Spain
Agustín Fernández Mallo: The Things We've Seen review - degrees of separationTuesday, 16 March 2021
Trilogies (it is noted, in the term’s Wikipedia entry) “are common in speculative fiction”. They are found in those works with elements “non-existent in reality”, which cover various themes “in the context of the supernatural, futuristic, and many... Read more... |
Stile Antico, The Cardinall's Musick, Wigmore Hall online review – lightening our darknessTuesday, 22 December 2020
Suitably enough, this year’s musical Christmas arrived at the Wigmore not in a dazzle of joyful light and bedecked with winter greenery, but with a lonely band of singers facing the gloom of an unlit, empty hall as fear and confusion multiplied... Read more... |
Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, virtual tour review - tantalising but unsatisfactorySaturday, 30 May 2020
Salvador Dalí’s house at Portlligat on the Costa Brava is straight out of the pages of a lifestyle magazine, its sunbaked white walls dazzling in the sunshine, and light pouring in from every angle. It was a fisherman’s hut when Dalí moved there in... Read more... |
Camino Skies review - NZ documentary brings no surprisesWednesday, 06 May 2020
A documentary about six middle-aged Antipodeans, four women and two men, walking the 500 mile pilgrims’ path through France and Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela sounds uplifting, inspiring, even fun. Just the ticket, perhaps, when... Read more... |
Camarón: The Film, Netflix review – the life story of an influential and passionate cantaorMonday, 06 April 2020
The scenes at flamenco legend Camarón de la Isla’s chaotic, thronged funeral which open this lovingly-made documentary give some idea of the singer’s popularity and the shock at his death at the age of just 41 in 1992. He began singing... Read more... |
The Platform review - timely, violent and effectiveSaturday, 04 April 2020
Horror has always been a good vehicle for satire, from John Carpenter’s They Live to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Some metaphors opt for the subtle precision of a surgical knife, and others the hit you over the head. The Platform on Netflix is the latter... Read more... |
Fire Will Come review - slow-burning Spanish beautyMonday, 23 March 2020
This lovely, contemplative Cannes prize-winner has something to teach us in testing times. Filmed in director Oliver Laxe’s grandparents’ Galician village, it observes convicted arsonist Amador’s return from jail to the fire-prone landscape he’s... Read more... |
Joanna Trollope: Mum & Dad review - redemption in SpainSunday, 08 March 2020
In common with her literary forebear, Joanna Trollope’s light hand refrains from the introverted angst so common in contemporary novels. Her immensely readable, witty renderings of English middle-class life have entertained and enlightened over... Read more... |
Albert Costa: The Bilingual Brain review – double-talking heads and what they tell usSunday, 26 January 2020
Those of us who have to toil and sweat with other languages often feel a twinge of envy when we meet truly bilingual folk. That ability to switch codes, seemingly without any fuss, must confer so many benefits. More than ever, bilingualism blossoms... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Coates, Dvořák, Martinů, PeñalosaSaturday, 30 November 2019
Eric Coates: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson (Chandos)One reason to love Eric Coates and his music is discovering that his compositional routine involved waiting “until he was properly dressed in the morning, complete... Read more... |
Carmen, Welsh National Opera review - intermittent brilliance in a gloomy, unclear environmentSunday, 22 September 2019
You can love Carmen as much as you like (as much as I do, for instance), and still have a certain sympathy for the poor director who has to find something new to say about a work so anchored in a particular style and place. For all its musical and... Read more... |
Pain and Glory review - masterful meditation on age and artWednesday, 21 August 2019
The Almodovar who made his name as an all-out provocateur in the Eighties considers that wild art’s becalmed far side, in this quietly wonderful meditation on where it’s left him. Antonio Banderas leads familiar faces from throughout his career with... Read more... |
