BLOOD WEDDING
- Here we are. - Hi.
You'll be over here.
Cristina, that's your spot.
Antonio, you're here, and you're over here.
What about our dressing room?
Upstairs.
Let's go upstairs.
Anyone have any aspirin?
You can give it to me later.
José, where's the picture?
Here.
Could I have the mirror?
Stay there.
Everything's in its place.
I'll get you some makeup.
I left a sponge here the other day. Grab someone else's.
But don't use it on his lips. He's been eating pastries all day.
Don't worry.
We'll fix that donkey face of his.
Yeah, my snout's just like a donkey's.
Hey, what are you doing? - Making you up.
I'm really in bad shape today.
I can't do anything.
Don't tune it a half step high this time.
- It's the same as always. - It's always too high.
Listen to where it is.
It's you, jerk!
You tuned it too high the other day.
It's fine. I used Tońin's pitch pipe.
Not my eyebrows!
Try it again.
The cap too?
I'll catch pneumonia without it.
Tońin and José, listen.
Let's go over the song during Cristina's solo after the duet,
where the voices come in.
That's right. Gómez, join in with him.
That's it.
Let the bride awaken
With love's tender green bough in flower
Let the singers make their rounds
And hang a garland from every balcony
Let the bride awaken
On the wedding morn
I really began dancing out of hunger.
I wanted to stay in school, but that was impossible,
so I had to start working when I was 1 1.
I was an errand boy for some photographers.
At 14 I started in the print shop of a newspaper.
I even tried boxing, but after the first blow, I said,
"Find yourself another punching bag!"
I raced bikes - everything.
Purely by chance a neighbor lady said,
"Why don't you try dance school?"
I danced the way a little kid dances. I didn't know a thing.
I started at Palitos's dance school,
and three months later, a black man named Harry Fleming saw me.
He had a cabaret show. I thought I'd be dancing flamenco!
In Santander he gave me a mambo shirt and some bongos,
and I accompanied "Princess Menen. "
She danced the mambo while I played the bongos.
Then a friend of Pilar López saw me and recommended me.
The thing is...
I was just a bumpkin. Totally green. I knew nothing.
All I did was repeat the steps they taught me.
Then I decided to leave Pilar López's troupe,
and I stayed on in Paris to study dance and contemporary painting
and see other shows, other art forms.
I'd never seen Vicente Escudero dance.
I'd just seen a few pictures.
Suddenly Pilar López says,
" You're exactly like Vicente Escudero when he was young,
even physically.
Those long hands,
those tapered fingers like a bird of prey,
that nose, those facial features. "
And Mariemma, who was a friend of his,
was astounded at how much I was like him.
I'd never seen him dance, never even seen him in person.
One day he came and saw me dance.
And this man who never ever told anyone
that they danced well
came to see me,
and he was like a grandfather with his beloved grandson.
He was so fond of me.
He'd been a man of great dignity throughout his career,
a serious man that nobody messed with.
He always did what seemed necessary.
He never sold out,
and he died with amazing dignity.
I was very fond of him and respected him enormously.
He never went in for the games performers play.
All of that.
So I go to live in Paris,
and I send him a postcard saying, "Maestro... " and so on.
He writes back that I was living
in the same apartment he'd lived in for 20 years,
at 36 rue Boulanger.
Everyone here?
Let's start with this phrase.
On the first four, your arms are here.
On the second four, it goes out and comes in.
Out and in.
And the ending is here.
The arms are here. Then they go out.
Let's try it.
One and two...
Is that clear?
Here we go. One and two...
Arm up!
Stay with it!
So-so.
The end was a little weak.
Where's the head go?
The head goes there and then front.
Arm up!
Stay with it!
What a mess. No offense.
What a disaster!
Ready?
All right. Is that all clear?
The head.
Let's take the last two phrases.
From the arm up?
That's a little better.
Let's do this one.
But suspend it here. Don't just fall into it.
Really suspend it there.
The head goes side and then front.
- The arm up and out? - Yes.
- Starting to which side? - That side.
- How many times? - Four.
Better!
Let your body fall.
Lift up!
Down!
Stretch everything! Your head!
As Vicente Escudero used to say, do your level best.
Once more?
I'll watch.
Do we move the wrist?
One thing. Wait a beat here.
Hold it, hold it, and then draw out the fall.
Good!
Suspend here!
Good.
Don't worry about it.
Let's go on the diagonal.
Give me the rhythm.
Don't get ahead of yourself at the end. Hold it together.
One at a time on the diagonal,
and the rest of you keep the rhythm.
Don't look down!
Don't raise your eyebrows!
A little more!
Lift up, Lario!
Good.
Are you warmed up now?
Then let's change and start the rehearsal.
- Full dress rehearsal? - Yes, costumes and everything.
We're done?
- Where have you come from? - Bollullo.
- What have you brought me? - Five duros.
Scratch here and here, and this is yours!
My God.
- How's my bun look? - Awful.
I can't stand these shoes.
I think they're shrinking. - You're sweating!
Of course - with good reason!
And we're not done yet!
Oh, my feet!
These shoes!
Are they new?
They've just always bothered me.
- What's the matter? - I'm real nervous.
- About what? - You think it'll go well?
Of course. Things always work out.
Antonio was nervous too, but we got the step right.
You're doing great. No problem with the knee?
It hasn't bothered me for the longest time.
You scared me the other day during the fight.
It always cracks right at that moment.
I've gotten used to it.
I'm used to that sound.
The knives.
Let me see another one.
No, I'll keep this one.
Juan, here.
- Which is mine? - One of them sticks.
Give me a hand.
Turn it over. That's good.
- Want a pin? - No, not right now.
Will you help me? Then I'll help you.
Will you zip me up?
Good luck, ladies.
- Same to you. - We'll need it!
Everyone, please.
Sit in the spot you'll be entering from,
so no one crosses in back except those who have to.
I'm not stopping for any reason.
All the way through, no matter what happens.
Daniel, pass out the knives and everything.
You have your knife?
What about this one?
Give it to José Luis.
Ready, Pilar?
Music, please, Paco.
I do.
My baby sleeps
My baby is still
His cradle's made of steel
His quilt of fine cambric
Hush, my child
Ay, the stallion
That wouldn't drink of the water
Don't come here
Go off to the mountain
Through the gray valleys
Where the mare stands
My baby is sleeping
My baby is resting
Sleep, my little carnation
For the horse won't drink
Sleep, my rose
For the horse is beginning to weep
Let the bride awaken
With love's tender green bough in flower
Let the singers make their rounds
And hang a garland from every balcony
Let the bride awaken
On the wedding morn
In a green field I spread my kerchief
Three roses fell like three bright stars
My princess's carriage has cost me a fortune
To carry the couple on their way to wed
Arise
Sleep no more
For the early morning
Will see you wed
Long live the bride and groom!
Long live love!
Black ribbon, black tresses
Like those of that dark-skinned maiden
Whose jealous ways
Drained the blood from my veins
Your brim holds the tremors
Of a luckless lass
Who cries from heartbreak
In the light of the moon
My hat, oh my hat
You are a font of grace
And you display a matador's pomp
When I take you to the bullfights
I love you because on your brim
Oh hat of my heart's bliss
You bear, gracefully embroidered
A woman's kiss
You have such a set to you
There is in you such lordliness
You are king among the carriages
That parade in honor of Our Lady of the Morning Dew
All around your elegant brim
Still flutter the woeful moans
Left by tender promises
Swept away by the wind
When I take you to the bullfights
I love you because on your brim
Oh hat of my heart's bliss
You bear, gracefully embroidered
A woman's kiss
Let's hear it for love!
The lovers sang The water flowed on
And the wedding approached
Let the frost sparkle
And the bitter almonds be filled with honey
Spread the tablecloths
Make ready the wine
For the groom's a dove with his breast all aflame
While the fields listen for the murmur of spilled blood
The wheel turned and turned
The wheel turned
And the water flowed on
Let the bride awaken
With love's tender green bough in flower
Let the singers make their rounds
And hang a garland on every balcony
Let the bride awaken
On the wedding morn
Subtitles by JOHN GUDELJ for SUBTEXT SUBTITLING