Les Sorcières de Zugarramurdi

Witching and Bitching is the latest insane film from Álex de la Iglesia. His last effort was the bonkers violent clown madness that was The Last Circus. This film probably falls a little short of that one overall but it shares the anarchic comedy with violence template pretty closely. Like that film too, this one does lose steam a bit in its final section where it goes for a big ending, which loses sight of what made it good before a little. This is a pretty minor criticism though because on the whole this movie proves again that Iglesia is always someone who delivers something a bit left-field, unconcerned with the niceties of political correctness. The story has thieves on the run from a badly staged crime. On their escape route, they find themselves in a mysterious village in the Basque country where they are soon captured by a coven of witches.

As is common for Iglesia, this one starts out with a great, attention grabbing credit sequence where we are presented with images of witches and evil women throughout the ages. It takes a bit of a nerve to show a picture of notorious female killers such as Myra Hindley juxtaposed with former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher! After seeing that, well you can't say you haven't been warned. The opening heist is pretty hilarious, with the criminals dressed up as street artists and mascots. It's both funny and successfully pulse-pounding and certainly gets things off to a great start. Once the characters meet the witches, the film moves from being a crime-comedy into a horror-comedy, with a focus always on the humour. The witches themselves make for the most interesting characters in the movie, with Iglesia regular Carolina Bang being the standout as the seriously gorgeous biker-witch – she smolders the screen every time she appears. This section of the film focuses on lots of macabre humour and ends with a horde of witches gathering in a cave in anticipation for the arrival of their queen, who is a giant monstrous being. Like I said earlier, this whole finale in the cavern is less interesting than what has gone before – when things get too big and effects-driven you feel Iglesia himself loses a bit of interest too. But overall, this is another very enjoyable, crazy movie from this Spanish maverick.

A Spanish horror-comedy in which a group of bank-robbers stumble into a witch coven. Hijinks ensue, comedy is had. The theme of this one is about how the robbers (all men) have woman issues and have all but renounced their kind as villainous, deceptive and bitchy (*cough* witchy--get it?) The witch coven has done the same thing (there are no warlocks; though one witch has a son she keeps locked up in an underground vault).

Some lessons are not really learned, and there's a hulking monster witch with enormous boobs at the end the men have to contend with (one woman takes their side, alas). There's definitely some fun to be had here but it's fleeting and I'm not sure it's anywhere near as progressive as it thinks it is (if it does, I don't know).

This is not Spanish director Alex De La Iglesia's best effort (my personal favorite is Ferpect Crime), but is entertaining and watchable, if you like his brand of anarchic, corrosive, politically incorrect and pitch black humor. Here three misogynistic thieves on the run, trying to flee to France after a botched burglary in Madrid, end up in a little Basque village called Zugarramurdi (a place in which there was a real witch trial in the 17th century) where they are captured by a coven of feminist witches (the leader of which is Almodovar regular Carmen Maura) who subject them to a number of torments. Many more outrageous things happen, but they are not for me to reveal. A couple of very beautiful actresses (Carolina Bang and Macarena Gomez) help the film.

Years ago I saw Alex de la Iglesia's film, Accion Mutante, and I really liked it, despite the poverty-row budget. It had interesting, though unsympathetic characters, whose antics were fun to watch and an amazing artificial world full of surprises.

Witching & Bitching is an absolutely terrible title for a movie. I blame de la Iglesia's unfamiliarity with English. In any case, it is clear from the start that Mr. de la Iglesia's style in this film is the same as Accion Mutante. He has his signature whacked-out, borderline insane, outside-the-law bunglers, alongside seemingly minor characters that turn into major pillars of the plot line. He has his lame running jokes that rarely work, but are somehow comforting nonetheless, and, just like Accion Mutante, the movie has enough plot twists for three or four more conventional films.

Accion Mutante kept you surprised every minute. Witching & Bitching (man, I HATE that name) can't do quite as well, because the title, as well as the title screens both give away the fact that, at some point in the film, witches figure prominently. I was thrilled by the fact that the film managed to mingle fairy-tale witches with earth-goddess shenanigans.

Some of the scenes were spectacular. Many directors, when they get money, don't seem to know how to spend it to get the best results. But de la Iglesia sure did. You got to see every penny on the screen, and as a result, this movie was, in my opinion, superior to my beloved Accion Mutante.

I love the way that his films attack both the status quo as WELL as the revolution. He subverts the subversives. His witches are (obviously) aggressively feminist, but it is clear that if they controlled more of society, the world would not be a better place.

If you've not seen Accion Mutante (which probably most people haven't), then perhaps the closest "type" of movie to Witching & Bitching would be something by Terry Gilliam, or perhaps City of Lost Children. If you like that kind of anarchic, fantasy semi-comedy, this might be for you.

Bankrobbers getting caught up in witch coven, sounds simple. But it's not, the permanent level of absurdism, intertwined with serious discussions on love and parenting, the effects and makeup, the production, make this all a work of art. If you like spanish absurdistic theater this movie is for you.