El Amor Brujo (The Love Magician)

Carlos Saura, whose "love" trilogy began with Blood Wedding and Carmen, brings his unconnected paean to love and flamenco dancing to a close in El Amor Brujo. Opening with a long, continuous tracking shot that takes the viewer from the opening of a huge warehouse door to the dirt-encrusted set of shacks, where boys practice their knife-wielding techniques and girls jump rope in the billowing dust, Saura immediately sets the "staged" tone for his musical drama. The story is simplicity itself: Jose (Juan Antonio) loves Lucia (Laura del Sol) but has an arranged marriage with Candela (Cristine Hoyos), who is admired from afar by Carmelo (Antonio Gades). When Jose is killed protecting Lucia, Carmelo takes the fall and spends four years in the big house. Upon his return, he sets to wooing the widow, Candela. Unfortunately, Candela still goes out every night to dance with Jose's ghost. Carmelo and Candela hit upon a plan to put this wandering shade back in the land of the undead, so that they can get on with their quite corporeal longings for each other. Some viewers will be put off by the highly ritualistic movements of the characters (why walk when you can strut?) and the slow-moving story. Others will be delighted with the intense flamenco dancing of Gades and Hoyos. As a musical, which captures another culture then, we recommend this.