Hey folks, Harry here... Seems like another viewer out there has been lucky enough to discover Guillermo Del Toro's THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. Watch another fall in love... In addition Nick from CHUD sent me this link to his review of the film so you could see his thoughts as well!!! Seems anyone with taste loves chewing on this!!!
Dirk Calloway here again with a short report on what I saw at the Hamptons International Film Festival this weekend. I only attended one day, but I saw one gem that definitely deserves your attention, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone.
The day began with a series of shorts about Conflict and Resolution – more specifically the Balkans. This is a heady topic and one that has special resonance now as our country goes deeper into military conflict. So I expected some intense, moving, and provocative films. I was pretty disappointed by the fumbling quality of most of the shorts we saw. Two of the directors were present, and I’m sure all of them had noble intentions. But as we sadly know, that doesn’t necessarily produce worthwhile art.
The first short was a documentary called A Man Called Boat about a Bosnian sniper. It showed snippets in the life of a sniper as he tells us about his daily routines. We never really get deep inside the sniper because nothing we see or hear is particularly insightful.
The second short was a America’s Most Wanted tabloid style documentary called Ethnically Clean. This concerned the trial of a pair of accused Serbian war criminals who allegedly massacred a group of Croatians. If ound the tabloid style hokey at best and offensive at worst. I must admit I can’t completely comment on this short because I ended up falling asleep. My companions at the screening said I snored. Maybe it got better, I don’t know.
Next was a group of documentaries called Documentary Mosaique. This centered on a group of survivors of the war including a mother who lost five sons to the conflict and a Croatian family whose house was bombed twice. This wasn’t a particularly good documentary, and it seemed that the subjects were being forced to react or comment on their grief more than they wanted to do so. Nevertheless, the haunted looks on the subject’s faces were still chilling to see. It’s always horrifying to look closely at people whosel ives have been devastated by war.
The fourth film was a fanciful fictional short called The End of Unpleasant Times. This was a love story between an elderly man and his equally elderly neighbor. The idea was to show love and hope amidst the ruins of war. It was an amiable, but very slight effort.
Finally, there was a documentary called Mostar Sevdah Reunion about the recording of a CD that re-unites different ethnic groups for a cultural jam session. The idea was obviously to show the unifying power of music that transcends ethnic/religious divisions, as well as a celebration of regional music. Imagine a low-rent Buena Vista Social Club. Somehow I always felt a little under whelmed by the actual music.
After a short break, we walked into the next screening – one of the featured films, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone. Fortunately, this was a terrific movie. I had enjoyed Cronos and parts of Mimic, but felt that they were both mostly atmospheric efforts – lacking that extra something. The Devil’s Backbone is a much more substantial work – genuinely creepy, thought provoking, and entertaining. Del Toro was on hand to introduce the movie and answer questions afterwards. He said that the movie’s inspirationcame from his childhood “which as you will see was extremely crappy” and from his one genuine supernatural encounter. Del Toro also commented that the other major theme of the film was war – and how warfare creates its own ghosts in our society. In particular, he felt that the Spanish Civil War was a ghost that haunted Europe and the rest of the world – in the way that the fascist conflict was a prelude to the battles of WW2. He also added that the Spanish Civil War never really ended per se and even lasted through the 70s in various violent outbursts. In this way, the war itself was a ghost.
The film takes place at an orphanage run by Republican sympathizers and serves as a kind of an allegory of the entire Spanish Civil War. Del Toro said he thought the orphans represented Spain, the adults were the Republicans, and the chief villain of the film represented the class-conflicted Fascists. I won’t give away too many details, but the main plot of the story involves a young boy who is dropped off at the orphanage by friends of his parents who are Republican fighters. He’s unaware that he’s an orphan and soon comes into conflict with some of the other boys. The place is run by a Republican couple - a one-legged matron (played by Marisa Paredes from All About My Mother) and a kindly professor (played by Eduardo Noreiga from Cronos and Men With Guns) who is love with her but impotent. The chief handyman working at the orphanage is mean young man named Jaciento (Federico Luppi from Open Your Eyes) who was also an orphan raised there and has his eyes on some gold being hidden by the Matron to fund the Republican cause.
The main boy Jaime soon encounters the ghost of a dead boy named Santi down in the cellar. We get a lot of rich, creepy atmospheric and some genuinely scary scenes where the protagonist is fleeing from the ghost. But ultimately, the movie has more than thrills on its mind – there’s a genuine, honest historical/social commentary underneath. (Spoiler) At one point, there’s a shocking explosion that leaves several of the orphans dead. Seeing this spectacle shortly after 9-11 was a deeply upsetting sight. But it was clear that Del Toro was as horrified by this atrocity as the audience and was showing this as one of the terrible costs of war. Del Toro even commented on this when an audience member asked him how he dealt with the child actors given all of the violence in the film. He said that he felt that children shouldn’t be condescended to and as long as violence wasn’t presented as escapist & that a responsible adult was there to explain the consequences – it was actually a beneficial thing for children to see and learn about. I heartily agree & was impressed by the way he blended genre & history into a creepy, entertaining mix that didn’t insult the intelligence. Think of Sergio Leone mixed with Mario Bava. Or maybe you should just think of Guillermo Del Toro.
Anyway, that’s it. Until the next episode…Dirk Calloway.
