At the beginning of The Beloved, Esteban Martinez (Javier Bardem) has just returned to Spain to direct his newest feature called “Desierto”, a movie set in 1930s Western Sahara, which he will shoot in Fuerteventura instead. To play the main female character, he chooses Emilia (Victoria Luengo), his estranged daughter and an actress who has yet to break out in a major role like this one. Father and daughter will reunite on set after years of growing apart, years in which Esteban has built a new family, and Emilia has lived her own life with her mother. But things are going to get even more complicated due to Esteban’s specific requirements for actors during his movies and his less-than-ideal temper on set.
Bardem is undoubtedly the star of the show in The Beloved with a role that may very well be positioning him as a frontrunner if not for award season as a whole, at least for the Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not only is he the main character, but he also commands our attention from the moment he appears on screen, making the audience want to know more and more about his character and the complicated relationship he has with his daughter. Victoria Luengo is able to hold her own opposite Barden, creating some impactful and emotional scenes between the two, especially in the second half of the movie.
While the lines between reality and fiction and real life and work get blurred for the characters in the movie, the production design does a really good job at keeping the two apart in the film. Thanks to the period setting of the movie Esteban is making, it is immediately clear whether we are watching the characters in the film or them as actors shooting the movie. This is incredibly helpful as it visually creates a demarcation point for when the characters are meant to be on set as opposed to their actual selves, despite the boundaries between the two not always being so clear and defined.
The film also reflects on toxic masculinity. Bardem himself reflected on this during various interviews and during the Cannes press conference for this film, situating this as a very specific symptom of the generation of men around his age who were born during the Franco occupation of the country. The problem may be culturally specific in the character of Esteban, but it can be related to the world at large when toxic masculinity is on the rise more than ever. Interestingly, the movie seems to offer a valuable insight into this and into the ways we can move forward. While everyone is aware that Esteban’s behaviour is wrong and unacceptable, the only people who challenge him during the film are women, such as the director of photography of Esteban’s own daughter.
Movies about filmmaking are always a hit or miss, as directors seem to overestimate how much the general audience is interested in or knowledgeable about the film industry as a whole. The Beloved is guilty of the latter: while never overexplaining key elements of the film industry may be a plus for those who are familiar with it, it is not necessarily the right choice for viewers who might be less accustomed to hearing about the different roles in a production. Nonetheless, the film is still very enjoyable because it is about much more than just the film industry of filmmaking in and of itself.
Overall, The Beloved is successful at telling the story it sets out to portray. What really makes it stand out are the main performances, especially by Bardem, who easily steals the spotlight for every single scene he is in. Some of its more original visual elements, such as the use of black and white or changes in aspect ratio, can feel too abrupt or repetitive at times, but the film presents its audiences with something new, both in terms of storytelling and in terms of visuals.
★★★ 1/2
Premiered at Cannes on May 16, in cinemas soon / Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo / Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen / Le Pacte
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