Ay, Carmela!

Set in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, writer-director Carlos Saura's (Carmen, Blood Wedding) latest effort is a biting farce that cleverly combines satire and sage commentary about man's inhumanity to man--from a woman's point of view. Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) is superb in the title role as one half of a vaudeville act called "Carmela and Paulino's Tip Top Variety Show." Together with her husband, Paulino (Andres Pajares), Carmela sings and dances for the Republican troops. After another low-paying engagement for the boys on the Aragon front, Carmela decides it's time to give up, and she, Paulino, and their prop man, a gangly kid named Gustavete (Gabino Diego) who cannot speak, jump into their battered truck and head for Valencia. Enroute they are captured by Nationalist troops and appear to be headed for the firing squad until a pompous Italian lieutenant offers them a chance to perform for the Nationalist troops (requiring a serious rewriting of their pro-Republican material). But when a group of Poles scheduled to be executed are brought to the theatre as a joke, it becomes evident that the enraged Carmela is going to revolt, and the underlying seriousness which has surfaced on and off throughout the comedy takes center stage at the film's close. Ay Carmela! is fun and funny without losing sight of its larger purpose, and Maura, Pajares, and Diego effectively play off each other to wonderful comic effect. Diego as the kid struck dumb is particularly good, and steals many a scene with the miniature chalkboard he wears around his neck for communication. A fine addition for foreign video collections. Recommended. (R. Pitman)