Nominations: Adú, by Salvador Calvo, favorite against the odds of the Goya Awards with 13 nominations
Controversy. Academics protest against the telematic Goyas: "If the culture is safe, why suspend the gala?"
Aristotle said, always him, that «in feelings of pleasure and pain there are more and less;
and none of these opposing feelings are good.
And he added to resolve the question that the midpoint is the true measure.
That is where the perfection found only in virtue occurs.
The Spanish cinematographic year that so ceremoniously always concludes with the Goya Awards has been
a time of contrasts and shaken from one extreme to another.
It was the worst box office imaginable
e of history (
170 million
) and the best screen share for Spanish cinema (
25%
).
Cinemas have been doomed, filming has stopped, and yet we have not stopped watching movies.
In the absence of blockbuster, theaters have remained with 93% independent tapes.
It has been the end of cinema and its resurrection.
Never, in such a tragic year, were there so many comedies
.
The five candidates for the Goya who today will crown the film of the year analyze what has happened and what, in their opinion, may happen.
The idea, with Aristotle, is to give but virtue itself something similar to the possibility of a better time.
the feeling that we have seen the seams.
The virus has shown the precariousness of many things and has left many people out in the open, "he reflects.
Icíar Bollaín.
The director of
Rosa's wedding
He talks about cinema and, of course, about everything else, and his reflection is shared by the five in an almost formal manner.
For
Pilar Palomero,
responsible of
Girls
, what has become clear is that "no matter how hard we try to plan, then anything ends up happening."
David Pérez Sañudo,
the revelation of the season thanks to
Ane
, highlights the uncomfortable contrast, very close to guilt, that he feels when he sees himself in the best of possible moments in the worst of circumstances.
That feeling is aimed
Cesc Gay
that, when everything stopped, he was able to release
Sentimental
, for which he is nominated, and his new play 53 Diumenges.
"So I can't complain," he concludes.
The last to speak is
Salvador Calvo
, director of the film with the most nominations of all,
Adu
, and he does it to stay with "that certain magic" of the beginning of the confinement of March "in which everything stopped".
And it continues: It was a pleasure to shut you up with your family at home, with hardly any stimuli and obligations from outside.
Painting, playing with my daughter, writing ... all without social obligations, without schedules. ”Everyone is aware that the great question of the season that has passed is precisely the future.
Martin Scorsese recently lamented that "the art of cinema is being systematically devalued."
His words pointed to platforms in general and the famous Netflix algorithm in particular.
«The truth», speaks Pilar Palomero, «is that
the platforms have already won the battle »
.
For her, the contradiction dwells in her desire to make cinema to be seen in the cinema and the reality that in
streaming
your film eventually reaches more people.
Cesc Gay is left with the positive side convinced that platforms are already part of everyday life.
And he continues: «I also believe that
they will be the great salvation for independent cinema
.
A place to host many jobs that can be seen by millions of people without the rush and competition that exists in theaters. ”Sañudo, the youngest of the five, sharpens his reflection and refuses the analysis that he limits himself to facing. the cinema room with the living room: «The platforms actually occupy a large part of the space occupied by generalist televisions and not so much by cinemas.
The need to get together in a shared space is and will always be there.
Salvador Calvo's opinion for his part is perhaps the most informed.
Not for nothing, before directing his first film in 2016,
1898: The last of the Philippines
, his entire career has been on the flat screen for almost two decades.
For him, beyond the competition, what should not be forgotten is collaboration:
«The platforms are going to become film producers,
as televisions are now, and that will make the display windows shorter.
Movies like
Mank
, by Fincher, marks the new path. ”In any case, another of the novelties of a year that is completely and radically new is the outstanding presence of genres and almost unpublished arguments in the list of candidates for best film of the year.
Never before have there been so many comedies
Rosa's wedding
Y
Sentimental
) or so many revisions of the recent past that not of the Civil War (
Girls
Y
Ane
).
And in the middle, an obligatory reflection on one of the great problems of our time: immigration (
Adu
).
Is this a symptom of something like the overabundance of thrillers or genre films in the major categories not so long ago?
Bollaín answers the question by reconstructing what led him to the film: «I wanted to deal with a very serious subject,
that of self-esteem,
in a cheerful tone, with humor, without solemnity.
That is the virtue of comedy, talking about complex things, but from a point of view that makes them reach more people.
The one who signs the other comedy sees in the choice of academics a direct response to the times: «In crises we all like it and we need to escape.
It is a mistake to underestimate a genre that, in addition, has very complex rules. ”Regarding the new perspective that this edition of the Goya has brought, which stops in the immediate past, it is surprising the appearance of several productions determined not only to recover what that it was that he came after the Transition, but to discuss it and, if necessary, refute it.
Girls, like the documentary
The year of discovery
of
Luis López Carrasco,
stays in the year 1992 and
Ane
, in 2009. The first shows a "stale" Spain that has little to do with the Spain of the great Expo and the Olympics.
“For me, it was a much darker time than we want to remember.
And that's what I found interesting.
The cinema fixes the image of an era better than any other artistic expression and, therefore, it is important that it deals with reviewing not so much the past as the memory of that past ”, comments Pilar and David, in his own way, gives the reason.
His is a film that travels back a decade and reconstructs a time «in which all activisms in the Basque Country were confused and lived in part
demonized by terrorism.
And the director continues: «Without the intention of reconstructing the story, I do believe that there must be an analysis, a review and a judgment on what has been experienced.
It is even a responsible exercise that the cinema has to do ». Calvo keeps the last pointed out by his colleague to vindicate his own:«
Cinema is a social weapon
that can raise awareness about an unfair situation.
Many are the works and many are the authors from Griffith, to Einsenstein, Truffaut or Buñuel who knew with their films to influence the thinking of their time.
This film arose from knowing first-hand the terrible stories of two immigrant children recently arrived in the Canary Islands ... we only raised a lot of questions to which each viewer will have to seek their answer ... What can I do? ». the end remains to review what in the opinion of each one, and as far as cinema is concerned, this year of pandemic will leave.
And a title stands out from the range offered by each one:
The year of discovery,
by Luis López Carrasco when we have the information.
Three of the five choose it among the most virtuous films of 2020. In the middle point therefore.
And by
Aristotle
.
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