South from Granada

I have to say that finally I see a Fernando Colomo's movie that I like. "Al sur de Granada" is beautifully filmed, has a nice pace and contains superb acting. The recreation of beginning of the century Alpujarras is convincing, the characters credible and the plot engaging.

This movie is the cinematographic transposition of a beautiful autobiographic work: British writer (and historian) Gerald Brenan wrote a very sincere piece about his six years in the Alpujarras and everything shown in the picture is true, including people's names or the birth of his Spanish daughter Miranda Helen.

The film, which is very nice, focuses on Brenan's story and doesn't show a great deal of the Alpujarras, which is a pity.

Educated readers however could draw an interesting comparison between the present title and 'Tortilla Flat' or its sequels. Both Steinbeck's and Brenan's works (which are contemporary) describe Anglo/American people living in a Spanish/Mexican environment but besides what these stories have in common, Steinbeck's ones are fictional while Brenan's is real.

And someone could actually dislike how the Englishman behave: I personally think he was too young. Being older and more experienced, maybe he would have made other choices.

This is a beautiful looking movie, wonderfully photographed. It isn't a great film by any means, but it is charming and entertaining, presenting a topical view of life in the southern villages of Spain at the time. The characters are not fully fleshed people, they are stereotypes attempting to represent the different hues of the Spanish psyche... if you look hard enough, you can even find references to the Quixote/Sancho relationship which is so characteristic of the Spanish culture. There are some disappointments too: social issues such as the great divide between rich and poor, the consequences of the religious protestant reform failure in Spain, and the emigration dream (in this case to Argentine) are just touched but never fully explored. Fernando Colomo is an A-list director of the Spanish film industry and he has attracted a star studded cast to this movie. Great names like Antonio Resines and Angela Molina are happy to take on what they are really minor roles... The acting in general is quite good. Ultimatelly this ends up being a 'fish out of water' film which appears to have had pretensions of becoming a quality/art cinema when first conceived, but never quite achieved it.

This beautiful film is based upon a memoir of Gerald Brenan who was a member of England's Bloomsbury Group. It is the story of a randy young man who completely immerses himself in the lives and culture of a small Spanish town shortly after WWI. Brenan, throughout his long life, was an adventurer and traveler who seemed to have had the enviable ability to absorb and learn from all of his varied experiences.

The movie begins with Brenan trooping through the Spanish countryside to reach a small town where he has obtained a house. His greeting from the locals cannot be considered warm but still not hostile. His intent is to read, write, and absorb the culture of this town that is somewhat of a throwback to the previous century - not something really unusual considering this is rural Spain in the 1920's. As time passes, he becomes more of a member of the community but is still seen as a curious oddity by many of the residents.

Brenan's fascination and admiration of the people and their culture was clearly evident. He and his writings became admired by the Spanish people and recognized by the Spanish government.

This film is particularly enjoyable because it is evocative of the unique period in Europe between the wars when so many artists shed the constraining straitjacket of Victorianism for an enlightened, erotic freedom of expression. Matthew Goode who plays Brenan is perfect as a young man freed from the oppression of war and the oppression of society to explore all the educational and erotic pleasures available. He is supported by an excellent cast of Spanish actors - the men portraying character and strength, the women exemplifying emotion and dark, sensuous passion.

I may be a bit prejudiced in my liking for this film. If I could pick another time and place to live my life, I would choose that time between the wars in Europe, so I tend to lap up any book or film depicting that period. Even if you are not as enamored as I am of that time, I think you will find Al sur de Granada worthwhile entertainment.

This time I've seen a bad film, the history is not interesting, it is really boring. In addition, actors don't do any good play, they all seem too much uncomfortable with their papers and the directing is not good. Despite that, the description of a southern Spanish town of the 30's is not bad, and it saves the film to receive a worse mark. Theorically the story is about a English man that wants to be a writer and goes to Granada to have inspiration, there, he crashes with the strange town behavior which he is not used to. Of course, he finally falls in love and all these things. Unfortunately this is not a Meg Ryan's film so the story is not well told to us, nor the crash of cultures (and nothing). Personally, I've seen much better films, so, unless you like the director I should recommend not to see this film (if you like the director, you can, but I think that this is his worst work).