Sunday 17 March 2024

Dune: Part Two

a film by Denis Villeneuve

Tamara kept telling me how good Ocine 7 Palmas cinema was, so finally we all went there to see Dune: Part Two in VOSE. I was impressed. By the movie theatre, I mean. Huge screen, great sound and, most importantly, electric reclining chairs. Nice.

I have to say that I neither read the novel nor watched the first part. Maybe (I said, maybe) otherwise I would enjoy the movie not as much as I did. Which I did. It’s got stunning visuals: Miyazaki-esque machinery in Kin-dza-dza-ish setting. Not as funny as Kin-dza-dza! though. I find the (apparently important) genealogy stuff pretty boring. How can anyone be surprised to discover that this or that dude is also their sibling/cousin/grandparent is beyond me. Just look at the European royal families.

Paul the main guy (Timothée Chalamet) is a bit meh, and by the end of the movie grows almost as creepy as Frodo. Totally no match for the most psychotic of his secret cousins, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). Comic relief courtesy of Stilgar (our Canarian bro Javier Bardem). Assorted Bene Gesserit women, naturally, look like clones of each other. Chani (Zendaya) is both cute and cool, in the style of Miyazaki’s heroines. She seems to be the only principal character who does not buy into the Messiah bullshit. Respect.

Now, the blue liquid known as Water of Life. What the hell is that? According to Dune Wiki, it’s the bile of a young sandworm. Sorry, but there is no bile in invertebrates. My hunch is that it is haemolymph of the creature, and its colour is thanks to haemocyanin, which is not particularly toxic and could even have anticancer effects. (Another theory is that “Water of Life” is simply a translation of aqua vitae, and what we see in the movie is a coloured spirit such as Kosako Vodka Mora Azul brought on set by Rebecca Ferguson.) Never mind that: they don’t give Water of Life to every Tom, Dick and Harry but only to a few chosen. Easy enough to convince the rest that the chosen don’t die precisely because they are chosen. Do the recipients of Water of Life suffer the “spice agony”? Sure, why not, because they think they might die. Never underestimate the power of the placebo.

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Ekstra Bladet: Uden for citat

a film by Mikala Krogh

If a year (compressed in, well, just under 100 minutes) in life of a declining Danish tabloid newspaper sounds to you like fun viewing, watch this documentary. Otherwise, don’t bother.

The central story, if there is one, deals with the media coverage of two Danes held captive by Somalian pirates (the four fellow Filipino hostages were not even mentioned in the film). Naturally, the prominence is given to the newspaper’s stance (“if not for us, the world would forget about Eddie and Søren”) while the alternative points of view (“you guys are not helping”) are pretty much dismissed. In the end, one of the released hostages filed a complaint, Ekstra Bladet was reprimanded, the sales continued to fall, all in the midst of general apathy. Meanwhile, Shipcraft, the owner of the hijacked vessel, was “cleared of any wrongdoing”. Great.

Thursday 7 March 2024

A Clockwork Orange

a film by Stanley Kubrick

I first learned of this film from the 1974 book called «Алекс и другие. Полемические заметки о мире насилия» (Alex and others. Polemical notes on the world of violence), by one Yuri Zhukov. I remember how much I enjoyed reading this tendentious and hypocritical piece of work, especially the bits mentioning sex because, as we all know, there was no sex in USSR. Revisiting this book now — thanks, Internet! — I wonder if its author indeed believed all the things he wrote (unlikely), wanted the reader to believe them, or was just taking a piss.

По правде говоря, я долго колебался, прежде чем решил прикоснуться к этой теме: так ли уж актуальна для нашего читателя проблема преступности в буржуазном обществе? И стоит ли копаться в столь грязных делах, не оскорбят ли чистую душу советского человека их отвратительные детали, о которых неизбежно придется говорить по ходу повествования, ибо без деталей никакая картина не может быть достоверной?
Truth to be told, I hesitated for a long time before deciding to touch upon this topic. Is the problem of crime in bourgeois society really that relevant to our reader? And is it worth delving into such dirty deeds? Will their revolting details, which we inevitably have to talk about in the course of the story, insult the pure soul of the Soviet citizen, for no picture can be trustworthy without details?

Whatever it was, I am grateful to Mr. Zhukov (RIP) for those revolting details. Since then, I was longing to see the film in all its disgusting glory.

Much later, already in the early 1990s, I read the Burgess’s novel (as «Заводной апельсин») which was published in the magazine «Юность» (Yunost). I wasn’t impressed much by the Russian translation. The original remains on my to-read list.

Finally, I watched the movie as a part of the cycle «Hasta que el futuro nos alcance» of Filmoteca Canaria. What a surprise! I was preparing myself to be clockworkin’ shocked. Didn’t happen. I certainly haven’t expected so much Pythonesque comedy. I can easily imagine John Cleese as Chief Guard Barnes, Terry Gilliam as Dim, Eric Idle as Joe the Lodger, Graham Chapman as any of the officials and/or the Cat Lady, Terry Jones as Alex’s mum, and Michael Palin — sorry, Malcolm McDowell — as Alex himself. Another surprise was to see Prince Charles lookalike (2001 model) as the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp). A masterpiece worth waiting 40+ years for.

Tuesday 5 March 2024

En familie

a film by Pernille Fischer Christensen

Ditte (Lene Maria Christensen) faces a trilemma: to have a baby; to move to New York, New York; or to stay in Copenhagen with her terminally ill father, Rikard. There’s nothing particularly gripping about this Danish, um, family drama — as in [Danish (family drama)], or maybe [(Danish family) drama]. Grim outlook and general non-grippedness notwithstanding, it is actually quite watchable and at times even humorous. Although Ditte is meant to be the central character, it’s Jesper Christensen (lot of unrelated Christensens here) as Rikard who dominates the film; he alone makes it worth watching. The movie is spoiled — here comes another spoiler — by its happy sex ending. I mean, happy sex is great, I just don’t believe that Ditte could be back with her Picasso of a boyfriend (Pilou Asbæk).

En familie opened the new cycle Cine danés en femenino in CICCA, organised by Asociación de Cine Vértigo.

Friday 1 March 2024

Cuerpos vivos & Guián

Two Central American documentaries by women directors, screened yesterday in Casa de Colón.

Cuerpos vivos

a film by Andrea Arauz

An experimental short dealing with gender violence in Honduras.

Guián

a film by Nicole Chi Amén

Nicole is a young Costa Rican of Chinese descent who doesn’t speak Chinese. Her granny Guián, born in China, never learned Spanish. So the two women were never able to communicate in the same language. After the death of Guián, Nicole embarks on a journey to her grandmother’s natal home... An intimate yet universal story. You know, it’s OK to belong neither here nor there.

The title of the film supposedly means “paternal grandmother”. But 奶奶 is pronounced nothing like “guián”: /nǎinai/ 🔊 in Mandarin, /naai naai/ 🔊 in Cantonese. Could it be because Nicole, as she says herself, used to confuse it with 外婆, /ngoi po/ in Cantonese, “maternal grandmother”? Still, does not sound exactly like Guián!

Thursday 29 February 2024

Free live music in Las Palmas, February 2024

Contrary to what the councillor of the Ayuntamiento says, the Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2024 was anything but a success. For me, the worst Carnival I’ve seen here. For many locals, too. La Gran Cabalgata (Saturday 17 February) was underwhelming to say the least. Suadu Sene Faye — Second Maid of Honour who really should have been the Queen of the Carnival of Las Palmas, and who was the main reason I went to see the Cabalgata — was not even there. The procession was eerily silent; not a single samba band as far as I could see. Mucha policía, poca diversión. On Sunday, miserable Entierro de la Sardina, featuring the smallest ever sardine on these shores, followed by the never-materialised drone show, was the cherry on top of this disaster. Praise the sardine, it’s over!

Enough negativity: finally, good quality live music is back, and it has nothing to do with Carnival. I wish it was a bit warmer (and drier) outside though: the only indoor event I went to was the masterclass in Teatro Guiniguada.

  • 14 February: Quartet D’Arezzo @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós, 4, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
      Mozart, Bach and some tangos. Featuring Pablo Melián (violin), Luis Montesdeoca (violin), Ayose García (viola) and Marisa Roda (cello).

  • 15 February: Beatriz Martín @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
      The singer-songwriter from Tenerife was a star of the second concert from the cycle «12 Noches de autor» (I missed the first one in January).

  • 24 February: Verónica Ferreiro @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León

  • 24 February: «Con alma mexicana» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
      Fabiola Trujillo has opened the new Musicando season. Very different from her «La flor de la canela» programme of 2021 — as you can guess from the name, this time the focus was on Mexico. The “mariachi band” included Luis Montesdeoca, Carlos Marrero, Óscar Guerra and Izan Falcón (violins), Juan Ramón Martín, Juan Antonio Guerrero and José Antonio García “Pepé” (trumpets), Ivanoff Rodríguez (bass), Daniel García (vihuela), Abraham Sierra (contra) and Juan Carlos Sierra (guitar, musical director).

  • 28 February: «Italia» @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
      Chiara Salerno (soprano) and Nauzet Mederos (piano) offered an evening of Italian opera and Neapolitan song. My favourite was their rendition of ’O surdato ’nnammurato.

And that was it for February.

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Domingo Domingo

a film by Laura García Andreu
Hallo, mein Name ist Domingo Domingo. Willst du meine Mandarinen probieren?

A humorous and touching documentary about an inventive farmer from Valencian community. While the old timers spend their days in the bar (nothing wrong with it) complaining how orange growing is going to the dogs, Domingo Domingo has a cunning plan... (In Valencian, with Spanish subtitles.)