As Neves

a film by Sonia Méndez

Kids nowadays.

No, not really. They ain’t any different from us when we were their age. And from our parents, etc. You’ve got your whole life in front of you, and you’re dead bored. Epecially when you are growing up in a rural village in the middle of nowhere, no matter how beautiful. As Neves, for example. So, alcohol, drugs, and sex, if you’re lucky.

Not that the events of this film would be much different if the protagonists were adults. As if grown-ups don’t consume magic mushrooms or engage in revenge porn.

Still, I think that Sonia Méndez was right to shoot a teen drama. The young non-professional actors are utterly convincing and As Neves is worth watching for them alone.

Live music and stuff in Las Palmas and Santander, October 2024

This is what I’ve seen in October:

• 1 October: «Bach & Rameau» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Capilla de Santa Anna featuring Vicent Bru (harpsichord), Yurena Darias (viola da gamba) and Anabel Estévez (Baroque violin). The programme included:
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in G major for violin and basso continuo BWV 1021
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts: III concert
    La Lapoplinière
    La timide: 1er Rondeau, 2e Rondeau
    Premier tambourin, Deuxième tambourin en Rondeau
  • Bach: Sonata in G major for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1027
    Adagio
    Allegro ma non tanto
    Andante
    Allegro moderato
  • Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts: V concert
    La Forqueray: Fugue
    La Cupis
    La Marais

  

• 3 October: «Trayectoria del polvo VII» @ Casa África, Calle Alfonso XIII, 5
  The opening performance of the Masdanza 2024 festival. Featuring Nshoma Nkwabi (dance, vocal) and Anahi Acuña (violin, vocal); directed by Aïda Colmenero Dïaz. The programme included projection of four short films from the cycle Ella Poema directed and choreographed by Dïaz: Éxodo, Abismo, El Quitador de Miedos and Cicatriz de Luz.

• 3—31 October: Exposición de Acuarelas @ La Casa de la Cultura, Villa de Moya, Gran Canaria
  Watercolours by la Asociación Canaria de Acuarelistas, with a work by Tamara.

  

Goodbye Las Palmas, hello, Santander!

• 11 October: Luca Filastro Trio @ El Centro Botín, Muelle de Albareda, Santander
  An evening of stride jazz featuring Luca Filastro (piano, vocals), Vincenzo Florio (double bass) and Andrea Nunzi (drums).

  

This year, I managed to see all (four) plays of the XIV Festival de Teatro Amateur organised by Federación de Grupos de Teatro Aficionado de Cantabria (FETEACAN). As in other years, it took place at Paraninfo de Las Llamas de la Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (Avenida de los Castros, 42).

• 19 October: «La Visita»
  A play by Javier García-Mauriño performed by Carpe Diem Teatro (Tomelloso, Ciudad Real); directed by Miguel Ángel Berlanga.

• 20 October: «La Ratonera»
  Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (with a twist!) performed by Itxartu Antzerki Taldea (Getxo).
• 26 October: «Los locos de Valencia»
  A rather silly farce by Lope de Vega, performed by UGTeatro (Murcia). Directed by David Terol and Mariángeles Rodríguez.

• 27 October: «Pluto. Dios de la riqueza»
  A comedy by Aristophanes, performed by Teatro Kumen (Asturias). Directed by José Ramon López Menéndez.

  

More exhibitions in Santander:

• 11 May — 20 October: «Silvia Bächli: Partitura» @ El Centro Botín, Santander
  Works by Silvia Bächli (1956, Baden, Switzerland).

  

• 5 October 2024 — 9 March 2025: «Shimabuku: Pulpo, cítrico, humano» @ El Centro Botín
  Works by Shimabuku (1969, Kobe, Japan).

  

• 10 October — 7 November: «Colores del mundo» @ Plaza Porticada
  Open-air exhibition of large-format images from the National Geographic archives.

  

• 11 October — 7 December 2024: «De Orallo a Okuda: un diálogo intergeneracional» @ Balta Gallery, Calle Lope de Vega, 29
  Works by Roberto Orallo and Óscar San Miguel aka Okuda.

  

And that was it for October.

Still Alice

a film by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

This powerful and touching drama was shown in Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus as a part of III Jornada de Cine y Enfermedad Avanzada organised by the Hospital Santa Clotilde. I loved most of it, bar the predictably embarrassing finale of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (really, why?!). Starring Julianne Moore in her Oscar-winning role, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart.

A Child Is Waiting

a film by John Cassavetes

This woefully underrated 1963 masterpiece, inexplicably rendered in Spanish as Ángeles sin paraíso, was screened as a part of the cycle Puntos de fuga. Starring Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill and Bruce Ritchey as Reuben.

Free live music and stuff in Bilbao, Vitoria and Las Palmas, September 2024

We spent the first week of September in Basque Country. Here are some exhibitions we’ve seen in Azkuna Zentroa / Alhóndiga Bilbao, Plaza Arriquibar, 4, Bilbao:

• 6 October 2022 — 29 September 2024: «Ur aitzak»
  Six sculptures by Elena Aitzkoa, in collaboration with artists Josu Bilbao and Leo Burge.

  

• 20 June 2024 — 6 January 2025: «Allora & Calzadilla: KLIMA»
  Works by a collaborative duo of visual artists Jennifer Allora (1974, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (1971, Cuba).

  

...and in Artium Museoa, Francia Kalea, 24, Vitoria-Gasteiz:

• 10 May 2024 — 22 September 2024: «Artxiboa/Archivo»
  The documentary collection of Néstor Basterretxea (1924—2014).

  

• From 31 March 2023: «Bilduma Hau Colección. Movimientos elementales (1950—2000)»
  Works by Gabriel Aresti, Isabel Baquedano, Néstor Basterretxea, Gabriel Celaya, Eduardo Chillida, María Franciska Dapena, Esther Ferrer, Luis Peña Ganchegui, Agustín Ibarrola, Cristina Iglesias, Itziar Okariz, Merche Olabe, Jorge Oteiza, Blas de Otero, Álvaro Perdices, Juan Antonio Sistiaga, Susana Solano and others. Read more here.

  

• 26 April — 29 September: «Unform»
  Works by Patricia Dauder.

  

Back to Las Palmas — and to live music.

• 10 September: «Ars Polyphonica» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Camerata Iberia featuring Gabriel Díaz (countertenor), Juan Carlos de Mulder (lute) and Carlos Oramas (vihuela). The programme included:
  1. Pierre Attaingnant: Tant que vivray
     Luys Milán: Fantasía VIII
     Jean-Baptiste Besard: La voila la nacelle d’amour
     Josquin des Prez: El Grillo
  2. Luys de Narváez / Diego Ortiz: Passamezzo antico
     Juan del Encina: ¿Quién te traxo, cavallero?
     Vincenzo Capirola: Ricercar alla Spagnola
     Anonymous (from Cancionero de Palacio): L’amor, donna
     Juan del Encina: Levanta Pascual
  3. Josquin des Prez: Mille Regretz
     Anonymous: Et in Spiritum Sanctum
     Josquin des Prez: In te Domine speravi
     Bartolomeo Tromboncino: Voi che passate qui
     Anonymous (from Cancioneiro de Paris): Não tragais borzeguis pretos
  4. Anonymous/Cristóvão Falcão (from Cancioneiro de Paris): Pois tudo tam pouco dura
     Fabritio Caroso: Spagnoletta
     Juan del Encina: ¿Qu’es de ti, desconsolado?
     Juan del Encina: Folias

  Llibre Vermell de Montserrat: Mariam matrem virginem (encore)

  

• 17 September: «Tríos de corno di bassetto en la Viena de Mozart» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Mayrhofer Trio featuring Eric Hoeprich, Kayo Nishida and Alejandro Fariña (basset horn). The programme included:
  • Divertimento No. 3, KV439b
    Allegro
    Menuetto
    Adagio
    Menuetto
    Rondo
  • Arrangements for three basset horns
  Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (Die Zauberflöte, KV620)
  Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen (Die Zauberflöte)
  Marsch der Priester (Die Zauberflöte)
  Voi che sapete (Le nozze di Figaro, KV492)
  Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso (Le nozze di Figaro)
  • Duets for two basset horns, KV487
    Allegro
    Larghetto
    Menuetto
    Polonaise
    Allegro
  • Divertimento No. 4, KV439b
    Allegro
    Larghetto
    Menuetto
    Adagio
    Rondo

  Menuetto from Divertimento No. 4 (encore)

  

• 19 September: Ángel Ravelo & Dani Cano @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
  Another concert from the cycle «12 Noches de autor»; another mixed bag. When I thought it was all over and I was ready to leave, both cantautores performed the very last song. Turned out, Ángel Ravelo plays sax really well.

  

• 28 September: Ensemble DifrAcción @ Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, calle Maninidra, 1
  This concert was a part of the IV Festival Contemporáneo del Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias. Featuring Pablo Araya (violin), Verónica Cagigao (percussion), Laura Delgado García (oboe), Pablo Díaz Estrada (flute, pito herreño), Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano), Ciro Hernández Perdigón (cello), Ewa Moszczynska (viola) and Francisco Suárez Hernández (clarinet); conducted by José María de Vicente. The programme included:
  • Leandro A. Martín: Tal traje saliva (première)
  • Laura Vega: Like a tiny drop of dew (ensemble version)
  • Gustavo Díaz-Jerez: Yajna (première)
  • Olivier Messiaen: Abîme des oiseaux (clarinete solo)
  • Tristan Murail: Cloches d‘adieu, et un sourire (piano solo)
  • Toshio Hosokawa: Drawing
  I already commented on the state of ventilation in this auditorio a year ago. No, it didn’t improve. On top of that, when the concert was over, we (the audience) discovered that the gates were locked. It took about 10 minutes for the security guard to locate the spare set of keys and let the crowd out, to the roaring applause.

And that was it for September.

Hágase tu voluntad

a film by Adrián Silvestre

Ricardo wants to die. He lost his beloved wife, Carmen, he suffered two strokes and is depressed. Before dying, however, he wants to speak to his two sons — one of them is the film’s director — whom he didn’t see for more than 20 years. The reason for their separation is never adequately explained. Maybe it shouldn’t be.

I do sympathise with the protagonist although at no point did he strike me as a particularly nice person. He clearly needs to be the centre of attention, now that the family unites around him. While he wallows in nostalgia and self-pity, Adrián’s mother, who’s been caring for her ex-husband for years, feels abandoned. (We’ll probably never know how did Ricardo treat Carmen.) When Adrián accompanies him to start a request process for euthanasia (this is the only scene in the film spoken in Valencian), Ricardo seems to be taken aback by apparent simplicity of the whole thing. Is it that easy?

In the beginning I thought, here comes another “let’s make a documentary about my parent” project in the vein of Une vie comme une autre or Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo. (Indeed, in an interview, Adrián Silvestre quotes the latter film as an inspiration). It turned out to be a completely different affair. No more spoilers, just let me say that Hágase tu voluntad is worth watching for the final scene alone.

The Informer

a film by John Ford

Now it’s hard to understand why in 1936 this unthrilling thriller won four Oscars. Probably the weakest of John Ford movies I’ve seen so far but hey, those were the early days of awarding. Victor McLaglen is good enough as a leading man, for a while, and there are some comic moments in this otherwise pathetically predictable feast of over-acting.

The Informer was screened at the Aula de Cine of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as a part of the John Ford cycle (September—December 2024).