El mar

This is a dark movie, indeed; sinister in its telling and setting; maccabre in its doing and making; chilling from beginning to end. How much or how well or how closely this film reflects Balearic revengefulness during the Spanish Civil War or the consequent aftermath in the forties, may be exaggerated or a little doubtful; that such vengeousness existed should not be doubted, not only on Mallorca, but in other parts of Spain. However, rather than revenge or other forms of hatred, we should bear in mind that three young children witnessed firing squads and even their own friends killing each other and that this horrible secret would stay with them right to the bitter end.

A harsh, crude story told with a relentless but highly controlled sledge-hammer. The psychological inferences in the development of character antagonisms between the main actors is an appalling affront to the viewers sensibilities, with only the nun (Antónia Torrens) lending that slightly angelical relief that might suggest some connection with a more stable reality of 'normal' human behaviour. But it is Ramallo (Roger Casamajor) and Manuel (Bruno Bergonzini) who are the centre-piece of the unmitigatingly fatidic outcome, as they journey through tense and traumatic developments, including a homosexual love-making scene that took two months of preparation (RTVE 24th May, 2002: ensuing debate on the film with the director, producer and the two leading male actors).

Villaronga's direction is taught and studied, meticulous, apparently aware that the treatment of the subject would either make a film or something absolutely unstomachable. He seems to feel that dealing with a book which leads into a dejected black abysm would only survive on screen so long as he had iron-fisted control over each minute detail in each scene. In this we can say he just about succeeded. But I would not choose to see this film again, as I would with '99.9' (qv).

As well as Casamajor's and Bergonzini's decidedly determined efforts in playing their parts, notable in some of the incredibly delicate and difficult scenes, Simón Andreu as Alcántara was up to the mark. Even from the younger children in the earlier parts of the film, we can see how everyone was bent on making Villaronga's project work.

If it was not for the music, things might have gone off course: Javier Navarrete's score underlines the moody sombre texturising of the story-line, as those tragically eloquent deep bass sweeps from the Czech orchestra admirably serve as if they were another physical character in the telling of these almost traumatic events in this almost traumatic film.

The participation of Ángela Molina did not serve for much, and María del Mar Bonet's appearance only suggested that she has to appear in anything truly Balearic. However, she should be remembered as an important pioneer of Mediterranean folk songs, as she has made numerous records of songs from the Balearic Islands, Tunis and even Turkey and which stand among my favourites in my collection.

A difficult film to make; a difficult film to watch; this is especially the case for non-Spanish viewers who may not have too much idea of the atrocities and the resulting distrustful antipathy that surged in human souls sixty-odd years ago in this country in general, and, in this case in Mallorca specifically. Not recommended for the squeamish; not even recommended for those accustomed to the barbariousness of such 'heroes' in 'violent' films perpetrated by Seagal, Willis, Schwarzenegger and such ilk, as 'El Mar' has absolutely nothing to do with such silly kids' stuff: this film IS violent on the senses.

Added May 2007: IMDb voters give 7,5 which is just about right: and I abhore gratuitous violence in other more frivolous productions.

"El Mar" directed by Catalonian director Agusti Villarona, and based on the novel by Blai Bonet, offers a glimpse of the Spanish history as seen by a Balearic author that takes the viewer back to the days of the civil war in that country. The movie concentrates on three friends, and follows them from those early days during the onset of the war in Majorca, to a few years later as two of those friends meet again when they are at a sanatorium, lost in the countryside.

We first meet three boys that are playing happily. Not everything is what it seems. The tragic death of one of them points out about the cruelty of the one that commits the evil deed. The boys have excluded a young girl, about their age, from taking part in their games.

When we meet the adult Ramallo again, he is on his way to a sanatorium. He seems to be suffering from tuberculosis. To his surprise, Manuel Tur, one of his boyhood friends is also being treated, and the young girl that was not welcomed to participate in their games is now one of the nuns that supervise their health care. It is obvious that Tur looks at Ramallo in a way that only means he is in love with the tough bully. Their relationship will have devastating consequences.

Roger Casamajor does a good job with portraying the older Ramallo. Bruno Bergonzino makes an impression as Tur, the vulnerable youth. Antonia Torrens plays Sor Francisca with conviction. Angela Molina, puts an appearance as Carmen, the wife of the caretaker of the institution. Simon Andreu is perfect as Alcantara.

"El Mar" is a dark film that clearly shows Agusti Villarona's talents in making the novel come alive for the viewer.

EL MAR is a tough, stark, utterly brilliant, brave work of cinematic art. Director Agustí Villaronga, with an adaptation by Antoni Aloy and Biel Mesquida of Blai Bonet's novel, has created a film that traces the profound effects of war on the minds of children and how that exposure wrecks havoc on adult lives. And though the focus is on war's heinous tattoo on children, the transference to like effects on soldiers and citizens of adult age is clear. This film becomes one of the finest anti-war documents without resorting to pamphleteering: the end result has far greater impact because of its inherent story following children's march toward adulthood.

A small group of children are shown in the Spanish Civil War of Spain, threatened with blackouts and invasive nighttime slaughtering of citizens. Ramala (Nilo Mur), Tur (David Lozano), Julia (Sergi Moreno), and Francisca (Victoria Verger) witness the terror of the assassination of men, and the revenge that drives one of them to murder and suicide. These wide-eyed children become adults, carrying all of the psychic disease and trauma repressed in their minds.

We then encounter the three who survive into adulthood where they are all confined to a tuberculosis sanitarium. Ramala (Roger Casamajor) has survived as a male prostitute, protected by his 'john' Morell (Juli Mira), and has kept his life style private. Tur (Bruno Bergonzini) has become a frail sexually repressed gay male whose cover is his commitment to Catholicism and the blur of delusional self-mutilation/crucifixion. Francisca (Antònia Torrens) has become a nun and serves the patients in the sanitarium. The three are re-joined by their environment in the sanitarium and slowly each reveals the scars of their childhood experiences with war. Tur longs for Ramala's love, Ramala longs to be free from his Morell, and Francisca must face her own internal needs covered by her white nun's habit.

The setting of the sanitarium provides a graphic plane where the thin thread between life and death, between lust and love, and between devotion and destruction is played out. To detail more would destroy the impact of the film on the individual viewer, but suffice it to say that graphic sex and full nudity are involved (in some of the most stunningly raw footage yet captured on film) and the viewer should be prepared to witness every form of brutality imaginable. For this viewer these scenes are of utmost importance and Director Villaronga is to be applauded for his perseverance and bravery in making this story so intense. The actors, both as children and as adults, are splendid: Roger Cassamoor, Bruno Bergonzini and Antònia Torrens are especially fine in inordinately difficult roles. The cinematography by Jaime Peracaula and the haunting musical score by Javier Navarrete serve the director's vision. A tough film, this, but one highly recommended to those who are unafraid to face the horrors of war and its aftermath. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Grady Harp

Only the severely deluded will pretend that this film is great art or psychologically penetrating (although there is quite a bit of other penetration going on throughout). It is pure Spanish "Grand Guignol," beautifully photographed, strung out before us like a string of carefully spaced horror-cameo happenings.

The director found a novel that contained all this excrement and he really went ape over the possibilities of cramming it all into one movie. The first sequence involves five young children who witness a guerrilla-style execution during the Spanish Civil War, but only three of them survive the experience. Then the film jumps forward bout 15 years, and those 3 survivors JUST HAPPEN to find themselves in the same TB sanatorium. The 2 men are patients and interact with other supposed patients, all of whom look incredibly buff and healthy.

The shenanigans in the sanatorium have almost nothing to do with the events pictured earlier, but that is not surprising since nothing that happens in this movie has much relation to character or to reality. The gay sub-plots come strictly out of the blue, and aside from some nattering psycho-babble, there is nothing here relating to "the sea."

Having said all that, go ahead and enjoy the movie! It is almost a parody of Spanish melodrama, smartly staged by a wannabe Almodovar.

I went to see this movie in Spain with a friend of mine. He said that it was about the Spanish Civil War, and I thought, "cool, I'll learn something." OH MY GOSH what a FREAKY movie!!! Starting with kids watching a fascist firing squad blowing away communists to one kid beating another's head against a rock until the kid died, this film was gory crap that made one really wonder what in the heck happened to this country (Spain, not the USA). Unless you feel like feeling dirty and getting really disgusted with what happened almost a century ago I would strongly avoid seeing this movie.