Penélope Cruz’s The Black Ball applauded as a ‘masterpiece’ at Cannes — and I see why

After a Cannes Film Festival with few real crowd-pleasing standouts, a new Spanish drama starring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close has seemingly blown the competition wide open, injecting some much hoped-for excitement.

The Black Ball (La Bola Negra) received an historic reception on Thursday night, with a staggering 20-minute standing ovation upon its premiere, one of the longest ever at Cannes and second only to Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006.

It’s exactly what this rather underpowered edition of Cannes needed, with critics rushing to social media to praise the film as ‘a masterpiece’ and ‘an instant classic’ while insisting it’s now the front-runner for the prestigious Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize.

And I can see why – it’s an achingly beautiful historical epic with intimate stories at its heart – although it’s not for everyone.

Directed with flair and vitality by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (a former couple, and known as Los Javis in their native country), The Black Ball is a massive undertaking that encapsulates an unfinished work by poet and playwright Federico García Lorca alongside co-writer Alberto Conejero’s own play La Piedra Oscura, set across three separate timelines and 85 years.

Some may be hugely touched by the interconnected stories of three gay men, all linked by Lorca, and how homosexuality is often lost to history.

Meanwhile, others – like the female journalists in front of me at my press screening – may be more struck by the extremely good looks of the (their words) ‘very hot’ predominantly male cast, especially in a striking scene where they all strip off at the beach for some exercise, save for their shoes.

You must concentrate for a demanding 155 minutes to fully appreciate the rich detail of The Black Ball, which is both epic in scope and length, although it does meander and tip into overblown in places. It’s also set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, and intellectually rigorous with it.

But if you do fully engage your brain, you will be rewarded.

I was easily engrossed as the three separate narrative strands set in 1932, 1937 and 2017 unspooled before – finally – intertwining.

The Black Ball also offers one of recent cinema’s most impactful and devastating opening scenes when a rural village loyal to the Nationalist faction, preparing to welcome a flyover of their Italian allies in the film’s middle timeline, is instead destroyed by its bombs and gunfire.

Sebastián (singer Guitarricadelafuente, in a very promising acting debut) is one of the few survivors and ends up essentially conscripted into the army when he is later picked up amid the ruins.

As part of his duties, he is told to guard and befriend political prisoner, Atlético Madrid footballer and actor Rafael Rodríguez Rapún (Miguel Bernardeau), wounded yet arresting, in order to extract valuable information.

Five years earlier and young man Carlos (Milo Quifes) is blackballed – quite literally, using a system of chutes and black and white balls – from joining the ‘Casino’ club in Granada on account of his rumoured homosexuality.

And finally in the twenty-first-century timeline, student and struggling playwright Alberto (Carlos González) learns of a mysterious bequest from his estranged grandfather, which further complicates his relationship with his addict mother Teresa (Lola Dueñas), who even does a line of coke during an angst-fuelled lunch together.

Quite remarkably – and sometimes with a little bit of over-reach – these stories do all come together by the end, with many gorgeously arranged shots along the way by cinematographer Gris Jordana. This is something as well when you’re boldly re-framing and extending the work of a writer like Lorca.

To The Black Ball’s credit as well, there’s no sense of waiting for Cruz or Close’s arrivals in their small supporting roles to inject a boost to proceedings, although both are marvellous.

Cruz is lusty Madrid nightclub star Nené in an energetic musical sequence with the soldiers in 1937, and Close is US academic Isabelle in 2017, showing there’s nothing this eight-time Oscar nominee can’t do by also acting in apparent fluent Spanish.

The Black Ball premiered at Cannes Film Festival on May 21. It will be released in Spain on October 2. UK and US release dates have yet to be confirmed.

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