FLUXEUROPA: EVITA

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EVITA (1996)

Director: Alan Parker

Written: Tim Rice (lyrics), Andrew Lloyd Webber (score)

Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce - and a cast of thousands...

This film is simply spectacular. It is conceived on a grand scale and director Alan Parker never once misses his footing.

It is supposedly based on the life of Eva Perón (who I'd always thought of as a kind of Imelda Marcos with more class and fewer shoes). But the film gives us little to go on apart from the bare bones of her life. This isn't a criticism - it's a movie after all and one based on a musical at that. And seen in cinematic terms it is an astonishing achievement.

In the first twenty minutes, we are treated to two funerals. The first, that of the young Eva Duarte's father, takes place in a small village on the Argentinian pampas. It is startingly realistic and sets the tone of super-realism which infuses the whole film.

The second funeral is that of Evita herself, some 26 years later. The spectacle is simply overwhelming. We are caught up in the emotions of the crowd, with Parker scanning individual faces sometimes in the style of Leni Riefenstahl. We are introduced at this point to Ché (Antonio Banderas), who functions as a kind of Greek chorus throughout the film in a variety of guises.

It was at this point that I realized that Evita is a musical, a genre which, to me up to that point, had meant cheesy renditions of Oklahoma. There is no dialogue as such - the actors sing their way through the whole 2 1/2 hours, no mean feat in itself. And it all hangs together perfectly.

The lighting is superb throughout, lending large pieces of the film the kind of sepia tone I associate with the ceilings of English pubs. The costuming is stunning - I would have died for both Ché's and Perón's wardrobes...

Madonna fits the part of Evita perfectly (despite having neither buck teeth nor small breasts - so much for accuracy...). She has an almost ethereal beauty. And she dies convincingly. I understand Meryl Streep - amongst many others - was considered for the part. Nah! It belongs to Madonna.

Jonathan Pryce plays Juan Perón suitably ruthlessly. One would expect nothing less from so distinguished an actor. And Antonio Banderas is, by turns, wry, cynical and empathic as the narrator.

This film inspires the whole gamut of emotions, from exhiliration to grief, all genuinely felt (at least by me and the couple behind me, who were, at times, in tears).

This is one of the few films I have seen where I wanted the projectionist to start rolling reel one again immediately after the credits were over. (The others were Once Upon a Time in America and Casino.) Next time I'll see it at the Kabuki in San Francisco...

Oh - and the tunes are terrific too.

The 'nineties have three years to run. Someone's going to have to come up with something pretty damned good to top this flick.

JOHN BLOWER - 9 February 1997. Posted 13 February 1997.