DARRYL DE CINE

  (EN CASTELLANO DEBAJO) Recently I went to see, at Phenomena cinema in Barcelona, “Two Mules for Sister Sarah” (1969), directed by Don Siegel,  with Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. As I was a young kid  when it was released back in 1969 and this was “an adult film” (though, seeing it nowadays, it’s as erotic as a chicken leg…), I didn´t get  to see it until 1979 or 1980, when I was at University. I remember seeing it at the cinema, dubbed into Spanish. So I was curious to see it the other day in its original English version. Besides, the huge screen at Phenomena cinema made all the difference. Well, I think, this was the only occasion in an Eastwood film (as most of his films revolve around his character on the screen) where his partenaire, a superb Shirley MacLaine, really “countermanded” him at every moment. By this I mean, that usually in Eastwood´s films his female “partenaires” were more like playthings or  just "objects of desire" for his on-screen c...

  (EN CASTELLANO DEBAJO) This is a film I haven't seen yet. Well, in fact it has not been released yet in Spain.   Looks as if Clint Eastwood is back at the top of his form, which is not a small feat considering that he’s around ninety years old.  After three propaganda movies praising American values, Eastwood has gone again into the losers’ world. Those so called “propaganda movies” were “American Sniper”(2014): an intelligent, well finished movie set in the Iraq War,” Sully” (2016), a very well finished movie though completely hollow, and  “The 15:17 to Paris” (2018), which I flatly refused to see after reading its plot outline. Instead “The Mule” –which Eastwood stars in and directs- seems related to his losers’ films like “Honkytonk Man” (1982), “Bird” (1988) or “‎Million Dollar Baby” (2004), to quote some. What I have read about “The Mule” is in the attached review, in Spanish, published in the Argentinean daily “Clarín” (see below the link),though I recom...