You have watched the trailer. You thought it looked awesome and mad. Well, you don't know the half of it.
It has been two days since I watched this and I'm still digesting this movie. This will help put my thoughts in order as much as tell you how I felt about it. The plot when you get right down to it is pretty basic. An already seemingly weird kid gets to watch his father, the last in a family line of clowns, brutally die during the Spanish Civil War. Decades later while working as a sad clown in a circus he gets involved in a messed up triangle between the abusive circus happy clown and his masochistic trapeze artist girlfriend. Madness both literal and figurative ensues.
An overt allegory about post Civil War Spain. A Taxi Driver like story of a maladjusted man's descent into madness. A Tarantino like amalgam of influences, homages and outright scene reproductions. There's Fellini, there's Hitchcock, there's Scorcese. Epiphanies in movie theaters. Frantic climbs on the faces of giant statues. There's self mutilation. There's action. There's horror. There's dark dark comedy. There are operatic level sentiments. There's a Greek Chorus. The movie verges on having just too much stuff.
The fact De Iglesias manages to hold this together, much less keep everything coherent is a minor miracle. The fact that he also managed to create such a visually striking film a major miracle. There are iconic images exploding out of every one of this movie's frames. The characters are wonderfully interesting. Javier the sad clown is pathetic enough to keep the audience from identifying with him. Early on in the film it is apparent that besides his softness he's not the kind of sadsack that when pushed over the edge will take his own life. He will take other people's lives. Sergio the happy clown is a testosterone fueled abusive monster. But he's also honestly, almost to the point of religious fervor, committed to making children happy. Natalia the trapeze artist, far from being a damsel in distress is a willing participant and instigator to the violence that gets unleashed. All the while being absolutely honest to both herself and the audience about her motivations. And all of these things are clearly laid out from the beginning. There's a scene early on that makes it pretty clear. There's no way this will end up good for anyone. Much like Hitchcock's proverbial ticking time bomb what happens is not a surprise. Exactly how it happens is.
End of ramble. I hope it makes sense.
