Product Details

• Actors: Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell
• Directors: Paul Morrison
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: E1 Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 26, 2010
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002SF9YUM
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #444 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > British Cinema > Drama
  #10 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema
  #16 in	Movies & TV > Drama > Period Piece

• For more information about "Little Ashes" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The prospect of a movie about the friendship of future avant-garde legends Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, and Salvador Dalí from their art-school days in 1920s Madrid so bristles with potential, it could hardly fail to be scintillating and provocative. Throw in Spain's political and cultural climate at the time under conservative morality's authoritarian hand, then bring on the youthful iconoclasm, intellectual rebellion, Surrealist impulses, and by all means a little sex: so much to work with--yet, Little Ashes is a juiceless, glumly silly movie.

Buñuel (Matthew McNulty) gets sidelined in deference to his pal and roommate García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and the latter's infatuation with Dalí (Robert Pattinson, prior to his teen-icon breakthrough in Twilight). Though several years younger than the others, Dalí already cuts a figure at once outré and coy. Buñuel helps style him for celebrity status, and as Little Ashes notes in passing, the two of them would co-create the still-astonishing film Un Chien Andalou a few years later in Paris. But the main show is the growing besottedness of Dalí and García Lorca, which leads to, among other things, a silvery-moonlit clinch during an offshore swim that churns the seawater into a milky froth. Spanish TV actress Marina Gatell contributes heat and passion as García Lorca's supposed girlfriend, especially during an, uh, two-and-a-half-way sex scene. Otherwise, like the guys' amour fou, the movie comes up short. Low-budget is okay as long as filmmakers have some poetry in them, but Paul Morrison's stilted direction fails to conceal that, say, during a simple dialogue scene in a bar there's nobody and nothing else going on outside of camera range. The cast wear their period costumes as if playing dress-up, and the dialogue--in English--is variously delivered by British players affecting "Cathtilian ack-thents" and Spanish actors whose real accents are sometimes impenetrable. Still more irksome is the switch to Spanish whenever García Lorca declaims one of his poems. Or perhaps that's just a Surrealist touch. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

1922. As Madrid wavers on the edge of social change, Salvador Dali is drawn into the decadent lifestyle of Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel. But as the three explore the art world together, a forbidden attraction develops which changes their lives forever. Starring Robert Pattinson, Javier Beltran, Matthew McNulty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dali and Lorca, April 12, 2009

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Little Ashes [Theatrical Release] (Theatrical Release)

"Little Ashes"

Dali and Lorca

Amos Lassen

"Little Ashes", a new film from Regent Releasing is the story of pre-Civil War Spain when eccentric and controversial artist Salvador Dali and famed poet, playwright and radical revolutionary Federico Garcia Lorca find both sexual and artistic freedom. Their strong ambitions, their friends and their struggle for love for each other and for Spain give them a bond.
In Madrid in 1922, Spain was teetering on the changes coming to traditional values when jazz, Freud and the avant-garde appeared on the scene. Salvador Dali enrolled at the University in Madrid and was determined to become a great artist His bizarre appearance became noticed by two members of the university's upper echelon--Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Bunuel and they took him into their decadent group. As time passed Dali became more and more attracted to Lorca and the three men became the harbingers of modernity. As Lorca grew as a poet, Bunuel left for Paris to find his own artistic success. At that time Dali and Lorca went on vacation to the town of Cadaques where the beautiful surroundings as the warmth of Dali won the poet over and as they shared their deepest and most spiritual thoughts, the two found a new kind of friendship which was more than a meeting of the minds but more of a meeting of the souls. A short while later it became physical and in the eyes of Spanish Catholics, an affront against G-d. When they returned to Madrid, they continued to maintain a secret relationship. When Bunuel comes for a visit, he is shocked and appalled at his friend Lorca and he leaves shocked and does not confront his friend. Dali went to Paris and visited with Bunuel and then returns to Spain with plans to leave both Lorca and Madrid but Lorca has become afraid to lose him but Dali leaves and goes to Paris where he begins work on a film with Bunuel as well as a love affair with a woman, Gala.
Ultimately Lorca is invited to dinner with Dali and Gala as Spain moves to civil war A week later, Lorca was assassinated at the outbreak of the war and Dali realizes all too late that Lorca was his one true love.
"Little Ashes" is a story of forbidden love that changes from a silent longing to a wonderful affair but it ends in rejection, death and disillusionment.
This is an actor's movie and it is the performances that make it special but it is also a film about integrity and facing oneself. When Lorca finally accepts his own sexuality but it was too late for Dali who chose fame and success over love. The film has all the elements of a good show--humor, emotion and thought and it deals with a special moment in time--about a period of political upheaval and reaction at which time a person experiences personal change. Spain had been controlled by a kind of bourgeois conformism; one remained in the class to which he was born but which surrealism tried to circumvent and subvert. The movie looks at the movement to freedom and then the return to repression. In this, the film is not a conventional period drama because what the men deal with are ideas of modernity.
The film is sensual to watch and there is a kind of magic to the cinematography. The costumes are beautiful and the script is full of emotion, fun and tender beauty. Director Paul Morrison gives us quite a fine movie.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT MOVIE!!!!!!, May 14, 2009

By	dali fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Ashes [Theatrical Release] (Theatrical Release)

I've noticed most reviews of this movie are negative, both the writing and the actors were not very good. I thought this movie was AMAZING! Both funny and sad it took you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Every actor did a fantastic job and I just wanted to put something out there that is POSITIVE for this movie. I look forward to owning it when it comes out on DVD

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meandering story, powerful cast, July 19, 2009

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For most of his life, Salvador Dali denied that he had ever been lovers with the tragic poet Federico García Lorca -- until the end of his life.

So, writer Philippa Goslett and director Paul Morrison explore what may have been in "Little Ashes," in which two young men become close friends, more-than-friends, only to have their relationship splinter apart. It's a powerful little story with astonishing acting by Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltran, but it tends to meander and shake way too much.

In the Madrid of 1922, a shy and awkward art student named Salvador Dali (Pattinson) is drawn into a circle of vibrant, iconoclastic young artists, including filmmaker Luis Buńuel (Matthew McNulty) and poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran). Lorca in particular is intrigued by Dali, who is just discovering his unique melty surrealist style -- and it's not a platonic crush. And though initially he fights against the attraction, a trip to the seaside reveals Lorca's feelings to Dali.

But as their attraction grows, Buńuel feels shut out and tries to pull Dali out of Lorca's orbit -- and after an unsuccessful attempt to consummate their affair, Dali vanishes to Paris without a word. A possibly insulting movie and many years widen the split between them, until Lorca meets Dali, now world famous and in love with the "witch" Gala (Arly Jover). Dali has changed, and so has Spain -- with terrible results.

I know relatively little of either Dali or Lorca's lives, but it seems that "Little Ashes" is less about what happened than about what MIGHT have happened. Unfortunately it also falls prey to a common flaw in biographical movies, even if they're semi-fictionalized accounts -- it meanders randomly much of the time, and has awkward jumps between the different phases in the two men's lives. And what is up with Beltran suddenly reciting poetry in Spanish?

But if it meanders, it's a picturesque meander -- sunny streets of Madrid, shadowy apartments, rocky beaches, weird surrealist visions of Paris, and fun nightclubs where bright young artists congregate. Paul Morrison has a straightforward directorial style with few ups or downs, but there are some beautiful moments sprinkled throughout it -- such as a balletic swim in a moonlit blue sea, or the bittersweet final scenes for Lorca (interspersed with Dali frantically smearing black paint all over).

But this movie would be utterly forgettable if it weren't for the leads. Both are painfully magnificent, both in their chemistry and in their attempts to embody their characters. Beltran is a tragic figure who brims over with passion, sorrow and integrity, and somehow you know that things never end happily for this poor man. Marina Gatell has a small but well-acted role as a young woman passionately in love with Lorca, but obviously she can be nothing more than his friend (and once, a sexual proxy for Dali).

And Pattinson exudes almost Johnny-Depplike skill in almost becoming Dali. This is no glamorous "Twilight" role -- at first Pattinson plays him as a twitchy, painfully awkward and shy young man, but as Dali grows in confidence he also becomes more insistently eccentric and flamboyant, to the point where Lorca no longer recognizes him as a person. Mad laughter, insane grief, and all the time we're never quite sure what he's truly thinking about anything -- except, at the end, about Lorca himself.

"Little Ashes" is a flawed portrait covered in jewel-like paint -- the actors are truly astonishing in their skill, but the direction is a straightforward and spotty affair. And it's all the more tragic because at least some of it is true.