The Last Circus

A Spanish film about the enmity between two clowns. The story begins in 1937. During the civil war a clown performing in a circus is taken to the front at gunpoint and has to fight in his costume. His son Javier sees it. Years later Javier finds work in a circus. But he cannot be the funny clown; he is given the sad clown because he never laughed as a child. Sergio, the circus's funny clown, is a violent man off stage and beats his girlfriend Natalia. Javier falls in love with her. What follows is a conflict between the two men that grows steadily and goes completely out of control. The idea is an open allegory: the two clowns are the two sides of Spain and their fight never ends, it only changes form. The director described it as a reckoning with historical memory. The film's title comes from a well-known song of the 1960s. Álex de la Iglesia directed and wrote it; the film won the awards for direction and screenplay at the Venice film festival in 2010. An unusual production for anyone who likes black comedy and allegorical violence. Before you watch, know this: the film is extremely hard and deliberately chooses to be inconsistent in register; the violence reaches a grotesque level.