MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: ELOY DE LA IGLESIA'S QUINQUI COLLECTION (1980-1983) (Severin Films Blu-ray review)

ELOY DE LA IGLESIA'S QUINQUI COLLECTION (1980-1983)

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region-Free
Rating:

Duration:

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Cast: José Luis Manzano, Isela Vega, Jaime Garza, Javier Garcia, José Manuel Cervino, Luis Iriondo, Fernando Guillén, Lali Espinet

Short for quincallero (delinquent) and pronounced ‘kinky’, it was a brutal sub-genre of juvenile gang dramas produced in ‘70s/‘80s Spain. But for Basque writer/director Eloy de la Iglesia (Cannibal Man, No One Heard The Scream), these three Cine Quinqui classics would become the most successful, controversial and tragically defining films of his entire career. José Luis Manzano – the charismatic street kid discovered by de la Iglesia – stars in this graphic neorealist trilogy that depicts the crime, violence and drug abuse that ravaged the post-Franco nation, and led to the filmmaker and actor’s real-life addictions to heroin – and each other – that would ultimately destroy them both. Navajeros, El Pico and El Pico 2 are now scanned in HD from the original negatives with all-new Special Features created especially for this collection.

Navajeros (1980) (96 mins)

First up is Navajeros (1981) which translates to ‘Knifers’, a juvenile delinquency film starring El Jaro (José Luis Manzano, El Pico) as a street smart teen with a long wrap sheet already at the age of fifteen. His older brother is already in prison and Jaro seems to be following in his footsteps, he's the leader of a street gang alongside his friends El Butano (Jaime Garza), Johnny (Pep Corominas) and El Chus. Together they're involved in minor crimes like hot-wiring cars, purse snatching and smash and grabs. Jaro has an older sugar-mama by way of a prostitute known as La Mexicana (Isela Vega, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia) who allows him to crash at her place. Thinsg escalate when Jaro acquires a gun and hooks up with a Chus' sister La Toñi (Verónica Castro), a smack addicted teen, and to feed her habit they graduate from small crimes to robbing a drug dealer named El Marques (Enrique San Francisco, El Pico), after which things begin to spiral out of control for the street tough, with the dealer holding Jaro at gunpoint while one of his henchmen rape him, and later one of his gang are gunned down by the police during a crime. It's a gritty flick anchored by the charismatic presence of non-professional actor José Luis Manzano, who was sort of living this life for real to a degree, and who was the lover of director de la Igelesia at the time of making the film. The flick has a solid story and is well shot and composed, it's a compelling watch that doesn't glamorize the lifestyle in anyway but it does paint a sympathetic picture of Jaro and doesn't shy away from showing you the scuzzier side of teen drug addiction and the crime spun out of control. The film also has a nicely poetic ending that juxtaposes the very graphic birth of a child with a gruesome shotgun death that will stick with you.

El Pico (1983) (109 Min)

El Pico again stars the magnetic José Luis Manzano, this time as Paco, who along with his school mate Urko (Javier García), are struggling with heroin addiction while also selling drugs dealer El Cojo (Ovidi Montllor). Paco's father Evaristo (José Manuel Cervino) is a caring and conservative man, whose wife is terminally ill with cancer. He worries for his wayward son, wanting him to straighten up and attend military academy, but unable to get through to him. Paco and Urko both frequent an prostitute named Betty (Lali Espinet) while Paco, who is straight, also secretly hangs out with homosexual artists Mikel (Enrique San Francisco, Navajeros) who tries to steer Paco into getting clean. Paco's relationship with his father further deteriorates when he catches him stealing his mother's pain meds to feed his own addiction, but finally cleans up and things looks like their looking up, but after his mother's death Paco and Urko again start using, and when they are brought together while mourning his mother's death things look up. However, when they visit Betty they again start shooting up, desperate for smack they rob El Cojo and in a moment of panic Urko shoots and kills the dealer and his wife, leading to Urko overdosing while wracked with guilt over the murders. El Pico is another grim and even grittier slice of street crime from de la Iglesia that plays out in a series of increasingly depressing vignettes with plenty of Iglesia's social commentary bleeding through. Again, we have the magnetic José Luis Manzano front and center who pulls you right into the thick it, and I was glued to it right on through to the end.

El Pico 2 (1984) (122 mins)

After the success of El Pico came the sequel, the cleverly titled El Pico 2, which picks up not long after the end of the first film, and with some flashbacks to catch you up on things. Paco (José Luis Manzano) is still fiending for heroin and his father, played this time by Fernando Guillén, takes him to live with his grandmother(Rafaela Aparicio) and her nosy but naïve maid Adela (Gracta Morales), both of whom come to believe that Paco is suffering for diabetes after finding one of his needles in the trash. Paco seeks treatment for his addiction, but before he can kick-it he is arrested and imprisoned for the death of the drug-dealer from the last film. The film then becomes a prison set flick where he is immediately violently assaulted, but ends up sharing a cell with good guy El Pirri (José Luís Fernández, Navajeros), and befriending gang leader El Lehendakari (Jaume Valls), who takes a liking to the attractive young man and invites him and Perri to move into his cell, along with his transgendered, a man with male sex parts and a pair of breasts. Eventually Paco catches the eye of a rival gang leader named El Tejas (Valentín Paredes) and friction ensues behind the bars, leading to some not unexpected violence and deeper depths of drug-fueled depravity. El Pico 2 is a solid sequel to the first film, the setting behind bars seems only appropriate considering Paco's lifestyle and action, and like the pair of film before it on this set it's seedy and not glamorous, but well-made and absolutely fascinating.

Audio/Video: All three films arrives on 2-disc region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, scanned in HD from the original 35mm negatives. The transfers are filmic and organic looking with a solid bed of film grain and generally strong visuals. Colors are strong and well-saturated and the black levels are strong. There's a modest depth and clarity to the image, and contrast is solid, these look terrific on Blu-ray, Severin did good work and the source elements are is great shape. .

The lone audio for each film is Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. The Spanish dialogue is generally crisp and clean and never hard to decipher, I didn;t detect any issues with distortion and the soundtracks have good fidelity.

The main extras are housed on disc one alongside Navajeros, we get a 9-minute interview with actor José Sacristán who worked on Navajeros in addition to starring in de la Igelesia's El diputado (1978) . He talks about the about the director's penchant for pushing the edge of what was allowed at that time due to the socio-political situation of the era, and the success of de la Iglesia's films. The 46-minute Blood In The Streets: The Quinqui Film Phenomenon is an in interview with Quinqui Historians Mery Cuesta and Tom Whittaker who talk about the decade long spree of juvenile delinquency films known as Quinqui (pronounced: kinky) and how they were violent and exploitative, but also had strong social commentary that elevated them. The 68-minute Queerness, Crime, And The Basque Conflict In The Quinqui Films Of Eloy de la Iglesia is a video conferencing recorded panel with queer cinema scholars Alejandro Melero and Paul Julian Smith, moderated by Evan Purchell of Ask Any Buddy, offering an in-depth and insightful dive into the legacy of de la Igelesia's film in context of the era, his approach to homosexual themes and how his films stack up against other films from his contemporaries. The only extras on disc two are 3-minute trailer for both EL Pico and El Pico 2.

The 2-disc release arrives in a black Elite dual hub keepcase with a single sides sleeve of artwork with an attractive pink and green design on a black background that has a lot of shelf appeal.

Special Features:
Disc One: Navajeros (1980)
- José Sacristán on Eloy de la Iglesia – Interview with Actor José Sacristán (9 min) HD

- Blood In The Streets: The Quinqui Film - Phenomenon – An interview with Quinqui Historians Mery Cuesta and Tom Whittaker (46 min)

- Queerness, Crime, And The Basque Conflict In The Quinqui Films Of Eloy de la Iglesia – A Panel with Scholars Alejandro Melero and Paul Julian Smith, Moderated by Evan Purchell of Ask Any Buddy (68 min)
Disc Two: El Pico (1983)
- Trailer (3 min)
El Pico 2 (1984)
- Trailer (3 min)

Severin's celebration of Eloy de la Iglesia's filmography these past few months have really given me a much deeper appreciation of his work, having previously only having been aware of Cannibal Manm which seems to have been his most widely distributed film. If you're unfamiliar with his work, particularly this trio of drug-culture film starring José Luis Manzano, I would say that if you're a fan of stuff along the lines of A Clockwork Orange, The Warriors, Drugstore Cowboy, Trainspotting, Requiem For A Dream, and Wassup Rockers there's gonna be a lot here to love. Severin Films continue to do the Cinema Lord's work bringing these films to the U.S. on disc for the first time ever, and these gritty crime stories which deftly blend arthouse, exploitation and queer cinema are ripe for discovery.

Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-rays:

NAVAJEROS