¨Bodas de sangre¨ or ¨Blood Wedding¨ is one of the greatest and most beautiful Lorca dramas about life, love, passion, customs and gypsies. A team of dancers puts Lorca's 'Blood Wedding' on stage, the tragic play about a man (Antonio Gades) who is still in love with his ex-girlfriend (Cristina Hoyos), and tries to reunite with her, despite the planned wedding to her groom (Juan Antonio Jiménez), about to get married.
Lorca's drama is transformed into flamenco dance, a film with almost no dialogues where the entire plot is carried out through dance, choreography and staging. At the end of his long collaboration with the producer Elias Querejeta, which extends over 15 years and 13 films, director Saura shoots a ballet with choreography by Antonio Gades, based on the work of the same name by Garcia Lorca and music by Emilio de Diego for the producer Emilio Piedra. Its not excessive length makes Saura include quasi-documentary footage about the preparation of the dancers in order to achieve a minimum running time that allows its commercial exploitation. In the end, the film is 72 minutes long.
Although ¨Bodas de sangre¨ is shot in a poor and unique set, the film is still interesting due to the magic that the dancers give off while they are dancing the wonderful flamenco pieces, along with the exciting background music. Furthermore , including some songs: ¨La nana¨ performed by Marisol (at the time Gades's wife with whom she played various movies) and ¨Ay, mi sombrero¨ performed by Pepe Blanco .The main interest is that 'Blood Wedding' (1981) based on the homonymous work by Federico Garcia Lorca was the first film in the trilogy that has brought so much success to its director and which is completed by 'Carmen' (1983) and 'El amor Brujo' (1986). The result had a great resonance, even more internationally than nationally; it represents the launch of a first-class dancer, Cristina Hoyos, and confirms that Gades is as good a dancer and choreographer as he is a bad actor.
That's why after the success of the musical rehearsal ¨Bodas de Sangre¨ (Blood Wedding) (1981) and before filming ¨El Amor Brujo¨ (1986) with music by Manuel de Falla, the producer Emiliano Piedra, who accepted the rights to George Bizet's opera were the public domain, convinced director Carlos Saura and the dancers Antonio Gades and Cristina Hoyos to do the best of his three musicals: ¨Carmen¨. Due to the hit of the film, they continued with a successful theatrical version, directed jointly by Gades and Saura, which the dancer's company performed throughout the world with a large and fervent audience that followed the performances.
¨Bodas de sangre¨ was directed with a striking visual sense and very well performed with the wonderful dances. So it's definitely a more cultured affair than most of the Spanish movies. It is fundamentally a tragic melodrama with ballet scenes, that's why it is musically riveting , it is almost, also , perfect and laced with adequate photography by Teo Escamilla , particularly shown on the spectacular and sensitive dancing set pieces. I was able to enjoy many of the visual elements, in fact this one results to be the quintaessential Dance film , featuring brilliant and frenetic choreography and embellished thanks to its chromatic aesthetic and a high-caliber Flamenco dance. Adding sensual re-creations of love , passion , betrayal and jealousy .
The work is distinctively Andalusian in character as well dances and songs. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and originality ; adding the guitar tones of notorious andalusian artists. The great trio starring is formed by splendid dancers : Antonio Gades , Cristina Hoyos and Juan Antonio Jiménez, they are really fabulous . This splendid motion picture was compellingly directed by Carlos Saura.
