Fiesta

One of my 3 favorite movies of all times (with "Z" and "Dr Strangelove"). It is unfortunately not very famous. I still do not understand why. from the nationalist point of view, it describes (i) the social background of the Spanish society in the upper military and nobility class; (ii) the psychological ground of any war, (iii) both the humanity, the embitterness, the cynicism of any executioner. It is also a story, written through a teenager's eyes, called back by his father from France where he was studying, to a torn Spain between an old fashioned aristocracy and church and the people looking for democracy.He sees the calm horror of an execution camp, a sort of a training wanted by his father before sending him to the front, in order to cancel all remaining humanity in his soul. It is a prerequisite to stand the horrors of war. He is protected by his father's old friend, who is played by Jean-Louis Trintignan, a romantic story in himself.

Please try to see this movie: it is quite difficult in fact. I hoped that the DVD edition would be a rebirth to this movie, but I doubt it. It is a shame that masterpieces are not recognized for their real value. "Land and Freedom", which was released at the same time, benefited from a better mediatic cover.

At some point in "A Few Good Men," Jack Nicholson's character, the crusty career army officer caught being just a bit too brutal with his men, puts up the "I may be a bastard but I'm your bastard" defence. We military, he argues are called upon to do very nasty things so the rest of you can enjoy peace and freedom. The central character in this movie, the cruel, drug addicted Colonel Masagual played by the peerless Jean-Paul Trintignant, puts up much the same defence. Unfortunately, it is Spain 1936, and he is killing for Franco. In the process he initiates the 16 year old Rafael (Gregoire Colin), son of a brother officer, in the delights of military justice.

This is an absorbing French film on a Spanish subject made poignant by the knowledge that fascism in Spain lasted 40 years through the efforts of military "heros" such as this. The title "Fiesta" is ironic, death and killing is celebrated not life and living. The ends never justify the means, military idiots of all affiliations take note. But they won't of course, and the killing continues to this day.

The movie is a splendid condemnation of excessive militarism, where-ever it appears, not only in Spain. Limiting its significance to the time and place where the action is located is limiting to the message which is much more general than presenting the philosophy of one of the belligerents in the Spanish Civil War. The tragedy of this civil war is that it was not a fight between good and evil. Both sides were equally brutal and numerous accounts prove that atrocities have been committed by both sides. Having a choice between 40 years of fascist rule or 50 rules of communist rule is not having a choice at all. The participants could not have known, what we know now, that the comparing the rule of the Franco regime in Spain with the communist rule in Eastern Europe, which started less than ten years after the Spanish Civil war, communism was not only more brutal than fascism but also more destructive, as it is more difficult for the Eastern European countries than it was for Spain to recover.

However, in this context, the question arises, assuming colonel Masagual was initially an intelligent and lucid person, if he was not driven to his drug addiction and his destructive "Weltanschauung" just because he was caught in the middle of a war between equally negative forces and having no rational option. It it not proven that the war was due to people like Masagual and it is equally possible that people were driven to madness and despair just because of the war where there was no good alternative to fight for.

This is a wonderful film. Its two main protagonists are Rafael, an 18 year-old innocent and Colonel Masagual, a battle-hardened veteran with a limp and an addiction to heroin (perfectly feasible - Hermann Goering became addicted after being wounded in the 1923 Munich putsch).

It is 1936 and the Spanish Civil War is breaking out. Rafael's officer father calls him back to Spain to fight for the Nationalist cause. Educated at a private religious college in France, Rafael is the dutiful scion of an upper class family, a pious and aescetic Catholic.

The film charts his loss of innocence. Firstly, he loses his virginity to an upper-class English lady who is in Spain to support the Nationalists. Her main role in the film is as a foil - her feminine softness contrasts with the brutalising process of Rafael's induction into the army. His ultimate rape of her confirms his descent into the barbaric requirements of war. However, Rafael redeems himself by allowing a young female hostage to escape execution.

Jean-Louis Trintignant's Colonel Masagual is a tour de force. His character dominates the film and supplies it with dramatic tension. A friend of Rafael's father, Masagual assigns Rafael to a firing squad detail to toughen him up. Masagual is a complex man - effeminate in his personal grooming habits and having a relationship with his young aide de camp which is familiar enough to suggest homosexuality. Masagual is a great philosophiser whose favourite word is 'con' (pr-ck or c-nt in English). Everyone is a 'con'. The Nationalists will win the war because they are bigger 'cons' than the Reds. He is willing to execute anyone regardless of age or gender. War exists to stop people like himself becoming bored. He lambasts a Basque priest for fighting on the wrong side - does he not realise that the Church is on the side of the rich, not the poor?! This character is not entirely convincing - with his cynical and abusive take on the world, he is almost a Freethinker. The character is a used as a vehicle to explore the wider ramifications of war and Spanish fascism.

Politics do not intrude greatly into this film. The Nationalists express contempt for the France of the Popular Front. There is reference to the atrocities being carried out by the Reds in Barcelona. Masagual contrasts the 'humane and honourable' executions under his own regular army command with the 'butchery' of the Carlist and Falangist irregulars just outside town. The film is not so much a critique of Spanish fascism as an indictment of the brutalising effects of war in general.

Executions give Rafael his baptism in blood. He reacts badly, survives, rapes and then redeems himself by letting the girl hostage go free. We see him for the last time heading for the front line, innocence lost and with a traumatised expression on his face. Gregoire Colin gives a remarkable performance in this role.

'Fiesta' deserves a much wider recognition. The film's title belies its subject matter. The acting, script and screenplay are all excellent and the music is very compelling.