This film is certainly a masterpiece, and it is presumably one of the finest achievements in Spanish cinema history. This was only the second film (of 17) directed by Manuel Mur Oti, and already he was a master of his craft; he also jointly wrote the script. The story is from a novel entitled MIOPIA by Antonio Zozaya, the title referring to the extreme myopic condition of the heroine who can barely see without her spectacles, which are crushed in a crowd without her having the money to replace them. The film is overwhelmingly tragic, and the fact that at one point the lead actor quotes Euripides gives the clue that it is meant to be a Greek tragedy set in 1951 Spain. The female lead is played with sheer brilliance by Susana Canales, who within a few weeks of her life passes from girlish innocence and romantic dreaming to desperation, betrayal, loss and hopelessness, and onwards. Her ability to portray intensity at all levels of the emotional scale is astounding; she is like ten actresses in one. Fernando Rey enters the story rather late, but is brilliant as well. Who has not seen Fernando Rey in something? He made 247 films in the course of his long career. The cinematography by Manuel Berenguer is innovative and spectacular in the extreme. He went on to become internationally famous. The film features one of the longest travelling shots in cinema history, and certainly one of the most intense. Although this film deals with desperation and tragedy at the personal level, waves of implications abound. The character Lola is a heartless sadist, perhaps suggestive of the fascist regime. The naivete and extended innocence of the young woman Emilia, played by Canales, is almost beyond belief. But people like that did still exist in 1951, especially young women who had always lived with their mothers and, as Emilia confesses, had never known joy. It would be impossible to discuss the events of this film without giving away too much of the steadily unfolding storyline. You have to watch the whole thing, but you have to be strong, because there is so much to cope with emotionally and emphathetically.
Review of Cielo Negro
