Ángela (María Valverde) and Miguel (José Sacristán) search for a way out of a rather unusual predicament in David Trueba’s MADRID, 1987
MADRID, 1987 (David Trueba, 2011)
October 12-18, Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th St., 212-255-2243
October 19-25, reRun Gastropub Theater, 147 Front St. between Jay & Pearl Sts., Brooklyn, 718-766-9110
It doesn’t get much more basic than this: Most of David Trueba’s dazzling Madrid, 1987 takes place in a small bathroom, where aging, cynical newspaper columnist Miguel (José Sacristán), with most of his life behind him, and young, hope-filled journalism student Ángela (María Valverde), with most of her life ahead of her, are trapped together, both very naked and very vulnerable. But there’s nothing standard about Trueba’s film, either, as it explores a Spain in the midst of transition to a more capitalist-based social democracy. Ángela is writing a paper on Miguel, a beloved and feared journalist who has complete disdain for his readers; the married Miguel agreed to be interviewed by Ángela primarily because he wants to get in her pants. He lures her into a friend’s nearby studio apartment, where he is disappointed to learn that she does not want to have sex with him after all. But soon, a series of circumstances finds them locked inside a bathroom in their birthday suits, forced to bare their souls as well as their bodies. The acerbic Miguel does the vast majority of the talking, pontificating on art, politics, sex, society, and other subjects, with Ángela contributing her thoughts at just the right moments, revealing the vast generation gaps that are signaling a new Spain. A well-regarded novelist and younger brother of Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque, Calle 54), writer-director Trueba (Soldados de Salamina, Bienvenido a casa) has a sharp ear for dialogue, as Madrid, 1987 never grows boring or obvious. Sacristán, who has been in the business for nearly fifty years, and Valverde, who was born in Madrid in 1987, develop a fascinating rapport that goes far beyond teacher and student, grandfather and granddaughter, and potential lovers. Cinematographer Leonor Rodríguez and editor Marta Velasco give the film added depth that doesn’t make it feel claustrophobic and limiting but instead brings it an intoxicating freedom. Trueba, who was a journalism student himself in 1987, has created a mesmerizing set piece in Madrid, 1987, a film that is about a whole lot more than just two naked people in a bathroom.