Well! I've certainly slacked off on the blog writing. Last time I wrote about my Galician course, and to be honest, not much has happened since then. I've been kicking it in Santiago, giving private under-the-table English classes, getting to know the city and some of the folks that live here, watching all of the star trek movies....
Since I don't really feel like talking about my private lessons and I'm too lazy to buy more batteries for my camera, I'm going to instead talk about 4 Spanish language films you need to see. Most of these are Spanish (from Spain) with a little Guillermo del Toro thrown in there.
1. El Labarinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)
You've probably already seen this movie, but if you haven't, the story revolves around a young girl and her mother during the Spanish civil war. The mother is recently married to an officer in the Nationalist army, a cold and violent man. The girl has an obsession with fairy tales and magic, and throughout the movie the viewers are left wondering what is real and what is only in the imagination of a little girl trying to escape from a scary and depressing situation.
If you haven't seen the original Spanish, it's worth a watch. The dub is well done, but watching films in the original language always gives a better sense of the setting. It's a good one for those whose Spanish isn't perfect or even that great, since the story isn't too complex and most of the dialogue uses a child's vocabulary. There is some interesting use of the vos form, but it's not hard to understand.
2. Celda 211 (Cell 211)
Celda takes place mostly in a prison somewhere in Spain and centers on an inmate who stages a rebellion (played by lucense Luis Tosar!) and a young prison guard (played by Alberto Ammann) who must fool the prisoners into believing that he is one of them. It's dark, gripping and somewhat stressful as you lose track of which side you're supposed to be rooting for. I'd say more but I don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say there's lots of twists.
Subtitles recommended.
3. Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes)
I was warned before I watched this film that, even though it's a sci-fi flick, there are almost zero special effects and I shouldn't expect anything like Xmen or the new Star Trek films. So I was expecting something campy and maybe with some rubber monster suits, but that turned out not to be the case.
The biggest effect of the film is the time machine itself, while not nearly as cool as the Delorean with its flashing lights and flaming tire marks, is actually more plausible and doesn't require as much suspension of disbelief. Most of the film consists of the main character running around trying to solve the problems that he himself has created in the stream of causality.
There's actually not a whole lot of dialogue, but I'd still recommend subtitles if your Spanish is a little shaky.
4. O Apóstolo (The Apostle)
Absolutely beautiful movie. I've mentioned this one in a previous post, but I'll mention it again since it's so worth watching.
It's a Galician film, all done in Tim Burtonesque stop motion. The movie starts with a brief voice cameo from Luis Tosar as his character from Celda 211 as two inmates escape from prison. They then split ways and we follow Carlos Blanco's character Ramón as he disguises himself as a pilgrim to avoid the police. Things get complicated however as Ramón gets caught up in a real life Galician legend of ghosts and curses. (It's a little complicated, just pay attention)
The art is gorgeous, the music is great, and best of all many of the iconic sites in Galicia are featured. About half of the characters speak Galician, so you should probably stick with the English subtitles even if your Spanish is good.
If you have any recommendations for more Spanish language films, let me know!
In other news, a letter from the government just arrived the other day. It's not however addressed to me, so I'll wait til the landlady stops by to open it just to be on the safe side.
