Almost everything I said about Simón’s previous film, Estiu 1993, could be repeated for Alcarràs. Hardly any plot, neither a comedy nor a drama. Nor it is a documentary, although it might well have been one. Its cast of non-professional actors truly is a family. And no matter how uncertain the future seems, the children of the family are the hope personified.
Both the original Catalan and the Spanish-dubbed version are available at RTVE Play. Watch it, you won’t regret it.
Gory title notwithstanding, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is a strangely feel-good romantic tearjerker which I enjoyed a lot. True, it could have been even better sans unnecessary explanations and J-pop songs.
This film was screened as part of the cycle Japón se anima organised by Filmoteca Canaria.
And what if the actor who plays Digger in the eponymous film is the realTom Cruise, as opposed to the annoyingly cute Mission: Impossible guy? Then there is this anecdote that applying “prosthetics” (read: beer belly) to Cruise used to take six hours, which subsequently, after protests by the busy-busy man himself, was “pared down to under an hour”. Could have been pared down to zero if that was his real beer belly. Just a thought. My point is, I liked this flabby-bodied version of Tom Cruise so much better than any other I’ve seen so far.
Among the supporting cast, I really dig Riz Ahmed as Dr. Ganesh. John Goodman is passable as the POTUS Compson, and there are many faces that look familiar but I can’t remember why. My biggest problem with this film — as it is with many others — is its length. Cut it down, I say. Take out the boring bits. Start with Digger’s awful monologue in (what the film’s creators probably think looks like) the European Parliament. It’s not funny.
In the days of my youth, Arrival was the only ABBA vinyl we actually had in our house. It was a perfectly legit reissue, its cover art almost identical to the “Western” one apart from the Cyrillic lettering АББА. It was loved and endlessly listened to and looked like this:
The times were a-changing. By the mid-1970s, the nomenklatura somehow came to view the contemporary Western pop as more palatable for the internal consumption than the contemporary Western rock. In a few years’ time, Boney M. were to visit Moscow. I remember — vividly — watching the original music video of Knowing Me, Knowing You on the Soviet TV. Money, Money, Money could be heard at every disco, often next to «Из вагантов». The ubiquitous Весёлые ребята did a Russian-language version of it called «Помню, помню» (with no money mentioned) featuring vocals by the very same Liudmila Barykina who sang on «По волне моей памяти».
Vladimir Vinokur made a parody of Money, Money, Money where he mocked not as much ABBA as a stereotypical military choir such as Alexandrov Ensemble. (During his army draft years, Vinokur used to sing in a choir of the Moscow Military District.) Here, he sports a ridiculos fireman outfit and presents his act as the ensemble «Огонёк» (i.e. “Little Fire”).
For me, the crown for the best cover of Knowing Me, Knowing You belongs to the great late Trevor Peacock as Jim in The Vicar of Dibley.
Yesterday I went to Casa de Colón to see this documentary presented by Zua Méndez Vergara and Teresa Lozano Lázaro, aka Towanda Rebels. In spite of it showing almost exclusively “talking heads”, I’ve quite enjoyed the film.
I’d enjoy it even more if there was a bit more diversity among its protagonists who are, as it happens, all white, middle-class and Spanish. Women with non-European roots, immigrants, adult actresses and sex workers are conspicuous by their absence (and I think I know why). If I stayed for a subsequent colloquium, which I didn’t, I’d probably mention that.
