GNantes

Uncomfortable topics if there are any, one is death. Not the one that was long awaited, but the one that comes suddenly, which is the worst of all. Death fills us with sadness: it is the memory of absence, which often leaves great pain, which never disappears. Eventually, the second death comes, which is oblivion. That said, talking about death is not easy. Talking seriously about death is not easy. Today, we see it everywhere, it invades all blockbuster movies and those that are not. So, this documentary, at times presents dense silences, that can be palpable, like the meditation of someone who stands solemnly saying goodbye in front of a coffin. Also, it shows the total irreverence of whistles, of performative hums, of an irony that takes away all importance from the fact of dying. Although I consider that the director's attempt is a good attempt, perhaps the documentary fails to have an axis that is capable of containing the content of the information it develops. Maybe it's not their fault, because we can only say and talk about death from life. In the years to come, this documentary may represent the figurehead that opens up space for a topic as moving and fascinating as this one.

One of the most impressive aspects of the film are the scenes showing the deployment of the army: the endless lines of soldiers and vehicles flown over by the protection of planes. The battlefield scenes after two hours are acceptable although unrealistic in their performances. Everything else is a failed romance sprinkled with candid humor. It is also true that there are shots of extraordinary elegance (for example, the hospital where badly injured troops convalesce) and good timing. Unfortunately, in the sum of its elements only those very few elements of value can be weighted. Contemporaneous with this film and with better displays on the anti-war issue: All quiet on the western front (1930, dir. Lewis Milestone).

Taste is an uncertain gift. It can be educated, cultivated, as long as you have curiosity, a true need to provoke and appease it. Forty years later, or almost, at the moment when these words have become a record for history, or for a chat between coffees, it can be said that what most viewers enjoy watching is an enigma: we have six comments on IMDB and only five hundred votes. Among many explanations and reasons, there is one that explains a lot: 'A king and his movie' ( La película del rey) was ahead of its time. We see in it how its director worships poetry, which is manifested not only in the words but in the silence of the landscape and also perfectly in it's characters' misery. It is certainly not a perfect neither an excellent film. It is, on the other hand, a powerful and sufficient film, somehow magical, and when it ends leaves you with candor in your chest, perhaps in that corner that inhabits our soul. If it gives you a bad taste, don't worry, come back later, but come back, because taste is something that you earn, sometimes later rather than sooner.