Enrique Morente. 'Sueña la Alhambra' – DVD

‘Morente sueña la Alhambra’.
Director: José Sánchez-Montes. Con Morente, Pat Metheny,
Ute Lemper, Tomatito, khaled, Blanca Li, Estrella Morente, Israel Galván
and Juan Habichuela among others. Ático Siete-Virgin-Emi. DVD

JUAN VERGILLOS

Genius great and small. The kind that’s announced with lots of
hype, you don’t stand a chance. It comes on like gangbusters and
then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, it vanishes. Unconscious, and
for that reason, somehow more authentic. Or authentic in another way.
Staying power. It’s all in this film. Being, as it is, a failed
experiment. An extraordinary experience that can never be repeated. From
an extraordinary personality that can never be repeated. A tremendous
piece of work that occasionally stumbles. A conventional documentary that
suddenly nails you right to the armchair in your own living-room. Something
strange, and it’s the best thing in the world. It’s what we
really want. You and I. Let’s look at some highlights:

• The weight of time: a man who strolls through his house, his neighborhood,
  his city, his country, his territory. In “Sueña la Alhambra”
  Morente retraces the path he followed in1978 in a TV documentary, also
  offered in the film. An elegant young man, with pretensions, self-confident,
  handsome. Here is the weight of time on the shoulders of a man who has
  dueled with the other one, with his shadow. The weight of time, a man
  anchored to the earth. The branches, the well-groomed look, that truth,
  has surrendered to the truth of the roots. Pain, anger, pleasure, fear.
  All sublimated in art, in voice. In the way he steps on the stones of
  Albaycín. Morente dances when he walks. Morente today, sheer
  beauty.

  – A city of clichés: the recurring cry that speaks of time.
  – The water droplets on the Arabic fountains, ditto.
  – The gaze of a proud father.
  – A withdrawn guitarist, in lonliness, unto himself, Miguel Ochando.
  – A flag waving in the wind.
  – Estrella’s Greek beauty.
  – The water.
  – A black man fascinated by the presence of Khaled in the Alcaicería.
  – A rehearsal of polyphonic flamenco with saeta, Victoria, Morales
  flamenco.
  – The family portrait that closes the work, in the Vela tower, at
  sunset or sunrise in Granada, a hermetic paradise.
  – The dramatic capacity of Ute Lemper.
  – Galván with a beard and Li made masculine.

‘Morente sueña la Alhambra’. Director: José Sánchez-Montes. Con Morente, Pat Metheny, Ute Lemper, Tomatito, khaled, Blanca Li, Estrella Morente, Israel Galván y Juan Habichuela entre otros. Ático Siete-Virgin-Emi. DVD 1h30' 1.»Martinete» (Popular /Enrique Morente) 2.»Generalife» (Enrique Morente /Pat Metheny/María Zambrano/ Popular) 3.»Seguirilla de los tiempos» (Popular. Adapt: Enrique Morente) 4.»Cristalina fuente» (Enrique Morente/ San Juan de la Cruz) 5.»Chiquilín de Bachín» (Horacio Fernández/ Astor Piazzola) 6.»Soleá de la ciencia» (Popular. Adapt: Enrique Morente) 7.»La Alhambra lloraba» (Popular /Enrique Morente) 8.»Donde habite el olvido» (Luis Cernuda /Isisdro Muñoz) 9.»Taranto veneno» (Popular. Adapt: Enrique Morente y Juan Habichuela) 10.»La última carta» (Enrique Morente/ Miguel de Cervantes) See DVD information and shop on-line

Naturally it has all the markings of a master work. How could it be any
other way when we’re talking about Morente, Metheny, Galván,
Lemper, Khaled, etc.? Although I’m assaulted with doubt upon thinking
that what the work needs, is what it has, precisely its feeling of emptiness:
the cavity of a prone body, the master work that was not meant to be.

The record “Morente Sueña la Alhambra” is not a soundtrack,
it’s something else I wouldn’t know how to explain. For the
record alone, or for the soundtrack itself, it’s worthwhile.

The film falters as well, now and again, as I said. It’s inconceivable
that Israel Galván’s talent was squandered. Perhaps a bigger
budget was required, or better planning, or both. Nor can I understand
that images are included from the alegrías Morente sings in the
Carlos V Palace, a documentary from the nineteen-sixties. This is not
Morente at his best. Nevertheless, it’s the Carlos V palace. I wonder
if perhaps the film should have had a flamenco advisor. I’m wondering
aloud. Khaled and Lemper nearly pass unnoticed through “Morente
Sueña la Alhambra”, needless to say, leaving genius in their
wake. Pat Metheny is a brilliant flash of color and life. He came, he
stayed. For a bit. And then he left. That bit was enough to offer us “Donde
habite el olvido”. He also backed up the verse and melody of “Generalife”:
sheer beauty. And now yes, Galván and Blanca Li.

And the soleá. Recorded live in the Puerta del Vino. Tomatito,
at his most classic. And Morente, pained and sensitive. Straightforward,
stoical. Truthful. The maestro said it was terribly cold. And there he
is, the breath of life. In other numbers the music is recorded, with more
or less acceptable quality. With soleá we see the very breath of
dawn, of night, of winter. Of lonliness. How fortunate are those who broke
the night of the soul listening to Morente. Four cats by the Puerta del
Vino. This song warrants a film of its own, indeed, a life. In the end,
you see, it’s nothing more than soleá. No way it could be
more classic. In the end, four things: joy, anger, fear and sadness. Four
things. That’s the entirety of what people have invented. Don’t
make the mistake of missing it.

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