Opening the Spanish Film Festival tomorrow and then going into general release shortly after, A GUN IN EACH HAND evokes some swaggering macho Western, but in this case of this Catalan comedy, it’s a delicious and sublime irony.
An ensemble piece about a bunch of Barcelona based boys – middle aged men, but still boys – coming to terms with their failures with women, careers, and life in general.
In five vignettes and an epilogue, writer-director Cesc Gay explores the idea of men’s reticence to communicate truly and honestly, either with themselves, other members of their gender and women. Men hate to lose, whether on the playing field or the work place, the boardroom or the bedroom, so they deny defeat and cloak their confusion, obfuscating the truth strutting their stuff in a rut.
In the first encounter, two blokes meet at a lift – one getting out one getting in and they have a conversation in the foyer. Some time has passed since these two last saw each other and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. A banal banter ensues and slowly truths are teased out about their lives.
Next we have a man visiting his estranged wife, their separation caused by his infidelity, he has hopes of reuniting. But just as he has moved on from his fling, his spouse has moved on in her life too.
Another story involves a man following his wife, secure in his suspicion that she is having an affair but wanting it irrefutably confirmed, a confirmation that culminates in a comedy of acute awkwardness.
Awkwardness is the conduit in which a lesson is delivered to a silly young man suggesting an office dalliance with a savvy co-worker who turns the tables on his juvenile game playing.
Tale after tale, it’s the women who take the initiative and who are intuitive, while the boys bluster, besieged and baffled by outmoded ideas of masculinity in the so called battle of the sexes. A gun in each hand but half cocked; no ammo and poor aim.
The 16th Spanish Film Festival, presented by Palace cinemas, runs from the 19th June to the 3rd July, playing at both the Palace Verona and Chauvel Cinemas. For more information:- www.spanishfilmfestival.com.au