El camino de los ingleses

the music. the inspired delicacy to give honest, direct portrait of an unique age. poetry of a summer holiday of few teenagers. words, temptations, desires, gestures. and a surprising director who does more than a good adaptation but a touching message about the fragility of small things who become support of the next ages. this is the most important detail of this modest film. a film about ordinary aspects of the lives of teenagers. it is not a great film. only useful. for remind. for explore. for propose a way to self definition. characters. and the air of summer. and the dreams. and need to escape from a too small universe. from yourself. so, see it !

i was thinking that maybe Antonio Banderas has spent a career in commercial movies to be able later on to develop his own projects. who knows maybe it's like this. yes, this movie was not made by an fine director, the pace is uneven, there are a lot of scene that could have been removed improving, not hurting , the movie. but the movie is not entirely pointless, it seems to have a sincere desire to say something to the viewer, especially with a very well mixed balance of music and images, those seem to be the most powerful moments of the movies. the plot , the story is to a certain degree irrelevant , this is a movie of powerful images, of details, of obsessions. The love scenes are a very small part of the movie, yet they are incredible details, nearly as in a soft porn movie, but this is not a limitation of this movie, but one of features. the bodies of the characters are explained in details, a flat stomach, a leg, a hand, a scar , eyes, aging hands. the movie is poetry and as poetry it refuses to be confined in the structures of novel, this is a movie of images and music, it's like the work of an Impressionist painter, maybe there are autobiographical elements, let's not forget that AB was born in Malaga in 1960, so he more or less would have been the age of the characters at the same time. All in all it's a good movie and it was worth watching it, I hope who reads this has enjoyed it already or will in the future.

A nostalgic coming-of-age tale charting a group of friends on vacation at the end of the 1970s, including friendship, sex, love, adventures and misfortunes. Miguelito Dávila (Alberto Amarilla) is a young man from Málaga who has just had a kidney removed, which forces him to spend a long time in the hospital. There he meets a cultured man who introduces him to poetry and makes him reconsider leaving his job in a small hardware store to be a poet. Once he leaves the hospital, Miguelito begins the transition from innocence to adult life, embarking on the journey with his friends: Paco Frontón (Félix Gómez) who falls in love for La Cuerpo (Marta Nieto) and the violent Babirusa (Raúl Arévalo). Including some events that will prove crucial in his life with experiences that will reach the limit . Miguelito begins a relationship with Luli (María Ruiz), a beautiful girl whom he deeply loves and in which an older man, Cardona (Antonio Garrido) is interested, and he also starts a relationship with a teacher (Victoria Abril). Following the right path only depends on him.

A coming-of-age story depicting lives of a group of teens, who during the summer experience with mutual camaraderie, the first loves, lusts, obsession, sex, comradeship and violence. Adaptation of the same name from the novel by Málaga writer Antonio Soler, who also wrote the script for the second film directed by actor Banderas, his first was ¨Crazy in Alabama´. But while ¨Crazy in Alabama¨, starring his then wife Melanie Griffith, was a decent film, this ¨El camino de los ingleses¨ result to be mediocre and uneven, including ridiculous situations and a pretty bad filming.

The film was nominated for two Goya awards: best new actor (Alberto Amarilla) and best adapted script (Antonio Soler) and won the Label Europa Cinemas award at the Cine Festival in Berlin.

Among its protagonists appear the youngsters: Alberto Amarilla (Princesas, Mar adentro), Raul Arevalo (La isla mínima), Félix Gómez (Carlos rey emperador) , María Ruiz (Paquirri) and Marta Nieto (Madre). Completing the casting, veterans as Victoria Abril (Tirant Le Blanc), Cuca Escribano (Mapa de la geografia humana), Antonio Garrido (Zona Hostil) and Juan Diego (Vete de mi).

In ¨El camino de los ingleses¨ excels the colorful cinematography by Xavi Giménez and the second unit director of photography was made by another prestigious cameraman, Oscar Faura. As well as the sensitive and attractive musical score by Antonio Meliveo, including catching songs. The motion picture was averagely directed by Antonio Banderas and I think that it includes some autobiographical elements from his native Malaga. Rating: 4.5/10. A so-so film that turns out to be a little tiring and boring.

I tried really hard to like this film, I promise. I enjoyed Crazy in Alabama and I like Banderas as a person. He is an interesting character. However, this film is a failure. Either that or I didn't get the point at all. Two hours of movie that feel like four, a disjointed script, some supposedly poetic images without any meaning and a bunch of wasted talented actors. It begins decently but as the plot unfolds it drifts away into a hopeless nonsense. I used to think that if I didn't understand a film it was my fault and I had to watch it again making an effort to really comprehend what it meant. Nowadays, I simply believe that if I don't get the point of the movie is just because the director didn't explain it correctly. Sorry, Antonio, try harder next time.

youth, sex,searches of life's sense, stories from the Franco's Spain, classic recipes about expectations, relation with family, love and need to escape. far to be a bad film, it seems have a specific public. the beauty of images, the atmosphere of Malaga, the references to American films about the same subject saves it to be only a movie by Antonio Banderas. because, more than an adaptation, it preserves and shows the spirit of a period. that is its basic virtue. and the remind of universal values. a beautiful film. not great, not impressive, only beautiful. and that could be enough. because it reminds more than presents.