Summer in Andalusia
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007For the last couple of days, I’ve been raving that the 2003 film Nasu: Summer in Andalusia was evidence that somebody from studio Madhouse had obtained and installed the necessary technology to spy on my thoughts, and glean from them the precise sort of animated movie I would want to see, before I knew I wanted to see it.
Having now watched it, I can say with some confidence that the circumstantial evidence for this case is continuing to pile up.
The lovingly-animated film is everything you would expect from a Ghibli veteran, with its one possible problem being its length—barely 45 minutes.
That turns out to be the perfect length for the story, though, which is one of those simple-yet-complex narratives I seem to be unable to go more than a month without running across in anime lately. What gives, Japan? When did you get all… all… cool?
The main character is Pepe Benengeli, a domestique for the Pao Pao Beer team. Already I’m grinning; the obvious move would’ve been to make their protagonist the up-and-coming team leader, a Lemond or but they took a much more realistic path.
Like any sport with a large field, only a handful of guys in the peloton have a shot at the overall victory in a grand tour like the Vuelta. Anybody who does have a shot has it because they’re both a strong rider, but also because they have a strong team of other riders dedicated to supporting them—domestiques.
Pepe is a domestique ordered to support his team leader in a breakaway on a mostly flat stage through Andalusia. The team sponsor is irritated with Pepe’s perceived attitude, but our domestique protagonist promises that, even though the stage goes through his hometown, he’s going to support his team leader.
He means it, too. He got into cycling to get out of this podunk town, A desire driven mostly by his older brother stealing his girlfriend while Pepe was doing his compulsory military service—and they’re getting married the same day Pepe’s race passes through town.
Here’s when the film stops being good and is well on its way to greatness—it’s simultaneously subverting and embracing one of the grand old narratives of cycling. Flat stages in these long tours are characterized by breakaways and attacks by riders who have no chance at the overall victory, frequently by guys who are from the areas they’re passing through. There’s nothing better than a stage win in front of a home crowd, after all.
Except that Pepe hates the home crowd; he doesn’t want a damn thing to do with them. As the stage develops (complete with lovingly authentic cycling strategy; they really do love me) he decides he wants to win out of sheer, bloody-minded spite.
Ah, spite. Spite is an emotion with which I can identify; I loved that Pepe ultimately pursues victory to get it on his own terms, because he wants it for himself. The film does more or less show Pepe reconciling with his brother and ex-girlfriend, but that’s only enabled because he’s already won the race.
What a wonderful movie. I’m so excited they’re making a sequel.