''Flamenco'' is a

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

documentary

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

directed by

Carlos Saura Carlos Saura Atarés (born 4 January 1932) is a Spanish film director, photographer and writer. Along with Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, he is considered to be one of Spain’s most renowned filmmakers. He has a long and prolific career th ...

with camerawork by cinematographer

Vittorio Storaro Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. (born 24 June 1940) is an Italian cinematographer widely recognized as one of the best and most influential in cinema history, for his work on numerous classic films including ''The Conformist,'' ''Apocalypse Now ...

. The film is entirely musical and dancing vignettes, composed and photographed on a sound stage.

Synopsis

''Flamenco'' is a documentary that includes performances from some of the best

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

singers, dancers and guitarists. With the masterful cinematography of the Oscar winning director of photography

, director Carlos Saura brings with this film the "Light of Flamenco to the World". As a hall fills with performers, a narrator says that flamenco came from

Andalucia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

, a mix of Greek psalms, Mozarabic dirges, Castillian ballads, Jewish laments, Gregorian chants, African rhythms, and Iranian and Romany melodies. The film presents thirteen rhythms of flamenco, each with song, guitar, and dance: the up-tempo bulerías, a brooding farruca, an anguished martinete, and a satiric fandango de Huelva. There are tangos, a taranta, alegrías, siguiriyas, soleás, a guajira of patrician women, a petenera about a sentence to death, villancicos, and a final rumba. Families present numbers, both festive and fierce. The camera and the other performers are the only audience. This film shows a world of flamenco—singing, dancing and guitar playing melded into an intense, enclosing and dramatic space. Song, guitar and dance are blended in inventive ways. They are performed sometimes a cappella, extending the guitar playing in subtle and intense "solos" accompanied often by hand-clapping or knuckles rapped on a table. These dancers have learned the technique but they make the flamenco their own. Here we see children dancing with their parents; and grandparents demonstrating that flamenco imbues the spirit with a graceful power that does not age. At the end, we see the form of flamenco symbolically passed through a class of aspiring dancers.

Cast

Performances by:

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (;), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flame ...

Joaquín Cortés Joaquín Pedraja Reyes (known professionally as Joaquín Cortés; born 22 February 1969) is a Spanish classically trained ballet and flamenco dancer. Biography Joaquin Cortés is a Spanish flamenco dancer. A native of Córdoba, Spain, Córdoba, ...

Manolo Sanlúcar Manolo Sanlúcar (born Manuel Muñoz Alcón, 24 November 1943 – 27 August 2022) was a Spanish flamenco composer and guitarist. He was considered one of the most important Spanish composers of recent times, and together with Paco de Lucía, T ...

Lole y Manuel Lole y Manuel was a gitano (Spanish Romani) musical duo formed by Dolores Montoya Rodríguez (1954) and Manuel Molina Jiménez (1948-2015). They composed and performed innovative flamenco music between 1972 and 1993. This couple was the first ex ...

, La Paquera de Jerez, Fernanda de Utrera, José Menese, Enrique Morente, José Mercé, Farruco y Farruquito,

Ketama Ketama is a Spanish musical group in the new flamenco tradition. Fusing flamenco with other musical forms (salsa, Brazilian music, reggae, funk, jazz), they created a style that lies somewhere between flamenco and pop salsa. Their music drew as ...

Manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...

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and many others at the old

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

train station.

DVD release

''Flamenco'' was issued on DVD by New Yorker Video in December 2003, in

with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

subtitles. The lyrics of the songs are translated in the subtitles (the only "dialog" in the film).

References

External links

* {{Carlos Saura 1995 films Spanish documentary films Films directed by Carlos Saura 1995 documentary films Documentary films about flamenco 1990s dance films 1990s Spanish films

Synopsis

Cast

DVD release

See also

References

External links