At Christmastime ...

When I think of Chritmastime, I can´t help thinking of films and going to the cinema. When I was little, my father, who didn´t usually have much time to spend with us, used to take my sister and me to the cinema and that was a great treat. In fact, my first experience of watching a film in a cinema took place at this time of the year. Most people tend to have some time on their hands these days and that´s probably one of the reasons why the number of cinema-goers rises during the festive season. The film industry is aware of this and as a result, quite a lot of films are released during the Christmas break.

This Christmas offers us the opportunity of watching a wide range of films. If you´re into romantic comedies, Enough Said can be a good choice for you. The last film of Nicole Holofcener – director of Friends with Money and Please Give – deals with falling in love and the idea of making a new start without being biased and influenced by the prejudices of a  former relationship. The story rests on its witty dialogue and its wonderful cast, two factors which remind us of the old, classic comedies where the plot relied so much on situations that resulted from funny misunderstandings. This film can also be regarded as some sort of tribute to James Gandolfini who plays the part of the male protagonist. James Gandolfini died of a heart attack last summer and he will always be remembered as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American mobster of the TV series The Sopranos.

If you´re fond of Woody Allen´s films, you can watch Blue Jasmine, his last film which has received critical acclaim and is still on at our local cinemas. But if you aren´t interested in dramas, you may enjoy a story which is full of hope: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, directed by Ben Stiller who also plays the main role. Perhaps you are one of those people who read The Physician a long time ago and once you wondered what it would be like to watch this story on the screen, if that´s the case, you´re lucky: Noah Gordon´s story has been adapted for the big screen and it has just been released.

Regardless of whether you have the opportunity of going to the pictures or not, I feel that this time of the year is associated with watching films or, at least, a particular film that you enjoy. In the States watching It´s a Wonderful Life or A Charlie Brown Christmas has become some sort of Christmas tradition for everybody. 

 

It´s difficult to point out the same sort of tradition nationwide, but I believe that most of the people who love watching films have fostered their own tradition. Someone who is close to me enjoys watching Christmas Vacation, a film which – some would argue – cannot be classified as an unforgettable classic film but who knows? As for me, not every single year – but once in a while – I like watching When Harry met Sally. Most people would say that this is not really a Christmas film, however, I feel that this is the right time of the year to watch it. The film has a couple of scenes with the Christmas tree which are very brief but very meaningful at the same time, and besides, the story ends on New Year´s Eve, so the topic does appear in the film even if it is not a film about Christmas. Nevertheless, what makes this story suitable for the last days of the year is, in my view, its cyclic sense of life: regardless of the plot of the story, the film underlines the idea of passage of time and the personal events associated with it. And if we feel prone to positiveness we can also pay attention to the fact that no matter how hard the times are, no matter how difficult the year has been, Christmas will come, a new year will begin and despite our problems, somehow, we will find a way to make a new start.

                     Happy Boxing Day, Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year!!! 

What is your own Xmas tradition when it comes to watching films? Have you acquired the habit of watching a film which you inextricably associate with the festive season?

On short stories and films

I discovered Alice Munro some years ago. It was one of those random discoveries which usually take place in bookshops. I guess that´s one of the perks of visiting your favourite bookshops: you are bound to find something new, interesting or exciting. As I started reading,  I couldn´t help falling in love with her stories, stories about Canadian women who lead ordinary lives in – sometimes – remote places of Canada. Munro excels at depicting the lives of these women and, very often, she manages to convey an eye-opening picture of humankind just by paying attention to a simple anecdote about the life of one of her female protagonists.

I am happy to learn that she has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: in my opinion, she is a master of the short story. That´s why, if you feel like learning a bit about this writer, you might like to know that in 2006, Sarah Polley made a film based on one of her stories: The Bear Came Over the Mountain. The film hit the big screen under the title of Away from Her. I fully recommend it to anyone who is interested in some of the issues that affect all of us: loving, getting old and learning to cope with one of the most nagging diseases of the 21^st century: Alzheimer´s. I really feel that it is a beautiful film shot with the delicacy and depth which are typical of Alice Munro´s stories.

 

Had you heard about Alice Munro before? Are you familiar with the film that I have mentioned? Do you know any other writer whose short stories have hit the big screen?

It´s such a difficult business

Last week I attended a very interesting interview. It was one of those rare occasions on which you have the opportunity of learning a bit more about a person whose work you admire: Nick Hornby. As I pointed out some months ago literature and cinema are closely linked and very often, it is impossible to understand films without the direct influence of literature. I dare say that this English writer has become a household name for the people who are interested in contemporary fiction but the work of this author has been influential in the lives of cinema-goers who are not familiar with his novels. In brief, most of his novels have been adapted for the big screen and perhaps the name Nick Hornby doesn´t ring a bell but what about the following films: High Fidelity, About a Boy or  Fever Pitch?

                                                  The official trailer for About a Boy.

If you´re into cinema and especially into comedies, I´m sure you´ve watched some of these films. Probably one of the reasons why Horby´s stories appeal to viewers/ readers is his ability to create characters whose concerns, emotions and attitudes are so universal. His novels may take place in England but the readers in Germany, in Spain or in the States feel moved in the same way as British readers do. And that´s why, his stories are usually adapted for the big screen by American people and take place in the States but as Nick Hornby recognises, it doesn´t matter because however British his characters may look, the important thing is to be able to translate the worries, aspirations, dreams and failures that define every character to the screen. In this sense, Nick Hornby feels grateful to film-makers, producers, musicians and all the people involved in making films for their effort and work because making a film is such a difficult business that it is not easy to gather the right group of people  - at the right time –  in order to work together on the creation of a  story . And that´s one of the lessons that I learnt from Nick Hornby: we often take films for granted. I must confess that I had already reached that conclusion myself but sometimes we do need to be reminded of the more obvious things. We have a look at the newspaper or on the Internet and we find out that there´s a new film at our local cinema and next week there´ll probably be another one but we must be aware that beyond the pictures on the screen which move us in very different ways, there are lots of people working really hard and those people are part of the film industry, the industry that trades in images and emotions, invisible but powerful currency, don´t you think?

                              The screenplay of An Education was also written by Nick Hornby.

Have you watched any of the films based on the novels by Nick Hornby? What do you think about them?

Wolverine in San Sebastián

Hugh Jackman arrived in San Sebastián and wooed all of us. He is much younger than the actors who are usually presented with the Donostia Award – a lifetime-achievement award – but he is talented and charming so who else can outdo him? At the age of forty-four and thanks to a wide variety of  roles throughout his career, he has shown us that he is able to sing, dance, play a superhero, host the Oscars ceremony and perform on stage, in brief, he is a very versatile actor.

He has very good looks but perhaps what is more remarkable is that he usually comes across as a very easy-going person in interviews. Sometimes film stars appear to be arrogant, distant and whimsical but Hugh Jackman is just the opposite. Maybe he´s just pretending to be a nice guy but cinema is about pretences and make-believe so if he is so good at pretending, obviously, he deserves to be presented with the Award, don´t you think?

What do you think about Hugh Jackman? Have you seen any of his films? Do you know any other actors who were presented with the Donostia Award?

It´s time for festivals

As summer comes to an end, we must go back to our daily routine. It´s time to go back to normal and it´s also time to embark on new experiences but above all, it´s time for festivals: film festivals!!

This year the Venice film festival has been full of English-speaking cinema. Most media have drawn their attention to two British films: Philomena and Under the Skin.

Philomena tells us the story of an elderly Irish woman – Judi Dench – whose child was taken away from her by nuns many decades earlier. An initially sceptical journalist played by Steven Coogan helps her to track down the identity of the child. The film, which has had very good reviews, has been directed by Stephen Frears.

Set in the Scottish Highlands, Under the Skin is Jonathan Glazer´s film adaptation of the Dutch-Scots writer Michel Faber´s 2000 novel. The plot of the novel is about an alien who masquerades as an alluring woman in order to kidnap hitch-hikers and sell them back home for food, consequently the film attempts to portray the story of that alien.

There have been very different reactions to the film but it has not been received with critical acclaim as far as mainstream industry voices are concerned. Maybe one of the reasons why this film has hogged the limelight is that its protagonist is played by Scarlett Johansson, who attended the Venice premiere along with Jonathan Glazer.

 As you can in this photo Scarlett Johansson looks very different in Under the Skin.

 It is also worth mentioning another English-speaking film: Kill Your Darlings. This film is about the early years of the beat generation, a generation which has already become familiar in cinematic terms thanks to Kerouac´s On the Road, which was adapted for the screen in 2012. In Kill Your Darlings Daniel Radcliffe plays the role of Allen Ginsberg and by doing so he makes it clear that he has left behind the character of Harry Potter.

Far away from the decadently beautiful city of Venice, another film festival overlaps the Venice festival: the Toronto film festival. The Canadian city has hosted the world premiere of The Fifth Estate, which is a portrayal of the life of WIKILeaks founder Julian Assange. The part of Assange is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, a British actor who has become famous for his performance of Sherlock Holmes in the modern BBC TV series. Cumberbatch has been regarded as “the man of the festival” as he appears in three of the festival films: The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave and August: Osage County.

Cumberbatch at the press conference held on the morning after the premiere of the film.

The film is directed by Bill Condon and Dan Stevens, who is famous both sides of the Athlantic for his role of Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey, plays the role of a journalist who is well-known in Britain: Ian Katz.

As Venice and Toronto bid us farewell, the beautiful city of San Sebastian takes the baton since it hosts another film festival in September. It´s a bit early to guess which films will be held in high regard but we do know that the 61^st edition of the San Sebastian Festival has chosen Hugh Jackman to be presented with its Donostia Award on 27^th September prior to the screening of his latest work: Prisoners. The Australian actor is said to be one of the most versatile actors of our time who has won the Golden- Globe and Tony Awards as well as being nominated for an Academy Award.

Apart from Hugh Jackman, Carmen Maura will also be presented with the Donostia Award on 22^nd September as a tribute to one of the most outstanding careers in Spanish cinema over the last decades. Carmen Maura has become a household name all over Europe where she has won numerous and prestigious awards throughout her career.

As you can see, September is a good month when it comes down to watching films as there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy this wonderful industry.

So, what do you think about film festivals? Do you like to keep up-to-date with the latest news related to these events? Have you already heard about any of the films that I have mentioned? Do you feel like watching any of them?

In the summertime ...

It´s summertime and you´ve probably wondered what´s on at your local cinema because when the day is a scorcher, a cinema turns out to be one of the most welcoming places in the world.

This summer we have a wide range of films that cater for cinemagoers with very different tastes. If you are interested in love relationships, you can watch Before Midnight or Writers / Stuck in Love whose title also tells us that the plot of the film is related to being a writer. Besides, the soundtrack of this film is really remarkable. Before Midnight stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and takes us to the beautiful scenery of Greece to tell the story of Jesse and Celine, a story which started two decades ago when the protagonists met on a train bound for Viena. This film may be regarded as some sort of trilogy together with Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004).

One of the best films that has also been released this summer is The Best Offer, a film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore who became very famous in the late eighties thanks to his beautiful film Cinema Paradiso (winner of the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in1989). On this occasion Tornatore, who has also written the script of The Best Offer, deals with the concepts of art and beauty and the role they play in human relationships. The Best Offer is an enjoyable film that reminds the viewer of old films and enables us to learn about human nature by teaching us that that “there is always some authenticity in every fake” or, at least, there should be so that all of us can be happier.

Another film that is worth mentioning is The Green Bicycle, which was released at the Venice Film Festival last year although it wasn´t in the main competition. This film is claimed to be the first one to have been entirely shot in Saudia Arabia and has been directed by Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female film-maker in Saudia Arabia, a kingdom where cinemas are illegal. The Green Bicycle tells us the story of Wadjda, a ten-year old girl who just wishes to ride a bike to race against a male friend. But in a conservative country where women are deprived of basic rights which are taken for granted in Western societies, her wish clashes with the social barriers and taboos that Arab women face in their everyday lives.

If you are interested in this inspiring story, you can watch this video and learn more about this film.

All of these films offer you the opportunity of watching good stories which are also very entertaining. However, you may be interested in a different type of film because you just want to kill time or because you really enjoy the so-called commercial cinema; don´t worry, as I have said, this summer there are films for every type of viewer and that´s what makes cinema so special: it appeals to very different people because it deals with diverse themes, stories, styles and genres. So, if you feel like having a good time while you are told a story of a hero with superpowers, TheWolverine 2 is your film. In this film Hugh Jackman reprises the role of the Marvel Comics character Wolverine in an attempt to garner the same critical acclaim and financial success as on previous occasions.And if you´re into sci-fi films, Elysium can be the right choice for you.  The story is set in the year 2154 when the population of the world is divided into the wealthy, who live in a man-made space station, and the rest of the people who live in the polluted and apocalyptic Earth. As usual, sci-fi films or novels envisage a futuristic scenario but in doing so they aspire to depict our present-day situation and the dangers that it entails for humankind.

Have you seen any of these films? What do you think about them? Would you like to suggest watching a film which has been released this summer? Why would you recommend it?

This year´s Cannes Film Festival

The last time I wrote about reviews and the way we feel moved by the experience of watching a film, which is one of the most personal experiences of our life. On that post I focused on the film The Great Gatsby to illustrate that idea and I would like to point out that it was this film that became the centre of the opening gala of this year´s Cannes Film Festival. As times goes by, it may be difficult to remember which films were released “at the end of the red carpet”, however, there is an ingredient which is always inherent in any film festival: the poster of the film festival and, on this occasion, the poster of the 66^th Cannes Festival has been paid a lot of compliments thanks to the indelible image of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward as eternal kissers.

The Cannes Film Festival is famous for its official posters as every year the Festival decides on posters that rely on iconic images related to the world of cinema. According to the official sources, the reason for choosing Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward was that they were “a couple who embody the spirit of cinema like no other”. The choice of this poster is a way of paying tribute to the memory of both actors who were in Cannes in 1958 – the year they got married – for the official competition of The Long Hot Summer, the first film in which they appeared together.

Is there any image or images which you always associate with films? What kind of image comes to your mind when you think about cinema?

Film reviews versus our love of films

On my previous post I told you about the literary works that have been made into films lately and among them, I drew your attention to a film that was about to be released: The Great Gatsby. So if you´ve watched this film, I´d love to read your opinion about it.

I think that the way you feel moved by a film based on a book varies a great deal depending on whether you are acquainted with the original story or not because if you are not familiar with the plot or the characters on which the film is based, you are likely to understand and react to the film in a very different way. I must admit to being a lover of the story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and despite the spectacular, glittering, dazzling production which may also have made the story become devoid of its depth or subtlety, I enjoyed watching this film.

I feel that Baz Luhrmann is wonderful at creating the vivid 1920s atmosphere in which all the singing, the dancing and Jay-Z´s music play a very important part. In addition, Luhrmann is also very good at depicting the special relationship – full of tenderness and sweet moments – between Gatsby and Daisy when their love is rekindled. Nevertheless, the viewer who is aware of the plot of the novel resents the fact that some of the most important parts of the novel go unnoticed. To put it in a nutshell, if someone tried to describe this film, that person could easily use the proverb: “you can´t see the wood for the trees” which is a rough way of saying that Luhrmann´s film can be regarded as shallow in the sense that he has paid a great deal of attention to lots of details that are part of the depiction rendered by Fitzgerald´s novel but he has not devoted the same attention to the nuances of the story.

Anyway, I don’t wish to tell you more about those details because this blog should be a space to share opinions, views and experiences but it is not my desire to pontificate on any of them. That´s why, I would like to make clear that if you really love watching films, you ought to watch the film so that you can form an opinion for yourself. Regardless of reviews, critics or news coming from the various mass media, my piece of advice is that you should go to the cinema. No matter what experts on films tell you from the digital or traditional papers or from the specialised magazines, if you are a real filmgoer you ought to go to the pictures because watching a film – just like reading a book or watching a painting or any other type of cultural or artistic manifestation – is one of the most personal and pleasant experiences, therefore don´t let anyone take that away from you: go to the cinema and enjoy the film you watch and rejoice in your choice or hate yourself for two hours (only for two hours) for making the wrong decision – but hey, life is about making decisions – but even then, you are bound to get or learn something from that experience …

Please, don´t let film reviewers discourage you from going to the cinema, a film reviewer may be more knowledgeable about cinema than you are but he / she can´t dictate what you enjoy or what should move you. Read, gather and exchange information and learn but feel free to differ, to discuss, to think differently and have your own opinion.

Books and films

As I pointed out  on  the World Book and Copyright Day, the link between books and films is so close that we can´t help thinking about books when we discuss films as there is a high number of films whose existence relies on the story of a novel, a play or any literary work. Both books and films are created out of our urge to tell stories and to be told stories and from this point of view, we feel moved by those stories in a similar way regardless of whether the images created in our minds come from the words written in a book or from the moving pictures on a screen.

It cannot be denied that the relationship between films and books has always been a fruitful one despite the frequent controversy that arises when a film based on a book is released. Very often, films are based on well-known books which have become very successful and therefore it´s difficult for them to live up to our expectations. As a result,  a great deal of viewers who have read the book will feel disappointed by the film but at other times, there are also reviews that emphasise the fact that the story on the screen manages to make the original story look even better thanks to the cast of actors, to the way the director was able to envision the story or maybe, thanks to an inexplicable factor that is difficult to describe, that is, the translation from the written page into the screen is not always easy or straightforward and there is not a magic trick to achieve it, otherwise, everybody would make use of it.

Over the last months, we´ve had the opportunity of watching several films whose story has been borrowed from the literary work of famous writers: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Neither of them was the first adaptation of the novel: Anna Karenina had already been made into a film thirteen times and Great Expectations is the seventh film adaptation of the novel by Dickens.

Anna Karenina got quite a lot of hype because it starred Keira Knightley, Jude Law and a promising young actor Aaron Johnson (he played the role of John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, a 2009 biopic about the British musician.)

Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter played the parts of Magwitch and Miss Havisham respectively in Great Expectations but perhaps the rest of the cast wasn´t so well-known beyond the British screen and as a result, this film has gone unnoticed by the audience in countries where the plot of a literary work – even it is a classic of British literature – doesn´t turn out to be such an interesting perk.

In short, both stories have previously been made into films but the fact that these literary works are regarded as classics make directors, producers and screenwriters continue to resort to them as sources of inspiration to create new films.

 What do you think about the fact that the industry of film-making resorts to literary works so often? What conclusions can you reach about the close tie that exists between books and films?

These days a new film based on another important literary work is about to be released The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby (1925) was written by the American author  F. Scott Fitzgerald  and is a wonderful depiction of an era that the writer dubbed “the Jazz Age”: an era full of glitter which seemed to disguise the moral emptiness and hypocrisy of the “Roaring Twenties”.

The novel had been made into a film four times but perhaps, the most memorable adaptation was the one that starred Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan in 1974. Baz Luhrmann is responsible for the fifth adaptation of the novel; he has already shown us his ability to translate famous written stories – Romeo and Juliet – and impressive productions – Moulin Rouge – into screen versions so there is reason to believe that we should wait for the new film with an air of expectancy.

I heard on the grapevine which – these days – means that I read on the social network sites that the following song is inspired by the story of The Great Gatsby and I think that it really reminds you of the story depicted in this outstanding novel.

In case you don´t know what the novel is about, here you can see the trailer of the new version of The Great Gatsby. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the part of Gatsby and Carey Mulligan plays the part of Daisy Buchanan.