el matador: artist or killer?
David Fandila
You've watched the fights of Muhammed Ali, Rambo and now Randy the Ram Robinson in The Wrestler (so you know that boxers are also vulnerable) but have you ever heard of top-ranking bullfighter David Fandila?
If you are a sucker for films filled with themes of masculinity and bravado, you want to take yourself to see The Matador.
This is the epic story of a young man's quest to become the world's most famous bullfighter. A heart-wrenching tale of drama and death inside the bullring. Stephen Higgens and Nina Gilden Seavey's documentary will take you on a journey across Spain and Latin America, and into the pages of bullfighting history.
The corrida began as a means for poor people to achieve fame and fortune through entertainment. One famous matador was once asked why he risked his life inside the ring, and he reportedly answered "más cornadas da el hambre (hunger strikes more painfully)." But how has this archaic blood sport continued until today and does it have a future?
Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist Ernest Hemingway - famously fascinated by the Hispano-American tradition - once said, "Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honour."
In The Matador we see why these men honor, and fight for, this dying tradition.
From today until Sunday, ACMI is screening the Australian Premiere of The Matador as part of our First Look film program, in which we bring you new films and restored classics that you won't see anywhere else. For more information and session times click here
Published Thursday, 5 March 2009
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