Carol

a film by Todd Haynes
based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith
screenplay by Phyllis Nagy

There’s not an ounce of guilt, there’s not an ounce of regret, over the nature of their attraction for each other. I also found Highsmith’s notions of what makes a good mother to be quite radical — the choices that people have to make in order to make the lives of their children better <in 1952> seemed really fresh, and radical. And still do, to this day, actually.

Phyllis Nagy (2015)

A beautifully atmospheric and stylish drama starring Cate Blanchett as Carol and Rooney Mara as Therese. According to Wikipedia, it took about 19 years to make this movie (1996 through 2015) while actual “filming was completed after 34 days”; it was shot on Super 16 mm film.

Carol continues the cycle Diversidad, Igualdad y Cultura by Filmoteca Canaria and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural.

Witness for the Prosecution

a film by Billy Wilder
based on a play by Agatha Christie

Another first — this time, the first film adaptation of Christie’s 1953 play. Compared to last week’s feature, Witness for the Prosecution offers much more mystery, even less noir, and plenty of comedy, albeit of a different kind. Of the three main stars, Tyrone Power is unimpressive, Marlene Dietrich is interesting enough, and Charles Laughton is truly splendid. Una O’Connor is great as a 1957 version of Mrs Doyle (eggbeater = Teamaster), and Elsa Lanchester — by then, a spouse of Laughton for nearly three decades — shines as Miss Plimsoll.

Testigo de cargo continues the cycle Nada es lo que parece. 50 años sin Agatha Christie.

Katanazo al amor romántico

by Raquel Riba Rossy

Didn’t I tell you that Lola’s katana won’t stay in its cabinet for long? Well, it depends what one means for “long”. Five years including pandemic could be an awfully long time. By 2023, Lola was back with the first part of Katanazo. In the 2026 follow-up, the sword was finally used to Lola’s (and my) satisfaction.

Katanazo is perhaps the darkest of Lola Vendetta comics. First introduced in Una Habitación Propia, Death, God and Pepito the dog return to provide much-needed comic relief. No spoilers but look for those QR codes!

Not a Pretty Picture

a film by Martha Coolidge

In 1962, when she was 16, Martha Coolidge was date raped by an older student of the same high school. Recreating the circumstances of the director’s ordeal, this 1976 docudrama is, just as its name suggests, not a pretty picture. Molly Haskell wrote in 2024:

Given the rise in reported incidents of rape and the omnipresence of the subject across social media in the intervening years, you’d think Not a Pretty Picture would have lost its power to shock. It hasn’t. Coolidge’s seminal film is a fascinating window onto another time, one that we would like to think of as kinder and gentler, but alas, Not a Pretty Picture also seems horribly contemporary, shudder-inducing in its relevance...

So it is. Michele Manenti, herself a rape survivor, plays Martha at 16. Jim Carrington is scarily convincing as Curly the rapist. But there’s light too. Lot of it is provided by Martha’s best friend, Anne Mundstuk, as herself.

This film, Coolidge’s debut feature, was shown as part of the cycle Diversidad, Igualdad y Cultura by Filmoteca Canaria and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural.

And Then There Were None

a film by René Clair
based on a novel by Agatha Christie

To me, this 1945 movie — the first cinematic adaptation of the classic novel — was not as much a mystery, let alone film noir, as a (black) comedy. According to Wikipedia, this is what René Clair wanted to make all along. Jolly good fun throughout.

The film is full of familiar faces; alas, I couldn’t recall where exactly I saw them.

Diez negritos opened the cycle Nada es lo que parece. 50 años sin Agatha Christie organised by Asociación de Cine Vértigo. Curiously, the Spanish title is faithful to the original title of the novel although the film features figurines of Indians (and was released in the UK as Ten Little Indians).

Orlando, ma biographie politique

a film by Paul B. Preciado

According to Wikipedia,

ARTE France reached out to Preciado in hopes of producing a documentary focused on his work as a philosopher. Preciado rejected the idea and instead jokingly suggested that the film should be an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography in an attempt to shut down the conversation. To his surprise, ARTE France agreed and asked Preciado to make the film.

And good thing they did. The film is neither a documentary nor adaptation nor, despite the name, biography, but a process, metamorphosis, transition — like those of the film’s many intelligent, charming, and funny protagonists. And yes, it’s political. Enough said. Watch it. Enjoy it.

Orlando, mi biografía política opens the fifth cycle Diversidad, Igualdad y Cultura organised by Filmoteca Canaria and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural.

(Almost) free live music and stuff, May 2026

Some stuff that I saw in Vitoria, Santander, Torrelavega and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

• 9 May: «Cenizas de Oro» @ Centro Cívico Langraiz-Oka, Tres de Marzo Parkea, 1, Nanclares de la Oca / Langraiz Oka
  A comedy by the amateur theatre group No Me Claves Tus Puñales. Not exactly free as €2 donation (for an NGO to be determined) was requested, but quite worth it.

  

• 15 May: Cantabria en Corto 2025 @ Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus, Calle Bonifaz, 6, Santander
  The programme included Relato del niño que estuvo allí by Sergio Ruiz García; Solo es cuestión de tiempo by Carlos Martínez Pérez; “Solo los muertos se quedan by Alejandro Renedo; Una playa by Juan Carlos Cabañas Soto and Luis Paredes; Instrucciones para quedarse by Caque Trueba; and Wounded Light by Abril Catalina Beascoechea.

  

• 16 May: V Raw Market @ Plaza Mayor, Torrelavega
  Organised by Escuela de Arte Roberto Orallo (Puente San Miguel, Cantabria), this annual event allows the students of the school to present and market the work created during their training. The highlight was a concert of Cantabrian rock band The Haze.

  

• 24 May: Ajódar Poetry Jazz @ Sala Faro, Calle Concejal Manuel Rodríguez Costas, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  The only event of the Deriva Jazz Timur and I attended. We were not impressed. Ajódar Duo, whose members did not bother to introduce themselves, played some jazz (badly) and recited some poetry (worse). On the brighter note, we have discovered a new venue in just a five-minute walk from us.
• 26 May: «Gran poder a de mandar o mar et todo los ventos» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Dedicated to the quincentenary of the death of Elcano, this concert featured “music around the Iberian circumnavigation routes”. Pedro Bonet employed 14 different recorders — copies of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque models — to play a bedazzling array of works composed and/or collected by Alfonso X el Sabio, Diego Ortiz, Pieter de Vois, Thomas Edward Bowdich, Hans Sloane, Joseph-Marie Amiot, William Hamilton Bird and many others. Part of the cycle Música Antigua en el Patio.

  

• 28 May: «Tiempo de Zafra» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  La Banda Sinfónica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria featuring Domingo Luis Rodríguez Oramas “El Colorao” on timple and voices of Tania Gil and Pedro Manuel Afonso. The concert included a performance of Zafra, a work for timple and symphony orchestra composed by Laura Vega.

  

And exhibitions:

• 7—31 May: «Color, memoria y gesto» @ Sala de Exposiciones Mauro Muriedas, Calle Pedro Alonso Revuelta, 5, Torrelavega
  Works by Débora Regalado and Alejandro Mesurado.

  

• 8 May — 5 July: «Wetlands» @ El Palacete del Embarcadero, Muelle de Calderón, Santander
  Works by Paula Santomé.

  

Goodbye, May.