Watch any film at the San Sebastian Film Festival and you can feel like you're taking your life in your hands – two hours of it, anyway. The event, which prides itself on being a champion of the avant-garde, is a notorious game of chance when it comes to buying tickets. So it is a bit surprising when you see a film that delivers exactly what it promises. The Impossible (‘Lo imposible’), a US-Spanish production directed by Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) is the story of one family's struggle for survival following the devastating tsunami that hit their hotel resort in Thailand on Boxing Day 2004. It is based on the true-life story of Spaniards Quique Álvarez and María Belón … [Read more...] about San Sebastián Film Festival: disaster and art
Archives for September 2012
Euro continues to fall on Spanish budget, Catalonia doubts
Welcome to the Pure FX account of the latest changes in the euro exchange rate, covering the 21st to 28th September 2012. This is intended as a brief guide to movements in the euro this week, to put you in the best position for when you exchange currencies. Exchange rate changes this week: GBPEUR: 1.2511 to 1.2577 (+0.528%) GBPUSD: 1.6252 to 1.6267 (+0.092%) EURUSD: 1.2987 to 1.2933 (-0.416%) So it looks like that fall in the euro that we saw last week, following the common currency’s two-month climb against the pound and US dollar, wasn’t a one-off then: this week, the euro has again lost out against its main counterparts. This currently puts the pound and greenback at a two-week … [Read more...] about Euro continues to fall on Spanish budget, Catalonia doubts
Violence mars Congress protest
Socialism and the future of Catalonia
Snap elections in Catalonia will be held on the November 25; the key issue is what Catalonia will be in the future and how it will relate to Spain and the European Union. Artur Mas’s CiU, the party which governs Catalonia (with 38 percent of the vote in the 2010 election), will present a platform in favour of the “Estat Propi”. This formula, roughly translated as “Free State”, avoids the term “independence” which for Mas would signal not only a break in relations with Spain but also with the EU. Mas, who fully understands that isolation of Catalonia from Europe would be financially and politically catastrophic, is anxious to avoid the rhetoric of rebellion. Radical separatist party ERC … [Read more...] about Socialism and the future of Catalonia
San Sebastián Film Festival: understanding war and ethnic division
The first 40 minutes of Venuto al mondo (Twice Born), competing in this year's Official Section of the Zinemaldia festival, are, frankly, laughably bad. As well as a corny script and stereotyped characters, the action and events completely lack credibility. Directed by Italian Sergio Castellitto, the film stars Penélope Cruz as Italian beauty Gemma who is swept off her feet by Emile Hirsch's Diego, an American photographer and free spirit. The character of Diego is so full of energy and utter rapture about everything that he is incapable of entering a room without tripping up with excitement over the wallpaper. He and la bella Gemma are first introduced by their mutual, stereotypically … [Read more...] about San Sebastián Film Festival: understanding war and ethnic division
Forget police brutality, this was verbal brutality
Whether or not the police in Madrid during the September 25 “Surround/Occupy Congress” protest acted with wanton brutality depends on whom you listen to. If it’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernández, then you’ll believe that the forces of order acted “magnificently” and “extraordinarily well” in the face of violent provocation. Likewise, the government’s delegate for Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes, deemed their behaviour “very professional”. Leaders of the protest itself and some opposition parties have seen it rather differently, accusing the police of using disproportionate force. A look at some of the day’s video footage reflects badly on both sides in the sense that some protesters and … [Read more...] about Forget police brutality, this was verbal brutality
San Sebastián Film Festival: death and happiness
El muerto y ser feliz (‘The Dead Man and Being Happy’) was the name of the Spanish-Argentinian production showing on Sunday as part of this year's Official Section at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It’s a bizarre title with two apparently conflicting ideas; a clue in itself to understanding a film which, in director Javier Rebollo's words, is not contradictory but “paradoxical”. José Sacristán plays paid assassin Santos, who is (fittingly, perhaps,) dying. When he skips hospital and sets out on a road trip with money from his last – failed – hit job and a box of morphine, the viewer joins him on a 6,000-kilometre road trip across Argentina – and, says the director, a “nature … [Read more...] about San Sebastián Film Festival: death and happiness
La Liga: Mallorca defeat completes sorry week for Valencia
It has been a rather depressing week for Valencia. It began with a loss in their Champions League game, it continued when their new stadium plans were abruptly put on hold due to financial problems and finally, a sorry defeat to Mallorca at the weekend leaves Los Che with just a single victory in six competitive games. At Mallorca’s Iberostar stadium Victor Casadesús fired the hosts into the lead just seven minutes into the game when he squeezed his shot under Diego Alves. The visitors enjoyed more of the ball for the remainder of the first half and were unlucky not to level the score when Nelson Valdez's header came crashing back off the bar. Despite the continual pressure from … [Read more...] about La Liga: Mallorca defeat completes sorry week for Valencia
San Sebastián Film Festival: Snow White hits Andalusia
Not long after movie audiences made the pleasing discovery, thanks to last year's The Artist, that silent films can still be enjoyable, Pablo Berger's Blancanieves, competing in this year's Official Section, provides yet another silent revelation. The story of Snow White set in early 20th century Andalusia actually works. Berger's Blancanieves is Carmencita (played by Sofía Oria and Macarena García), born in Seville during the Belle Époque, a rose-tinted era of Spain's past that lends itself perfectly to silent cinema. Snow White's father is a handsome and celebrated bullfighter, her mother a famous flamenco dancer who dies in childbirth after seeing her husband gored and left paralysed … [Read more...] about San Sebastián Film Festival: Snow White hits Andalusia
San Sebastián Film Festival: Gere finds sinister charm in ‘Arbitrage’
The San Sebastian Film Festival got off to a cracking start on Friday with US film Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. Opening the event’s 60th edition, Jarecki's film is competing in this year's Official Section. Arbitrage is a tense thriller, set against a corporate backdrop, with a tight script and an energetic pace that is largely down to script writer and debutant director Jarecki. Gere plays Robert Miller, a business magnate who is ready to sell up, supposedly to spend more time with his family. At first he looks as if he has it all: a loving wife (an excellent if little-seen Sarandon), a devoted son and a brilliant … [Read more...] about San Sebastián Film Festival: Gere finds sinister charm in ‘Arbitrage’