Depressa, Depressa

Jose Antonio Valdelomar Gonzales asks Berta Socuellamos to be his girlfriend. She agrees. She integrates quickly into his gang of bank robbers. For a while, things go very nicely. They make large scores, leave no important clues, and she is saving money to buy an apartment for them. Then a job goes wrong.

The most notable thing about this movie by Carlos Saura is that the six top roles -- the men in the gang, Srta Socuellamos, and another member's girl friend -- were found in casting calls for non-professional actors. Only one of them appeared on the screen again. Gonzales died 11 years later of a drug overdose in prison, where he was arrested for bank robbery. Rumors abound about the production, most of them scurrilous. I won't take Saura too much to task for this sort of casting; from Academician "theory of types" to Robert Bresson, to Eastwood in THE 15:17 TO PARIS, directors have undertaken to cast non-professional in key roles, sometimes under elaborate theories, sometimes because you admire what they did, and sometimes because, well, why hire some one to play Audie Murphy, when he's on the payroll as an actor?

Saura does get good performances out of them, by directing them to maintain low affects and keeping their lines simple. He crafts believable situations, tense bank robberies, and so forth. So it's a very well made movie. If anything, it demonstrates another Academician theory, the Kuelshov Effect, which is that acting is largely irrelevant to acting; the audience infers the thoughts of the actors by how the shots are edited together.

A good look at the delinquency in Spain of the 80's, good photography, great soundtrack.

Pablo, Angela, El Meca and Sebas, four marginalized teenagers from Madrid are forced to live a life of crime in order to survive and escape the poverty they live in. The movie is quite entertaining, the crime scenes are very realistic, the soundtrack fits just perfect and the message is clear and powerful.

Crime is created by poverty and poverty is created by luxury, something we are all responsible of.

A great political statement, then and now.

Intelligent and thrilling film based on facts about juvenile delinquency in Spain since the 80s . Well directed by Carlos Saura who tried to create a sort of Spanish Neo-Realism by tackling the juvenile delinquency in the Madrid's poor quarters from a sociological point of view. In his second stage dealing with delinquents , the first was ¨Los Golfos¨, he tried to take a position in observation of outcast people, and he got to make a documentary-style cinema. It deals with a group of inseparable friends delinquents named Pablo (Valdelomar) , Meca , El Sebas forced into street hustling and ever-expanding life of crime . The three of them carry out car-thief and scheme bank-robbery to earn money in and around Madrid slums . So, they'll have to gather some money and in order to do anything that's necessary to escape the poverty and also as part of the street life they have drugs . The young street-criminals in Madrid embark on a series of armed robberies to raise the money that they use to rise their existence . Meanwhile, Pablo falls in love for a bar girl named Angela (Socuellamos) and gather together with their friends . The protagonists choose to live dangerously and they are forced to live a life of crime to survive and flee the suburbs of Madrid.

¨Deprisa , Deprisa¨ is one of several movies dealing with youth delinquency in Spain during the 70s and early 80s along with ¨Perros Callejeros I and II¨, ¨Navajeros , "Colegas" ,"El Pico", "El Pico 2" and later ¨La Estanquera De Vallecas ¨ , among others . These films were notorious in the years of the Spanish transition to democracy including provoking and polemic issues and played by unknown young people . His style is pretty much urban and realistic as well in the atmosphere as in the fresh dialog and attempted to take a position in favor of outcast people . Drugs , delinquency, and generational problems are the habitual subjects in these films and specially dedicated to the underworld of heroin . Passing of time hasn't had mercy with most of those movies , but they represented a time and a way of life in the history of Spain ; and now they may seem a little bit naive . In ¨ Deprisa , Deprisa¨ or ¨Fast , faster¨ we watch the day-by-day of a group of delinquents committing violent crimes , however Saura got to make a both lyric and documentary-style flick . A great look at young life and friendship in the margined side let the story flow efficiently and being realized in realistic style . We see their troubles growing in such a low-class "barrio" called Vallecas from Madrid outskirts and some fine locations . The director creates a sort of Spanish Neo-Realism by tackling the juvenile delinquency in the Madrid's poor quarters from a sociological point of view . Carlos Saura shows the ugliness of those "barrios" , toughness and cold existence . The screenplay is such strong with disagreeable events , including a love story and violent scenes , though also with some ingenuousness , but in 1980, a few years after General Franco died it wasn't naive at all. Saura chose young and natural actors as Valdelomar and Socuellamos who play their part to the hilt , unafraid of filmmaker's unsympathetic camera and the particularity of the characters. Passable photography with juicy atmosphere by Teo Escamilla , deemed one of the best Spanish cameraman , but unfortunately turns too much murky in some video print , being necessary a a correct remastering . Musical score includes a lot of flamenco songs by that time with the successful Los Chichos.

The motion picture is well directed by Carlos Saura , a good Spanish movies director. He began working in cinema in 1959 when he filmed ¨Los Golfos ¨(1962) also dealing with juvenile delinquency . Saura is a well recognized filmmaker both nationally and internationally, and in proof of it he won many prizes among which there are the following ones: Silver Bear in the Berlin Festival for ¨ La Caza or The Chase¨ (1966) his most successful film , and for Peppermint Frappé (1967), in 1967. Special Jury Awards in Cannes for La Prima Angélica (1974), in 1973, and for Cría Cuervos (1976), in 1975. Also, the film Mamá Cumple Cien Años (1979) got an Oscar nomination in 1979 as the best foreign film, and it also won the Special Jury Award at the San Sebastian Festival. In 1990, he won two Goya , The Spanish Oscar , as best adapted screenplay writer and best director. Saura became an expert on Iberian musical adaptations as ¨Carmen , Amor Brujo , Bodas De Sangre , Sevillanas ,Iberia , Salome, Fado, Flamenco ¨ and even recently Opera as ¨Io , Don Giovanni¨

Robbers Pablo and Meca steal a car. Pablo is taken with waitress Ángela and pulls her into his life of crime. Along with Sebastian who dislikes having a girl in the crew, the quartet go on a crime spree.

The scene where Ángela is waiting for the getaway during the robbery is incredibly tense. I really want more of that. Mostly, they exist in a leisurely lifestyle until they plan another robbery. The action is not the most intense but it does have a good energy. This has a matter-of-fact feeling towards its characters and their lives. It's not that glorified but they are young and beautiful. It's an Euro feel with a softer Tarantino action.

Those folks who enjoyed "Gun Crazy" or "Badlands" or those who, like me, wondered if this artsy fartsy director would or could ever tell a direct, hard hitting story without any pretentious BS, should be most satisfied with this bleak tale of juvies in Madrid set in the days when Francoism was yielding, ever so slowly, to Democracy.

It has been criticized for "glorifying" the four young sociopaths but I just don't see it. I mean, unless they are holding up banks or burning cars or killing people the quartet are half dead most of the time and, when they do speak, what they have to say tends toward the extremely banal and, though they are successful in their left handed endeavors for a while, three of the four meet decidedly unromantic, violent ends while the fourth is seen at film's end walking into darkness where I doubt if even youthful Spanish audiences in 1981 wished to follow her.

Perhaps it was Saura's jaundiced view of Spanish society, with its high corruption quotient and trigger happy, authoritarian cops a reminder that ol Francisco F wasn't that far in the rear view mirror, that caused film critics to think that he was making his destructive, chaotic teens heroes. But in this film there are no heroes, anti or otherwise. Consequently, this viewer felt very little pity for them as they met their depressing fates. Plenty of admiration for the four actors who portrayed them, though, especially when you consider that two were not professional thesps but rather actual prisoners on day release. A minus.