DISPARER (OUTRAGE)
Spain, 1993, 107 minutes, Colour.
Antonio Banderas, Francesca Neri.
Directed by Carlos Saura.
Disparer is a very strong and confronting film by Carlos Saura. Saura had been making films since the '60s and won acclaim in the '70s with such films as Cria Cuervos. He made a number of films with his then wife Geraldine Chaplin. In the '80s he made, amongst many other films, a series of flamenco dance films with Antonio Gades, including Carmen and Blood Wedding.
Saura takes a theme of the '90s, the relationship between men and women, rape, justice and the law, vengeance.
The film boasts a very strong performance by Francesca Neri as a circus rider who is brutally raped, is transformed traumatically by the experience, uses her skills with a gun in killing the three attackers as well as two policemen who confront her on the highway. Antonio Banderas (from many Almodovar films, The Mambo Kings) is her journalist lover.
The rape scenes are particularly graphic, as are the scenes where Francesca Neri kills her three assailants. This is confronting material as regards sexual abuse of women and the role of men and the law.
1. The impact of the theme in the '90s? Sexual violence and abuse? The ability of the law to administer justice? The motivation of vengeance?
2. The Spanish settings, the circus, the town, the highway, the farmhouse? Panavision photography? The musical score?
3. The title and its focus, the intent of the film?
4. The moral stance of the film as regards relationships between men and women, domination, power and violence, rape, the trauma for a woman, the changing of her personality, police and the law, vengeance, justice? Standards for men and women - especially in Mediterranean countries where men were able to avenge themselves by violence - and this not being done by women?
5. Miklos and his observing the circus, bored with the clowns, attracted to Anna, her riding, shooting? Discussions, photography, Anna and Karen? The interview, the article? Keeping in touch, the phone calls, the visits? The interview and her telling her stories, her true story, the relationship, love, sexual passion? His visit to her caravan, her desperation on the answering machine, talking with his editor and getting his help, reading her diary? Following her, asking the police for help, talking to her, her dying in his arms?
6. The portrait of Anna, her skills in the ring, her stories about herself and Pavlova..., the true story, the circus background, her skill in shooting, hunting? The thrill of performance? The circus and its people as home? The encounter with Marcus, suspicion, relating well, talking freely? The young men and their disrupting her performance, the shooting? The return and the protracted brutality of the rape sequences? The aftermath for her, the blood, the dishevelled caravan, the shower? Not going to the police? Her getting her gun and the bullets, going to the repair shop, stalking the victims, killing them? Her leaving - and it being assumed that the killer was a man? On the road, sick, going to the doctor and getting advice? Her watching the information on the television? The confrontation with the police on the road and the brutality of her killing them? Off the road, the chance encounter with Alberto, going to the farm, taking the family hostages, the father and the potential violence, letting the mother care for her baby? Talking with mother and children? Dying, her being wounded, Marcus, the possibilities - and her dying in his arms?
7. Anna in herself, as a woman, rape victim, the change, another person, her behaviour and violence, the law?
8. The circus world and its detail, personalities?
9. The rapists - at the circus, the background of their drug-dealing and violence, their reaction, returning to the caravan, the brutality, their work, the testimony of their boss, their deaths? The grieving mother on television?
10. The doctor and her care and concern for Anna, calling the police?
11. The police, the squads, on the road, the siege of the farmhouse, the males with their weapons confronting the single woman?
12. Alberto, the chance encounter with Anna, his affection for her, the parents, their fear, the father, the mother and the child - and their finally going?
13. The confrontative nature of the film with its themes, portrait of a woman, victim of violence, taking the law into her own hands?
