Lune de miel

If you applaud Michael Powell's tendency towards kitsch, you'll love this over- the-top, Technicolor travelogue, in which grinning Anthony Steel consistently chooses Pepsi over wine, Antonio dementedly dances down real dust-caked country roads, and in very unreal gypsy caves, and nobody really believes in the plot, except as an excuse for another ravishingly photographed Spanish location, or a garishly produced mini-ballet. Antonio's acting is of the flouncing artiste school - but it's in perfect keeping with this whole joyful, zesty farrago of colour and movement, which should be seen in its original Technirama format.

Before the restoration it was like a travelogue with a few dance sequences.

Now that it's been restored (by Charles Doble) it is like a totally different film. Much better balanced than in previously seen versions where much of the story & the ballets were cut leaving it as little more than a travelogue. The flamenco between Antonio (I) and Carmen Rojas is the sexiest dancing I've ever seen on screen.

However, it does still show the lack of Emeric Pressburger. There are plot holes here & there and nobody can work out why Anthony Steel is there.

But do try to see it, preferably on the big screen (CinemaScope) that it was made for and makes good use of.

I have to start this review with a caveat. I mentioned this in a comment on the Statement of Purpose, but I could not find an English language version or English subtitles. I bought the Region-B Blu-ray in the hope that the known menu trick (pressing the Disc Menu button when the Region incompatibility screen comes up, it works on my Region-B edition of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) would work, and it doesn't. I even looked for the script! I found nothing except a surprisingly detailed plot summary on Wikipedia. So, armed with my previously held knowledge of two romance languages (French and Italian, both of which I'm coincidentally trying to beef up at the moment for unrelated reasons) and that summary, I decided that I would do my best. And you know what? I think it was enough.

For I enjoyed this film. I really did. It helps that the movie has rather long stretches that are dialogue free, Powell essentially trying to recreate his artistic and commercial success of The Red Shoes but with flamenco in Spain. That may seem dismissive of the effort, but the overall plot mechanics (which I divined from the summary, mostly) are extremely similar at a character level while there's a long ballet sequence that focuses in on the central female character's mental breakdown. I mean, it's pretty close. I think I would actually like the film a bit more if I were able to get that Region-B Blu-ray to work and I could make out more of the dialogue, but even with my handicap, I think it worked.

So, anyway, Kit (Anthony Steel) and his newlywed wife Anna (Ludmilla Tcherina) are honeymooning in Spain before they head to Australia. He's a sheep farmer, and she's a world-famous ballerina who has given it up for him. One thing I could not get without a more detailed English translation or more knowledge of Spanish is the reasons for this. I have to accept it on faith that the reasons are good enough, and considering the obvious influence on the film in general is dance like ballet, simple reasons and big emotions are going to be good enough. I'm fine with it.

They come across Antonio (playing himself, effectively) after he's been driven off by his woman and dancing partner, Rosita (Rosita Segovia), and he is obviously attracted to Anna, though he doesn't figure out who she is until she decides to visit his dance studio later and makes it obvious with her ballet-inspired recommendations for his production of The Lovers of Teruel. Then we get the love triangle that mirrors that of the three leads in The Red Shoes. Antonio wants Anna to dance, though this iteration is obviously more directly sensual than what we saw in the previous film (flamenco is inherently more sensual and borderline erotic than ballet), while Kit wants Anna to love him as she had promised to (though he's more insistent on her not dancing at all, which isn't quite what happened in The Red Shoes).

So, the rest of the film is a movement back and forth as Kit and Anna travel through Spain with Antonio happening upon them. Kit has to go see about some bulls, so Anna and Antonio end up dancing around a disused mosque with Antonio showing her the art and architecture wordlessly through ballet. It's inherently unrealistic and sometimes seems overly awkward, but the whole thing is two dancers coming together through a mutual love of the physical art, so having Antonio show her around like that may seem silly by sight but works inherently at the same time. Once you get past Antonio's arch moves, it's actually kind of a sweet scene. Kit, of course, suspects more than just Anna dancing, the rift grows between them, but it never descends into melodrama in the speaking parts.

No, that's saved for the ballet!

The final act of the film is essentially two ballet performances. The first is performed within the film as an actual performance, that of Bewitched Love that Kit and Anna watch as spectators. The second happens in Anna's head when she's suddenly stricken with a fever, and she imagines herself and the two men as the principles in The Lovers of Teruel. It's all dance, and the dance is very good.

And so, the overall picture ends up feeling like a ballet of sorts. The emotions were never complicated. It was a well-worn plot that ended in a comfortable spot and had some pretty sights along the way. It's not at the level of The Red Shoes, but it's got some wonderful vistas of Spain, some looks at some churches and mosques, includes a lingering series of shots on the painting "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz", and the dancing is very good and filmed cleanly. There's some real panache in the visual representation of the ballets, in particular the climax of Bewitched Love, and everyone is fine in their roles (which, again, I might have been able to better appreciate if I could have understood more than 1 out of every 4 or 5 words).

So, it's mostly lost and forgotten. It's incredibly difficult to find. However, I was swept away with it by the end. It's not great cinema, but it's a small confection of dance-based film that looks good while it plays. I couldn't ask for much more from a travelogue of Spain.

This film could be subtitled Actors in search of a Story. Since essentially there isn't one. Just a sequence of dance numbers with no interest for anyone who isn't interested in Spain and/or dance.

Powell managed to limp on after Peeping Tom nearly destroyed his career,but his subsequent films were unremarkable.

This film has some good colour photography,but this in itself is not sufficient compensation for watching this film,which is akin to watching grass grow.

I would not have bothered to have sat through this film were it not for the fact that it was directed by Michael Powell.

I did in fact meet Powell when he was working for Frixos Constantine.

Difficult to know how to rate this film: crap or classic !!

It is a bit of both, of course, and should definitely not be out of circulation. On the negative side, the plot is pretty "cheesy" and Anthony Steel is not "steel" but "wooden." As is everybody else. But the film is really a vehicle for some unique music-making and the "sub-plot" is an interesting travelogue of Spain before the tourists wrecked it !

Antonio, certainly at the time, was regarded as the greatest Flamenco dancer of all time, especially in England (what did they know ?)Whether he was or not, who knows but he is pretty spectacular ! His rendering of Pablo Sarasate's "Zapateado" is magical. Much of the music is conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, no less; one of the great conductors of history, albeit slightly eccentric in his choice of music. But Falla was right up his street.

A performance of Léonide Massine's production of Falla's "El Amor Brujo." with Antonio playing the lead and Sir Thomas Beecham conducting can only be described as a "classic." There really is nothing else like it anywhere. As a side issue, it is fascinating to see Spain before the British wrecked it. The photography is good. The film originally was in CinemaScope, although, sadly, I have not seen that. Finally, Manuel and the Music of the Mountains had a smash hit with the "Honeymoon Theme."

So lots of positives ! If you can put up with Anthony Steel "hamming" his way through and admittedly lousy part (and he was a British "Matinée Idol" alongside Dirk Bogarde, after all, even if it is no great surprise that his new wife fell for the passionate and sexy "Latin Lover" Antonio!) this film does have some unique elements. I reckon it is worth bringing back for the exceptional "El Amor Brujo" alone - even if my own favourite bit of magic is Antonio dancing down the road to Sarasate's "Zapateado." There aren't many films like this and, because the plot is pretty rotten and the acting rather poor and very dated, people like Amazon probably don't realise that it is a classic !