Category Archives: Cinema & literature

Critics and reviews on books and films

Analytic review of Balabanov’s “The war” (film 2002)

Tinged with the usual pessimism of Balabanov’s, The War (Война, 2002) is an entertaining and informative movie that aims to portray with plausible realism, through the protagonist’s narration during his imprisonment awaiting sentencing, the anarchic environment immersed in corruption where … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Leave a comment

Three Poplars at Plyuschikha

Another little gem of Soviet cinema is Tri Topolya na Plyuschikhe, year 1968, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and written by long-lived dramatist Alexander Borshagovski. It’s an unassumig story, visually simple yet very touching, that through a brief episode in the … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Leave a comment

On Lem’s Pericalypsis

In the foreword of that joke book that is Perfect Vacuum, where its author, the Polish essayist Stanislaw Lem, reviews a series of nonexistent literary works (they reside only in the universe of his boundless imagination), the prologue writer tells … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The wrestler

If one decade ago I had been told, in light of Sin City and other films of the sort, that I’d ever be moved by Mickey Rourke on the screen, I would’ve not believed it. But welcome be the news: … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Tagged | Leave a comment

I don’t love you anymore

Of all the memorable movie scenes, this is one of my very favourites: so straightforward, so descriptive, so harsh and life-like, so telling of women’s feelings… It belongs to the film Closer (Mike Nichols, 2004. Very recommended). Dan and Alice … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Leave a comment

Tarkovski revisited

I was only a teenager when — by suggestion of a friend under the intelectual fever that, in the early 80’s, stroke some middle-class sectors in Spain — I went to an unlikely cineclub in a not so advisable district … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

17 moments of spring

There are so many TV series out there, one can’t watch them all; not even just the ‘best’ ones (supposing ‘best’ makes any sense when it comes to tastes). Unlike films, series are very much time consuming, and often addictive … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

That very Münchhausen

This Russian version of the renowned Munchhausen adventures is, by far, the best of them all, both in print and on stage — though perhaps ‘the best’ doesn’t mean much in this case, since a one-eyed person can always be … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema & literature | Leave a comment