if saura hadn not do anything like this before and iberia would be a milestone . now it still deserve inclusion to honor a great director and a great cinematic conservator of spanish culture and but he have do a lot like this before and and though we can applaud the rich he have give u and we have to pick and choose favorite and high point among similar film which include blood wedding ( 1981 ) and carmen ( 1983 ) and el amore brujo ( 1986 ) and sevillanas ( 1992 ) and salomé ( 2002 ) and tango ( 1998 ) . i would choose saura 1995 flamenco a his most unique and potent cultural document and next to which iberia pale . iberia be conceive a a series of interpretation of the music of isaac manuel francisco albéniz ( 1860 1909 ) and in particular his iberia suite for piano . isaac albéniz be a great contributor to the externalization of spanish musical culture it re formatting for a non spanish audience . he move to france in his early thirty and be influence by french composer . his iberia suite be an imaginative synthesis of spanish folk music with the style of liszt and dukas and dindy . he travel around perform his composition and which be a kind of beautiful standardization of spanish rhythm and melody and not as homogenize a ravel bolero but move in that direction . naturally and the spanish have repossess albéniz and and in iberia and the performer reinterpret his composition in term of various more ethnic and regional dance and style . but the source be a tamed and diluted form of spanish musical and dance culture compare to the echt spanishness of pure flamenco . flamenco and come out of the region of andalusia and be a deeply felt amalgam of gitane and hispano arabic and and jewish culture . iberia simply be the peninsula comprise spain and portugal and andorra and gibraltar while the very concept be more diluted . saura flamenco be an unstoppably intense ethnic mix of music and singing and dancing and that peacock manner of noble preening that be the essence of spanish style and the way a man and a woman carry himself or herself with pride verge on arrogance and elegance and panache even bullfight and the move of the torero be full of it in a series of electric sequence without introduction or conclusion while they just be . saura always emphasize the staginess of his collaboration with choreographer antonio gades and other artist . in his 1995 flamenco he drop any pretense of a story and simply have singer and musician and and dancer move on and off a big sound stage with nice lighting and screen and flat and and mirror arrange by cinematographer vittorio storaro and another of the spanish filmmaker important collaborator . the beginning and ending of sequence in flamenco be often rough and but atmospheric and mark only by the rumble and rustle of shuffle foot and a mixture of voice . sometimes the film keep feed when a performance be over and you see the dancer bend over and sigh and or laugh while or somebody just unexpectedly say something . in flamenco more than any of saura other musical film it the rapt and intense interaction of singer and dancer and rhythmically clap participant observer shout impulsive olé that be the story and create the magic . because saura have truly make magic and and perhaps best so when he drop any sort of conventional story . iberia be in a similar style to some of saura pure musical film represent no narration and no dialogue and only brief title to indicate the type of song or the region and begin with a pianist play albeniz music and gradually move to a series of dance sequence and a little singing . in flamenco music and the fundamental element be the unaccompanied voice and and that voice be the most unmistakable and unique contribution to world music . it relate to other song in other ethnicity and but nothing quite equal it raw raucous unique ugly beautiful cry that defy you to do anything but listen to it with the close attention . then come the clapping and the foot stomping and and then the dancing and combine with the other element . there be only one flamenco song in iberia . if you love saura flamenco and you will want to see iberia and but you will be a bit disappointed . the style be there while some of the great voice and dance and music be there . but iberia source and conception doom it to a less degree of power and make it a less rich and intense cultural experience .