Vacas

Since 'Los Amantes del Círculo Polar' (1998), Julio Medem has been in my good books. This is one of his earlier masterpiece and I think this is one of the most powerful European movie in the 1990s, but very underrated, maybe because the Basque region (where the film sets) is not very popular nowadays. But if you watch this film, you will realize that those people are just like us with human feelings (fear, love, courage) and you will tolerate them. The only thing to do is to look into their eyes and you will understand that these people have been suffer and fight for freedom for centuries. Julio Medem is the most sophisticated and most sensitive contemporary Spanish director and in lot of aspects his works are much better than Almodóvar's and Saura's films because his style is cleared-out. This film is only 91 minutes long but it covers the story of two rival families from 1875 till 1936 so the story is very tense. But in my opinion if someone knows what he wants to say, he can say it in short and says the entity. Medem says the entity. The scenes of the woodsmen contest is one of the most thrilling and exciting scene what I've ever seen. The cinematography and the music are also superb it's full of surprising cinematographical solutions, like in the 'Los Amantes...'.

Check this film, you won't be disappointed and you will find a real treasure and become a fan of Julio Medem. 100%

two of the most fascinating subjects in Carl Jung's psychoanalysis are synchronicity and the collective unconscious with its archetypes. i am sure Jung would have loved this movie if he was alive this same day. the subliminal moments of the movie are those when the most remote events, people and/or things seem to coincide in one point regardless of time and space. this is what Carl Jung calls 'synchronicity'. according to Jung, this synchronicities happen in our lives and their function is to indicate a meaning and purpose in life. from the beginning we can see how this strange coincidences point towards a destiny. this type of strange coincidences happen to many people around the world during their lives.

the symbolism is most obvious in manuel's drawings. the way that manuel who appears as disconnected and insane, is on the contrary a well tuned connection with the collective unconscious, therefore, he has developed a strong sense of intuition where he can transcend and 'see' meaningful events in the future. the shape of things to come is what his drawings are about.

an excellent movie!

by the way, please excuse my English if you find some wrong spelling and some grammatical mistakes. English is my second language.

thank you

Spanish production with fine acting , colorful cinematography and rousing score by Alberto Iglesias . Julio Medem directed the film for Sogetel and it was released in 1992 . Set in the Basque region, a story of the rivalry of two families, period 1870-1935 . A film set in the Basque region, beginning in the Carlist war , Basque Country, 1875 . For decades Spain has been the scene of the Carlist Wars, and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936 . The picture tells how one simple act of cowardice originates the spark of the next three generations of two families , the Irigibel and Mendiluce . On the Carlist front sergeant Carmelo Mendiluce (Txema Blasco) learns his fellow villager Manuel Irigibel (Carmelo Gomez) has arrived as a recent rookie . Manuel seems pretty afraid and when the enemy attacks Carmelo attempts to help him . But Manuel is a coward and due to his cowardliness Carmelo dies . It fuels the intense rivalry which will spread the next sixty-one years . After that , 1915 , now is the time of a new generation , as there appears Peru Irigibel (Miguel Angel Garcia and grown-up performed by Carmelo Gomez) and Cristina Mendiluze (one-time-grown played by Emma Suarez) . Later on , there takes place the Civil war (1936) and the events get worse .

This is a slow-paced , deliberate though magnetic drama . It is a riveting film though a little boring . Anyway, the film is interesting , thematically intriguing , and usually scathing of virtually all institutions and classes . It contains marvelous cinematography , breathtaking musical score , enjoyable production design , but , for a variety of reasons, it does not quite pull as much punch as it should have . It tells the rise and downfall of two families , a long period of rivalry and hatred among them , they are excellently played by a magnificent plethora of main actors such as Carmelo Gomez , Emma Suarez and Karra Elejalde . Good support cast gives right performance and full of prestigious players such as Ana Torrent , Txema Blasco , Klara Badiola and Pilar Bardem , Juan Barden's mother . Adequate and atmospheric set design by Rafael Palmero , filmed on location in the Basque region , colorfully photographed by Carles Gusi . Intriguing as well as evocative musical score by several times Oscar nominated Alberto Iglesias ."Vacas" was brilliantly received and became a big success .

The motion picture was originally directed by Julio Medem who had been making short movies with a super-8 camera owned by his father until he received a call from a new production company called Sogetel and executive producers Fernando de Garcillán , José Luis Olaizola , Enrique López Lavigne . They were interested in his script titled "Vacas" . It won the Goya Award from the Spanish academy for best new director, and won prizes in the festivals of Tokyo, Torino and Alexandria. In 1993 Medem made his second movie, "The red squirrel¨. It confirmed Medem's talents and won prizes in Fort Lauderdale, Bogota and Bucarest. His third movie, "Tierra," released in 1996, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. In 1998 Medem released " The lovers of the Polar Circle ," considered his best movie by most of his fans . It also became a box-office hit with more than one million spectators in Spain and was also released worldwide. In 2001 his fourth movie, "Lucia and sex ," became a huge hit and began the career of actress Paz Vega who won the Goya for best new actress . Although in 2003 failed with the release , "The Basque ball" , a documentary that portrays the phenomenon of nationalism and terrorism in the Basque Country of northern Spain , it was very polemical and partial . In 2007 directed the flop ¨Caotica Ana¨ and in 2010 , ¨Room in Rome¨, a successful though with not sense film , plenty of nudism and only starred by two gorgeous naked girls . Julio Medem is for sure one of the the most important and original Spanish filmmaker.

. but this is not one. So what ? The opening scene, where a woodcutter's keeps swinging an axe, is a masterpiece of manipulation : you keep on expecting something dreadful until the tension becomes unbearable, though nothing really happens. This is a current running through the film, which makes you think that Medem could make the scariest thriller if he wanted to, all through a weird familial story. After this brilliant first attempt, he did the masterpiece "Red Squirrel", so what more could you ask for ? One of today's most underrated films.

What is most remarkable about VACAS in hindsight is how quickly Medem settled into his unique, thrilling style - elliptical narrative which foregrounds inter-generational families, subjectivity, ambiguity, fate, magic, repetition, doubling; transcendent philosophical concerns grounded in brutal violence, earthy humour, identifiable characters and animal imagery; an astonishing use of colour as both emotional and ironic signifier; a busy, almost cheerful camera style which switches with ease from the panorama to the extreme detail, making great mental demands, but offering even greater rewards.

VACAS invokes many genres, in particular the historical epic, and subverts them with dark glee, offering a dizzying, disturbing, unpalatable, ornate, sickening, epiphanic classic that might lose its way halfway through, but paves the way for an even greater masterpiece like TIERRA.