The atmosphere and quality of images and production values reminded me of the masterpiece by Raoul Ruiz, Mysteries of Lisbon. It's rare to see good literature transposed into a good movie, but this is one of them.
Since reading Arturo Perez-Reverte's book of the same name, I was really keen to see the movie. You can see great performances by great actors; Omero Antonutti delivers his lines with finesse and sobriety, not usually found in today's actors, but more by the likes of Fernando Rey or actors associated with theatre performance and classical dramas.
It is set in 1868 Pre-revolution Spain , Madrid , about fall Queen Isabel II and return general Prim . There occurs a lot of anti-Borbon strikes and protests against Isabel II .
Un thriller de época con implicancias románticas y repleto de tensión sexual, donde la traición y las conspiraciones políticas están a la orden del día. Si bien la propuesta es interesante a grandes rasgos, el planteo de fondo donde se desarrolla un halo de suspense detrás de las verdaderas intencionalidades de cada personaje sabe a poco y es previsible.
This is a very good movie, in terms of tasteful portrayal of personal violence, against a background of popular fury and political infighting - Prim's revolutionary, the Bourbon's nobles around Queen Isabel II of Spain, the Free-Masons... A woman fencer who wishes to learn the secret deadly thrust from the master who is writing a treaty on the fencing art is something out of ordinary, as is the beauty of the actress who plays the character, Assumpta Serna.
The Fencing Master, as it's known in America, is a visually stunning and intellectually stimulating film. The costume and set designers did a wonderful job creating the atmosphere of aristocratic Spain shortly before the 1868 revolution.
Pérez-Reverte's second novel and the first that I read; I was immediately attracted to the author's ability to set his scene in a historical moment in time, which he has done in other books, most notably the `Capitán Alatriste' series, as well as his easy-flowing narrative style which carries the reader on into the plot. And as his story develops, so do the characters: there is depth and feeling, such that it seems that real personalities spring up out of his pages.
Nothing is more depressing than having a good story , and a couple of good actors and then fail miserably at attempting to make a good movie... It is indeed a pity to see that El Maestro de Esgrima (based on a story written by Spain's top-selling Pérez Reverte and with such actors as Omero Antonutti or Assumpta Serna) fails lamentably to raise any kind of interest.
