La Bola Negra LFF review: Powerful, sweeping epic
La Bola Negra (or The Black Ball) has been one of the most hyped films on the festival circuit this year. It won Best Director at Cannes, the Audience Award at LFF, and is the frontrunner for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I found the film to be very good, though not a five-star masterpiece.
The epic drama, directed by creative duo and former partners Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, tells three interwoven storylines about three homosexual characters living in 1932, 1937 and 2017. The film opens during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 with trumpet player Sebastián (musician and first-time actor Guitarricadelafuente) escaping an attack on his village by pretending to be a Nationalist soldier. He is ordered to guard Republican prisoner of war Rafael Rodriguez Rapún (Miguel Bernardeau) and secretly falls for him.
That primary storyline is broken up by the other two interconnected stories. In the 1932 timeline, Carlos (Milo Quifes) is blackballed from becoming a member of a casino due to rumours of his homosexuality, while the 2017 timeline follows Alberto (Carlos González), a gay historian and former playwright who is left a mysterious inheritance by his estranged maternal grandfather.
La Bola Negra has a really strong opening – I was hooked immediately – and final act, where it all comes together in a powerful way. But the chunky middle section (which is long since the film is two and a half hours) has some pacing issues. By going back and forth between three stories, it can’t achieve much momentum, and so the pacing feels brutally slow at times. I found myself struggling to concentrate. But my attention returned in the final act when the puzzle pieces fit together and the full picture started to emerge.
The film tells an important story about how attitudes towards homosexuality have changed over time and how society still has a way to go before full acceptance. While I appreciated its profound message, I think it would have been more meaningful if I knew some of the characters were real and that La Bola Negra was a real unfinished play by Federico García Lorca. I also had to do a lot of reading on the Spanish Civil War afterwards to fully comprehend the historical context.
The performances are strong across the board, but Guitarricadelafuente’s moving turn is the most memorable. Famed Spanish star Penélope Cruz also has an extended cameo as a wartime entertainer named Nené. You could definitely cut her part without affecting the story, but I was thrilled watching her musical number, so I have no complaints. Glenn Close also makes an appearance as a Lorca expert and actually plays an important role in the 2017 story (I don’t know if an American actor was necessary, but if she gets more eyeballs on the film, I’m all for it).
La Bola Negra is a powerful, beautiful drama of epic proportions, featuring mind-blowing sequences in terms of scale and production value. I loved the message and performances, but I really struggled with the pacing, and my emotional connection to it suffered as a result.
In cinemas from Friday 6th November