, every year that passed could have had its own film, it's own story told. But to leave me wanting more? If that's the worst thing I could take from it, well, let's just say I'd rather any audience of mine leave wanting more as opposed to the alternative.

I've refrained from talking about the film scene by scene, outlining repeatedly why this and that specifically was so good. But I do need to speak of one of the final scenes, as it was my favorite and one of the most poignant.

As I mentioned, Pattinson's Dalí went to many extremes emotionally, internally. From shy and naïve to bold and inspired, then from broken and searching to hiding and masquerading. But it's after he learns of Lorca's death that the truth of who he really is deep down, is forever closed off and we see the Dalí that he becomes, transformed before our eyes. In this scene Dalí looks into a mirror after having broken down in despair onto his canvas of black paint. He sees his paint smeared face and my heart broke as he reached up as if to wipe the paint away, and instead smears it more, hiding more of his face. The mask is now in place, and the true Dalí gone with his lover's death.

Needless to say, tears were shed; and as the credits began, the thunderous applause that rose around me enveloped me. Captivated by the pain and beauty of what we had just witnessed, we knew that we would never be the same.

themovie-fanatic.com

10 Surprisingly Good Portrayals of Iconic Figures

By Christopher Campbell

Many critics will no doubt rip apart Robert Pattinson’s performance as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes this weekend, but the truth is that it’s a surprisingly good portrayal of the artist. That is to say that given our expectations, combined with Pattinson’s own celebrity, added to the fact that anyone would look ridiculous sporting Dali’s signature mustache (even Dali), the Twilight actor does as well in the role as is possible. Is the performance Oscar-worthy? Certainly not, but it is deserving of some level of praise.

Pattinson’s Dali follows a long tradition of surprisingly good portrayals of iconic figures. Movie stars are constantly cast as famous persons they barely resemble, and often it’s difficult to shake off our identification with the player in order to accept him/her as the depicted individual. Some of these performances are better than others, and most have been honored by the Academy, but each actor and actress listed below either initially seemed like a wrong choice for the respective part or he/she was at least understood to be taking on a difficult task in attempting to portray such a familiar personality.

source : blog.spout.com via spunk ransom