Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali

The Twilight Actor Shines in Little Ashes

Apr 23, 2009 Andree Lachapelle

A new film explores the controversial relationship between two of Spain's most creative minds: painter Salvador Dalí, and poet Federico García Lorca.

Directed by Paul Morrison (Wondrous Oblivion, and the Academy Award nominated Solomon and Gaenor,) and starring Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán, the film takes a unique look at the controversial friendship between two men who revolutionized the art scene of a morally-repressed Spain, and brought us some of the most significant writings and art works of the 20th century.

In his Director's Statement released to the media earlier this month, Director Paul Morrison describes Little Ashes as "first and foremost a love story, moving and tender."

Synopsis of Little Ashes

The year is 1922, and a young Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) arrives in Madrid to attend the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts. There, at the Residencia de Estudiantes, he meets the charismatic poet and revolutionary Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and future surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty,) both members of the local social and intellectual elite.

García Lorca and Buñuel welcome the shy and eccentric Dalí with open arms, and a solid friendship develops between the three men, who become inseparable – until the bond shared by Dalí and García Lorca blossoms into a passionate meeting of the minds, and souls.

When Buñuel, made uneasy by their increasingly close relationship, leaves for Paris to pursue his own artistic career, García Lorca and Dalí set off to vacation at the latter's summer home in the fishing village of Cadaqués, where the painter's parents have built a studio for him.

The romantic García Lorca soon falls under the spell of this magical seaside town and becomes enraptured by the Dalí family and by Dalí himself. What starts off as an innocent kiss soon grows into a secret affair that the two men struggle to keep hidden from their long-time friends and from a strict catholic society where homosexuality, bisexuality, and sexual experimentation are deeply frowned upon – an affair that forever changes both men's lives.

"García Lorca’s love for Dalí gives the movie its shape, its dramatic spine," says Morrison, adding, "This is first and foremost an actor’s movie, truthful and beautiful, intimate and spare."

Robert Pattinson Heads Little Ashes Cast as Salvador Dali

With Robert Pattinson in the lead and the addition of Arly Jover (Blade, Vampires: Los Muertos) as Gala Eluard – Dalí's long-time muse, wife, and business manager – the cast reads like a veritable Who's Who of pop-culture vampire lore. Nonetheless, newcomer Javier Beltrán is engaging as García Lorca, and Pattinson plays the legendary painter beautifully, leaving behind Twilight's Edward Cullen to become Salvador Dalí.

Sources:

For more information about Little Ashes, go to the official movie website.

To find out more about Dalí, his life and his work, visit the Salvador Dalí Museum.

Little Ashes opens May 8 in select theatres across the U.S. and Canada.

The copyright of the article Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali in Film Dramas is owned by Andree Lachapelle. Permission to republish Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Portrait of Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali

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