There are few actresses who can allow themselves to stand out so much having such a marked style and idiosyncrasy. Barbara Lennie is one of those few who has become recognizable without the need to give too much in what interests him to do. His face is frequent in several of the most singular films of Spanish cinema and with several of the authors with the most pronounced voice.
Thus it’s always interesting when his face leads a poster of a new release, as is the case with his new film ‘The crooked lines of God’. An intricate psychological drama to add to his interesting filmography, of which three great films like the ones that follow can be highlighted and can also be found on streaming platforms.
THE 10 BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE (2010-2019)
‘Magical Girl’ (2014)
Address: Carlos Vermouth. Distribution: Bárbara Lennie, Luis Bermejo, José Sacristán, Israel Elejalde, Lucía Pollán
There are few films more inseparable from what Barbara Lennie represents than ‘Magical Girl’, even though it can be said that the one who most imposes himself on the film is Carlos Vermut himself, writing and directing it. Having, in addition, an ensemble cast that adds variety and depth to the workpreventing reducing her virtues to an actress.
But, like the movie, nothing is that simple. Author and performer manage to feed each other in such a way that, without her presence, it is difficult for such a crucial part of the film to work. The best possible collaboration to be able to create such a fascinating, different and even challenging work with the viewer how is.
See on Filmin and on RTVE Play (free) | Criticism in Espinof
‘Sunday Sickness’ (2018)
Address: Ramon Salazar. Distribution: Bárbara Lennie, Susi Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Solá, Greta Fernández, Richard Bohringer.
It is possible that, in the future, we will remember Lennie’s name and think of films like ‘Sunday’s Illness’, where he achieves a transcendental job just like the equally brilliant Susi Sánchez. Once again, Ramón Salazar’s is the kind of different and challenging drama that we associate so much with him.
Salazar weaves with care and delicious containment a complex mother-child relationship where each word and each silence is capable of piercing the deepest. With a fairly marked symbology, an almost spectral atmosphere and two complex and interesting female characters, he achieves a really different film that is well worth seeing.
Watch on Netflix | Criticism in Espinof
‘Petra’ (2018)
Address: Jaime Rosales. Distribution: Bárbara Lennie, Àlex Brendemühl, Joan Botey, Marisa Paredes, Petra Martínez.
He couldn’t beat working with a director with a great personality and even a radical conception of the audiovisual such as Jaime Rosales. In ‘Petra’ he disguises himself as an apparently more conventional and accessible cinema, but manages to do a complex exercise in several areas.
Lennie is the anchor of a film that is difficult to access, hermetic to the point of inexpressibility at times. But, as always with Rosales, worthy and interesting to see for its hooligan moments hidden in elegance and the solemnity. Her superficial coldness ends up revealing a story with disturbing and tragic overtones.
See in Filmin