It’s always a treat to discover new singers and Clara Luna is new to me. She is based in Barcelona and her new album, ‘Duocracy’ has her singing with Albert Vila, who is a guitarist. This is a duets album, and they blend well together. She has a great eclectic repertoire, from ‘Round Midnight’ to ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ to ‘You Oughta Know.’ I feel like she chooses songs that have meaning to her, and it shows in her interpretation if these songs. This is a very pleasant listen, though the album feels like one big mood at times.
‘A Stormy Night’ is one of those two-ships-crossing-in-the-night kind of movies, and it is one of my favorite genres of ‘love story’ films. This one comes from Spain, though the dialogue is mostly English. Written, directed, and starring David Moragas, who stars as Marcos, who is on his way to San Francisco to attend a screening of his film. But he gets sidelined in New York because of bad weather. He spends the night at an apartment of one of his friends, and meets Alan, the friend’s housemates. I think we know from the start where this could end up. I wish the situation felt more organic, but that’s a minor complaint – we can see two souls connecting. Some people have compared this to ‘Weekend,’ but it’s a little less deep than that film, and that’s fine because relationship, and even ships sometimes just touch when they cross. I thought the two leads had enough chemistry together, enough for me to believe and root for something to happen. And even though What happens in the film doesn’t fully satisfy, it left a very deep impression on me.
‘Pain and Glory,’ Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, is about a filmmaker who is at the Autumn of his life. it’s tempting to think that the film is autobiographical since the character, Salvador Mallo (played by Antonio Banderas) lives in a house that is an exact replica of Almodovar’s, and banderas even wears the director’s clothes. But I think Almodovar only wants one to think that, as his persona has always dallied with a wink-wink playfulness. As a Director, I never always agreed with his artistic choices, but I have to say his films are always interesting. This one s no exception.
Saw two films recently that have very similar themes that come from different countries and I thought, relationship themes are all really universal.
There is a lot more complexity in ‘Athlete:Ore ga kari ni obereta hibi,’ which comes from Japan. Directed by Oe Takamasa, it is a story of a man (Joe Nakamura) who is a frustrated swimmer. After his wife leaves him for another man, he wanders into the Tokyo gay district and meets Yutaka (Yohdi Kondo) and falls in love with him, which startles even him. But Yutaka has bigger dreams, like going to animation school in France. I liked this film a lot, and appreciated the tender touch it gave to the story. I felt that two characters fell in love with each other, and Nakamura gives a raw performance. I found it curious that Yutaka looked Korean, perhaps because now all over Asia, the ‘Korean look’ is the new standard of beauty. This film is a lot more meaty than the previous one, and perhaps that’s why I preferred it more.
I love a woman with a piano and was looking forward to listening to Miriam Luna’s ‘Piano and Soul.’ Luna, from my internet research, hails from Barcelona, and is doing the Germany circuit right now. The recording, unfortunately, is a bit flat. She is probably better in live performances, but the album doesn’t really have any zing in it. I give her props for an eclectic collection of tunes, but it’s all white noise to me, just like the one on her album cover. Her cover of ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ is probably the whitest version I have heard of it – soulful is the last word I would use to describe it.
There are movies that quietly get into you , and I felt that Carla Simon’s ‘Summer 1993’ is one of those that just touches you and you don’t see it coming, it quietly reaches out and grabs your heart. This movie is centered around young Frida (Laia Artigas) whose mother has passed away. She is then shipped off to live with her mother’s brother Esteve (David Verdaguer) and his wife Marga (Bruna Casi) in a rural Spanish town. Frida at first is a little confused, but slowly gets comfortable. And then she realizes that her mother truly is gone, even as she puts cigarettes by the Virgin Mary statue to leave for her mom. There is a certain mood of melancholy here, and that is what spoke to me. We learn a little later, though indirectly, that her mother probably died from AIDS complications by the way people react to Frida’s bloody bruised leg. Certain circumstances make Frida a target of the couple because of interactions with their own child, and we see that while they have a point, Frida’s isn’t all to blame either. This film made me miss my own mother, who I also lost at a fairly young age (although unlike Frida, I was already an adult when she passed) I can’t forget the final scene where Frida just cries out of the blue, seemingly for no reason. I found myself doing the same after I finished watching the movie.
‘Marica Tu’ is a movie by Spanish filmmaker Ismael Nunez which is based on a comic book by Julian Almazan. Set in Madrid, it is the story of a gay man Julian who arrives to the city and meets Carlos his first night, and embarks on a relationship with him for two years, only for them to break up because Carlos gets a job in Seville. Julian then embarks on a couple of casual affairs, refusing to commit to anyone.
I did not know diddly squat about Mayte Alguacil before listening to her new album ‘Trav’lin’ Light’ and most times I prefer it that way, so I won’t have preconceived biases. But after I heard Alguacil’s album, I wanted – needed – to find out more about her. This is a solid album, and eve though her singing is not the most unique, she sings with love and with a great energy that I couldn’t help but fall in love with her. Even the repertoire of old chestnuts seemed uninspired at first is really just fine – I sometimes am hard to please because I get fatigued.
I cannot say I always agree with and enjoy Pedro Almodovar’s work but I am always engaged by them, and that is more than I can say for a lot of filmmakers. He is always something in his stories, and his characters, mostly the women, are colorful both literally and figuratively. In his twentieth film, ‘Julieta,’ Almodovar gives us another one of his women – and this one ranks among the best of them. Julieta is fierce, strong, vulnerable, flawed, and very very real.
I keep on forgetting that Penelope Cruz won an Oscar (2009, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, though I barely remember that film or her performance in it) and I wonder if she has been saddled by the Supporting Actress curse, because I can’t remember her in anything significant since. So here comes “Ma Ma,” a film she co-produced and stars in – and the best thing in this film is her performance. She plays Magda, a woman who finds out she has breast cancer. Directed by Julio Medem, the film is long on melodrama – it’s one of those four-hanky movies disease movies – and sometimes it gets too down that it becomes too exhausting to watch. Medem peppers the film with fantastical scenes that make him look like a low-rent Terence Malick, making the movie depressing and confusing. Plus, the film is overly long, or maybe it just feels that way for me.
Luha Thoughts 