Customer Reviews

Yerma

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I'll admit I had very low expectations going into this, but this adaptation exceeded them in almost every regard. What I had expected to be the biggest stumbling block in the production-- namely, the choice to film it as if it were a realist drama-- actually ends up being its greatest asset, as the acting almost completely sells the characters as living breathing humans in a way I did not believe possible (as opposed to symbolic, poetic constructs). This only becomes slightly problematic in the end, for obvious reasons to anyone who knows the play, but it is sold well enough that it provides the necessary emotional jolt without seeming ridiculous. Were I to see a stage production that took this approach, I would, no doubt, feel it completely wrong-headed, but I am now convinced that this is a perfectly viable route for a film adaptation of the play.

The trade-off, sadly, is most of the poetry is lost, and what remains is recited and/or sung (sometimes out of context) as a soundtrack, often in excerpted form. The dialogue, however, is almost entirely García Lorca's, a wise decision that I appreciated very much. There are no radical cuts or scene juxtapositions, and the three or four very short scenes of exposition not in the original play work well to maintain the flow of the film.

The acting is uniformly fine. No doubt the old timers will want to compare Aitana Sánchez-Gijón to Nuria Espert's famous portrayal from the Spanish stage, but a passionately intense performance would have been misplaced in this production, and Ms. Sánchez-Gijón's more naturalistic Yerma is much more sympathetic than one might suspect. Juan Diego's Juan is similarly human: distant and aloof with completely misplaced values, but certainly no monster. The biggest name is obviously Irene Papas as the pagan woman, but she does not overshadow or (heresy, this) overact.

The DVD does not have an anamorphic transfer, and the picture quality will certainly not win any awards (although it's not a disgrace). The sound is similarly (low) average, although the dialogue is clear. English subtitles cannot be removed. There are no extras.

In sum, it's not the stage production, but it doesn't pretend to be. It is much more faithful to the text than I had expected, and if it loses much of the lyricism, it gains in emotional immediacy. Assuming one does not demand the theatrical experience, this film is well worth investigating.