Customer Reviews

Ay, Carmela! ( ˇAy, Carmela! ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Spanish Civil War seen as a vaudeville show for the brutal Franco troops, where the terrified performers try to save their skins and their conscience, knowing they can't have both. Carmen Maura shines (what else is new?) as the outspoken partner in a sing-and-dance couple, but Pajares clearly steals the show as her chaplinesque, panic-stricken husband.

For SCW buffs, the movie is top notch. Down-to-the-last-detail production truly re-creates wartime Spain in every aspect, from uniforms, vehicles, weapons, posters, fashions, jokes, songs and dances, to even the streets themselves, for it seems the producers had to destroy an entire Spanish village in order to shoot the film. The menacing background radio broadcasts real-life Franco speeches, war news bulletins and fascist hymns, whereas the movie score is powerful and nostalgic. A gripping, yet comic, tale about the unsung heroism of your fellow man, I personally prefer it to Benigni's much vaunted 'La Vita E Bella!'. Don't miss it!

The great director Carlos Saura started with an outstanding cast and authentic detailed war time sets to create this superb film about republican vaudeville entertainers who take a wrong turn during their road show and wind up in the hands of fascist troops. Expecting to be executed, they are given a chance to entertain the fascists and obtain freedom by a stage struck Italian officer. But a chance encounter with Polish international brigade prisoners of war creates an emotional conflict for Carmen Maura. She must go through with an act that she finds distasteful and dreads the possibility that the POWs will be in the audience. The details of wartime Spain are excellent and the supporting cast is outstanding. The title of the film is taken from a charming Civil War song which also happens to be the name of the act, Carmela y Paulino. Saura has created a film that is both light and charming but with an underlying seriousness about this great tragic period of Spanish history.

En esta historia, enmarcada en la Guerra Civil Española, donde los Franquistas dominaban las manifestaciones artísticas no del agrado de ellos, encontraron la censura y el rechazo, manifiesto en la osbstrucción y el abuso. La resistencia que apenas se podia sostener, enfrentaba el fusilamiento o la desaparición imprevista. Carmela representa esa resistencia. Es la voz del pueblo que no se resigna a abandonar lo que cree y lo que vive, su arte, como expresión sublime del ser humano. Esta película es una de las mejores muestras de la lucha sostenida entre las clases dominantes de la burgesía y los trabajadores del arte.

Carlos Saura's work often revolves around the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the basis of his searing childhood memories. That conflict is front and center here in this brilliant, fascinating tale of Republican/Loyalist entertainers who inadvertently cross into Francoist/Nationalist-controlled territory and are forced to "put on a show"...with predictably tragic results.

Fans of Spanish cinema like works by Pedro Almodóvar - especially his pieces with Carmen Maura - will love this film. Maura is outstanding here. Recent Almodóvar converts will know Maura from her supporting turn in Volver (as Penelope Cruz's character's mother). Maura won Spain's equivalent of the Oscar (ADIRCAE Awards) that year (1991), co-star Andrés Pajares won Best Actor, Saura took the Best Director nod, and the film itself was Picture of the Year.

It's a shame there's no Region 1 Format DVD of "Ay, Carmela!" available for purchase. It's an outstanding piece of work.

"Ay, Carmela!" is a great film. But this DVD version is all dubbed to ITALIAN with no Spanish language option (the product description is wrong).

Spain, 1938: The Republicans (the good guys) are at Civil War with the Nationalist Fascists (the bad guys), led by General Francisco Franco (the baddest). Entertaining the good-guy troops is a rag-tag theatrical troupe consisting of Carmela (Carmen Maura), her lover Paulino (Andres Pajares) and their gofer, the mute Gustavete (Gabino Diego). Carmela & Co. aren't all that intellectual or idealistic, but their narcissistic hearts are basically in a politically correct place and they seem to enjoy giving the Republican guys a few laughs and the odd tear; no one appears to notice, or to mind, that they aren't really all that good.

Directed by Carlos Saura, best known for the caliente flamenco films Carmen and Blood Wedding, Ay, Carmela! has rather too much in common with Carmela's company. It's technically rag-tag and droopy, neither analytical enough to be challenging nor sensual enough to be exciting. Conceived as a cross between Bye Bye Brazil and Mother Courage, it ends up a politicized Goodbye, Dolly!. That's a movie that the dazzlingly talented, irreverent pixie Pedro Almodovar (Women on the Verge of a Ner vous Breakdown) might have been able to bring off, but not the relatively flat-footed Saura.

The star of Ay, Carmela!, Carmen Maura, became famous through her work with Almodovar, of course, and she's fitfully amusing here, doing her Carmen Miranda"Susan Hayward routine, but Rafael Azcona's see-through script merely serves to expose her flaws as a dramatic actress (she's great at extremes, not so hot at normal behaviour).

The rest of the cast falls victim to that same flimsy script, which wafts toward a teary climax as easy to forecast as rain in Vancouver. For indigenous audiences - the picture has been a big hit in Spain - the movie is no doubt important and moving, presenting as it does the reality of a war hidden for many years by Franco's repression. But for the rest of us, it's merely an attempt to translate a history we already know into a kind of entertainment we've seen too many times. Ay, Carmela, and adios. Conrad Alton, Filmbay Editor.

I love the movie but i gave it only 3 stars because It's not in the Original Spanish,When i Purchase it i saw this > Languages: Spanish and Italian audio but only in Italian,that why i'm so sad.

Even if you do not know a lot about the Spanish Civil War, you will enjoy this incredible movie about that time period in history. There is comedy, tragedy, pathos, suspense and wisdom in this story of a piece of the war as seen through the eyes of two traveling entertainers who happen to land up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The film crescendos to an ending of hope, believe it or not. It does not matter if you understand Spanish, the subtitles are excellent and the performances are superb. I have even used this film for an AP Spanish class of high school seniors and it left a lasting impression on them!

This movie is brilliant!

...Three performers travel across Spain with an anti-Franco troupe risking their lives to fuel the resistance against a fascist government takeover. After being captured, they must choose between their freedom and their lives...

Beautifully put together with wonderful acting and an intriguing script, I recommend this movie to everyone. "Ay, Carmela!" is not only deep, moving, and interesting, but it still keeps one laughing from time to time with funny jokes. You really ought to watch this movie, even if you know nothing about the Spanish Civil War!

DVD version (doesn't work with most U.S. DVD players):

Ay, Carmela! (¡Ay, Carmela!) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

This is a beautiful movie exploring the courage of a woman surrounded by confused, helpless, or cowardly men. Carmela during the Spanish Civil War faces down the fascists and turns the tables on them in a play they thought would ridicule their victims, but which Carmela forces to the logical exposition of the basic cowardice of fascists (from Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini to George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon), whose courage consists in the murder of unarmed opponents, like the heroic actress.