Not “The Lord of the Rings”, not a Tim Burton fairy tale and not a Studio Ghibli adventure, but “The Wizard of Oz” is for us the best fantasy film of all time. Big shoes to fill for “Rainbow”. Starting today on Netflix.
“The Wizard of Oz” is the best fantasy film of all time – at least according to the official FILMSTARTS bestseller list, in which Victor Fleming’s Oscar-winning cinema classic takes second place to Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Guillermo del Toro’s dark fairy tale “Pan’s Labyrinth” or Hayao Miyazaki’s anime masterpiece “Castle in the Sky”, among others. And even though best lists are of course always subjective to a certain extent, it cannot be denied that “The Wizard of Oz” still has a very special significance for cinema even after more than 70 years. Can the latest remake, “Rainbow”, leave even a rudimentary impression?
You can now see for yourself, because “Rainbow” is now available exclusively on Netflix. But you shouldn’t expect another fairytale reinterpretation like Sam Raimi’s “The Fantastic World of Oz” from 2013. Instead, Paco León (“Kiki, Love To Love”) brings the story of Dorothy Gale and her reveries into the here and now in an entirely modernised form.
Speaking of Paco León: the Spanish filmmaker is not only a director, but also an actor – and as such recently stood in front of the camera alongside Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal for “Massive Talent”, which is available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray from today:
THIS IS “RAINBOW “
“This isn’t a movie, it’s a trip,” says the trailer for “Rainbow” above, among other things, in which “Oz” connoisseurs are likely to spot a number of direct parallels to the ever-popular classic – from the tornado scene, from the tornado scene in which Judy Garland’s Dorothy Gale once took off with her house, to the shot in which the four main characters walk across a field, to the protagonist, of course, who daringly embarks on an adventure with her fluffy four-legged companion. This time it is the search for her mother that drives her. At the same time, however, a shady, sinister woman is up to no good and has it in for her…
Not at all as pompously equipped or staged as the 1939 film (or the 2013 one), the trailer for “Rainbow” nevertheless promises an exuberant visual feast for the senses. It only remains to be seen how coherently the sometimes quite appealing images will be interwoven with the story – or whether the hauntingly effective shots will end up being just one side of a style-over-substance coin.
Among others, newcomer Dora Postigo is joined by Spanish acting greats such as Rossy de Palma (“Parallel Mothers”), Carmen Maura (“Volver”), Luis Bermejo (“We Are Champions”) as well as two cast members that Netflix subscribers might already know: Ester Expositó was part of the series’ regular cast as Carla Roson in the teen drama “Élite” from the first episode, and Hovik Keuchkerian starred as Bogotá in seasons 3 to 5 of the heist mega-hit “House of Money.”
