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Set across a timeframe that spans the roots of fascism to the beginning of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, Little Ashes depicts love in a time where homosexuality was deemed immoral- a point particularly reinforced by Matthew McNulty's portrayal of Surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, a man notorious for his contempt regarding the matter.
While it is a far cry from his role in the Harry Potter franchise, Robert Pattinson brings Salvador Dalí to the screen with precisely the irreverent and eccentric personality you would expect from one of the creators of Spain's avant-garde movement. It is however newcomer Javier Beltran who steals the show as Federico García Lorca, whose pain and longing is thoroughly portrayed and always felt, but never overplayed, says Chris Presswell in his review of Little Ashes at the forthcoming Raindance Film Festival.
What a fantastic way to start the week! As I hinted in my post at the Movie-Fanatic, Paul Morrison's latest feature will not disappoint. From the earliest feedback we received from a couple of people, there were only praises for Little Ashes.
What surprises me the most is how reviewers and film distributors considered Pattinson as a "revelation." Apparently, they could only compare the Harry Potter role with this one. If they would take the time to discover more of him, then I'm sure the term "revelation" would become "consistent" or some other superlatives for that matter.
It's also great to hear how McNulty, and yes, the nicest man from Spain - Beltran, were praised for their performances.
Back to Rob, I'm sure many of you have something to say about this "acting ability" issue too. So, let's hear it, folks!
[Film Review at Raindance]
Then the lights dimmed down and the movie began. And I don't even know where to begin. Everything in terms of lighting, costuming, sound, all that technical film stuff that I probably don't really know anything about (cinematography, etc) was wonderful. Amazing. I was seriously blown away.
As we all know, Raindance is featuring Little Ashes and because the film is creating quite a stir, a second screening has been added. However, now our quest begins on presenting you with all updates, news and reviews Raindance and Little Ashes related. If you are not one of the lucky fans who has the opportunity to go to Raindance, we will bring Raindance to you! The opening quote is from a review on a blog called, Improbable Fiction, which we just discovered. Here's another taste:
There was this scene where the two boys are swimming in the lake and the moon is shining really bright and it was just fantastic. The colors were vivid, almost dreamlike... it was one of my favorite bits in the entire film. The acting was also unbelievable. I will admit, I was a bit nervous about Robert, but he well exceeded all of my expectations.
If you would like to read more of this review, you can do so here.
This one from an audience member at today's screening at Raindance...
The opening credits start with sepia-colored rushes billowing in the wind and Federico Garcia Lorca's gentle voice reciting a poem. At that moment you know you can sit back and revel in this film.
The photography is quite sumptuous and beautifully and very dramatically lit.
Performances are stellar here. Mathew MacNulty was totally believable as the repressed Luis Bunuel. Marina Gatell gave us a wonderfully moving Margarita, her eyes telling all in a very pivotal scene. The moment when she invites Lorca to go to Italy with her and he is distracted was a beautifully understated moment.
Javier Beltran as Lorca and Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali both gave superb performances. I particularly loved Pattinson's delicate playing of Dali. He could have gone way over the top and played him as mad as a balloon especially later on, but instead he gives a very mature and controlled performance and you see Dali's shyness and insecurity, we also see lovely touches of humor and comedy. I also found that the moment when he and Lorca are reunited and Dali seems to be siding with the Facists was quite chillingly played.
There are a couple of scenes that have been mentioned. I won't post any spoilers here but I will say that they are handled extremely well and were beautifully and sensitively done. They were not at all gratuitous, and won't frighten the grown ups among us.
My only slight niggle with this film, and it is only a very tiny one, is with the editing. It very slightly gave the impression of sprawling slightly and could have been just tightened up slightly. I just have to be honest here.
But on the whole a massive giant BRAVO to all involved.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Tracy!
Another blogger, Romance Reader has an account of her thoughts on the film...
I'm not much of a cinema crier. I generally have something of a patronizing view of the people sniffling in the row behind me. I certainly didn't go into this film expecting to be moved anywhere close to tears, but as the lights went up at the end of the film I was the one with red-rimmed eyes and a tissue surreptitiously wiping off my running mascara.
Read more, here. She also did a follow-up blog responding to comments and questions asked of her. You can find that, here.
Chanelle Elisabeth loved the movie and was kind enough to share her review. She had this to say about writer Philippa Goslett's screenplay:
Beautifully scripted, this result would have been unattainable had she not been so passionate in her pursuit to share the untold romance between Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dalí. While the nature of their relationship has long been questioned, to this day Dalí's secret remains his own. But rest assured, Philippa Goslett did her research and her findings manifested into this timeless tale.
She also gives us a great in-depth look at all of the actor's performances. Here's a sneak peek:
Matthew McNulty, playing the character of Luis Bañuel, his performance was that of sophistication. Throughout the film there is an underlying sense of pain within his character which seems to be unperceived by all but himself.
Javier Beltran as Lorca is a breathtaking performance if I have ever seen one.
Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí, never has a biographical portrayal been so closely tied with its subject. By no means has a performance ever been so telling. Pattinson was able to perfectly encapsulate the eccentricities that were Dalí.
There is so much more! Read the entire review on her blog.
JessLynn over at Twilight Moms posted her review. Even though she admits she knew nothing of Dali or Lorca, JessLynn gave the film superb feedback:
I found the entire film absolutely beautiful. It was breathtaking in terms of locations for filming. The relationship between Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca was just as in any other romance film where you hoped for the two to make it work together. Dali's eccentricity worked against Lorca's more sensible nature. The scene in the water that is mentioned in the other reviews has a magical almost fairy tale-like quality in the color and movement of the water and the interaction of the two men.
Click here to read more from the Twilight Mom.
Lady Bracknell has been updating her blog, answering questions left via comment and by doing so, adds some more delicious details about the film and Robert Pattinson's performance:
I was really happy - as a Rob fan - with everything in the film. He gets some wonderful light moments (for me, that was when he really shone, because he has this inherent comic timing that you just can't learn and it's onscreen magic), and then some really intense scenes, where he really delivers emotionally too. I've seen reviews of How to Be saying that it's amazing how he flips between the two with such speed and skill, and I agree.
RomanceReader from the blog All Things Romance wrote an exceptional review, saying:
I think its easy to be fooled by the fact these are famous figures, or the difficult political climate of the setting, at its core this is a love story with a tragedy so far beyond Romeo and Juliet...The passion between Robert Pattinson playing Salvador Dali and Javier Beltran as Federico Garcia Lorca is wonderful, when they are happy you can't help but smile with them and when they are tense you will be gripping the armrests of your chair.
To read the rest of her review and the new additions she just recently added, click here.
Another exemplary review comes from a blog called, Lady Bracknell, who adds:
I probably should mention...that they do include the scene where Lorca and Margarita have sex in front of him and he does... make his own fun. I expected that scene to be really off-putting and awkward to watch, but the way they've done it - it's the cornerstone of the whole film, in a way, explains a lot of what happens later. It wasn't at all what I expected, ended up being one of the saddest moments in the whole thing, because Rob is awesome and kind of broke my heart in that scene.
If you would like to read more, including the bloggers favorite scenes, what she thinks of Matthew McNulty in real life (yes, in person!), and a soon-to-be more elaborate review, you may do so by clicking here.
We begin our set of exclusive reviews with one from Sam, one of our correspondents and staff members who was beyond fortunate to see Little Ashes, not once...but twice!
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Ok, wow I don't know where to start. It was a two-hour train journey down to London and I thought I'd kill the time by reading Sebastian's Arrows: Letters and Mementos of Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca. I was marking sections that, to me, spoke of their feelings - and the relationship I was desperately hoping the film would show. One quote I highlighted was from a letter Lorca wrote Dali:
Remember me when you are at the beach and above all when you paint crackling things and my Little Ashes. Oh my Little Ashes! Paint my name into the picture so that my name will mean something in the world
In the darkened theater, these beautiful heartfelt lines appeared on screen, and the film had begun. From this, we cut to an 18-year-old Dali getting ready to move to Madrid, with his funny hair and his clothes from another time, it is obvious from the start that he does not fit in - yet he desperately wants to not only be accepted but to achieve greatness.
We are introduced to the social elite of the Resi - the newly published Lorca and the loud, flamboyant and variable Luis Bunuel (actually it's Luis this term). The charisma of this group is clear from the beginning and the talents of the cast are obvious.
The film takes us through the meeting of Dali and Lorca (hilarious moment when Lorca catches Dali watching him from a window and he pretends he's sleeping) and Dali's acceptance into the group. The main focus of the film though, is Lorca. It is his story and it is told beautifully by Javier Beltran.
The scenes we've heard about lived up to my expectations. The water scene was stunning. It's set at night and the water is phosphorescent because of the bio-luminescence of miro-organisms (sorry scientist in me, but trust me it was beautiful). What this means on film is as Dali and Lorca swam around each other, as they moved closer, they were followed by a blue trail. It was magical and spectacular.
The sex scene between Lorca and Magdalena while Dali watches is also amazingly well-acted by all. The meeting means very different things to those involved and the emotions that play out on their faces is incredible, no words are needed to convey what they are feeling.
The acting generally was outstanding. Yes, Robert Pattinson's accent slipped in places, (though I've now seen it twice and this was much less noticeable the second time around) but the emotions he portrayed were incredible. A whirlwind is very cliché but going from the awkward young Dali, to trying to understand how he feels about Lorca, to finally becoming "Avida Dollars," it really was. The last scene of the film deserves special mention, he was incredible and both times almost had me welling up (I do not cry at films! It's sort of a rule).
Matthew McNulty was sensational, I had been chatting to him off and on for an hour just before I went into the screening and I did not recognize him. I'm not exaggerating here, I stared at the screen, every scene he was in searching for some part of him that I recognized, and I couldn't find it. It was a total transformation, and I can't give him higher praise than that. He is, by the way, a lovely bloke and I will be purchasing everything he has ever been in, in the very near future.
The star of the film, though, (and deservedly so) was Beltran. He is phenomenal and really makes you feel the exhilaration of getting to know Dali, the pain of trying to stay away from him, the delirious joy of finally being accepted and then the heartbreak as Dali pulls away.
I'll admit I was nervous going to see this film. We've put so much time and effort into its promotion and we were really just going on faith that it would be worth it. I now have no reservations in shouting about Little Ashes for all to hear, it's the most moving film I have seen in a long time and I can't wait to see it again - twice was not enough!
Continuing our presentation of exclusive Little Ashes reviews, we have recruited two reviewers that were munificent to write and express their two cents. Starting us off is Evelyn James, who wrote a very well detailed assessment of the film. Following Evelyn's account is a great comprehensive analysis by Lady Bracknell, whom we quoted a preliminary review from previously.
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Little Ashes is uncompromising in its explicitness, rawness and full-on emotion and has not let its small budget hold it back. Set in 1920s Madrid, we follow the story of the young lives of poet and dramatist, Federíco García Lorca (Javier Beltran), filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty) and artist, Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson).
The film centers on the relationship between Lorca and Dalí, beginning as a friendship formed by common loves and interests and then quickly evolves into so much more. It is during their time in Cadaques that their feelings truly are expressed to one another, in the pivotal water scene. Pattinson and Beltran showed a fascination and what was like a magnetic pull between Dalí and Lorca and making the scene beautifully moving. The accompanying soundtrack and striking scenery enhanced this.
The role of Dalí is a far cry from Pattinson's previous roles, for example, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which shows his versatility as an actor. He exuded amazing energy and was successful in presenting Dali's awkwardness, mostly through humor and portraying Dalí's obvious fear of sexual relationships. Like Pattinson, Beltran also is destined for great things. He captivated the wonderful spirit, talent and hope in Lorca. Both Pattinson and Beltran presented stunning performances and the supporting actors underpinned this.
I admire Paul Morrison's deliberate decision to not make Little Ashes into a biopic. This deliberate decision is what separates the film from being categorized as another mediocre film about Dalí to an enchanting, inspiring story about an intoxicating love.
Overall, Little Ashes made me laugh, cry and was truly heart-wrenching at times. I believe it truly deserves to become a big hit; it would be a pleasure to watch again. "No limits," were the words uttered by Lorca and Dalí, and this was exactly what was delivered.
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By Lady Bracknell
On Tuesday I was at the world premiere of Paul Morrison's Little Ashes, a film which explores the relationships between three of Spain's best known and most world-renowned artistic figures, Federico Garcia Lorca, Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel, against a backdrop of political and ideological turmoil, and, eventually, the Spanish Civil War.
I should probably declare before I say anything else that I'm a massive fan of Bunuel's films and a really big nerd about poetry from '20s and '30s Spain, that Lorca wrote one of my favorite lines ever, I'm rather keen on Dali and confess that hearing Robert Pattinson was playing him made me do a happy dance in my seat. In short, I was eight kinds of excited for this film before I'd seen so much as a sneaky set photo, so I had the most ridiculously high hopes and expectations. I'm glad to say, though, that it not only met my expectations, it surpassed them - it's a really compelling film, thanks to a script and cast that really capture the vivaciousness and tension of the age and is by turns charming, touching, and wonderfully funny, as well as desperately poignant.
The film focuses mainly on the relationship between Dali and Lorca, them meeting at university and discovering common ideas and goals, forging a friendship, finding mutual inspiration and eventually having that turn into something more. Javier Beltran is a really engaging lead, playing Lorca's conflict about his feelings for Dali with wonderful good-humor and a tangible longing that never turns cloying, and Pattinson plays Dali as such a captivating mix of guileless charm, self-awareness and awkwardness in the early part of the film that it's easy to see why Lorca would fall for him.
Their relationship drives the film from a burgeoning attraction to a nightmare dinner party, through artistic invention, homophobia, encroaching fascism and eventually leads them to Cadaques, Spain. Bikes are stolen, kisses are shared, and Dali and Lorca wrestle with their consciences, and try to reconcile a desire for a life without limits with a world where such choices are dangerous. The relationship between the two is never anything less than utterly compelling, whether it's Lorca praying in his room for having impure thoughts, Dali sketching, talking about the nature of art and effortlessly holding his attention or them struggling to deal with the shift in their relationship as the boundary between friendship and more becomes blurred.
It's not all about Dali and Lorca, though. It's a truly great ensemble - Matthew McNulty is impressively imposing as Bunuel, and Marina Gatell also stands out as Lorca's girlfriend Margarita, who is trying to forge a career as a writer and testing the limits of what she might be willing to sacrifice to keep Lorca. The film really comes alive when dealing with the various emotions at play between the four, the jealousies that arise around talent, the search for new modes of expression and most poignantly, Margarita's clear love for a man who is drifting away. The four of them make this a tale about a group of people who came together, inspired each other, ushered in a new age and then fell apart, and for me that's the key appeal of the film.
At points, Little Ashes really reminded me of The Motorcycle Diaries, in that it takes these historical figures who became so very iconic and introduces us to them as people. I think that's one of the great successes of this film. I think it's easy to look at a man like Dali - someone who became the ultimate exercise in persona creation, someone whose prodigious talent teeters on the very brink of seeming beyond comprehension -and think him a ridiculous genius.
The wonderful, uncluttered script and Pattinson's and Beltran's performances, however, combine to give Dali a vulnerability and a warmth in the early part of the film that imbue his later affections with real sadness. For the first time ever, Dali felt human to me. I think that's what focusing on the relationship between Lorca and him really allowed to surface - his likeability and his fragility, and the scenes where Lorca takes care of Dali - whether because he's had too much to drink or he's clearly haunted by something he can't talk about - are amongst the best in the film. Mostly that's due to Pattinson's quite uncanny ability to be endearing and the amount of soul with which Beltran interprets Lorca, and the interplay between them is enthralling. It was never anything other than utterly believable that they would be drawn together but never quite be together. I was left with a sense that there were always two Dalis, reality and fiction, that for a while the real Dali was in love, then became scared by the implications of what he felt and retreated into a fictionalized version from which he never quite had the courage to escape. A man who wanted to live without limits, but never quite did.
For me, the most striking moment is late in the film - Lorca sees Dali after a long time apart and discovers him immeasurably changed. Gone is the gauche, awkward, unintentionally charming Dali, and in his place is someone almost cruelly self-involved. After Lorca has left, though, we see a flicker of Dali's real feelings, the person behind the facade, and it's heartbreaking. That moment in particular gave me a real understanding of why Lorca is evident in Dali's painting long after his death.
Settling on a favorite moment in a film such as this is probably impossible, and there are so many scenes I could choose: Dali and Lorca on the beach, perfectly at ease; the scene where Dali paints and Lorca names Little Ashes; the moment where the moon comes out from behind the clouds and lights up the sea they're swimming in, and they watch each other move through the shimmering water with glee and awe; Dali saying something I think we'd all like to say to examiners; Lorca and Bunuel talking late at night about what he should write about.
But I think my favorite moment will probably prove to be the scene where Dali ditches his art class in favor of chasing Lorca down the street, hiding as he does so and eventually nipping in front of him so he can act casual when Lorca spots him. It's a really rare moment - sweet and immensely funny, with magical comic timing from Pattinson. One of the biggest delights of the film for me was the sense of humor and life that permeates, and that was certainly a highlight in a film where highlights abound.
If you get the chance to see Little Ashes, please take it. It's a compelling and engaging story about truly fascinating people, the cast doesn't put a foot wrong, and even the soundtrack is utterly spell-binding, with moments of Arvo Part-esque stillness, snippets of Lorca's poetry woven through to give a genuinely ethereal quality and tie the whole thing together. It's the rarest of rare things - a film that is intelligent, warm and lingers in your mind long after the credits have rolled.
Our series of exclusive reviews from Raindance comes to a close with two final reviews by two of our correspondents who saw Little Ashes last week. The first review was enthusiastically written by Elaine as the second review was written by Cilla, who had such zeal to see Little Ashes that she traveled all the way to London from Australia to see it!
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The year is 1922....
This is where Paul Morrison's adaptation of Philippa Goslett's screenplay begins. Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel already are friends in this version of events, when the young and flamboyantly dressed Salvador Dali joins them at University. His tendency to get himself noticed is targeted at these friends and the attraction from Garcia Lorca toward Dali is almost immediate.
Little Ashes is beautifully shot against an amazing soundtrack, not least the scene when Garcia Lorca and Dali are together in Cadaques. The underwater scene was shot like a beautifully choreographed dance and it's hard to believe that the whole movie was shot in 6 weeks. Goslett admits that the events portrayed in the movie happened over several years in reality and she took a degree of artistic license in making it appear that they happened over a matter of months.
I found the whole movie totally absorbing and the inclusion of segments of Garcia Lorca's poems being read throughout the movie adds a depth and poignancy to it.
I believed the actors in their roles. Robert Pattinson played the part of the exhibitionist Dali fantastically convincingly, Matthew McNulty played a brilliantly homophobic Buñuel, but the show was stolen completely by the leading man, Javier Beltran as Lorca. The passion he felt oozed from the screen.
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By Cilla Benjamin
When I went all the way to London to watch the Little Ashes premiere at the Raindance Film Festival from the "Land Down Under," I thought I was just there to watch Robert Pattinson's most brilliant performance to date. Although I am a huge fan of Pattinson's, and I'm still convinced that his portrayal of Salvador Dali in Little Ashes is one of his most outstanding performances, I am pleased to say that Little Ashes delivers a lot more than what I expected.
Little Ashes focuses on the tragic but extraordinary life of the Andalusian poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Lorca died when he was 38, tragically murdered because of his left-wing convictions during the Spanish Civil War. Little Ashes highlighted the most important and interesting part of his life, when he was a young student in Madrid, forming lifelong relationships with filmmaker Luis Buñuel and the world-renowned Surrealist painter Dali. Soon after their meeting, Lorca realized that he was attracted to Dali in a way he wasn't supposed to and he struggled with this fact for quite a while. Eventually, after noticing a slight encouragement from Dali, he succumbed to his desire and they began to form a relationship.
Little Ashes has a number of graphic but beautifully shot scenes between Dali and Lorca. My favorite one is probably the choreographed swimming scene on the lake under the moonlight, accompanied by Miguel Mera's poignant composition. Dali and Lorca's bodies were beautifully intertwined, and there was so much conveyed by their movements and facial expressions without any actual exchange of words between them.
I left the theater feeling breathless and captivated - eager to watch the movie all over again. The movie was beautiful, intense and deeply moving - just like Lorca's poems and Dali's paintings.
All the center performances deserve thumbs up - especially Javier Beltran, who played the central character of the movie with the precise combination of sadness and youthful idealism. He made me want to lay my hands on anything I could find on Lorca. And I did buy a book of Lorca's poetry titled Ode to Walt Whitman the following day. Last but definitely not least, I must also mention Pattinson, the main reason of why I desperately wanted to see Little Ashes. Through the details of his mannerisms, he successfully showed us how Dali developed from the shy and awkward student at the Resedencia de Estudiantes into the eccentric painter and massive personality that he was in his later years. He definitely deserves to be labeled as one of Hollywood's most promising young actors, and I can't wait to see what he's going to do next.
Brenda, who not only works for Robert Pattinson film How To Be but also runs her own fabulous Twilight site, just sent us her meticulous review of Little Ashes! Below is a snippet:
Spanish actor Javier Beltran plays the passionate and enamored Federico Garcia Lorca beautifully and London-born Robert Pattinson brings Salvador Dalí's humor and eccentricity everything it deserves.
Titled after a Dalí painting, the film portrays the rumored love affair between young Catalan Surrealist painter Dalí (one of my all time favorite artists) and Lorca (the Spanish poet and dramatist).
Set during the tumultuous time of Madrid in the '20s, the film opens with the arrival of then 18-year-old Dalí at the Residencia de Estudiantes. Dalí's Cubist paintings and eccentricities catch the attention of the other artists and he soon grows close to Luis Buñuel and Lorca. Despite the cultural and political stresses of the time, the Bohemian lifestyle is flourishing and the three friends are determined to break limits and barriers, essentially defining modernism.
Throughout these artistic collaborations, Dalí grows exceptionally close to Lorca in both the artistic and physical sense. An outstanding scene for me was when their relationship finally crosses the platonic barrier during a midnight swim, which takes place by moonlight. The scene is shot in such a way as to add a divinely ‘Dalí-esque' Surrealism to the film. There is an obvious mutual passion between Dalí and Lorca for both their art and for each other. Dalí has trouble consummating the relationship and Pattinson portrays his suffering in a very raw and real way.
Check out the rest of Brenda's review at her website. Thanks Brenda!
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