El Cine

I've recently become obsessed with watching Spanish movies.

And also movies that are in Spanish. Last night I even went to my first Spanish cinema! Mi profesora for Present Day Spanish Usage is teaching us about Spanish cinema and gave out 2-for-1 movie passes for us to use this weekend. So, I went with 3 other Americans from my residencia to see the movie Bienvenidos Al Sur, which means "Welcome to the South." and is actually an Italian film so we watched it with Spanish subtitles (Italian is close enough to Spanish, right?) Anyways, It was hilarious! It was a comedy about a man who works for the postal service in northern Italy and wants to be transferred to Milan (another northern city) for all the glam it has to offer and also to please his wife... However, after his attempts to be transferred end badly, he gets transferred instead to a small village near Naples (again for those bad with geography it's in the south) for two years. The movie then proceeds to play off the stereotypes for both the North and South which is always fun in every country. The south are thought to be backwards, violent and stupid; while the northerners are perceived as haughty, rude, and uptight. Overall a great movie.

The first Spanish movie that actually started this new obsession is one that I saw earlier this week on Monday. In my class at Universidad de Sevilla, we watched the film La Lengua de las Mariposas, which translates literally to mean, "the language of the butterflies" or also "the butterfly's tongue." This movie takes place in Spain during the time right before the civil war, around 1936. It is about a little boy, Moncho, who is scared to start school because he thinks his teacher is going to be very mean. However, he finds his teacher to be very nice and smart and he learns a lot in that class. His teacher has political views that are very republicano since it is during the time of the Second Republic in Spain. The story continues to foreshadow on the anti-republican ideas that lead into the Spanish Civil War. It is a very good story and the little boy is just adorable. I recommend it for anyone, especially those who want to learn more about Spain's history.

I know this is completely out of order but oh well. The second Spanish movie I watched in the past week was Los Abrazos Rotos, a.k.a. "Broken Embraces". It is a movie starring Penelope Cruz about a blind movie writer who must reflect back 14 years on the last movie he wrote in order to get over his current pain. There is definitely a lot of drama and I was hooked from the beginning so I recommend it to everyone.

I hope you all enjoyed my movie reviews and I will be sure to keep you updated on any new Spanish entertainment that I encounter this semester. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to go check out any foreign film you choose and see how you like it, it's definitely going to be different from the Hollywood films that you're used to. Maybe, like me, you'll appreciate the different style and develop a new passion :)

Hasta Luego,

Caitlin xx