SCHED: SF International Film Fest '08

Links: Event Details/ Who's going | Original Source
About: "People never really talk unless they're dying," observes one character early on in Barcelona (A Map) , Catalan director Ventura Pons's moody meditation on identity and change, based on compatriot Lluisa Cunille's play, Barcelona, Map of Shadows . The elderly Ramon (Josep Maria Pou), a former doorman at the opera, is dying of cancer. One by one, he and wife Rosa (Nuria Espert) tell the tenants of their Barcelona apartment they must leave so that the couple might enjoy privacy in Ramon's final days. The series of tete-a-tetes with the three tenants reveals secrets, stirs painful memories and confronts inexorable truths. Afterward, the couple reunites for one final, transformative "aria." Continuing interests pursued in many of Pons's previous films, the narrative carefully probes sexual and cultural distinctiveness, class conflict and the changing face of Barcelona. The shadow of the Spanish Civil War hangs over the film, which brackets the narrative with newsreel footage of nationalist troops entering the city and General Franco decreeing Catalan language and culture illegal. The film also refers to another defining moment in the city's history: the burning of the historic opera house, the Liceu, in 1994. Throughout, Pou and Espert's subtle but gripping performances so propel the story that the finale, while surprising, is neither shocking nor discordant. With echoes of Harold Pinter and Edward Albee, Barcelona (A Map) is like the city itself-classic and modern, culturally distinct and highly original.-Margarita LandazuriWest Coast Premiere. Sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Also playing on: Mon 4/28, 3:45 pm | Thu 5/1, 9:45 pm
Tags: world cinema