The film based on the book is hardly ever better than the original, and José Luis Cuerda's Los girasoles ciegos, just released in Spain, is a good example of that. The novel, however, comes close to being a masterpiece of the post Civil War, and it's now available in English.
The publicity people at Pedro Almodóvar's production house are very diligent people, so every so often they send out an update telling you that today Pedro has updated his blog about the shoot of his latest film, Los abrazos rotos. The man is a genius of cinema and also of self-publicity - as though thousands of people worldwide weren't already gasping for their next cinemetic fix of Pedro, here we have his blog to whip up interest. It's worth a visit, because he's actually a good writer too. The blog (in three languages) is here.
And here's Pedro on the shoot (in Spanish), seemingly as excitable and enthusiastic as he ever was about film-making...
Of which I can't promise many, especially if they star Julia Ormond, like this one does. Which is the case of La conjura de El Escorial (The El Escorial Conspiracy) , which I saw at a press screening today. This big-budgeter, released in September, is going to be the leading Spanish release of the autumn, a high-action item full of skullduggery set in and around the court of Felipe II in 1578, and apparently based on a true story. (Spanish cinema is going though a phase of liking period action thrillers - see Alatriste.) This kind of stuff is hard to do well, and the film adds further support to that theory - believability of character is the first thing to go when you have a cast of billions, especially when they've all been dubbed into Spanish (even, I think, the Spaniards). But at least the story is a truly fascinating one, well summed-up on this YouTube video (in Spanish), and you get to see some strange things, such as a dog with its head cut off (the "no harm" disclaimer at the end is in BIG letters - subtle this film ain't), and Jason Isaacs getting all jiggy with a one-eyed Julia Ormond. For those who like that kind of thing. There's much beautiful scenery, too, and it's educational historically. But there's not too much we haven't seen before. The director, Antonio del Leal, was present at the screening, and there was virtually no applause at the end, which always makes me feel a bit uncomfortable - but then this film hasn't been made to please critics, it's been made to make money, and make money it will.
New posts over at Spanish NewsBites: Argentinian identity, the discovery of ancient cities in Brazil and why Ibiza might be about to lose its reputation for fast partying are among recent posts. Many of our entries to date have been for intermediate and advanced level students, so we're upping the ratio of beginner-level materials this week. Remember to let us know what we can do to make SNB better: spanishnewsbites *at* gmail.com is where to go.