Carlos Vermut, who initially ventured into art through comic books, shot his first short film Maquetas in 2009. Then in 2011 he presented his groundbreaking first feature Diamond Flash at the Sitges Film Festival, making him the guru of low-budget filmmaking in Spain; but there was much more than this in Vermut’s work. His second film, Magical Girl, proved it in resounding fashion by winning the coveted ‘Golden Shell’ award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Magical Girl is both extraordinarily transgressive and fascinatingly traditional when playing with some of the most iconic elements of Spanish cinema, such as Buñuel’s absurd surrealism, the irreverence of Eloy De La Iglesia and Azcona’s dark humour. However, it is useless to try to typecast Vermut considering this is a film far from any possible labelling: Magical Girl might seem like a natural evolution of Álex De La Iglesia’s cinema or a reinterpretation of Spanish cinema. Vermut’s movie is a melodrama, an erotic thriller, a comedy and a horror, but it’s also none of these genres.
Not all that different from a young David Lynch, but with a thick Castillian accent, Carlos Vermut, like the American director, has mastered his craft and seems to possess the magic touch when directing his actors. The viewer can experience the unforgettable performances of Bárbara Lennie, José Sacristán and Luis Bermejo, puppets in the hands of Vermut in this multi-layered and puzzling spectacle.
The fascination for the world of comics, convoluted soap operas, Spanish constumbrista literature, and a close link to genre movies, are all aspects that come directly from Diamond Flash, but the essence of Magical Girl goes beyond any formal matters: the ‘slave-master’ type relationships, that develop between the different characters, are what the fabric of this film and what the director’s disturbing universe are made of. Don’t let the light tone of some of the first scenes fool you: we are in Vermut’s territory, and it is a dark one indeed.
Sitges Publications’ Team & Àngel Sala (Director Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia)