Sunday 25 September 2011

The Devil's Backbone

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Year:2001
Country of origin:Spain / Mexico
Director:Guillermo del Toro
Genre:Haunting / revenge
Starring:Fernando Tielve, Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi
Rating:4/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256009/
Tagline:The living will always be more dangerous than the dead.
Favourite line:N/A - Subtitled

Guillermo del Toro is a very interesting director, and has gone on record stating that his philosophy is to make one big budget, Hollywood movie (Mimic, Blade 2) followed by a more modest, but much more personal project (Chronos, Pan's Labyrinth). It doesn't always work out - Blade 2 was immediately followed by Hellboy - but you can see what he is getting at. And this is one of his more personal pieces.

The plot:
It's the time of the Spanish Civil war, and people are in fear of the imminent takeover by Franco's Nationalists, coupled with the pre Second World War rumblings in the rest of Europe. It's a fairly miserable time, but especially for a small group of boys living in an orphanage, ruled by an iron hand. There's an unexploded bomb in the courtyard, a tyrannical caretaker who used to be one of them, the dominant female - a one legged adulteress - and the Doctor, kind hearted but very strict.
Oh, and the dead boys ghost that haunts the dormitory at night.....

As stylishly directed as you would expect from del Toro, this is also relentlessly bleak, but it never drags. There's too much imagination on display for that.
The haunting scenes are just that: Creepy in the extreme.
Not immediately accessible, it has to be said, but it is worth sticking with as the narrative drags you in and there's enough of interest to carry you through to the end.
Glad I watched it.

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