This is one of those occasional intimate eye-openers which peacefully stir our self consciousness and that you are not likely to find in your local blockbusters.
In my opinion, the greatest sin of commonplace movies -and any work of art for that matter- is pretentiousness. This movie quietly moves toward simplicity easily making its way to the contradictory twist in the final scene.
The title might be a kind of pun on the words 'language' and 'tongue' that in Spanish are homonyms. We should ask Jose Luis Cuerda (director) or Rafael Azcona (script), because the pun, if there's one, is not obvious.
On July 18th, 1936, General Franco's military forces rebelled against the elected Republican government. The film opens a year earlier, in a small town in the region of Galicia, where Moncho, the 7-year-old son of a republican tailor, doesn't want to go to the school where Don Gregorio teaches kids the wonders of nature, the funny spiral tongue of butterflies.
In his conversations with Moncho, Don Gregorio also teaches him the principles of liberty and the notions of existence: 'That hell beyond this world does not exist. Hhatred, cruelty, that's hell. Sometimes, hell is ourselves'.
I like the scene in which Andrés, Moncho teenage brother plays the saxo in the local fair while his love looks at him. The poignant 'pasodoble' 'En Er mundo' has been used to the same effect in other Spanish Civil War films, notably in Victor Erice's 'El Sur'
Loyalty, cowardice and the fight for moral versus physical survival come into play in the final scene when Moncho denies his teacher.
In the commentary on that scene, Cuerda remembers the tension that surrounded the place, rural Galicia being one of the most conservative regions in Spain. He mentions that he had learned later that the truck they used in the film had actually been used to 'pasear' (walk) republicans, one of many groups that were shot in the first days of the Civil War.
My numbers: 9 out of 10
In my opinion, the greatest sin of commonplace movies -and any work of art for that matter- is pretentiousness. This movie quietly moves toward simplicity easily making its way to the contradictory twist in the final scene.
The title might be a kind of pun on the words 'language' and 'tongue' that in Spanish are homonyms. We should ask Jose Luis Cuerda (director) or Rafael Azcona (script), because the pun, if there's one, is not obvious.
On July 18th, 1936, General Franco's military forces rebelled against the elected Republican government. The film opens a year earlier, in a small town in the region of Galicia, where Moncho, the 7-year-old son of a republican tailor, doesn't want to go to the school where Don Gregorio teaches kids the wonders of nature, the funny spiral tongue of butterflies.
In his conversations with Moncho, Don Gregorio also teaches him the principles of liberty and the notions of existence: 'That hell beyond this world does not exist. Hhatred, cruelty, that's hell. Sometimes, hell is ourselves'.
I like the scene in which Andrés, Moncho teenage brother plays the saxo in the local fair while his love looks at him. The poignant 'pasodoble' 'En Er mundo' has been used to the same effect in other Spanish Civil War films, notably in Victor Erice's 'El Sur'
Loyalty, cowardice and the fight for moral versus physical survival come into play in the final scene when Moncho denies his teacher.
In the commentary on that scene, Cuerda remembers the tension that surrounded the place, rural Galicia being one of the most conservative regions in Spain. He mentions that he had learned later that the truck they used in the film had actually been used to 'pasear' (walk) republicans, one of many groups that were shot in the first days of the Civil War.
My numbers: 9 out of 10