SYNOPSICS
Noviembre (2003) is a Spanish movie. Achero Mañas has directed this movie. Óscar Jaenada,Ingrid Rubio,Javier Ríos,Juan Díaz are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2003. Noviembre (2003) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama movie in India and around the world.
Impelled by a spirit which still preserves a patina of idealism, Alfredo arrives in Madrid intent on creating "a performance which is freer, straight from the heart, capable of making people feel alive". His concept of what theater should be begins beyond the stage, out in the streets face to face with the public. Outdoors, in any town square, in a park or in the city's most commercial street, Alfredo and his troupe NOVEMBER start the show: demons to provoke passers-by, displays of social conscience, actions taken to the extreme to put the forces of law and order on full alert. There are no limits, no censorship; only ideas which are always valid so long as the public ceases to be the public and becomes part of the show swept by surprise, fear, tears or laughter.
Noviembre (2003) Reviews
Lost innocence
This is a movie about the lost if innocence in cinema, in theatre... in art. Alfredo, the main character, is just a boy who loves theatre, he doesn't want to become a big movie star, nor a stage star. He doesn't want even to make money by acting. So he decides to create an independent street theatre company with some of his partners from the Art School. The movie isn't based on a true story, but it certainly looks like it was (We can see all the characters 30 years after the company was created, talking about it. Just like if it was a documentary). It does not matter that much if the performances of Alfredo and his crew aren't too brilliant because that's not what this film is about. You don't have to live in Spain to comprehend the point of this movie (as the previous commentator suggests). Just take a look around and see how everything in art's been prostituted. That's what this film is about. About not giving in, about fighting the establishment. Although the final sequence clearly shows us that the establishment cannot be beaten. Sad but true. Noviembre is one of the more brilliant Spanish films that I've recently seen. I highly recommend you to watch it. Nevermind if you're Spanish, north-American, or German...
Amazing and touching
This is one of the most surprising films I have ever seen and the acting is just amazing. The story of the idealistic Spanish street theater group "November" is really touching and a mixture of fiction and documentary.The scenes of street theater in Madrid are wonderful, the actors turn metros and shopping streets into a playground for their acts and I enjoyed the idea of interaction of with the audience. Furthermore, the message of the film will make you think about the meaning of art: a business, a hobby, a life style... and about the extremely individualistic and materialistic society that the film reflects. Only by watching it you will understand that art is a way of changing this world and that youth is not passive. I strongly recommend "November" because is that kind of films that helps you to understand yourself and the world. And I like to finish with the last sentence of the film said by one of the actresses: "We wanted to change the world, we failed miserably. Now I just try to not let the world change me"
A story about the true meaning of art in Madrid.
I adored this movie.I saw it in Annecy,France in April 2004.It was a Spanish movie festival.Of course,i had already taken 6 or 7 years of Spanish at the time so I had a pretty broad comprehension of what the movie was about and what the actors were saying...We are now in 2006 and I still to this day have not seen a better movie than this one. "Noviembre" has caused many things to change in my brain and my way of thinking about art. Art should be something that people express freely and in any kind of form or way they want.I thought the scenes in the streets, when they were acting were incredible. The end of the movie is very rough and harsh. If you ever see it,be prepared to cry in the end or at least be very touched by the meaning of it. If you have not lived in European countries it is more difficult to understand it. In fact,all the bad comments that I have read about this movie were made by non Hispanic and/or non European people.So please all of you,just open your mind to new and different things. Make sure that you think twice about the true meaning of this movie before you say plenty of bad things about it.To me, everything was great,realistic for the way Spain was at the time and entertaining.
Stimulating, thought-provoking
Spoilers Noviember is quite a unique piece of work that I caught in the 'Euro Vision' festival in town. Very much like Into the Void, in documentary form, the story is told by alternating between the main story line and the interview-type narration of the characters some years later (about a half dozen of them compared with 2 in Into the Void). But hang on for a second ..these character are not real! The story is entirely fictional, but made to look like a documentary. The story starts with young actor Alfredo arriving in Madrid for adventure in the late 90s (which makes the 'now' in the movie somewhere in the 2030s or 2040s, guessing from the age of the 'real' characters interviewed). There, he meets Lucia who soon becomes his wife. When discussing their initial motivation for acting, Alfred intimates that it's to a large extent out of love for his wheelchair-confined brother, from both physical handicap and mental disorder. Lucia, on the other hand, attributes it to sibling rivalry, kind of the 'Baby Jane' syndrome. Together with a group of friends who share the same passion for acting, the two embark on their venture. The unique thing is that in their vision to bring the theatre to the public, they shun any indoor performance venue which would imply an admission ticket. They do all their performances outdoors, right in the streets, and they steadfastly refuse to accept any money for their performances. The movie follows this group's performances which are presented in pseudo-documentary style, complete with fictitious dates, in the streets of Madrid, culminating in a unexpected and quite devastating ending. Between hilarity and poignancy, and everything in between, this movie has a great deal to offer. A fascinating movie, particularly if you love performing arts. It won the FIPRESCI prize in the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.
More than just a good script
I walked into this film 10 minutes late, saw it without subtitles, and only realized afterward that the commentators were the actors thirty years later. Even so I enjoyed the film immensely and it left me thinking about how much is too much. Because of the language problem (I live in Mexico but have enough hearing loss that movie sound doesn't come through well to me), most of the effect of the movie came through the outstanding cinematography and pacing. Spain is a country that has a recent history of atentados (political murders) so I wonder what Spaniards think of Noviembre. As an outsider, besides the plot and texture of the movie, I welcomed the shots of Madrid but what I liked most was the portrayal of the young energy of the street theater company. After seeing the film I felt older, wiser, and wish I could see it again.