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| Will More in Arrebato |
Cast: Eusebio Poncela, Cecilia Roth, Will More, Marta Fernández Muro, Helena Fernán-Gómez, Carmen Giralt, Max Madera. Screenplay: Iván Zulueta. Cinematography: Ángel Luis Fernández. Film editing: José Luis Peláez. Music: Negativo.
Pedro Almodóvar became the face of post-Franco Spanish filmmaking in the United States, where we often overlook the powerful influences on his work by other Spanish directors. He was, for example, a great admirer of Iván Zulueta's Arrebato, for which he dubbed the voice for Helena Fernán-Gómez's character, Gloria, and he later cast its lead actor, Eusebio Poncela, in his films Matador (1986) and Law of Desire (1987). Certainly it's possible to see how the uncompromising work of Zulueta in Arrebato, his second and last feature-length movie, may have liberated the imaginations of Almodóvar and his fellow Spanish filmmakers after the death of Franco in 1975. It's a movie about the intoxication of making movies, and about intoxication and its consequences. Zulueta, who was a heroin addict, gives us a film about a similarly addicted filmmaker, José Sirgado (Poncela), who just after finishing the production of a horror movie receives a package in the mail from Pedro (Will More), a man he has met only twice before. It contains an audio tape, a reel of Super 8 film, and a key to Pedro's apartment. And so begins a complex tale in which José becomes entwined in Pedro's very odd life and obsessions, at the end of which José becomes obsessed himself, absorbed into the strange experiences that Pedro has documented on film. Arrebato (which means "rapture") is an often muddled and maddening film, but muddle and madness are what it's about. It flopped commercially, but gathered a following at midnight movie screenings in Madrid, which eventually led to its video release and a wider audience.
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