“If I can tell what happened and they listen to me, they will believe me. And I will have already won,” the former councilor of Ponferrada implores her lawyer. The Nevenka Fernández of fiction believes in the inherent power of a strong and clear summary to awaken the empathy of a people who, in real life, have banished her.
In fact, hearing the succession of grievances that have stoned the new young promise of the Popular Party should be enough to rally everyone’s support… Because violence does not lack exclamations or because the case from which it starts already has enough substance to feed a true crime worthy (it was the Netflix documentary), Icíar Bollaín will refer to the explanation of real events in the most linear and precise way possible.
Recreating the pure truth, Mireia Oriol’s bet is to alternate fragility and strength in the manner of a Nevenka who arrives a little vague as a character (what does she like, what is she afraid of?) even if she is, of course, always on the verge of breaking down. Urko Olazabal, for his part, will abandon himself completely to the gravity of his giant Ismael Álvarez, a type of voluntarily evil attributes.
There’s nothing bad about it, but there’s nothing great about it either. in Bollaín’s recreation, co-written with Isa Campo… As well as nothing inaccessible outside the summary or the case article on Wikipedia; if anything, My name is Nevenka he manages to make his suffering more graphic. And at this point, we must consider the filmmaker responsible for justifying with unfiltered humanism the apparently impossible forgiveness of Maixabel: Could returning to the beaten track, despite the insistent respect for the victim, be another form of exploitation on screen?
The keys to soft porn
While Audrey Diwan played with a direct emotional realism, almost on the surface, to delve deep into the young protagonist of The eventwith which she won the Golden Lion in 2021, three years later, the French filmmaker starts from another literary adaptation, in this case the erotic novel of the same name by Emmanuelle Arsan, to twist and tighten it.
With a touch of contemporary feminism, it will open a new reading to the coming-of-age story of a woman fighting to free her desire from the cage deliciously designed by her own mind. girl boss empowered. It is curious that in less than a month, the two little girl by Halina Reijn with Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas, as Emmanuelle by Audrey Diwan, told the same story. Perhaps we have already entered the post-#MeToo era.
Emmanuelle It is written, in substance and in form, as a little book of soft porn: Noémie Merlant, a marble expert in quality control for a hotel chain, has overcome all the barriers of sex but cannot enjoy it. Upon arrival at a Hong Kong resort covered in satin and white gold, sexual encounters will take place with a series of guests, under the music and slow sequences of a silky montage.
Once realized, the fantasy will discover – in a somewhat mechanical and reluctant turn of explanation – another link in the patriarchy, the one that Emmanuelle will break on paper, although all the dark fantasies advocated by Rebecca Zlotowski’s screenplay (an easy girl) remain within the scope of soft… Again. A little more gameplay, or even a little humor, would have been nice for this journey of discovery. If you are not satisfied, try to see Expatriates on Prime Video.
C. Tangana pays a fitting tribute
Antón Álvarez willingly accepts to play the role of master (of ceremonies) on the human, social and folkloric dimensions behind the arpeggios of the guitarist Yerai Cortés, labeled without thinking too much as a genius between the waters of tradition and modernity.
In fact, this kind of manufacturing of lives to explain well the reason for the sorrows that the bulerías of Yerai invoke, like a guide sewn with intimate interviews with family and colleagues, traditional images of the neighborhood (that coffee in a glass, the rice with lentils) and new versions of the album songs, now in the places where the musician grew up.
However, no matter how much this polyhedral portraitwho even plays with different analogue photographic formats, or as endearing as the character of its protagonists, already descended from their two parents cartoon even Percebe Street. The film often falls into anecdote, both because of its classic approach to interviews (talking head) and what is told in them, because Yerai’s breakup with his partner, La Tania, is so “street” like everyone else’s. They deserve a thorough investigation, worthy of an “On n’en parle pas”, on the reasons for the big family secret that recalibrates everything during the last half of the film…
We will ignore them out of respect. A modesty, however, inappropriate for an amused Antón Álvarez and his camera, which swings playfully between zoom sprawling games of hide-and-seek with the characters he tries to “capture.” Meanwhile, the visual whim and a documentary gesture that lacks some depth, Despite the seriousness and genealogical complexity to which it appeals (familial, social and artistic), it could The flamenco guitar of Yerai Cortés appear as a mere extra on the accompanying album. And that would still be good, but nothing more.
