Little Ashes - Kunst. Liebe. Verrat.

There aren't much words to describe. Whether you like this movie or not definitely depends on the type of person you are. its definitely a real independent European film. but i love it. i think the actors capture everything well and the casting was exceptional. i loved the relationship between Dali and Lorca. I watched it a few days ago and i am still thinking and obsessing about the film and its aspects. I think if your the more sentimental type you'll enjoy it, but then again you may not. Like i said, you will either love it or not. its not one of those 'society-accepted' common films i.e. 'transformers'. its artsie and dramatic and Dali is just eccentric. love it. love love love it. 9/10.

Erotic tension builds between poet Federico Garcia Lorca and artist Salvador Dali from the first few minutes of Little Ashes. Dalí arrives in a foppish outfit amidst the genteel university suits worn by the 1920s college students. He is immediately marked as different, but different enough to be intriguing to the intellectual elite of the university. Dalí arrives in shyness but eventually grows into his overt eccentricities throughout the film, and you see the evolution of his iconic mustache.

1920s Spain is also building in its fascist overtones, assigning ten years of hard labor to anyone found "maricone," or homosexual. Between eroticism and brutality, Lorca and Dalí have a sometimes tender, sometimes masochistic affair. But this film is mostly seen through the romantic gaze of Lorca, and the romanticism outweighs the acts of brutality the occurs on the sidelines with the massacre of a village by Lorca's town called into view by his frequent poetry recitals. Dalí is another story, often preferring to build and then destroy his art and his relationships out of a sense of the grandiose or a desire to go further so he could be remembered.

The film is more Lorca than Dalí, and thus all the university students are beautiful men who are sometimes hard to distinguish from each other. Lorca was a homosexual while Dalí was ambivalent. The film is also Lorca in the poetry of its images, often nostalgic and lingering compositions of light and shadow and throbbing movement. The actor who plays Lorca has a sweet and vulnerable innocence, he is the perfect lover. However the poetic musings he and others have often seem inspired but out of place, disconnected from the world that we and the characters live in. The film might have done a better job of connecting Lorca to his time and his place and the backdrop of upheaval just under the surface. As is much of what Lorca represents seems to be an air.

Robert Pattinson as Dalí is an odd choice. He is rather too beautiful for his part. But Pattinson does give a multi-dimensional performance as Dalí, often looking to be on the verge of nervous breakdown or a fit of mania. Pattinson does well as a young perhaps gay lover but is less convincing as an older and successful Dalí. However overall Pattinson does not disappoint, even though his portrayal of Dalí brooks something of disenchantment with the artist later in the film. Then Dalí as the character seems both attention-seeking and uncharismatic, and Lorca does indeed seem too good for him.

7/10 for being a complex film with good acting and a lovely kind of tenderness from the actor who plays Lorca. The images and the words and the actors are all beautiful, however there is a sense of too much beauty and too little to connect one idea to the next to leave a full and lasting impression. And also the romance between the two leads are rather wished for than known, it seems like. However do watch this film for its gorgeous imagery and for a unique performance by Pattinson, as well as an introduction to the type of mood apparent in 1920s Spain regarding issues like homosexuality.

I just saw "Little Ashes" at the LGBT Festival here in Miami and I have got to say that it was good. I do have to warn you that it is abstract at some points but it IS a Dali movie and he led a very strange life. The movie does justice to the man. I went thinking it was going to be completely about Dali but it mainly focuses on the relationship he had with Frederico. Unfortunately I am very quite aware that this movie will not get the attention it deserves in the states and that a good portion of the people who will watch this movie will only watch for the main actor, Mister Robert Pattinson but I still suggest that Dali lovers watch this movie as well as fans of slightly strange movies.

I watched this film a week ago and after the last shot I realized that I wanted to watch it again. That very moment! From the very beginning! I read in someone's article the word "haunting" about this film - I absolutely agree with it. It's an elegantly made film with fascinating actors. The enchanting guitar, violin and piano just intensify the heady mood of it. The actors' way of speaking (described as "terrible accents" in someone's comment) didn't bother me at all, maybe because neither English nor Spanish are my first languages. But I agree with Dromerito2003 that it would've been more believable if all of them spoke Spanish (Robert Pattinson definitely has "language ear" and it wouldn't be difficult for him to speak Spanish only, I think). With subtitles. By the way now I'd like to learn Spanish to read Lorca's poems in it. And to visit Spain shown so lovingly ( I agree that photography is great!)and to see as many works of Dali as possible. And to watch "Little Ashes" again...

The title of my review (if IMDb permits) is taken from a quote by Salvador Dali in 1969 regarding rumors of a Dali-Lorca affair. The full quote, epitomizing Dali's unbridled humor and arrogance is as follows:

"He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me. He tried to screw me twice... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn't homosexual, and I wasn't interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it. But I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dali's a(..)hole."

And with that, let's now talk about the movie.

Although vividly denied by Dali, speculation of a romance between Dali & Lorca is the story of "Little Ashes". This is important to note up front, because if you're looking for a film that delves into the passion & inspiration behind Dali's art, Lorca's poetry and Buñuel's films, you'll be disappointed. This is mostly a straightforward love story with only a few substantial references to the 3 young men's creations (Lorca recites 2 poems, Dali displays 1 painting, and we get no more than 5 sec of Buñuel's film references, including the infamous slashed eyeball scene from "Un Chien Andalou").

What makes this film separate from any other generic forbidden love story is the interesting portrayal of the characters. Whether historically accurate or not, their personalities jump out of the screen at you, particularly Dali played by Rob Pattinson a.k.a. the Twilight studmuffin. Pattinson's Dali is decidedly NOT a studmuffin but instead a very awkward, dorky kid which instantly reminded me of some of Johnny Depp's early roles ("Benny & Joon", "Edward Scissorhands", "Don Juan Demarco"). But fused with his dorkiness is an overbearing arrogance which comes to the surface more frequently as the film progresses.

"Little Ashes", however, is not about Dali and certainly not about Buñuel (who is really a minor character) but is mostly from Lorca's perspective. In that respect, it's fitting that the affair (which never happened, according to Dali) would be exaggerated and poetic. If you noticed in the Dali statement I quoted, he did admit that Lorca was "madly in love" with him, and that is what the film portrays in a very poetic and sentimental way.

Although I was initially disappointed because I wanted to see more of Dali's art & creativity, I liked the forbidden, one-sided love story because it was well done and made good use of recognizable characters & events in history. Thus you could say I liked it in the end (uh, which is more than we can say for Dali. Heh heh).