The Last Circus

Plot

1937, Spain is in the midst of the brutal Spanish Civil War. A "Happy" circus clown is interrupted mid-performance and forcibly recruited by a militia…

Release Year: 2010

Rating: 6.5/10 (3,531 voted)

Critic's Score: 70/100

Director:
Álex de la Iglesia

Stars: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang

Storyline
1937, Spain is in the midst of the brutal Spanish Civil War. A "Happy" circus clown is interrupted mid-performance and forcibly recruited by a militia. Still in his costume, he is handed a machete and led into battle against National soldiers, where he single handedly massacres an entire platoon. Fast forward to 1973, the tail end of the Franco regime. Javier, the son of the clown, dreams of following in his father's career footsteps, but has seen too much tragedy in his life-he's simply not funny and is only equipped to play the role of the Sad Clown. He finds work in a circus where he befriends an outlandish cast of characters, but as the Sad Clown he must take the abuse of the brutish Happy Clown Sergio, who humiliates Javier daily in the name of entertainment. It is here that he meets Natalia, a gorgeous acrobat, and abused wife of Sergio. Javier falls deeply in love with Natalia and tries to rescue her from her cruel and violent husband…

Cast:

Carlos Areces
–

Javier

Antonio de la Torre
–

Sergio

Carolina Bang
–

Natalia

Manuel Tallafé
–

Ramiro

Alejandro Tejerías
–

Motorista-fantasma

(as Alejandro Tejería)

Manuel Tejada
–

Jefe de pista

Enrique Villén
–

Andrés

Gracia Olayo
–

Sonsoles

Sancho Gracia
–

Coronel Salcedo

Paco Sagarzazu
–

Anselmo

Santiago Segura
–

Padre-Payaso tonto

Fernando Guillén Cuervo
–

Capitán miliciano

Jorge Clemente
–

Javier (Joven 1943)

Fofito
–

Payaso listo

Sasha Di Bendetto
–

Javier (Niño 1937)

(as Sasha Di Bendetto)

Details

Official Website:
Official Blog [Spain] |
Official Facebook |

Release Date: 17 December 2010

Filming Locations: Alcoy, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

Box Office Details

Budget: €7,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: €646,917
(Spain)
(17 December 2010)
(303 Screens)

Gross: $40,029
(USA)
(6 November 2011)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Edward James Olmos was interested in working with Álex de la Iglesia. He was in talks to play one of the main characters, but finally he couldn't accept because of his busy schedule.

Goofs:

Anachronisms:
When Andres is arrested, he says "maderos" to the policemen, but this word was not yet used at this time. He shoould have said "grises" (grey) because this is the color of the police uniform – only years later would it become brown. ("Madero" is log or piece of wood, which is why people called policemen "maderos").

User Review

Wonderful, beautiful and tragic!

Rating: 10/10


A magic tale of terror, dark humour and tragedy!! I think that this
film is like a mix of Rodrigues, Jarmush and Kusturica… gripping and
strong whilst dark, random and ghastly at the same time. Romantic and
disgusting in one film. de la Iglesia beautifully makes the whole film
look like a circus performance with all characters exaggerated to the
point that even Franco looks like a clown. Though I appreciate that
this film is probably not for everyone, I think that it's an original
and interesting portrayal of, amongst other things, love and war during
horrors of Spanish civil war – an interesting contrast to del Toro's
"El Labiirinto del Fauno"!