Blood Wedding

After a drawn-out opening during which the actors in a Spanish flamenco ballet troupe don costumes, apply make-up, and reflect on the artistic life, this tragic tale of an ill-fated love gets down to business. Told completely through dance, the simple story concerns an illicit love affair between a married man and a soon-to-be-wed woman. During the wedding reception, the lovers run and are caught by the enraged husband. The two men then engage in one of the most hauntingly beautiful duels to the death ever filmed. Similar in both theme and style to the director's (Carlos Saura) later and more familiar film, the Oscar-nominated Carmen (1983), Blood Wedding doesn't successfully pull off Carmen's achievement of intertwining the stage life and personal life of the actor. But after the meandering set-up, there is no denying the raw power of two virtuoso flamenco dancers (Antonio Gades and Christina Hoyos) on a starkly bare dance rehearsal floor. True to its title, Blood Wedding is a story of erotic love and violent death, yet done in the manner of minimalist theater--without special effects. Recommended.