Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls on the heap (Pedro Almodóvar, 1980)

Alaska, Eva Siva and Carmen Maura

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Carmen Maura, Alaska, Eva Siva, Félix Rotaeta

Synopsis: When Pepi (Maura) is raped by a policeman (Rotaeta) she vows revenge -she ropes in her rock star friend Bom (Alaska) to help compromise (and liberate) the policeman's seemingly docile wife, Luci (Siva). 

This is not one of my favourite Almodóvar films, but despite its crudity (in form and content) it nonetheless has moments of infectious fun. Stylistically there is little to connect this to the director's later work, but his sense of humour (a combination of the outrageous and the mundane) is in evidence, and what would become the recurring theme of female friendship and solidarity is also apparent in the relationship between Luci and Bom.

Almodóvar Month begins…

So August has arrived, the countdown to the UK release (on the 26th) of La piel que habito / The Skin I Live In starts, and it’s Almodóvar Month here at Nobody Knows Anybody.

I haven’t managed to do quite what I wanted (in a previous post I said that I hoped to write about my ten favourite Almodóvar films), but I think I’ll actually manage to say something (however short) about all seventeen films and will write something about the eighteenth once I get to see it.

Here’s what will be appearing on the blog throughout August:

• I’ve written a paragraph on each of the films and those will be posted up in chronological order with basic credits and a synopsis.
• There will be an Almodóvar ‘book list’ in the style of the Spanish cinema ones I have posted previously.
• There will be a series of longer posts looking at specific films –including High Heels, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, and Volver. These won't be going up in chronological order because I'm still writing the High Heels one.
• There may also be some other things –for example, I’d quite like to write something about his film posters, but it depends on how much time I have.

Anyway, hopefully there’ll be something for everyone (providing they like the films), and please feel free to chip in via the comments section with your thoughts about the various films –have I underestimated one? Or over-praised another? 

Agnosia (Eugenio Mira, 2010)

Director: Eugenio Mira

Screenwriter: Antonio Trashorras

Cast: Bárbara Goenaga, Eduardo Noriega, Félix Gómez, Martina Gedeck, Sergi Mateu, Jack Taylor

Trailer: short version (haven’t been able to find the subtitled full-length version) 

Availability: available to buy and rent in the UK.

Synopsis: Barcelona, 1899. Joana (Bárbara Goenaga) suffers from agnosia, a neuropsychological condition that affects her perception. Interested parties suspect that she is the only person who knows an industrial secret relating to her father’s business, and so a conspiracy evolves with the aim of obtaining the secret by deception. Two men, Carles (Eduardo Noriega), her fiancé, and Vicent (Félix Gómez), a servant, are her only form of protection. But can she trust them? And can she trust her own senses?

agnosia, n.

A condition in which people can see, but cannot recognise or interpret, visual stimuli; loss of perceptive power; loss of the power to recognise people or things seen.

Note: contains minor spoilers (although nothing that you couldn’t guess from the trailer).

More articles added to the Spanish cinema reading list

All of these articles come from issue 39 of Archivos de la filmoteca, the search for a copy of which became something of an unresolved Holy Grail-type quest during my PhD –the articles in this specific issue are repeatedly referenced in books and articles on Spanish cinema of the 1990s but it is really difficult to track down. I found this copy a few months ago through Abe Books but only bought it last month after deciding that my quest would not be complete until I actually had a copy (I’d been dithering because I no longer ‘need’ it). These are just the articles that look at some general issues in Spanish cinema of the period (although taking specific films as examples) –there are others in the issue that take specific films or filmmakers as the basis for the article, but I’m not adding those at the moment because I will eventually do a filmmaker / specific film list. The articles listed below have been added to Books on Spanish cinema, Parts One and Two. 

Benet, V.J. (2001) –‘El malestar del entretenimiento’, Archivos de la filmoteca, no.39, October, pp.40-53.

[Taken from the official abstract] This article looks at various film adaptations of Spanish novels, specifically those of Ray Loriga and José Ángel Mañas. The analysis examines the values and symbols reflected in these films, which differ significantly from films made during the Spanish transition to democracy. The article situates the relationship between these films and their literary sources within an economic perspective, taking leisure and entertainment as key cultural concepts.

Gámez Fuentes, M.J. (2001) –‘No todo sobre las madres: cine español y género de los noventa’, Archivos de la filmoteca, no.39, October, pp.68-85.

[Taken from the official abstract] This paper analyses the various images of motherhood through their configuration in ‘90s films such as El pájaro de la felicidad (1993), Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (1995), Solas (1999) and Todo sobre mi madre (1999). The different figures are considered as cultural products which articulate tensions contextualized at a particular historical moment: the consolidation of democracy in Spain. Through a detailed study of the maternal, such issues as job access, geographical origin and sexual identity are discussed within the framework of the private and public negotiations women are to be faced with in the new welfare state. The legacy of the dictatorial past is, undoubtedly, a question that also permeates the construction of female narratives -unfolded here in personal and historical complexity.

Quintana, Á. (2001) –‘El cine como realidad y el mundo como representación: algunos síntomas de los noventa’, Archivos de la filmoteca, no.39, October, pp.8-25.

[Taken from the official abstract] In contrast to traditional discussions of film and history, the author takes the concept of historicity to examine the relationship between thought, culture, and art at a specific moment in the history of cinema. As point of departure, the article takes the commonly cited crisis of reality in Spanish cinema of the 1990s, in particular three significant cultural phenomena: the identity crisis, excessive images of violence, and the transformation of the world into a gigantic Platonic cave. These phenomena are observed in the various models of Spanish film of the 1990s, where a new generation of filmmakers aim to situate their films within the cultural logic of postmodernity. The author affirms that representative figures in Spanish film are a symptom of the global crisis of the real that is affecting the world, dominated by a loss of faith in the media and the creation of new spatial and temporal dimensions in a virtual sphere.  

New poster for Blackthorn

Via Trailers y Estrenos

It's not my intention to post every new Spanish film poster that comes along but, as I've already posted those for La piel que habito and Extraterrestre, I thought that this one should also go up as it is another of the four forthcoming (in 2011) Spanish films that I'm most interested in.

In other news: Yes, it has been a bit slow on here recently (I've had to prioritise other things), but it should start to pick up again in the next couple of weeks.

New poster for La piel que habito

Via tío Oscar

This is the new poster for Almodóvar’s La piel que habito (which looks like a photo from a distance but is actually a painting), and there are also new images and clips in circulation (for example, see La Katarsis del Cine Español). I’m not going to post much more about the film now until it has its release in the UK (which now looks like it will be the end of August rather than November) –I’m deliberately not reading the reviews coming out of Cannes because I’d rather go in knowing as little as possible. Nobody Knows Anybody will also be having an Almodóvar month closer to the UK release, so when the date seems a bit more concrete (it seems odd to me that we would get the film before Spain (where it has a September date)) I’ll post some details about that.
Fingers crossed tomorrow for Pedro & co. at Cannes.

New Book Added to List

I have added this book to the list in Part One of the Books on Spanish Cinema posts [reasons for creating the list are explained in there]:

Davies, A. (ed.) (2010) –Spain on Screen: Developments in Contemporary Spanish Cinema, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 9780230236202
This collection stems from a one-day symposium on contemporary Spanish cinema held at Newcastle University in July 2008. I was in the audience at that symposium and there were some very interesting discussions –these articles are mainly extended versions of the papers given that day (with a few written especially for this book).
• Introduction: The Study of Contemporary Spanish Cinema –Ann Davies
• Audiences, Film Culture, Public Subsidies: The End of Spanish Cinema? –Barry Jordan
• Al mal tiempo, buena cara: Spanish Slackers, Time-images, New Media and the New Cinema Law –Rob Stone
• Re-visions of Teresa: Historical Fiction in Television and Film –Paul Julian Smith
• The Final Girl and Monstrous Mother of El orfanato –Ann Davies
• Ensnared Between Pleasure and Politics: Looking for Chicas Bigas Luna, Re-viewing Bambola –Santiago Fouz-Hernández
• Javier Bardem: Costume, Crime, and Commitment –Chris Perriam
• Children of Exile: Trauma, Memory and Testimony in Jaime Camino’s Documentary Los niños de Rusia (2001) –Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla

Books on Spanish Cinema, Part Two

This is Part Two of the list that I started yesterday (see Part One here).

Part Two: Authors J (continued) - Z

Books on Spanish Cinema, Part One

This post is inspired by my attempts a couple of weeks ago to discover which films were covered in an edited collection of articles on Spanish films. I was looking for info about / analysis of La madre muerta and I knew that the book in question looked at key Spanish films –but could I find a list of contents anywhere? No. Not on Amazon, not on the publisher’s website, not on the public library catalogue. I eventually tracked down a copy in one of the university libraries in this city (it didn’t have anything about La madre muerta, incidentally), but this reminded me that the recurring problem that I have had when buying books about Spanish cinema, especially when the books are in Spanish, is that I effectively have to buy ‘blind’ because there is so little information about the book available online. This is especially true on websites such as Casa del Libro, which lists very little information beyond author, title, and publisher, but Amazon is equally as bad with edited collections (where you are often given no indication of what topics are included, or who has written the various articles) and books not in English. Note to publishers: putting some kind of content information online would net you more sales.
    
So, I’ve decided to be helpful (at least, this would have been helpful to me in the past).
    
What I’m going to do is this: with books that are written by one author, I will write a (very) brief summary of the book; with the edited collections, I will include the list of contents; and if an article is available online, I will link to it. I’m not going to translate the titles of articles that are in Spanish because there is little point given that the article itself will also be in Spanish. The aim for this resource is that it will be a cross between a recommended reading list and an annotated bibliography –I may write some book reviews of some of the books included at a later date, but that is not the purpose of this particular post.
First up will be books / articles that are about Spanish cinema in general (I will post something about books on directors / actors / specific films at a later date) –this is going to be split across more than one post because I’ve got rather a long list. The books / articles are being chosen by two criteria: 1) I’ve read them and currently have access to a copy (I can’t get the information without the physical copy) and 2) they relate to the period that I’ve said this blog is going to cover (the last twenty years). The latter point is why some older books by significant authors are not included. The list is in alphabetical order by author because that’s the most straightforward way to do it. If you think that I’ve left a glaring omission (especially for books in Spanish –buying blind means that my collection is a bit hit and miss), please leave a comment below. Likewise, if you’ve got something to say about the books included, please join in as well!
If you’re in the UK, most of these books can be obtained from the British Library via the Inter-Library Loan system. If you want to buy any, I’d recommend comparing the prices available between Amazon, Casa del Libro, Ocho y Medio, The Book Depository, Alibris, and Abe Books –there are bargains to be had if you do some searching (but likewise there are some people –on Amazon in particular- selling second-hand copies for absurdly high prices).
Ok, let’s get started!

Anatomy of a scene: La madre muerta (00:21:12-00:23:11)

Ismael has one of those days where everything goes wrong

This is the start of what will be an occasional feature on the blog. I won't do it for every film I look at, but some films have a scene that just perfectly captures the sensibility and / or themes of the film as a whole. In the case of La madre muerta, I could have chosen the ‘Aguadilu’ scene because that is also a good illustration of the tone of the film and the fine line that it walks between humour and uneasiness. However I’ve chosen this one because a) it is darkly funny, and b) it is a brilliant set piece. Plus it occurs only twenty minutes into the film, so I can’t be accused of spoiling the plot. Juanma Bajo Ulloa considers it to be one of the best sequences in the film because of how it creates a sensation of fear (something is going to happen to the grandmother, but we don’t know exactly what) and combines both suspense and absurd humour.

The story so far: The prologue of the film sees Ismael (Karra Elejalde) shoot and kill a woman who disturbs him during a burglary, and ends with him pointing his shotgun at the head of the woman’s small daughter. Fifteen years later, Ismael spots the girl (Leire -now grown up and played by Ana Álvarez) in the street with her grandmother. Despite the fact that she is mute, and has the mental age of a three-year-old, he becomes convinced that she recognises him and could identify him to the police. As a result, Ismael announces to his girlfriend that he plans to kidnap and kill Leire. In the lead up to this scene, we have seen Ismael tail Leire and her grandmother as they make their way home from the clinic where Leire spends her days. He casually follows them into their apartment block, and then it cuts to….

Links roundup, 10th March -mainly about Ángel Sala

    The main story of the week is that of Ángel Sala, director of the Sitges Film Festival, who was reported to the Barcelona authorities and accused of exhibiting child pornography, on the basis that A Serbian Film (the ‘plot’ of which includes the rape of a baby and of a five-year-old child) was screened at the Sitges Film Festival last October. This has predictably caused uproar and prompted accusations of censorship, and expressions of disbelief that the judiciary cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality (although, as I understand it, Spanish law does not differentiate between ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’ in terms of images of this kind, and the specific article of the penal code (189.7, according to El País) covers the production, selling, distribution, exhibiting, or facilitating of such images).
     Leaving aside the issue of censorship for one moment, the main point of absurdity seems to be that the person who is facing a prison sentence of three to twelve months (and Sala was formally charged on Wednesday 9th March), is someone who was not directly involved in the making of the film –the letter of support signed by the directors of other Spanish film festivals notes their surprise (and, no doubt, alarm) that it is a cultural programmer who is being pursued, rather than anyone who can even theoretically be held responsible for the film’s content. I hold no brief for A Serbian Film –given what I have read about it (Empire's review –yes, it was released in the UK, although cut by the BBFC- is here), I have no desire to see it. But I am an adult and am capable of making that decision for myself. After Sala was charged on Wednesday, the Sitges Film Festival released a statement making clear: a) their continued support for their director, b) that the film is a work of fiction, and c) that strict precautions were taken to ensure that only adults attended the (one) screening of the film. We can only wait to see what happens next. In the meantime, an online petition in support of Ángel Sala has been started.

Other news-

The on-going story of who will take over from Álex de la Iglesia as President of the Spanish Academy of the Arts and Cinematographic Sciences: last week director Bigas Luna threw his hat into the ring. However the elections are for a team (President and two Vice-Presidents) rather than just a President, so Bigas Luna had been looking for two other people to serve with him. He had said that he wanted someone from the acting community and someone from the production side of filmmaking. Earlier this week it was announced that actress Leonor Watling (Hable con ella / Talk to Her (Almodóvar, 2002), and perhaps more pertinently, Son de mar / Sound of the Sea (Bigas Luna, 2001)) and production manager / line producer Yousaf Bokhari (Balada triste de trompeta (de la Iglesia, 2010)) will stand as the two Vice-Presidents in collaboration with Bigas Luna. As yet no other candidates / teams have announced that they intend to run.

La madre muerta / The Dead Mother (Bajo Ulloa, 1993)

This post has been moved to my new blog - you can find it here.

Pa negre / Black Bread (2010)

Director: Agustí Villaronga
Screenwriter: Agustí Villaronga, based on the book by Emili Teixidor
Cast: Francesc Colomer, Marina Comas, Nora Navas, Roger Casamajor, Laia Marull, Eduard Fernández, Sergi López.
Availability: the film is due out on DVD (with optional English subtitles) in Spain in March, and is currently available on the streaming site Filmin, here.

‘The silent knowledge of unquiet graves necessarily produced a devastating schism between public and private memory in Spain’ –Helen Graham (2005: 137)

The 25th Goya Awards: the winners

At the moment the official website for the Goyas seems to be inaccessible -when I'm able to get onto it, I'll add some links here. In the meantime -
El País has the full list of winners here
Fotogramas have photogalleries of the red carpet, the show, the winners, and video footage.
Pa negre was the big winner, winning 9 Goyas out of 14 nominations including Best Film, Best Director, and 4 of the acting categories. The other frontrunners fared less well –También la lluvia (13 nominations) picked up 3 (Supporting Actor, Music, and Production Direction), as did Buried (Sound, Editing, Original Screenplay), and Balada triste de trompeta won 2 of its 15 categories (Make-Up and Special Effects).
The main categories were as follows:

Álex de la Iglesia’s Goya speech, 13th February 2011:

Someone has probably already translated this somewhere, and Alt Film Guide has a condensed version here, but this is my translation based on the transcript that El País put online almost immediately after the speech was given (they also have video). Please let me know if there are any errors (there were a couple of phrases I was unsure of).

Resources: where to buy / watch / read about Spanish cinema

Films and DVDs –
      The UK distribution of Spanish films on DVD has improved in the last few years, and there are a number of options in terms of buying them within the UK. Amazon UK currently has quite a lot of Spanish DVDs for under £5 (go into DVD > World Cinema > Spanish) and Moviemail also often have good offers on foreign language cinema. However there are a lot of Spanish films that don’t get released over here but are released in Spain with optional English subtitles (this is more true of contemporary films than older classics, but there is nonetheless a wide range available with subtitle options). If you’re unsure about ordering from Spain, there are quite a lot of Spanish sellers selling Spanish DVDs on ebay UK (DVDs > Foreign Language > Spanish) –the prices sometimes seem a little steep but consider that they quite often offer free postage and have factored that into their asking price (standard postage for one DVD being sent from Spain to the UK seems to be around 12€). I have ordered DVDs through ebay in this way and have never had any problem.