There is a common metaphor in thousands of songs, self-help books, and poetry, that of someone “dancing with death.” What exactly does it mean for someone to dance with death? Ultimately, after so much use, the phrase became the typical empty signifier, something that is almost said like a slogan. When someone is sick, we load ourselves with clichés and commonplaces like this. We say that a person with cancer is “fighting,” “fighting,” or “dancing with death.”
It is curious that cinema this year dismantles this argument based on warlike and euphemistic language. Pilar Palomero did it in The flashes; Pedro Almodovar in The next room, with this monologue from Tilda Swinton which dismantles the entire discourse on death; and it is now the Catalan filmmaker Carlos Marqués-Marcet who demonstrates once again that he is one of the great directors of recent Spanish cinema with his most daring work to date, Dust They will be.
The filmmaker, who surprised with his x-ray the impossibility of long-distance relationships in 10,000 kilometers, and counted on motherhood like few others in The days to cometakes the happy metaphor of dancing with death and turns it into reality. He makes her flesh and places Ángela Molina in a musical about euthanasia and in a literal dance with the lady with the scythe. The idea is simply a triple somersault with a corkscrew, but Marqués-Marcet demonstrates a knack for landing back on his feet no matter what decision he makes.
Death is quite a difficult subject to tackle in a musical, but the director, in the script with Clara Roquet and Coral Cruz, brings together some of the best to create something personal, moving to tears, surprising and, above all, everything, unique. How difficult it is to say that in an increasingly hackneyed cinema. How nice to still be able to be surprised sitting in a seat watching a Spanish musical with original songs and choreography. Surrounding yourself with the best is once again literal, as the songs were composed by María Arnal and the incredible choreographic numbers are by La Veronal. An artistic conjunction that achieves moments of imposing beauty.
They will dust shows its cards from the start, with a scene in which Ángela Molina’s character is in crisis and screams inconsolably around her house. When the ambulance arrives, everything turns into a strange dance. She throws the objects, but they hold them and place them with the delicacy of a dance that nurses do with the patient.
There are no excessive musical numbers, but those that do exist are brilliant, with special mention to Ángela Molina in an Esther Williams-style spectacle with images of death and skeletons. One of the scenes to remember this year in Spanish cinema without a doubt. As it is this ending which, to the rhythm of Latin music, shows the end of its two protagonists. There is a very courageous political decision They will be dust, And it’s not only the patient who decides to die, but also her partner who wants to say goodbye.
It is therefore a film which also explores how children make this very complex decision, and all with delicacy and moments of beautiful sensitivity, such as Alfredo Castro’s tango with his son. Castro and Ángela Molina are brilliant as the lead couple. But also watch out for Mònica Almirall’s surprise. All in one of the best Spanish films of the year that should be in every awards conversation this year.
A true source of inspiration
For Carlos Marqués-Marcet, dancing with death makes sense, since there is “a whole musical tradition” around death. This is perhaps why this film, which was not initially a film, ended up becoming the most singular and the most original of them. The starting point was born from real friends of the filmmaker who wanted to make the same decision that the characters who were born from it make today.
The director was very interested and started a creative workshop with them and his daughter. From these experiences was born a “literary document that looked like 90 pages of different texts, also research”. “There, music begins to appear, already in the workshops. All the time, whenever there was a moment, they would start dancing together or playing music. When times come when words no longer come through, as is the case when talking about death, music often comes out. It is also seen in many documentaries about medical assistance in dying, in which many people need music before they die. Or they end up enjoying a song with their companion,” says Marqués-Marcet.
He’s never seen a documentary about any of this, but originally the idea was a much more meta film where “the royal family came out, we saw them perform.” For health reasons this could not be the case, but there are many things that refer to reality, like the last Swiss clinic, where even one of the nurses is a real nurse. Winks that allude to real life in a film that uses representation, trompe l’oeil and a genre like the musical, which forces the viewer to enter into the biggest pact of faith possible.
