Flamenco (de Carlos Saura)

An astonishing journey through the rich genre of Flamenco.

We are lucky that a creative mind like Saura's was captivated enough by flamenco to become in important chronicler of the art form. Visually, it's beautiful, with some intimate, powerful performances.

Intense! Mesmerizing! Collect your jaw from the theater floor when you leave!

The talent is dazzling and the passion is infectious, with glorious photography by Storaro. For the first 20 minutes, it's electrifying and exhilarating. But the next 40 minutes are far too ballad-heavy. Also the material is very good, it kind of sucks the energy out of the room. Fortunately, the remainder of the film is more evenly paced with a much better mix of uptempo and downbeat. Although that slow stretch keeps the movie from being a masterpiece for me, overall I was delighted.