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Little Ashes

5/10

Stars: Robert Pattinson, Javier Beltran, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell, Simon Andreu, Ruben Arroyo, Diana Gomez, Sue Flack, Vicky Pena

Director: Paul Morrison

Despite interesting source material and decent performances, this portrait of homosexual love among the famous within Madrid University's artistic community of the early 1920s is quite slow and a more than a little arty, occasionally sliding into a sort of Barcelona Revisited.

Poet Federico Garcia Lorca (Beltran), despite previous heterosexual experiences, finds himself attracted to effete new boy Salvador Dali (Twilight's Pattinson), who is as pretty as he's precocious.

In spite of moonlight kisses in a swim together on holiday - in a beautifully photographed but particularly protracted and pretentious sequence - the relationship is never quite consummated, Dali being consumed by the worship of self and the pursuit of fame.

Pattinson, although the distinctive Dali moustache in later scenes is a bit of a giggle, and Beltran both do quite well. McNulty is a little strident as their friend (and later famous film-maker) Luis Bunuel.

David Quinlan

UK/Spain 2008. UK Distributor: Kaleidoscope. Colour.
112 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 06 May 2009