Balada Triste de Trompeta - The Last Circus (2010)

Oh...my...fucking...god!
Thee is some seriously fucked up shit going on this film. I couldn't look away, like I was watching some horrible slow motion clown train wreck.
The protagonist and antagonist become so alike by the end, in fact I would say that the protagonist has become the antagonist if not his own antagonist. And the girl, oh the girl. As she is told, she wants her cake and to eat it too. And in the end, she does what she is good at and the clown is a laughing clown and the clown is a sad clown.
I don't know enough about the political climate of Spain in the 1970s to know if what we were shown was an accurate portrayal, certainly not the events, but perhaps the feel. I would like to think that Franco had his hand severely bit by a man forced to behave as a dog, before he became a crazy mother fucker on his way to being the sad clown.
Carlos Areces as Javier was an excellent choice, as was Antonio de la Torre as Sergio, they weren't just actors playing the roles, they were Javier and Sergio. Carolina Bang as Natalya was a little off her game the first half of the film I thought, but the second half I think I realized that being a little off was what Natalya was - beautiful, but in her own way as crazy as her clowns.
The final, climactic scene is painful on so many levels. Even though the clowns are now fully monsters, you still feel empathy towards them. But you really feel for Natalya. She seems so trapped in her choices and you can't tell if she really is trapped to the limited number of possibilities or if she is only convinced that her options are so limited.

Balada Triste de Trompeta at IMDb