2005 Spanish Film Festival

See the best of Spanish and Latin Cinema at Greenbelt 1

From September 29 to October 16, Instituto Cervantes will feature the best of Spanish and Latin Cinema at Greenbelt 1. The long lineup includes Best Picture Goya (the Spanish Oscar) winners and entries for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category. Here are some to look forward to:

The Sea Inside/Mar adentro (2004, 125 minutes) by Alejandro Amenabar

For Ramon Sampedro, the sea is like the sweet life (la dolce vita). Ironically, a cliff diving accident left him paralyzed for several years and he wants to end his sufferings with dignity by suicide. The state refuses him to, but his struggles touch the lives of many, most notably a lawyer who aids to his cause.

Hollywood has already done two movies about euthanasia, namely Whose Life Is It Anyway? (starring Richard Dreyfuss) and It’s my Party (starring Eric Roberts). However, both films don’t affect the viewers as much as Amenabar’s latest. There’s much to root for The Sea Inside, from great performances (particularly Belen Rueda) to stirring musical scores of Richard Wagner and Giacomo Puccini, but the Chilean-born filmmaker best conveyed that life is beautiful, even when death is near. It’s no surprise that Sea won numerous awards, including the Oscar.

Lost Embrace/El abrazo partido (2004, 100 minutes) by Daniel Burman

For those who are tired of movies about Jews reminisce their Holocaust experience, Daniel Burman’s debut work is a treat: a college dropout trying to come to terms with his Polish-Jewish heritage, his father who abandoned him when he was a kid and the seedy shopping center he lives in, which is populated with quirky tenants.

Burman, who is a co-producer of The Motorcycle Diaries, didn’t do any groundbreaking technique in Lost, but this semi-autobiographical “dramedy” (drama comedy) is overflowing with insights about happiness, redemption and self-worth, all of which we can relate to. The movie is anything but a bore.

Torremolinos 73 (2003, 93 minutes) by Pablo Berger

Javier Camara and Candela Pena wonderfully portrayed Alfredo and Carmen, a stressed encyclopedia salesman and his loving wife facing a bleak financial future. With no alternative jobs around, the couple accepts an offer to make films for Scandinavian moviegoers. The catch, though, is it’ll be erotic pictures, which is in demand in the Nordic region. The venture started well until complications threaten the marital union.

Berger presented a slice of Spain’s history, when the European country turned liberal after General Franco’s death. It’s satiric during the first half, but it cooled down in the next half. It’s quite a letdown, but moviegoers have lots to laugh about, which make the viewing satisfying throughout.

(First published in Inquirer Libre on September 28, 2005)