I cannot help thinking that sometimes the countryside in which a film is set is almost as important as the story-line of the film itself. This often happens with films by Montxo Armendáriz, who, not surprisingly, makes good use of his own native and beautiful Navarra. This is evidently the case with `Tasio' (qv) and `Secretos del Corazón' (qv), the latter film being without any doubt his masterpiece up till now.
For `Silencio Roto', he moved across to the north-east of Pamplona, in the heavily wooded valley of the River Urrobi, otherwise known as the `Valle de Arce' - precisely because that is what most abounds in this tight little valley: `arces', maple trees. Coming down the valley from Urrobi along the narrow winding road following the tumbling sparkling river, after about 5 kilometres you have on the left Villanueva de Arce and Arrieta, and on the right Lusarreta and Saragüeta, four villages where this film was shot: old timbered houses with cabbage allotments and runner-beans, chickens running free, a few pigs, old barns covering old Fordson tractors, and balconies ablaze with peonies, amid dung heaps not very hidden behind the hedgerows, and the odd "borda" where you can get something to eat! Do not go on down beyond Uriz or Arce as all the rest has been flooded by a monstrosity called the Aoiz Dam (Itoiz), a savage crime against nature, a heneous crime against those lovely little villages which have been drowned in the name of progress........
With `Silencio Roto' Armendáriz has carried out an ambition of his, which was to bring to life as realistically as possible life in the years following the Civil War, and specifically that of the `maquis'. The `maquis' were groups of men - a few women - who hid in the hills after the war finished, to continue their struggle against the fascist regime of Franco. These groups, which might be called `guerillas' (in Spanish `guerilleros'), lasted for years in the mountains of Asturias, Euskadi (Basque Country) and Navarra, principally, with a few in places like León and Cantabria.
Perhaps the best-known example for English readers on the hill-fighters in Spain is Hemingway's novel `For Whom The Bells Toll' which has also been made into film, but of course has no relation nor comparison with Almendáriz's film: Almendáriz is Navarran to the core and has nurtured his local folklore and traditions since he was born.
Thus authenticity would seem to be the key to the making of this film.
Frankly I am usually more than fed up with films here in Spain resorting to the Franco years as a kind of scapegoat, as I have said elsewhere on IMDb. I say that more or less in the same way I would say I get more than fed up with the eternal John Wayne being the `goodie', or with Harrison Ford playing himself in just about every film he has made.
However, with Armendáriz you have to take into consideration the artesan or craftsman at work: he is not there just to splash a story on screen so that you lap it up the same as you might with almost any frightful TV series or any of those ghastly Hugh Grant/Richard Gere/............... (I leave the space for you) tragic dollar-makers. There are a few European directors eminently capable of getting down to the innermost parts of the souls of people - Ermanno Olmi, Jaco van Dormael, Bertrand Tavernier, Víctor Érice and Mario Camus come to mind - and Armendáriz is one of that very select group.
Wonderful photography and acceptable music score accompany some good interpretations. Mercedes Sampietro as ever just wonderful, as also the veteran Álvaro de Luna, and it was nice to see Asunción Balaguer, now widower of our one and only Paco Rabal. I was disappointed not to see more of Andoni Erburu after his astounding playing in `Secretos del Corazón'. The lead actors, Juan Diego Botto as Manuel and Lucía Jiménez as Lucía (!!) were fine, especially Ms Jiménez who had to take the brunt of almost the whole run-time of the film on her shoulders, but did so with more than acceptable naturalness. There are also other actors with genuine Navarran surnames - Erro, Goñi - who gave us a few authentic accents!
I always mean to find some film-director and ask him: where the hell did you find that old bus/motor-cycle/aeroplane etc. for the film? You watch a film set in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, but made only the other day, and you marvel at these wonderful old vehicles or even genuine old Singer sewing-machines. But here, as in `Secretos del Corazón', Armendáriz knew where to find these lovely old treasures. The bus that pulls into the village at the beginning of the film is a wooden-bodywork, driver-behind-the-engine that might well have been running on solid tyres! In fact the film uses objects from the ethnological museum belonging to Julio Baroja, an eminent writer on philosophical, sociological and ethnological matters.
Not so far away you can visit the ethnological museum in Arteta, to the west of Pamplona. Painstakingly run by José Ulibarrena Arellano, a vast higgledy-piggledy collection of household and farm equipment - from old toys and kettles to hand-saws and drills and horseshoes. Even the house is a museum in itself, dating from the 16th/17th Century.
Just in case you are wondering: all this - and films by Armendáriz in general - is little more than an hour away by car from where I am now, and, it should be said, here in the Rioja we have a small city which years ago was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Navarra. Obviously, then, geographically and most definitely as a clear indication of neighbourliness, anything and everything to do with Navarra is of great interest to me. It is simply a question of Ramiro Sánchez and Doña Urraca and people like that, you see?
Seriously now, take pains to study this film closely. Whereas it may fall short of the poetic exquisiteness of `Secretos del Corazón', it is still worth the attention of intelligent viewers who would wish to grasp historical and cultural aspects of `old' Europe, well, Spain in this case.
For `Silencio Roto', he moved across to the north-east of Pamplona, in the heavily wooded valley of the River Urrobi, otherwise known as the `Valle de Arce' - precisely because that is what most abounds in this tight little valley: `arces', maple trees. Coming down the valley from Urrobi along the narrow winding road following the tumbling sparkling river, after about 5 kilometres you have on the left Villanueva de Arce and Arrieta, and on the right Lusarreta and Saragüeta, four villages where this film was shot: old timbered houses with cabbage allotments and runner-beans, chickens running free, a few pigs, old barns covering old Fordson tractors, and balconies ablaze with peonies, amid dung heaps not very hidden behind the hedgerows, and the odd "borda" where you can get something to eat! Do not go on down beyond Uriz or Arce as all the rest has been flooded by a monstrosity called the Aoiz Dam (Itoiz), a savage crime against nature, a heneous crime against those lovely little villages which have been drowned in the name of progress........
With `Silencio Roto' Armendáriz has carried out an ambition of his, which was to bring to life as realistically as possible life in the years following the Civil War, and specifically that of the `maquis'. The `maquis' were groups of men - a few women - who hid in the hills after the war finished, to continue their struggle against the fascist regime of Franco. These groups, which might be called `guerillas' (in Spanish `guerilleros'), lasted for years in the mountains of Asturias, Euskadi (Basque Country) and Navarra, principally, with a few in places like León and Cantabria.
Perhaps the best-known example for English readers on the hill-fighters in Spain is Hemingway's novel `For Whom The Bells Toll' which has also been made into film, but of course has no relation nor comparison with Almendáriz's film: Almendáriz is Navarran to the core and has nurtured his local folklore and traditions since he was born.
Thus authenticity would seem to be the key to the making of this film.
Frankly I am usually more than fed up with films here in Spain resorting to the Franco years as a kind of scapegoat, as I have said elsewhere on IMDb. I say that more or less in the same way I would say I get more than fed up with the eternal John Wayne being the `goodie', or with Harrison Ford playing himself in just about every film he has made.
However, with Armendáriz you have to take into consideration the artesan or craftsman at work: he is not there just to splash a story on screen so that you lap it up the same as you might with almost any frightful TV series or any of those ghastly Hugh Grant/Richard Gere/............... (I leave the space for you) tragic dollar-makers. There are a few European directors eminently capable of getting down to the innermost parts of the souls of people - Ermanno Olmi, Jaco van Dormael, Bertrand Tavernier, Víctor Érice and Mario Camus come to mind - and Armendáriz is one of that very select group.
Wonderful photography and acceptable music score accompany some good interpretations. Mercedes Sampietro as ever just wonderful, as also the veteran Álvaro de Luna, and it was nice to see Asunción Balaguer, now widower of our one and only Paco Rabal. I was disappointed not to see more of Andoni Erburu after his astounding playing in `Secretos del Corazón'. The lead actors, Juan Diego Botto as Manuel and Lucía Jiménez as Lucía (!!) were fine, especially Ms Jiménez who had to take the brunt of almost the whole run-time of the film on her shoulders, but did so with more than acceptable naturalness. There are also other actors with genuine Navarran surnames - Erro, Goñi - who gave us a few authentic accents!
I always mean to find some film-director and ask him: where the hell did you find that old bus/motor-cycle/aeroplane etc. for the film? You watch a film set in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, but made only the other day, and you marvel at these wonderful old vehicles or even genuine old Singer sewing-machines. But here, as in `Secretos del Corazón', Armendáriz knew where to find these lovely old treasures. The bus that pulls into the village at the beginning of the film is a wooden-bodywork, driver-behind-the-engine that might well have been running on solid tyres! In fact the film uses objects from the ethnological museum belonging to Julio Baroja, an eminent writer on philosophical, sociological and ethnological matters.
Not so far away you can visit the ethnological museum in Arteta, to the west of Pamplona. Painstakingly run by José Ulibarrena Arellano, a vast higgledy-piggledy collection of household and farm equipment - from old toys and kettles to hand-saws and drills and horseshoes. Even the house is a museum in itself, dating from the 16th/17th Century.
Just in case you are wondering: all this - and films by Armendáriz in general - is little more than an hour away by car from where I am now, and, it should be said, here in the Rioja we have a small city which years ago was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Navarra. Obviously, then, geographically and most definitely as a clear indication of neighbourliness, anything and everything to do with Navarra is of great interest to me. It is simply a question of Ramiro Sánchez and Doña Urraca and people like that, you see?
Seriously now, take pains to study this film closely. Whereas it may fall short of the poetic exquisiteness of `Secretos del Corazón', it is still worth the attention of intelligent viewers who would wish to grasp historical and cultural aspects of `old' Europe, well, Spain in this case.