Lettre à Franco

The Spanish civil war and the Franco regime are very under represented in the movie world, which is strange due to its obvious cinematic possibilities. Leave it to Alejandro Amenabar, one of my favorite Spanish directors, to try and tackle such an important subject. It takes the POV of Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish writer and intellectual who was the dean of the university of Salamanca, and how the town reacted to the beginning of the civil war, and the eventual rise to power of Franco. What makes this story interesting is the complex relationship that Unamuno had with the rise of the regime and how his complacent actions helped the rise of fascism, much to his dismay. It is very well made, well acted, and the historical recreation is pretty good. My only complaints are that it is a bit biased on the way it sees history and it feels a bit cold.

This is a very simple story and I think Amenabar wants to warn us about the dangers we are facing today. Our intellectuals, not only academics, are watching, without any big unrest, the rise of fascism in our countries and aren't clearly going against it. Miguel Unamuno was one of them, he thought their current regime (the republic) wasn't going good enough and he believed that those right wingers bringing some force and order could solve the problems of Spain. He even financed them! Meanwhile, he closed his eyes to the reality, despite warnings from very close friends, and all the signs around him, but then, when he woke up, it was already too late. See any resemblance to what is happening today? What are our intellectuals doing? Think about it, soon it might be too late again.

But what i do know ,and do know how, to appreciate a marvelously made and brilliantly acted movie like this, don miguel is just fantastic. my next mission in life are to devour all i can find on the subject spanish civil war, it mustve been a quagmire like the balkan story in the 1990's.

the grumpy old man gives a 10 with a recommend

Well directed, well acted, As always Alejandro Amenábar has done an excellent job.

The story follows Miguel de Unamuno who was the rector of the university Salamanca before the war. As with happens with many intellectuals he was blind to the consequences of what was happening around him.

The dictatorship's rise and time in power is still a hot potato here in Spain. The transition to democracy, though smooth, did not manage to heal the wounds of seventy years of dictatorship.

This story is timeless: we cannot see the reality of something until it is too late. But even if we can, are we able to change things? Or is it the man with the gun and all the bullets that decides who is in the right?

The topic is very interesting and it doesn't hurt to remind people how those horrors begin. As a film, it is underwhelming. Gorgeously lensed and well cast, perhaps, the inventivity, the sense of rhythm which I enjoyed so much in his earlier work are absent here. The weight of the historical subject seems to have compelled Amenábar to opt for precision, a certain distance and lack of emotion. Meaningful but academic