French filmmaker Emilio Belmonte shines a light on 32-year-old Spanish dancer Rocío Molina, who combines traditional flamenco moves with avant-garde improvisation. Impulso follows Molina’s process, starting eight months before she is set to perform in Paris. Molina, who shares the impishness and intensity of Björk, describes "impulso" as an urge that originates in the body "before passing through the senses." During the film, she rehearses with her musicians, who sing, play guitar, and clap their hands to the beat. "You work with it like it’s bread dough," she says about the rhythm they create. For the final performance, she dances to a harder rock soundtrack. Along the way, Belmonte includes excerpts of performances from Marseille, Barcelona, Málaga, Madrid, Huelva, and Seville. The costumes and settings vary considerably between performances, although Molina usually wears knee and elbow pads. In one, she smokes a cigarillo; in another, she performs in front of video monitors featuring computer-enhanced faces that watch her with curiosity. This isn’t the kind of documentary that presents lots of biographical data about its subject or historical information about her art form; instead, it offers a privileged glimpse into her practice, bolstered by cinematography from Dorian Blanc and Thomas Brémond that is frequently quite stunning, such as the sparkle of sunlight on a field of wheat or the blood-red design left on a canvas-covered stage by the trail of Molina’s paint-coated dress. Mostly, Belmonte indelibly captures Molina’s joy and passion, particularly in an emotional, chair-seated, foot-tapping duet with the extremely vital now-72-year-old flamenco legend Antonia Santiago Amador, aka La Chana. An excellent profile of a woman who dances to the beat of her own drum, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
Impulso
(2017) 87 min. In Spanish w/English subtitles. DVD: $29.95 ($345 w/PPR from www.kimstim.com). KimStim (avail. from most distributors). Volume 34, Issue 4
Impulso
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