Little Ashes

Plot synopsis:
In 1922, 18-year old Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) arrives at university in Madrid. The Residencia de Estudiantes, or student residences, is a modern environment which encourages Spain's brightest young minds. Salvador, who is determined to become a great artist, soon catches the attention of the Resi's social elite poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran) and aspiring filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Together they form the nucleus of the most modern group in Madrid.
Their private lives become increasingly complex as Federico ignores the advances of devoted friend and writer Magdalena (Marina Gatell), and Salvador himself feels the pull of García Lorca's magnetism. Luis, becoming increasingly isolated by the duo's closeness, decides to move to Paris to fulfill his own artistic ambitions. Meanwhile, Salvador and Federico leave Madrid to spend the summer at the seaside village of Cadaques, at the home of Dalí's family.
Federico finds himself accepted[1] into the Dalí family as he and Salvador grow closer until, one night, their friendship becomes more.[2] Even as they draw closer, their relationship appears doomed. Luis visits them at university and becomes more suspicious and appalled by their apparent closeness.
Dalí finds García Lorca's obsession with him more than he is prepared to handle and moves to Paris. Consumed by the high society and decadence, Dalí is soon entangled with Gala (Arly Jover) a married woman with a penchant for celebrities. When García Lorca visits, he finds his friend is a changed man, in his life and his politics.

Tags: romantic, psychedelic, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
I have no explanation as to why some critics gave Little Ashes bad reviews other than it just wasn't your typical movie and they couldn't understand that.This movie tells a beautiful and fascinating story (read the synopsis beforehand it helps).The acting is excellent.The accents sound/are authentic (when Dali sounds American or French that is done intentionally from what i hear.) oh, and it's an INDEPENDENT FILM!
I will admit, what drew me to this movie was the fact that Robert Pattinson was in it and after seeing Twilight and the ga-ga-ness of him and the media, young girls and even old ladies, I wanted to see him act.
and British- it would have been nice to see the film in the original language of Dali, even if I had to read it.Javier Beltran was an excellent choice to play famous writer Federico Garcia Lorca.
The music forces the movie along at some points and the flashes of black and white imagery try to convey the chaos that was surrounding Dali and his mates in Spain in the 1920's and it does not do justice to the uncertainty and fear that was rampant.If movies are in themselves pieces of art this is a valiant effort on the part of everyone involved, including Mr. Pattinson- though I hope this is not the best I see from him, but it did make me enjoy him as an actor, not eye candy.
Unfortunately I am very quite aware that this movie will not get the attention it deserves in the states and that a good portion of the people who will watch this movie will only watch for the main actor, Mister Robert Pattinson but I still suggest that Dali lovers watch this movie as well as fans of slightly strange movies..
(For some viewers, it might help to perhaps have a brief surrealism/Dali./Spain between the wars primer; this might make a difference in better appreciating certain aspects of the characters and the times portrayed.) I agree with another review, that in its essence this story about a little known poet and peer of Dali named Federico García Lorca-- the words devastating, beautiful, tragic, and inspiring come to mind.
It is based on the stories and relationships between Federico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel since their friendship in the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid in the 1920s.
It portrays the various choices each makes without being judgmental: the romantic revolutionary choices of Lorca that lead to his execution at the hands of the Nationalist militia at the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the narcissistic path of Salvador Dalí marked by genius, excessiveness and conceit, and the emotionally and politically embroiled life of Luis Buñuel who decides early on that his artistic career cannot find a place in Spain.The editing of the movie could have used a little more smoothness.
Watching Paul Morrison's remarkably powerful "Little Ashes", I feel like I'm never going to read Federico García Lorca, I'm never going to appreciate Salvador Dalí and I'm never going to see Luis Buñuel under the same light ever again.
Morrison's film gives us that special kind of enlightenment, and it transports us to a different age in such a way that, once it's over, we feel trapped in between our present day and a tempestuously romantic afternoon in 1922."Little Ashes" takes place in 1922 Spain, when the country was under the violent regime of the Guerilla, and when the church and the government forced a conservative attitude on life, art and sex.
García Lorca and Buñuel become instant friends with Dalí, but from the first moment they meet, García Lorca and Dalí are joined together by an unbearable attraction...which they must keep hidden, especially from their mutual friend Buñuel who hates homosexuals and from the rest of their society who could threaten their lives.The film constantly mixes and entwines different subjects: the tense, suffocating love between García Lorca and Dalí, their complicated relationship with Buñuel, the political situation of the country and their artistic flashes of genius.
The actors deliver fine performances (with the special mention of Robert Pattinson who managed to capture Dalí almost perfectly, and who's inspired in his portrayal), the directing flows like undisturbed water, the writing is perfect and the overall production has little to be disliked.But there is a slight flaw: there are moments of extreme tension, when the mood and the topic of the film have reached such nerve-wrecking heights and the film, in its attempt to keep up with the pace, cuts off the tension.
Nevertheless, like I said before, it's a SLIGHT flaw, and the rest of the film rewards us and redeems our viewing experience.This movie is based on actual characters, actual facts, and is inspired by written documents attesting to the majority of events, but great artistic liberty has also been used to add drama and romance.
This film spends much of its time telling us that Federico Garcia Lorca was gay and was in love with Salvador Dali.
There are a couple of nicely mildly erotic short sex scenes, so there is a little passion in the film, but like Salvador Dali, the film doesn't want us to feel passion/sex but only wants to be admired for having it..
But nothing about actually breaking them and none of the sublime intuition that melts time and is the revenge of abstract interior space upon the solid forms of history.And Bunuel, a little beside the other two: godless, fierce, radical, tormented, but a mere stubborn footnote in the exchange of visual platitudes about love and art - as exemplified by how vibrant feels among the rest of the film the short clip from Un Chien, of course the eponymous scene.So it's really sad that we have to settle for this, by itself a tame and harmless bout of youthful exuberance, a sort of safe exuberance that is nowhere as complex and impulsive as these people surely lived if we judge by their work, but really the most dismaying in context of these people and that work.
Little Ashes - Pattinson does not look, sound or feel like Dali.
There was nothing wrong with the story of the movie except the actor chosen to play the great surrealist painter: Salvador Dali.
Dali played by Robert Pattinson, was so off I have to rate this movie 1/10.
Beltran does a decent job in his role as Federico Garcia Lorca, but I was left wanting so much more from this film than was actually delivered.The entire premise of the film, the revelation of a relationship between Dali and Lorca during their school days, is thin and there doesn't seem to be enough material to base an entire film on.
If you know the period you'll get easily, otherwise you're gonna need to make a research on icons like Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel and their meaning to the arts."Little Ashes" follows the friendship between these three artists, from the time they were students until the beginning of their careers and some of its famous moments, pictures, films, poems and all.
More than that, the film explores a love relationship between Dali and Lorca, played respectively by Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán; and their involvement in art and revolutionary acts during Franco dictatorship.
The rest is history, mentions of "Un Chien Andalou" (Buñuel & Dali film partnership) and the famous image of the eye; poems by Lorca; and Dali's strange magnetism as a bizarre figure with his surrealistic art and way of living and style.The film is panned and harshly criticized by many people complaining that everything in this movie is wrong, its inaccuracy in everything, and most of all that Pattinson is a terrible actor and he shouldn't portray Dali and things like that.
There are some innuendos, many artistic licenses and some awkward moments and unexplained things (such as Buñuel being presented as half homophobic who seems to approve Dali's homosexualism but on the other hand he doesn't approve that Lorca is too, to the point of beating up a guy who wanted to have sex with him and he looked for this guy, he wanted.
As for the performances they are very nice, especially Javier Beltrán, who has an unique dramatic talent, the actor you'll want to see more and more in the film thanks to his ability to display a poetic emotion that seems to reflect the character very well, not much of an acting, it's more like a embodiment of Lorca.
"Little Ashes" gathered a lot of attention after his role as Edward Cullen in "Twilight" since many twilighters wanted to see more of his films, and along with that attention came some of the critical examinations saying that he wasn't a good choice for this film, and others even worst than this trashy comments that said that a movie about Dali with Pattinson starring is unwatchable.
He has a good performance despite being too handsome for the role, although his Dali's mannerisms might look as a caricature of the important artist, but after a moment he gets very similar to the real figure (that "crazy" look in his eyes is very similar).
If "Little Ashes" was directed and produced by the cinema of Spain with Spanish actors, and if they have a fantastic budget to spend in producing a film with more than three hours covering until the final days of Dali and Buñuel (sadly, the movie didn't followed him much), it would be a spectacular epic film.
Robert Pattison looked more like Dracula in a bad wig, than the avant garde artist Salvador Dali.
Subtitles should have been used when Lorca read his poems in Spanish.An astonishing waste of money and talent!All the actors would have been superb with a decent screenplay.Dali's costumes became an irritation..
Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dali's a(..)hole."And with that, let's now talk about the movie.Although vividly denied by Dali, speculation of a romance between Dali & Lorca is the story of "Little Ashes".
This is important to note up front, because if you're looking for a film that delves into the passion & inspiration behind Dali's art, Lorca's poetry and Buñuel's films, you'll be disappointed.
This is mostly a straightforward love story with only a few substantial references to the 3 young men's creations (Lorca recites 2 poems, Dali displays 1 painting, and we get no more than 5 sec of Buñuel's film references, including the infamous slashed eyeball scene from "Un Chien Andalou").What makes this film separate from any other generic forbidden love story is the interesting portrayal of the characters.
But fused with his dorkiness is an overbearing arrogance which comes to the surface more frequently as the film progresses."Little Ashes", however, is not about Dali and certainly not about Buñuel (who is really a minor character) but is mostly from Lorca's perspective.
If you noticed in the Dali statement I quoted, he did admit that Lorca was "madly in love" with him, and that is what the film portrays in a very poetic and sentimental way.Although I was initially disappointed because I wanted to see more of Dali's art & creativity, I liked the forbidden, one-sided love story because it was well done and made good use of recognizable characters & events in history.
The photography was beautiful and the story works as a love/friendship one, not much as a portrayal of cultural and intellectual history/environment.== Just a quick reaction to a later comment: I'm not so sure how authentic it is that Dali, Buñuel and Lorca would be speaking English among them...in Spain.
I knew the works of Federico Garcia-Lorca and Salvador Dali but I didn't know about their agonizing love for one another.I am not a movie critic, (thank God) I am, well I don't know what I am, but certainly not a critic.
1922, Spain, and the art school in Madrid is ripe with talent: poet/playwright Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) has already published some of his poems, Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty) is more involved with the political festering of fascism and what will become Franco's Spain than he is with concentrating on the brilliant films he will eventually make, and the newly arrived Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) is making visually shocking entrances in wild clothing while rebelling against the current fads in art.
Erotic tension builds between poet Federico Garcia Lorca and artist Salvador Dali from the first few minutes of Little Ashes.
Dalí is another story, often preferring to build and then destroy his art and his relationships out of a sense of the grandiose or a desire to go further so he could be remembered.The film is more Lorca than Dalí, and thus all the university students are beautiful men who are sometimes hard to distinguish from each other.
Then Dalí as the character seems both attention-seeking and uncharismatic, and Lorca does indeed seem too good for him.7/10 for being a complex film with good acting and a lovely kind of tenderness from the actor who plays Lorca.
However do watch this film for its gorgeous imagery and for a unique performance by Pattinson, as well as an introduction to the type of mood apparent in 1920s Spain regarding issues like homosexuality..
Director: Paul Morrison and Writer: Philippa Goslett achieve a smash-up job in creating a story/film that gets into the heart and soul of three historic Spanish artist that lived at a time of social, political, and artistic transition that turned into an era of pain and suffering.Here we see three young creative men - Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, and Salvador Dalí growing into their own personalities and dealing with the political callings of that time in Spain.
This film came to my attention because Robert Pattinson is in it, but it is an amazing movie.
I liked the movie a lot and I thought Garcia Lorca's and Dali's relationship was shown in a very honest and heartfelt way.
I must say that the guy that plays Lorca is amazing, I'd never seen him before but i think he was great, he takes the movie for himself.
I stumbled across Little Ashes when looking for Robert Pattinson movies as embarresing as that is but I soon became irrevocably in love with the story.
After watching this film i unbenowst to myself spend five minutes contemplating of the struggle that must have been felt by Salvador Dali at the time.
Of course they are, Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, Federico Garcia Lorca, considered to be Spain's greatest poet, and Luis Bunuel, a film director that delighted audiences with his art films that followed the canons of the surrealist movement.
Federico Garcia Lorca, a gay poet, develops an attraction for Salvador Dali, a painter, whose sexuality is left to the audience's imagination.
The fact that young Mr. Pattinson looks nothing like the real Salvador Dali (bar the moustache) ate away at me, but I tried to keep an open mind throughout.
But because they spend so much time on Federico, it ends up coming off as his story, in which Salvador is more like a supporting character and what he did for modern art is shifted into the background.
I don't know why anyone would call this film the best because really, it ain't!Robert Pattinson doesn't even look like the real Salvador Dalí nor he can't act him because he just didn't look the part!
So, it seemed very disrespectful to Dalí's memory to choose an English boy, whose acting is often questionable, to portray him (and yet I have a funny feeling that Dalí would absolutely love it).If that wasn't enough reason to make me and every other sane person very skeptical to watch Little Ashes, the film is in English.
Yeah, that's right: a film about Frederico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, set in Spain, during their youth, with mostly a Spanish cast, is in English..But, anyway, despite all the reasons telling me I shouldn't watch Little Ashes, I decided I had to give it a try.
The scene is beautiful and it looks very much like a surrealistic painting.Also, to my complete and utter surprise, at some point in the middle of the film, Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí stopped repulsing me and I actually caught myself thinking (shockingly) that Pattinson can, in fact, act.
It is a good glimpse on the passionate and turbulent friendship between these three incredible artists and it portrays a time before Dalí was Dalí, which is always interesting to see or read about.-- All of that said, I feel it is my duty to warn any Robert Pattinson teenage fans, who might eventually run into this review on their Google searches, that he is most definitely not Edward Cullen in Little Ashes and that your hopes and dreams about the ridiculously handsome Pattinson might be shattered by the scenes where he passionately kisses another man.
I admire Dali so much for being able to let go, and Robert Pattinson for portraying this so well.The is definitely my favorite movie of all time.
There is good acting to see too, Pattison while getting a few things wrong, still manages to feel like a Spaniard, and the Irish guy playing Luis Bunuel does some interesting stuff.I love any movie that suggests a rich, absurd vein runs throughout life.
It stars Javier Beltran as Frederico Garcia Lorca and a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali.Starting in 1922, we are introduced to Dali as he arrives at a university in Madrid to study art.
Only towards the end of his life does Dali admit the attraction between himself and Lorca; he kept the memories of his friend quiet for years.Beltran and Pattinson are fabulous in these roles.
Because of that, he begins to pull away from Lorca and this ultimately causes the downfall of their friendship.I wanted to see this movie because I am a huge fan of Robert Pattinson.