Friday, 21 January 2011
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El Bola (Pellet)
Shortly into El Bola, the twelve-year-old protagonist overhears a woman at his family's shop tell his father that 'if we were Pablo's age, we wouldn't have any problems.' If only that were true. Not only is that false on general terms (cartoonist Bill Watterson on said that "People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children,") but Pablo is living with an unbearable load for anyone, in a household where breathing could get one beaten.
El Bolais a full-blooded film about child abuse, yet lacking cheap shock value (Joan Crawford smudged with face cream, screaming "NO WIRE HANGERS!" while her little daughter cowers, comes to mind.) Instead of a larger than life (not to say over the top) performance as the crazy parent that wins a Razzle, this movie concentrates on the children affected, nay, not only that, but directs them well, which is hard to do.
Sad-eyed Juan José Ballesta, as Pablo, is the emotional center of the film. Pablo calls himself 'pellet,' named after a little ball he keeps for luck, which doesn't seem to do him much good. He harbors an almost doglike desire for a close friend, not the group of kids he plays a dangerous game on the train tracks with, further jeopardizing his safety, This security is found with Alfredo, the rough-around-the-edges son of a tattooist, who doesn't take to him at first when he finds his pleas for friendship desperate-bordering-on-the-creepy. They bond a little quickly at an amusement park, but it takes us to the main conflict in the film, which is when Pablo's sadistic pop Mariano finds his aloneness threatened, and tries to drive other people out of his life
Alfredo's family's a wonder, to a kid who has never known a homelife without violence and painful punishment. A Liberal, playful bunch, they talk about just about anything and joke and laugh at the dinner table, a far cry from Pablo's family, with his mother yelling at his incontinent grandmother and his father constantly comparing Pablo to their other son who died in a car crash. But Alfredo's life is far from perfect. His father has a temper as well. His gay godfather is dying from AIDS, and he isn't allowed to see him due to the state he's in.
The amazing thing about this film, which won the Spanish Academy Awards, and the child actors who have chosen to work in it, is the naturalness. The kids are not dumbed down, nor made into pretentious little douches who must read the dictionary every night before bed. They're living, breathing, thinkinghumans (I'll leave the thinking part in underline, for future filmmakers to pay close attention to. They talk about death, about sickness, about food and phallic tattoos (can you get one? I don't know, and i suspect they don't either.) The dialogue seemed rarely scripted, and very natural.
So what? I won't give a four-star rating, because, well, the character development isn't quite strong enough, but it's certainly a impressive debut with kids, who, now that they're grown, are on the way to becoming great actors. It's very much worth watching. The question is, are you up for it? (Rated NR. Although it is rather perversely catagorized as a 'father-son children & family movie' on Netflix, it is definitely not for kids.)
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Comments (2)
Great blog! I haven't seen El Bola but I want to. I love what you say about the kids being natural actors. That's so important in a movie that centers on children. Sounds like a powerful movie!
I was captured by the "Twelve-year-olds don't have problems" and the denial involved in saying/thinking/believing this, and the actions which could possibly come from that. That was a great rationale and supporting evidence you had: Calvin and Hobbes can, if not win, almost any argument; give it a fair shake.
"Breathing could get one beaten" - this is indeed a threatening and numbing reality, for the viewer as for the characters.
I'll spotlight this bit:
He harbors an almost doglike desire for a close friend, not the group of
kids he plays a dangerous game on the train tracks with, further
jeopardizing his safety[...]
Yes, that whole desire and commitment thing. And how his desire for friendship opens him up to Alberto. Thought a lot about self-preservation here and its opposite, a love for danger and for experience.
El Bola: would it be a three-three and a half star film?
Yes, you probably could get a tattoo on your penis. And it would probably feel very edgy and tingly. They've done just about every other sensitive part of the body. (Though the penis may or may not be any less sensitive when it is not actively engaged in sexual activity).
Another spotlight:
The kids are not dumbed down, nor made into pretentious little douches
who must read the dictionary every night before bed. They're living,
breathing, thinking humans (I'll leave the thinking part in underline, for future filmmakers to pay close attention to.)
No, there's a third way there, an openness and dynamism that really must show in the writing and the performances.
It's great to be able to show thought on the screen, just as it would be to show feeling and action. When thought is part of the throughline of a film, it can instantly lift it up. Ah: "pretentious little douches"! Words are in the bag for five and ten and twenty dollars! And the thought is an extension of their breathing and living and carries them.
What I might really love about El Bola is the conversation, to which you alluded in the review. And to a lesser extent, Alfredo's family.
Father-son movies with an international perspective I might recommend would be THE RETURN [2003 Russia] and BOY [2010 New Zealand]. The second half of the latter is searing and ambiguous, then broken and lit up with a dance sequence inspired by Michael Jackson, who is an archetype for the Boy and his father Shogun. (They do have real names: Alamein is the Dad's name).