2015 has just begun, it’s a good time to recap the best films we’ve seen in Spain during the past year. 2014 has brought original proposals made in Spain such as Loreak, La Herida or Magical girl. All of these examples point to a generational change and the long-awaited confirmation of an authentic native cinema. However, it maintains a recognisable depth and sensitivity in European auteur cinema.
Winter Sleep
by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
One of the jewels of the year is the latest film by our beloved Nuri Bilge Ceylan. This immerses us for more than three hours in a slow cadence without losing interest. A retired and lonely former actor runs a small hotel in the middle of Anatolia accompanied by his wife and sister where deep conversations about the divine and the human take place. High-voltage cinematic existentialism.
Going
by Pawel Pawlikowski
Reviewing the more or less mundane filmography of the director of Ida, nothing pointed out that it would lead him to make a film as intimate as this one. The truth is that Ida is not only surprising for its aesthetics: each shot is treated with the delicacy of a photograph, but also for the powerful story of a novice about to become a nun who has to make a trip through Poland in the 60s to solve a painful family enigma.
Something Better to Come
by Hanna Polak
This documentary yet to be released in Spain that we were able to see at IDFA, the Amsterdam festival, this year is the poisoned gift that Hanna Polak offers us. A harsh portrait of Yula’s passage from girl to woman recorded over 14 years living in Europe’s largest landfill in Moscow. An overwhelming and uncomfortable but necessary documentary about existence when life hangs in the balance.
Sacro Gra
by Gianfranco Rosi
Despite the reduction in the size of film crews, it is curious how few filmmakers undertake shoots alone. Gianfranco Rosi takes on this challenge and films this minimal documentary about the Roman periphery accompanied only by his camera. It portrays anonymous situations and characters that, together, convey a fascinating mosaic of the Italian capital.
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq
by Guillaume Nicloux
The figure of Houellebecq may be more or less sympathetic and more or less interesting depending on the sensibilities of each one. However, the proposal between realism and absurdity that the writer and the director propose based on the kidnapping of Houellebecq himself hardly leaves indifferent. Houellebecq’s interpretation of himself and ramblings assuming his condition as a maniacal, tormented and onanistic man deserves all our praise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd_XIdF7agc
Boyhood
by Richard Linklater
Probably Boyhood is not one of the best films of the year, however the audacity of the director to film for 12 years the passage from child to adult of his actors/protagonist characters is a valuable experiment for its rarity and audacity.
Like father, like son
of Hirokazu Koreeda
Despite my admiration for Eastern culture and aesthetics, films from these latitudes tend to create a cold emotional barrier in the behavior of their characters. Like a father like a son, is surprising precisely because it addresses a complex issue such as the exchange of babies in a hospital with great courage and depth. Koreeda uses an aesthetic at the service of naturalizing events and bringing us closer to the truth of some characters, who despite being Japanese, manage to transcend their emotions to the Western screen.
Nebraska
by Alexander Payne
Nebraska is a delightful film about the complex relationship between a father and a son when they are both adults and it is the son who has to take care of the father. Father and son embark on a journey to collect a fake lottery prize that becomes a journey of reunion with Homeric touches. Like many great movies, in Nebraska you don’t know if you’re dealing with a comedy or a drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT5tqPojMtg