El Mar on DVD (2000)

sex-death-sex-death-sex-death

johnbibey from london , 09/08/2004

Says it all, really. Three childhood friends accidentally end up in a TB hospital together as adults - the two blokes are patients, the girl is a nursing nun. It's sex, death, religion, passion, guilt, repressed homosexual desires.... and it really knocks you over the head with it all. Three murders, lots of blood, a violent sex scene, suicide. The film is shot beautifully, but it's extremely hard going and possibly the most unsubtle film i've ever seen.

Kind of enjoyed it, though.

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Bleak viewing but rewarding

A customer from Glasgow, Scotland , 21/02/2005

This is one of those films that haunts your dreams with its images. Heartbreaking, full of sadness and death. Boys of 16 dying horribly, coughing blood, while fellow patients look on wondering if their fate is the same. It?s a story of forbidden love, sacred and profane, of guilt and longing. Repression and betrayal. Crime and punishment. The climax is shocking. We bear witness like those children and weep for them. The young leads all perform superbly. And it looks starkly beautiful.

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The Twilight World of Psychosis

Zacron from East Anglia , 17/06/2007

This film is for the serious devotee of the art of film who will not be repelled by near social-realism; harsh subject matter that delivers a series of real-life shocks as opposed to the diet of contrived manipulation found in some American contemporary cinema.

For this reason this film is hard to stomach but is to be respected.

The story unfolds through the eyes of children, the love of adults strangely removed. This work brings to our attention the dangers of imitative behaviour, exploitation, isolation, a society removed from normal life, firstly by war, then by the sparse formidable environment of the sanitorium.

I am reminded of the novel of Jean Gennet - 'The Naked Lunch' in particular - and at times, the paintings of Francis Bacon. In a country moulded by Catholic hysteria, the characters are spiritualy impoverished; however it is their own courageous resources that touch the heart, islands of innocence in a world of pain devastated by illness.

The orchestral sound track makes great strides; the use of percussion that pulses through passages of impending tragedy are masterful. The work is lifted towards the gravity of a Bergman film.

Once again the similarity to Jean Gennet's novel 'Our Lady of the Flowers' is born out of sexual desperation within an ignorant judging society. The film pulls no punches in describing a fusion between carnal obsession (understandable) and the sacrifices that Jesus Christ certainly made in an earlier oppressive regime.

By way of a ray of light, the tender courageous strength of a young nun acts to preserve some touching humanity.

Finally, the shots are composed with admirable minimalism, together with cuts and fades that cement the poignance of the drama.

Never has a sheet been whiter, a cold floor more harsh; seldom have human souls lived in such depravation and hopelessness, yet been fimed so beautifully.

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Wow! A little gem!

Stephen Hughes from Ealing , 24/06/2005

I've seen this knocking around on various sites for a while, and what intrigued me about it was the two different covers available. One shows a boy looking up with thick bars of shadow on his face, and so it looks like their hyping it as a quasi horror film.

The second has a picture of a clothed young man with an older man behind him, slipping his arm inside the young mans shirt, and so its meant to be some gay come-on thing.

And its neither and its both and its far more.

The horror is real - Spain mid 30's vile murder witnessed and commited by children. Then the leap to early twenties and the horror of a tuberculosis ward, petty gangsters, betrayal, gothic catholicism, guilt and blood by the bucket load.

If you ever went to a catholic school you'll get all the symbolism and then some.

Fantastic. I loved it.

If you liked it too, check out 'The devils Backbone' and if they have it, 'Planta 4' (The 4th Floor)a Spanish film about a boys cancer ward that is very funny. And sad.

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Almodovar is funnier and hits the nail better

Pete Shuttleworth from Hemel Hempstead , 21/06/2005

A film which reveals the darker side of recent Spanish history - how many of you have parents who might have murdered your school friends parents because of their politics? And a film which tries to deal with several themes (the impact of religion, violence, disease, friendship, curruption et al) and ends up not quite hitting the point with any of them. The leads are good throughout and the tension remains until the inevitable ending. This is definately tragedy but no Hamlet. This is definately history but no Anthony & Cleopatra. Like I said Almodovar is better and funnier and tells a similar painful story of how Spain lived through and recovered from the Civil War.

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The Twilight World of Psychosis

Zacron from East Anglia , 17/06/2007

This film is for the serious devotee of the art of film who will not be repelled by near social-realism; harsh subject matter that delivers a series of real-life shocks as opposed to the diet of contrived manipulation found in some American contemporary cinema.

For this reason this film is hard to stomach but is to be respected.

The story unfolds through the eyes of children, the love of adults strangely removed. This work brings to our attention the dangers of imitative behaviour, exploitation, isolation, a society removed from normal life, firstly by war, then by the sparse formidable environment of the sanitorium.

I am reminded of the novel of Jean Gennet - 'The Naked Lunch' in particular - and at times, the paintings of Francis Bacon. In a country moulded by Catholic hysteria, the characters are spiritualy impoverished; however it is their own courageous resources that touch the heart, islands of innocence in a world of pain devastated by illness.

The orchestral sound track makes great strides; the use of percussion that pulses through passages of impending tragedy are masterful. The work is lifted towards the gravity of a Bergman film.

Once again the similarity to Jean Gennet's novel 'Our Lady of the Flowers' is born out of sexual desperation within an ignorant judging society. The film pulls no punches in describing a fusion between carnal obsession (understandable) and the sacrifices that Jesus Christ certainly made in an earlier oppressive regime.

By way of a ray of light, the tender courageous strength of a young nun acts to preserve some touching humanity.

Finally, the shots are composed with admirable minimalism, together with cuts and fades that cement the poignance of the drama.

Never has a sheet been whiter, a cold floor more harsh; seldom have human souls lived in such depravation and hopelessness, yet been fimed so beautifully.

Read all highest rated reviews