For the first time in several years, we saw more than a dozen movies each during Zinemaldia, the Basque name for the film festival. Overall, this year’s festival was enjoyable, but tiring. Perhaps we’ll remember that when next year’s festival rolls around. We saw two fabulous movies and only a couple of bad ones, with several levels of “good” in between. The festival has slanted more and more international, so only 4 of the movies we saw were in English. The rest were in Spanish, Italian, French / Flemish, Japanese, with a bit of Basque as well. That's a lot of subtitles.
The festival started and ended on a high note with our favorites being the first and last films we saw. A quick summary of the movies in the order we saw them.
5 Minutos Mas / 5 More Minutes: a darker version of Groundhog Day, possibly one of the darkest comedies we’ve ever seen. Seeing it in the theatre was amazing – the entire audience gasping at the same time made it that much better. We imagine that it will be remade in English rather quickly as it is clever, funny and packs quite a punch.
Altas Capacidades / Better Class: parents behaving badly in their attempt to get their kid into a high-class school. Not a single redeemable character in sight.
The Invite: a dramedy about two couples, neighbors in the same building, meeting up one night to get to know each other better. Great cast, intriguing plot.
Pizza Movies: you’d think a movie about a couple who opens a movie themed pizzeria has potential ... and you’d be wrong.
Succedera Questa Notte / It Will Happen Tonight: when life gets in the way of love. It had an adorable “meet cute” premise that sputtered out. Partially filmed in San Sebastian, including at the Springsteen concert on my birthday last year – great memories; unexceptional movie.
In My Father’s Room: a very Japanese movie. Nothing much happens in, but it was beautifully made, and showed about how small kindnesses can have large impacts on people who receive them. (Shana skipped this one.)
Coward: the Belgian director claimed we could escape from today’s worries while watching this WWI drama. War stories are never an “escape,” but this one made some interesting points about how cowardice might be defined in pursuing life and love.
Tender Loving Care: a look at reality in modern Britain through the eyes of two well-meaning social workers, for them, their families and their clients. The movie won the festival’s top award. We weren’t that impressed.
Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas: Almodovar’s latest drama. It asks some inciteful questions about the creative process in writing fiction and notes how reality and fiction are sometimes not that far apart.
The Debut: a wildly funny comedy with fabulous performances by Julianne Moore and Paul Giammatti, humorizing what happens when method acting is taken too far.
Pioneras. Solo Querían Jugar / Another League: a well-done dramatization of what it took to get the Spanish women’s soccer team established in the early 1970’s. All the standard sports movie tropes, but still inspiring. (Jeff skipped this one.)
Burgundy: focused on the traditions and lifestyle of the Burgundy region of France. We expected more from the directors of Truffle Hunters, which we enjoyed immensely 5 years ago, but were disappointed. Ironically, the film won the Culinary Cinema section award, which makes us wonder about the quality of the other movies. At least the corresponding dinner was worth our time.
Saints: a woman joins a crime ring that steals objects from churches while her mother is dying. The movie made little sense to me. (Jeff skipped this one, a good choice.)
Heart of the Beast: Brad Pitt caused quite a scene during his festival visit; the city went crazy for him. His newest movie is a high-quality adventure movie – former special forces military and combat dog face survival in the Alaskan wilderness. The film’s been done before, but it was enjoyable. (Jeff skipped this one.)
The French Teacher: a well done drama about a woman being slowly forced into madness by her father's religious-freak neigbors. Frankly, for me it was a bit too well done, and I left before the end because it was already disturbing enough. (Shana skipped this one; she would have hated it.)\
Pedro Arrupe, Yo Viví La Bomba / I Lived the Bomb: the story of Father Arrupe, a Basque priest, who was living in Hiroshima in 1945 and helped numerous people survive. He lived quite an interesting life well beyond that defining experience. The filmmaker opted to use AI for certain recreations (clearly labelled as such), which we found off-putting.
Le Faux Soir: set in 1943, it tells the true story of how the Belgian resistance published a false version of the Nazi controlled newspaper Le Soir, a brave act of opposition to Nazi propaganda. A fabulous film that highlights how the control of information is key to war. The film is being promoted as “the world's first media hack,” which is clever.
15 movies in 8 days for me; 14 movies for Jeff. It’s a lot. We would have seen at least 3 more movies, but we couldn’t get tickets for Naza, Wild Horse Nine, or La Bola Negra. While the film festival isn’t our favorite event anymore, we’re glad this year’s exceeded expectations. We don’t spend time on celebrity sightings, but our friend’s dog made her red-carpet appearance. And one day there was a car rally through town that was as impressive as seeing a movie star.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming,
Shana & Jeff
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