World Book and Copyright Day 2016

Once more I must draw attention to the fact that today we celebrate “World Book and Copyright Day 2016”. Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO – United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization – has written a message about this day on the UNESCO webpage:

“A book is a link between the past and the future. It is a bridge between generations and across cultures. It is a force for creating and sharing wisdom and knowledge. Frank Kafka once said, “a book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.” A window onto our inner lives, books are also the doorway to mutual respect and understanding between people, across all boundaries and differences. (…) William Shakespeare died on 23 April, 1616, preceded by only one day by Cervantes. On this day, I call upon all of UNESCO’s partners to share the message that books are a force to counter, what Shakespeare called, “the common curse of mankind -- folly and ignorance.”

This year, the celebration is very special because we mark the 4^th centenary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes and that of Shakespeare, consequently, a wide range of events have been organised worldwide. I encourage you to have a look at the UNESCO webpage where you can discover all sorts of initiatives in order to celebrate this red-letter day. But we can´t forget that this blog is about cinema so why not watch a film based on one of the works of these writers as a way of marking this centenary? There are countless of film adaptations of their works as well as films inspired by their lives or their age so it´s not easy to make a suggestion; as usual it all comes down to our tastes and of course, the mood we are in: watching a film adaptation of a tragedy such as Hamlet can be great but maybe watching a film based on one of Shakespeare´s comedies can be a better idea if you are feeling a bit under the weather, don´t you think?

                               A film version of the second half of  Don Quixote (2002).

                  If you wish to learn about Cervantes, click on http://400cervantes.es/en/

                              The poster for one of the film adaptations of Hamlet (1990).

                       The trailer for one of the last film adaptations of Macbeth (2015).

 The poster for Shakespeare in Love (1998): a witty and romantic comedy about the story behind Romeo and Juliet, an imaginary love affair between Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) and William Shakespeare (John Fiennes). It won seven Academy Awards.

Read whatever you enjoy reading, watch the kind of films you enjoying watching, borrow a book from a friend or from the local library, go into a bookshop and buy a book for yourself or to give it to someone you care for, if you´re fond of books, that´s one of the most beautiful presents you can think of and just enjoy this day!!

HAPPY BOOK DAY!!!

We are not dreaming in gold

I meant this post to be titled “DREAMING IN GOLD”, can you guess why? That´s right, it was a reference to the motto of the Oscar Awards ceremony: “we all dream in gold”. It came as no surprise that the ceremony was full of protest and it came as no surprise that Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor for his leading role in The Revenant. But, by now, you must be acquainted with all the winners that managed to dream in gold so I´m not going to focus on that aspect here. However, I´d like to draw your attention to one of those protests that took shape on stage. Lady Gaga, thanks to an unexpected performance, touched a raw nerve with an issue that a lot of people weren´t aware of: sexual assaults on American college campuses. If we wish to learn more about one of the most worrying aspects of our present-day societies, we should watch the documentary The Hunting Ground, for which Lady Gaga made the song “Til it happens to you” along with Diane Warren. Last year Lady Gaga sang in the Oscars ceremony to mark the 50^th anniversary of The Sound of Music and her performance was one of the most touching moments of the ceremony; this year, her performance has also been one of the most acclaimed ones.

Lady Gaga sings “Til it happens to you” surrounded by other sexual assault survivors at the 88^th Academy Awards ceremony. Lady Gaga and Diane Warren were nominated for Best Original Song.

Music and cinema are so closely linked that it is almost impossible to think of films without music. Of course, there are films without music; those films are usually an attempt to deprive them of any kind of artifice. But, in general, music plays the role of underlying and enhancing the most memorable moments of a film. Maybe you remember that I wrote a post on this matter last year (“The sound of music” on 24^th June 2015).  Therefore, it was also touching to see Ennio Morricone win an Oscar for The Hateful Eight. He received an honorary Academy Award in 2007 but he had never won an Oscar specifically for one of his works, now at the age of 87, he is a fair winner. 

When I was a child, my father took us to the cinema to watch The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It wasn´t just another spaghetti western, it was a film starring Clint Eastwood and my father was elated at the prospect of showing us a film where he appeared as an extra . When I recall this film, I always think of my family going to the cinema, a cinema that no longer exists, the image of Clint Eastwood with a long thin cigar in his mouth and the music, always the music of the film composed by Ennio Morricone.

Film lovers are indebted to Ennio Morricone because, in my view, he has composed some of the most beautiful film scores and soundtracks of the history of cinema.

Anyway, I can´t help remembering that today we are not dreaming in gold, in Belgium, at least, people are not dreaming in gold after yesterday´s terrorist attacks. When a tragedy strikes it is difficult to dream in gold. Have you watched In Bruges? Reality reminds me of this film: a beautiful Belgian setting with a very dark plot. That´s the reason why I decided to change the title of my post.

Awards ceremonies are an opportunity to gather all kinds of people who work in the film industry and to appreciate their work. Awards ceremonies help us to discover stories and realities we were unaware of. Awards ceremonies enable us to dream about a different world, sometimes, a better world.