Everyone who knows me knows that I am crazy about films. I love them, specially those in black and white. Black and white is really, really charming and the treatment of light is usually so wonderful. There are some classic movies, however, for which the colour supposed a real advantage. In those years where black and white and colour used to coexist the decision wasn't easy and some factors were really important. For example, during the making of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" they decided to change for colour because both Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor have very beutiful eyes, and it would have been an unforgivable loss not to capture their beauty in the film. Obviously, I will be able to provide examples and speak about films until very late and unfortunately I cannot afford it right now.
Being a Spanyard and a filmloving guy an obvious question will arise: do I like Spanish movies? I am afraid that generally speaking I do not. I will not deny that there are some good films, and that some actors and directors deserved to be regarded as artists. You may imagine that this is not a very patrotic statement, but I do not care, I just look for quality and I do not mind if have to go to far away to find it. I love japanesse films for example, although sometimes they are too long and the rhythm is too slow. But this cultural differences become thrilling and boost my natural taste to explore.
Nevertheless, the purpose of my post today is comment a short film from a Spanish director, Victor Erice, because this time I have found a little shining masterpiece and I am proud to say that it is a Spanish one. His film is part of a common project with other internationally relevant directors that together decided to honour the memory of a Russian shor film called Ten Minutes Older. Erice's film is called Childbirth (Alumbramiento in Spanish) and it also lasts ten minutes. It takes places in a small village in Asturias (north of Spain) after the Civil War that tore appart my country in the 30's. The film reflects everyday life in this small village and the "rebirth" of the child of one important citizen at that place. There's no much dialogue, so you will not find any problems to follow the outline. Only the fascinating power of the image and the magnificent setting based in how people lived in the 40's will lead you. Besides it was filmed in black and white, and as I have stated before that's something I cannot resist.
Here I leave you the masterpeace, enjoy it. thanks be to almighty YouTube.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The National Gallery
One of the best things of living in a big city is the amazing amount of cultural activities that you can enjoy. Paraphrasing Frank Sinatra "Madrid is my Lady", and indeed Madrid is a big city full of life and exciting experiences. There you will find plenty of theatres, cinemas, museums and monuments at your disposal. To provide a few examples of some of the finest museums I will mention "El Museo del Prado", "El Museo Reina Sofía", "El Museo Naval" and "El Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza". Let's not forget the magnificent Royal Palace ("Palacio Real") and its fine art and weapon collections. In the weapon collection in particular there are some armors that belonged to the Emperor Charles V, who loved them so much that some are even more expensive than the paintings of Tiziano, his favourite painter.
Once I have explained this you will easily understand my expectations when I arrive at London, and how I was eager to visit so many places. Today I will describe shortly my impressions about The National Gallery, probably one of the finest collections in the world. Let' start.
This painting from Holbein titled "The Ambassadors" is one of my favourites, I have always liked it and experiencing the possibility of looking at it directly is like meeting someone that you knew before but you have never had the opportunity of speaking to him. This is a must in my opinion. From the screen it is quite easy to see the skull at the bottom of the painting, however, when you face it you must look at it from the right angle if you want to distinguish it.
I will continue with a great dutch painter, Jan van Eyck, and one of his most relevant paintings called "The Arnolfini Portrait". This painting is full of subtle details that deserve some special attention and reveal an impressive technique like the reflection in the mirror on the wall in which is possible to see the own painter inside. Max Escher, another fellow countryman of van Eyck, will achieve fame some centuries later for his similar geometric paintings.
Another painting due to the talent of Holbein, now a portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a very well known Renaissance humanist. I enjoy very much paying attention to details like costumes in other epochs, not precisely that Erasmus' is a very interesting one but it is the arquetype image of him that everyone has in his mind, and that's pretty interesting for me. However if you want to view an amazing costume let's follow with the next image.
This is the "portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan", the ruler of Venice. This masterpiece is the work of Giovanni Bellini considered the best painter at Venice in that moment. It is obviously one of the most highlighted paintings of the National Gallery, and it is not very difficult to understand why. The impressive quality of the details overwhelms the spectator, the amazing resemblance with a photograph is simply wonderful.
I have focused until now in portraits, perhaps because this paintings were the ones that most impressed my during my first visit. I know that I should go again to review other masterpieces and to enjoy the pleasure of walking between centuries of art and knowledge. However, I cannot finish this post without providing my patient reader with a couple of wonderful examples. This "Virgin and Child with Angels" is the anonymous work of a middle ages master.
To give an example of landscapes I will always chose Canaletto before the rest. He is the maker of half the romantic legend of Venice with his absolutely pretty paintings. They are full of light and life, they reflect a beautiful Venice with all of its canals full of small boats and gondolas. This piece is called "Party on the Day of Saint Roch".
Mythology. Mythology and religion two of the foundations to understand the art in the centuries before us. We have seen an example of religious painting before, now I provide an example of mythological painting. "Venus of the Mirror". This is the work of one of the best painters ever: Diego de Velázquez. I am not saying this because he was Spanish. I am saying that because he is in fact. I am not a chovinist. This picture is a wound in my heart. This picture belongs to the permanent collection of the National Gallery and is one of the few paintings of Velázquez that cannot be admired in "El Museo del Prado" in Madrid. Besides it was in a temporary loan when I went to the gallery so I was not able to enjoy it. Some years ago the National Gallery did an impressive exhibition of Velázquez and they managed to gather a lot of his paintings from different museums, it was said to be the "exhibition of the year in London".
Finally I cannot avoid mentioning one of the highlighted paintings that is so popular among the people. The "Sunflowers" by Vincent van Gogh. There are up to four versions of this painting and this is one of them.
I can continue writing about this for ages, but then it will be a copy-paste encyclopedia and I will bore you to death. That's not the purpose of this post. I just want to finish with a curious thought that came to my mind while I was writing. It is amazing the enormous amount of stuff that is possible to find surfing Internet, it reminds me when I was a child and I only had my encyclopedia to look for knowledge and how difficult it was to get good colour images of ancient masterpieces for example. Nevertheless I was able to learn a lot of things and to develop a vast culture without it, now I observe quite disappointed how the new generations have unbelievable
mediums at their disposal and how they do not realize (I am starting to talk like I was older, I am joking). So that I will finish recommending this online gallery that has thousands of good quality artworks for those who love art.
Note: This post is very close to the one of the same title that I published before in the Spanish version of this Blog.
Once I have explained this you will easily understand my expectations when I arrive at London, and how I was eager to visit so many places. Today I will describe shortly my impressions about The National Gallery, probably one of the finest collections in the world. Let' start.
This painting from Holbein titled "The Ambassadors" is one of my favourites, I have always liked it and experiencing the possibility of looking at it directly is like meeting someone that you knew before but you have never had the opportunity of speaking to him. This is a must in my opinion. From the screen it is quite easy to see the skull at the bottom of the painting, however, when you face it you must look at it from the right angle if you want to distinguish it.
I will continue with a great dutch painter, Jan van Eyck, and one of his most relevant paintings called "The Arnolfini Portrait". This painting is full of subtle details that deserve some special attention and reveal an impressive technique like the reflection in the mirror on the wall in which is possible to see the own painter inside. Max Escher, another fellow countryman of van Eyck, will achieve fame some centuries later for his similar geometric paintings. 
Another painting due to the talent of Holbein, now a portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a very well known Renaissance humanist. I enjoy very much paying attention to details like costumes in other epochs, not precisely that Erasmus' is a very interesting one but it is the arquetype image of him that everyone has in his mind, and that's pretty interesting for me. However if you want to view an amazing costume let's follow with the next image. 
This is the "portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan", the ruler of Venice. This masterpiece is the work of Giovanni Bellini considered the best painter at Venice in that moment. It is obviously one of the most highlighted paintings of the National Gallery, and it is not very difficult to understand why. The impressive quality of the details overwhelms the spectator, the amazing resemblance with a photograph is simply wonderful.
I have focused until now in portraits, perhaps because this paintings were the ones that most impressed my during my first visit. I know that I should go again to review other masterpieces and to enjoy the pleasure of walking between centuries of art and knowledge. However, I cannot finish this post without providing my patient reader with a couple of wonderful examples. This "Virgin and Child with Angels" is the anonymous work of a middle ages master.
To give an example of landscapes I will always chose Canaletto before the rest. He is the maker of half the romantic legend of Venice with his absolutely pretty paintings. They are full of light and life, they reflect a beautiful Venice with all of its canals full of small boats and gondolas. This piece is called "Party on the Day of Saint Roch".
Mythology. Mythology and religion two of the foundations to understand the art in the centuries before us. We have seen an example of religious painting before, now I provide an example of mythological painting. "Venus of the Mirror". This is the work of one of the best painters ever: Diego de Velázquez. I am not saying this because he was Spanish. I am saying that because he is in fact. I am not a chovinist. This picture is a wound in my heart. This picture belongs to the permanent collection of the National Gallery and is one of the few paintings of Velázquez that cannot be admired in "El Museo del Prado" in Madrid. Besides it was in a temporary loan when I went to the gallery so I was not able to enjoy it. Some years ago the National Gallery did an impressive exhibition of Velázquez and they managed to gather a lot of his paintings from different museums, it was said to be the "exhibition of the year in London".
Finally I cannot avoid mentioning one of the highlighted paintings that is so popular among the people. The "Sunflowers" by Vincent van Gogh. There are up to four versions of this painting and this is one of them.I can continue writing about this for ages, but then it will be a copy-paste encyclopedia and I will bore you to death. That's not the purpose of this post. I just want to finish with a curious thought that came to my mind while I was writing. It is amazing the enormous amount of stuff that is possible to find surfing Internet, it reminds me when I was a child and I only had my encyclopedia to look for knowledge and how difficult it was to get good colour images of ancient masterpieces for example. Nevertheless I was able to learn a lot of things and to develop a vast culture without it, now I observe quite disappointed how the new generations have unbelievable
mediums at their disposal and how they do not realize (I am starting to talk like I was older, I am joking). So that I will finish recommending this online gallery that has thousands of good quality artworks for those who love art.
Note: This post is very close to the one of the same title that I published before in the Spanish version of this Blog.
Monday, February 25, 2008
An Engineer In King´s Arthur Court
Since I started my Blog in November, it has proved itself to be a powerful tool that allows me to stay in touch with my family and friends in Spain. This past few months, however, I have been experiencing the need to tackle a new challenge. As time goes by I feel compelled to share also some of my experiences with my foreign colleagues that do not know Spanish at all. In order to make this gap smaller I have finally decided to begin the English version of my current Blog. I expect this new challenge to be more than a translation of my current Blog.
I am aware that the number of readers will continue to be small anyway in both Blogs. It doesn't matter, as I said before when I became a blogger in my first entry I don't regard my life as the most interesting thing in the universe. Why then should I share my thoughts and my paranoias with others? I am delighted to answer to this question.
In the mid of October I came to London to finish my degree as Telecommunication Engineer at Queen Mary's University of London. As I have explained before, staying far from home and your loved ones made me consider the possibility of beginning a Blog to let them know about my routine. For other purposes I already have the email which is perfect for more personal matters. Besides I do not like to become a spammer flooding others' inboxes with my emails. Moreover, I also want to test my writing skills and to improve my fluency.
What kind of topics are going to be the subject of my merciless scrutiny? I will describe my impressions about this country and its inhabitants. I will try to make an account of my cultural activities and readings. I will share my opinions and explain why I like some freak things. And I will explain differences with my home country to allow others to achieve a better understanding of the Spanish culture and the Spanish way of life, if there's such a thing :) Let's say that this is the backward transformation of my current Blog.
In order to finish this first entry as I finished it before I will include a funny video. Do you like Monty Python? Do you like King's Arthur legend? Are you a compulsive LEGOmaniac? aren't you? It doesn't matter, I am. And remember to stay as happy as you can :)
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